China Photos - April 2012
For the longest time my mate aske and I have been talking about visiting the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea. When the opportunity to go arrived we duly booked our trip there, however pretty much the only way into North Korea is via their old communist ally, the People’s Republic of China. That being the case bookending our visit to the DPRK with extra time in China made sense, so this entry will cover just our time there; with a subsequent post detailing the North Korean part of the tour. Being somewhat pressed for time due to university and work commitments we only really saw Beijing and a little of its surrounds which I realise is not really representative of China as a whole, but none the less I can say I enjoyed Beijing perhaps more than I expected to, as the following should hopefully demonstrate.
Our accommodation in Beijing, Kelly’s Courtyard, was in one of the old hutong districts, one of the few that haven’t been razed in the name of development. Despite some hard beds and dodgy plumbing it was still a great place to stay, recommended.
Tiananmen Square must be the most unfriendly public space and any city anywhere. Surrounded on all sides by some of the busiest roads in Beijing, large parts of it are roped off, it’s crawling with soldiers and police, and every light pole is festooned with security cameras. Not only that but you have to pass through two metal detectors just to get into the place, not recommended.
Chillin’ with Chariman Mao and a shitload of security.
Deciding to skip the Forbidden City for now, we caught the subway up to the North a bit and ran across this place, the Bell Tower, which as you can see dates from imperial times.
The steep climb up and down was made easier by some classic Chinglish.
At the top of the Bell Tower looking down towards its sister, the Drum Tower. Both towers were part of the city’s warning system and were supposed to alert Beijing to any outside attack.
Nanluoguxiang Hutong, a famous shopping district where some crappy souvenirs were bought.
Jingshan Park, the hill we’re standing on is entirely artificial as was made from all the rock and soil dug to create the moat around the Forbidden City.
View of said city from said hill.
View of said moat.
Taken at the entrance to Bingmasi Hutong, off which we were staying. Could make some comment about the pace of change and development in China and the cycle of destruction that has accompanied its turbulent last century, but mostly just took this picture for Dave.
Back at the hotel and up on the roof chilling with a beer and watching the sun go down, this is what holidays are all about.
The next day on a whim we decided to visit the historic village of Chaundixia, about 90 minutes drive from Beijing. Emerging from the last station of the subway line we were assaulted by a swarm of touts who obviously know where tourists want to go (and the end of the line being in a dump of an area, a ride to Chaundixia is probably the ONLY reason any Westerners would be in this less than salubrious outer suburb of Beijing). Our arrival seemed to cause a massive argument as various owners of private cars that were certainly not taxis vied for our custom, but eventually thanks to Ash’s rudimentary Mandarin (speaking only English I was no help at all) we eventually found a guy who was willing to drive us there and back for the equivalent of about $46 Australian, not bad for a 3 hour round trip over the mountains.
Chaundixia village. It gets greener than this, but the Beijing area has a very dry climate and even though it was mid April, the spring rains had clearly yet to arrive.
Chaundixia is famous for its original Cultural Revolution-era graffiti.
Chaundixia’s other claim to fame is that being a so perfectly preserved relic of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is used as the set for a lot of movies set in old China. Wandering around there really is like stepping back in time.
Another original 1960s-era painted slogan, this one apparently says something along the lines of: “Pay attention to the thoughts of Chairman Mao” or words to that effect.
After exploring the near-deserted narrow streets we had a fairly mediocre lunch accompanied by incredibly pissweak beer (2.5% alcohol is not beer, it’s a soft drink), but despite this I was still really glad we saw this place, it felt much more like the China you imagine than the frantic modern metropolis that is most of Beijing.
Taken by our initially aggressive but now quite friendly taxi driver. We asked for his name and he said to call him Yuan, that would be like a cabbie here introducing himself as Mr Dollar. The large character in the centre is Chaundixia, the name of the village, apparently its one of the most complicated Chinese characters as it requires 30 strokes to render correctly.
My photographic comment on industrial progress in China. Mmm, pretentious.
Back at the hutong and Bob, out hotelier, is showing Ash where we can go out for dinner.
Donghuamen Night Market, where close-minded tourists come to be grossed out at what the Chinese will eat.
Feeling slightly daring I decided to try fried silk worm. Pretty shit actually as it tasted like chewy dust, but thankfully the chicken and octopus skewers were excellent, if a little pricey. Looking for some more authentic Beijing tastes we moved on to a small cafe for some steamed dumplings and were not disappointed.
We wandered back via Tiananmen Square, however they switch most of the lights off meaning it’s not that exciting so I took this picture of the front wall of the Forbidden City instead.
Flags and security cameras in Tiananmen Square.
And the next day we returned to Tiananmen Square yet again, this time to tackle the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. This picture gives a tiny taste of the line of people waiting to get in, the crowd itself was a mix of everyday Chinese, old people still wearing their vintage Mao suits and a few western tourists who obviously shared Ash and I's ironic love of communist kitch. The only thing more incredible than the sheer number of people waiting to get in was the speed and efficiency of the whole procedure. From the time we dropped off our bags at the security building across the road, lined up, shuffled several hundred metres, gone through a security check, entered the building, saw Mao's waxy corpse and exited a mere 40 odd minutes had passed. Amazing.
You can't take photos inside the mausoleum, possibly because Chairman Mao looks nothing like this any more. He's apparently raised out of his freezer for the two hours a day the place is open then quickly lowered back in, but dark rumours suggest that the body displayed to the public is often or always a wax replica. I don't know much about embalming, but I can report that it was a lot darker in there and the corpse's skin was a lot yellower than the picture would suggest. Whatever the reality, they hustle you through that room very quickly and before you've had a chance to admire the tacky architecture and furnishings that make the whole thing look like the lobby of a 1970s three star hotel you're outside blinking in the sunlight.
The Forbidden City was the logical next stop, and even Ash's communist leader poses are lost in the sea of paving stones that make up just one of the many courtyards in this massive place.
The Forbidden City was the Ming and Qing Dynasty's imperial palace, before that the capital of the Chinese Empire was at Xi'an.
Aside from the Great Wall (which we didn't visit, between Ash and myself we've visited China 5 times and neither of us has set foot on the Great Wall, we're going for the high score), the Forbidden City would have to be China's premiere tourist attraction, which makes it all the more surprising at how badly it fares as a tourist destination. There are hardly any signs telling you what things are, if you can find some of the museum exhibits amongst the 980 buildings they're not that good (at least the ones we found), and the whole thing is covered with dust and grime giving it a run-down look you don't expect given the status of the place.
The Forbidden City covers 720,000 square metres, and feels it.
Clearly covering all this distance is tiring.
We ran across this group of school kids who clearly found Ash and myself far more interesting than the Forbidden City and they all wanted to crowd around us, shake our hands and say hello.
The Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution is not only a good example of communist bombast when it comes to naming things, but also one of Mao's “10 great buildings” he ordered built in 1959s to both commemorate 10 years of The People's Republic of China, and to give Beijing the sort of international gravitas he felt it's collection of mostly ancient buildings were not delivering. Thus you get brutal, Stalinist structures like this, the epitome of the socialist style of archictecture.
While wandering around this random dude popped up and asked if he could borrow Ash and I's sunglasses to have his photo taken. He is not in the People's Liberation Army as is obvious by his crappy, knock-off uniform, and I wouldn't imagine there's a shortage of places selling sunglasses in Beijing, but who knows. Anyway, this is some wannabe-army guy wearing my sunglasses, trying to blend into a painted tin wall.
They're renovating the main part of the museum so most of the exhibits are just in these temporary sheds out the front.
Another pretentious arty-farty shot.
And here's another, this time of heroic soldiers labouring for the improvement of Chinese socialism. I guess that's one advantage of having such a polluted city, it's not hard to photograph the sun.
Taken inside the museum, the renovations looked to be going slowly. Free travel tip if anyone's interested, you can buy the same tacky Chairman Mao souvenirs here that were on sale outside his “Mao-soleum” (hur hur) at about a quarter the cost.
Back at our hutong where this restaurant caught our eye for it's prominent and un-ironic portrait of Chairman Mao. Of course we had to dine there, and we even made a friend, one of the other patrons took a liking to us despite speaking no English and shouted us each another big beer, cheers.
The food at the restaurant wasn't that flash, but right outside these guys were cooking up more tasty chicken skewers, and these went down a treat.
Hot street food and cheap, cold beer, what more do you need?
The next day was mostly going to be taken up with a meeting of our North Korean guides and fellow-travellers, but before that we embarked an unsuccessful attempt to find Beijing's only heavy metal store, and then had a wander around Beijing Railway Station, another of Mao's 10 great buildings.
Given the size of our North Korean tour group the meeting took some time but was quite informative. By the time it broke up it was late afternoon so we just decided to head back to the hotel and pack.
Our hutong at night, coming back from an enjoyable dinner of, what else, Peking duck. The next morning it was off to the airport to meet up with the group and fly to Pyongyang, the North Korean part of the trip will be covered in the next entry.
The outside of Dandong station after we caught the train there from Pyongyang. After the defeated torpidity of North Korea, Dandong, which is a small provincial city by Chinese standards - barely 1 million people - felt like New York City. The bustle of commerce on the street and traffic jams were a shock to the system after a few days in the eternally quiet DPRK.
Dandong is also one of the few places in China that still can boast of having a statue of Chairman Mao.
After grabbing some takeaway dinner (and some North Korean currency and Kim Il-sung badges, two of the products it is illegal for foreigners to buy in North Korea but that are openly sold on the streets of Dandong) we boarded our Chinese train that would take us back to Beijing, and this was where the trouble started. For a kick off it was chock-a-block, I couldn't even get my suitcase (that now weighed closer to 30kg than 20) into the sleeping compartments because of a woman standing in the narrow corridor weeping openly at the emotion of it all. Then there was the fact that the bed I was assigned was some 2 metres in the air, and I needed help lifting the case up to that height, once I struggled up there myself I realised the case was upside down and could not be opened or even moved as the ceiling was only 50 odd cm above the bed. Giving up we met up with Richie and the 3 other remaining people from the tour also training it back to Beijing and located a near-empty carriage. We then set up in one of the compartments and ate, drank and chatted in a most convivial manner, until the train pulled up at a station and this carriage too was filled. A bit more drinking of beers and soju mixed with Coke, but eventually they put the lights out. I tried to sleep but found myself getting a bit claustrophobic and ended up spending most of the night just sitting up, watching the scenery slide by and listening to Altar of Plagues. From sunrise onwards most of the landscape looked like this, just one endless construction site, a concrete moonscape in constant upheaval and renewal.
When we finally made it back to Beijing we flopped down at a quiet Maccas for some refreshing grease and coffee, then bid adieu to Ash as he had to catch a flight back to Melbourne in order to resume work. I then paid for my room at the same hotel our pre-tour meeting had taken place at and chilled out with Richie, sharing news about North Korea and a beer before he left to catch his train back to home in Xi'an. After a 2 hour nap I then grabbed some dinner and caught the subway up to the Olympic park area in order to catch it at dusk.
The sun sinks slowly into the West over the disused Olympic venues. Some of them have found a second lease of life, but others are just shut off with temporary fencing and are already looking a bit rundown less than 4 years after the games concluded.
Initially it was a bit quiet, but as darkness fell the area filled with Beijingers out for an evening stroll which filled the vast space (laid out by the son of Hitler's favourite architect, Albert Speer) in a most agreeable fashion.
The iconic Birds Nest Stadium and Water Cube.
My final major destination was to the Summer Palace, originally outside the city and now on it's outskirts, the Summer Palace in it's current form dates back to around 1750 and as the name suggests, provided a cooler location for the Imperial family to loll about during Beijing's endless muggy summers.
A more typical Beijing day than we'd experienced upon arrival, it was not cloudy as I could look directly at the sun, glowing wanly through the murk of pollution. The Summer Palace grounds are dominated by the 2.2 square km artificial Kunming Lake. When the lake was dredged in 1990/91 in order to remove sludge that had built up 205 bombs that had been dropped during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45 were found.
This guy is a genius. The fan he's painting is a commissioned work for me, and he completed a fantastically detailed traditional Chinese landscape painting on it in about half an hour, drawing everything freehand. The design is partly inspired by the landscape of the Summer Palace, but some of it is from his own imagination, and while he had with him examples he'd done previously that were in a similar vein, every fan painting is unique. This purchase was my one real indulgence in what was otherwise quite a frugal trip, he wanted 200 Yuan but I was so impressed I gave him 220.
Despite the pollution and humidity it was a pleasant place to stroll around.
Detail on the roof supports on one of the many pavilions scattered around the lake.
Fo Xiang Ge, or The Tower of Buddhist Incense dominates the site. The other prominent landmark that day was apparently me, as several Chinese visitors asked to have their photo taken with me, and I was only too happy to oblige.
Suzhou Market Street near the entrance to the Summer Palace. Like most things in the Summer Palace it was burned down by the Angelo-French forces during the Second Opium War of 1856-60, so most of what you see here was rebuilt during the 1980s.
Comrade Lei Feng wants you to donate blood apparently.
Never mind the rip-off tourist skewers, this is where you can get the real deal. Just off the main road near Xidan station I found this little alleyway and got 2 healthy-sized skewers and a can of Yanjing beer all for 11 Yuan, recall that in the tourist-strip they wanted 15 for a single skewer.
Tiananmen Gate (technically I’m repeating myself as the Chinese suffix “men” means gate anyway, but you get the picture), the portrait of Mao is replaced every year to keep him looking fresh.
Looking across the road to Tiananmen Square.
Now this is proper Chinese food at proper Beijing prices. 6 Yuan for the dumplings and 3 Yuan for the 600ml beer or $1.40 Australian (I realise I'm banging on about low costs a lot here but that's how the Chinese like it, cheap, so when in Rome....or in this case Beijing....). And to top it all off it was delicious. A fitting last supper in Beijing.
Beijing Railway Station, seemingly always a hive of activity. The next morning it was down to the subway from this station and then off to the airport. However things didn't quite go as smoothly as anticipated: due to a storm the previous night all the planes were backed up at Beijing airport and my flight to Shanghai to connect with the Melbourne flight was cancelled. So they put me on another flight to Shanghai which too so long to wait for a takeoff slot lunch was served while the plane was still parked at the gate. Eventually I was airborne, however the problem was that Shanghai has two airports, my flight for Melbourne was leaving from Pudong Airport, whereas this plane was landing in Hongqiao airport. Once there I dashed to the China Eastern transfer desk and they gave me a free ticket for the cross-town coach service that links the two airports, and after an hour in Shanghai's peak period traffic I eventually made it to my plane, where I managed to wangle another exit row seat. Hooray. The only other problem from there on was my wine at dinner was served in a paper cup, but these are what we like to call our first world problems.
My only other experience in “China” had been Joanne and I’s 2009 visit to Hong Kong, and it goes without saying that mainland China is a vastly different country due to language, culture, but most importantly history. Hong Kong, despite formally severing ties with the UK in 1997, remains strongly influenced by British culture and societal structure, whereas Beijing pulsates with feral hypercapitalism overlaid atop a quite traditional Chinese society, while communist thought, values and imagery slowly fade from brilliant red to blackness, almost unnoticed and unmentioned. Beijing has the crowds and bustle of any large Asian city, but there does seem to be an extra sort of dog-eat-dog jostling for position in the rat race; in today’s China you have to strive just to keep up with the rapid pace of development and change. Initially I found this a bit off-putting, however after the sort of dejected listlessness that prevails in North Korea, I found the Chinese attitude towards commerce and life invigorating. This visit was instructive as being a student of international affairs you tend to think in terms of governments, armies and treaties, but getting a feel for life on the ground in these two crucial countries gave a fresh perspective on the debates in government and academia over these two semi-allies role in Asia and the world. We’re continue to hear plenty more about China and North Korea in the years ahead, so all I can say is book your trip now.
Our accommodation in Beijing, Kelly’s Courtyard, was in one of the old hutong districts, one of the few that haven’t been razed in the name of development. Despite some hard beds and dodgy plumbing it was still a great place to stay, recommended.
Tiananmen Square must be the most unfriendly public space and any city anywhere. Surrounded on all sides by some of the busiest roads in Beijing, large parts of it are roped off, it’s crawling with soldiers and police, and every light pole is festooned with security cameras. Not only that but you have to pass through two metal detectors just to get into the place, not recommended.
Chillin’ with Chariman Mao and a shitload of security.
Deciding to skip the Forbidden City for now, we caught the subway up to the North a bit and ran across this place, the Bell Tower, which as you can see dates from imperial times.
The steep climb up and down was made easier by some classic Chinglish.
At the top of the Bell Tower looking down towards its sister, the Drum Tower. Both towers were part of the city’s warning system and were supposed to alert Beijing to any outside attack.
Nanluoguxiang Hutong, a famous shopping district where some crappy souvenirs were bought.
Jingshan Park, the hill we’re standing on is entirely artificial as was made from all the rock and soil dug to create the moat around the Forbidden City.
View of said city from said hill.
View of said moat.
Taken at the entrance to Bingmasi Hutong, off which we were staying. Could make some comment about the pace of change and development in China and the cycle of destruction that has accompanied its turbulent last century, but mostly just took this picture for Dave.
Back at the hotel and up on the roof chilling with a beer and watching the sun go down, this is what holidays are all about.
The next day on a whim we decided to visit the historic village of Chaundixia, about 90 minutes drive from Beijing. Emerging from the last station of the subway line we were assaulted by a swarm of touts who obviously know where tourists want to go (and the end of the line being in a dump of an area, a ride to Chaundixia is probably the ONLY reason any Westerners would be in this less than salubrious outer suburb of Beijing). Our arrival seemed to cause a massive argument as various owners of private cars that were certainly not taxis vied for our custom, but eventually thanks to Ash’s rudimentary Mandarin (speaking only English I was no help at all) we eventually found a guy who was willing to drive us there and back for the equivalent of about $46 Australian, not bad for a 3 hour round trip over the mountains.
Chaundixia village. It gets greener than this, but the Beijing area has a very dry climate and even though it was mid April, the spring rains had clearly yet to arrive.
Chaundixia is famous for its original Cultural Revolution-era graffiti.
Chaundixia’s other claim to fame is that being a so perfectly preserved relic of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is used as the set for a lot of movies set in old China. Wandering around there really is like stepping back in time.
Another original 1960s-era painted slogan, this one apparently says something along the lines of: “Pay attention to the thoughts of Chairman Mao” or words to that effect.
After exploring the near-deserted narrow streets we had a fairly mediocre lunch accompanied by incredibly pissweak beer (2.5% alcohol is not beer, it’s a soft drink), but despite this I was still really glad we saw this place, it felt much more like the China you imagine than the frantic modern metropolis that is most of Beijing.
Taken by our initially aggressive but now quite friendly taxi driver. We asked for his name and he said to call him Yuan, that would be like a cabbie here introducing himself as Mr Dollar. The large character in the centre is Chaundixia, the name of the village, apparently its one of the most complicated Chinese characters as it requires 30 strokes to render correctly.
My photographic comment on industrial progress in China. Mmm, pretentious.
Back at the hutong and Bob, out hotelier, is showing Ash where we can go out for dinner.
Donghuamen Night Market, where close-minded tourists come to be grossed out at what the Chinese will eat.
Feeling slightly daring I decided to try fried silk worm. Pretty shit actually as it tasted like chewy dust, but thankfully the chicken and octopus skewers were excellent, if a little pricey. Looking for some more authentic Beijing tastes we moved on to a small cafe for some steamed dumplings and were not disappointed.
We wandered back via Tiananmen Square, however they switch most of the lights off meaning it’s not that exciting so I took this picture of the front wall of the Forbidden City instead.
Flags and security cameras in Tiananmen Square.
And the next day we returned to Tiananmen Square yet again, this time to tackle the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. This picture gives a tiny taste of the line of people waiting to get in, the crowd itself was a mix of everyday Chinese, old people still wearing their vintage Mao suits and a few western tourists who obviously shared Ash and I's ironic love of communist kitch. The only thing more incredible than the sheer number of people waiting to get in was the speed and efficiency of the whole procedure. From the time we dropped off our bags at the security building across the road, lined up, shuffled several hundred metres, gone through a security check, entered the building, saw Mao's waxy corpse and exited a mere 40 odd minutes had passed. Amazing.
You can't take photos inside the mausoleum, possibly because Chairman Mao looks nothing like this any more. He's apparently raised out of his freezer for the two hours a day the place is open then quickly lowered back in, but dark rumours suggest that the body displayed to the public is often or always a wax replica. I don't know much about embalming, but I can report that it was a lot darker in there and the corpse's skin was a lot yellower than the picture would suggest. Whatever the reality, they hustle you through that room very quickly and before you've had a chance to admire the tacky architecture and furnishings that make the whole thing look like the lobby of a 1970s three star hotel you're outside blinking in the sunlight.
The Forbidden City was the logical next stop, and even Ash's communist leader poses are lost in the sea of paving stones that make up just one of the many courtyards in this massive place.
The Forbidden City was the Ming and Qing Dynasty's imperial palace, before that the capital of the Chinese Empire was at Xi'an.
Aside from the Great Wall (which we didn't visit, between Ash and myself we've visited China 5 times and neither of us has set foot on the Great Wall, we're going for the high score), the Forbidden City would have to be China's premiere tourist attraction, which makes it all the more surprising at how badly it fares as a tourist destination. There are hardly any signs telling you what things are, if you can find some of the museum exhibits amongst the 980 buildings they're not that good (at least the ones we found), and the whole thing is covered with dust and grime giving it a run-down look you don't expect given the status of the place.
The Forbidden City covers 720,000 square metres, and feels it.
Clearly covering all this distance is tiring.
We ran across this group of school kids who clearly found Ash and myself far more interesting than the Forbidden City and they all wanted to crowd around us, shake our hands and say hello.
The Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution is not only a good example of communist bombast when it comes to naming things, but also one of Mao's “10 great buildings” he ordered built in 1959s to both commemorate 10 years of The People's Republic of China, and to give Beijing the sort of international gravitas he felt it's collection of mostly ancient buildings were not delivering. Thus you get brutal, Stalinist structures like this, the epitome of the socialist style of archictecture.
While wandering around this random dude popped up and asked if he could borrow Ash and I's sunglasses to have his photo taken. He is not in the People's Liberation Army as is obvious by his crappy, knock-off uniform, and I wouldn't imagine there's a shortage of places selling sunglasses in Beijing, but who knows. Anyway, this is some wannabe-army guy wearing my sunglasses, trying to blend into a painted tin wall.
They're renovating the main part of the museum so most of the exhibits are just in these temporary sheds out the front.
Another pretentious arty-farty shot.
And here's another, this time of heroic soldiers labouring for the improvement of Chinese socialism. I guess that's one advantage of having such a polluted city, it's not hard to photograph the sun.
Taken inside the museum, the renovations looked to be going slowly. Free travel tip if anyone's interested, you can buy the same tacky Chairman Mao souvenirs here that were on sale outside his “Mao-soleum” (hur hur) at about a quarter the cost.
Back at our hutong where this restaurant caught our eye for it's prominent and un-ironic portrait of Chairman Mao. Of course we had to dine there, and we even made a friend, one of the other patrons took a liking to us despite speaking no English and shouted us each another big beer, cheers.
The food at the restaurant wasn't that flash, but right outside these guys were cooking up more tasty chicken skewers, and these went down a treat.
Hot street food and cheap, cold beer, what more do you need?
The next day was mostly going to be taken up with a meeting of our North Korean guides and fellow-travellers, but before that we embarked an unsuccessful attempt to find Beijing's only heavy metal store, and then had a wander around Beijing Railway Station, another of Mao's 10 great buildings.
Given the size of our North Korean tour group the meeting took some time but was quite informative. By the time it broke up it was late afternoon so we just decided to head back to the hotel and pack.
Our hutong at night, coming back from an enjoyable dinner of, what else, Peking duck. The next morning it was off to the airport to meet up with the group and fly to Pyongyang, the North Korean part of the trip will be covered in the next entry.
The outside of Dandong station after we caught the train there from Pyongyang. After the defeated torpidity of North Korea, Dandong, which is a small provincial city by Chinese standards - barely 1 million people - felt like New York City. The bustle of commerce on the street and traffic jams were a shock to the system after a few days in the eternally quiet DPRK.
Dandong is also one of the few places in China that still can boast of having a statue of Chairman Mao.
After grabbing some takeaway dinner (and some North Korean currency and Kim Il-sung badges, two of the products it is illegal for foreigners to buy in North Korea but that are openly sold on the streets of Dandong) we boarded our Chinese train that would take us back to Beijing, and this was where the trouble started. For a kick off it was chock-a-block, I couldn't even get my suitcase (that now weighed closer to 30kg than 20) into the sleeping compartments because of a woman standing in the narrow corridor weeping openly at the emotion of it all. Then there was the fact that the bed I was assigned was some 2 metres in the air, and I needed help lifting the case up to that height, once I struggled up there myself I realised the case was upside down and could not be opened or even moved as the ceiling was only 50 odd cm above the bed. Giving up we met up with Richie and the 3 other remaining people from the tour also training it back to Beijing and located a near-empty carriage. We then set up in one of the compartments and ate, drank and chatted in a most convivial manner, until the train pulled up at a station and this carriage too was filled. A bit more drinking of beers and soju mixed with Coke, but eventually they put the lights out. I tried to sleep but found myself getting a bit claustrophobic and ended up spending most of the night just sitting up, watching the scenery slide by and listening to Altar of Plagues. From sunrise onwards most of the landscape looked like this, just one endless construction site, a concrete moonscape in constant upheaval and renewal.
When we finally made it back to Beijing we flopped down at a quiet Maccas for some refreshing grease and coffee, then bid adieu to Ash as he had to catch a flight back to Melbourne in order to resume work. I then paid for my room at the same hotel our pre-tour meeting had taken place at and chilled out with Richie, sharing news about North Korea and a beer before he left to catch his train back to home in Xi'an. After a 2 hour nap I then grabbed some dinner and caught the subway up to the Olympic park area in order to catch it at dusk.
The sun sinks slowly into the West over the disused Olympic venues. Some of them have found a second lease of life, but others are just shut off with temporary fencing and are already looking a bit rundown less than 4 years after the games concluded.
Initially it was a bit quiet, but as darkness fell the area filled with Beijingers out for an evening stroll which filled the vast space (laid out by the son of Hitler's favourite architect, Albert Speer) in a most agreeable fashion.
The iconic Birds Nest Stadium and Water Cube.
My final major destination was to the Summer Palace, originally outside the city and now on it's outskirts, the Summer Palace in it's current form dates back to around 1750 and as the name suggests, provided a cooler location for the Imperial family to loll about during Beijing's endless muggy summers.
A more typical Beijing day than we'd experienced upon arrival, it was not cloudy as I could look directly at the sun, glowing wanly through the murk of pollution. The Summer Palace grounds are dominated by the 2.2 square km artificial Kunming Lake. When the lake was dredged in 1990/91 in order to remove sludge that had built up 205 bombs that had been dropped during the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45 were found.
This guy is a genius. The fan he's painting is a commissioned work for me, and he completed a fantastically detailed traditional Chinese landscape painting on it in about half an hour, drawing everything freehand. The design is partly inspired by the landscape of the Summer Palace, but some of it is from his own imagination, and while he had with him examples he'd done previously that were in a similar vein, every fan painting is unique. This purchase was my one real indulgence in what was otherwise quite a frugal trip, he wanted 200 Yuan but I was so impressed I gave him 220.
Despite the pollution and humidity it was a pleasant place to stroll around.
Detail on the roof supports on one of the many pavilions scattered around the lake.
Fo Xiang Ge, or The Tower of Buddhist Incense dominates the site. The other prominent landmark that day was apparently me, as several Chinese visitors asked to have their photo taken with me, and I was only too happy to oblige.
Suzhou Market Street near the entrance to the Summer Palace. Like most things in the Summer Palace it was burned down by the Angelo-French forces during the Second Opium War of 1856-60, so most of what you see here was rebuilt during the 1980s.
Comrade Lei Feng wants you to donate blood apparently.
Never mind the rip-off tourist skewers, this is where you can get the real deal. Just off the main road near Xidan station I found this little alleyway and got 2 healthy-sized skewers and a can of Yanjing beer all for 11 Yuan, recall that in the tourist-strip they wanted 15 for a single skewer.
Tiananmen Gate (technically I’m repeating myself as the Chinese suffix “men” means gate anyway, but you get the picture), the portrait of Mao is replaced every year to keep him looking fresh.
Looking across the road to Tiananmen Square.
Now this is proper Chinese food at proper Beijing prices. 6 Yuan for the dumplings and 3 Yuan for the 600ml beer or $1.40 Australian (I realise I'm banging on about low costs a lot here but that's how the Chinese like it, cheap, so when in Rome....or in this case Beijing....). And to top it all off it was delicious. A fitting last supper in Beijing.
Beijing Railway Station, seemingly always a hive of activity. The next morning it was down to the subway from this station and then off to the airport. However things didn't quite go as smoothly as anticipated: due to a storm the previous night all the planes were backed up at Beijing airport and my flight to Shanghai to connect with the Melbourne flight was cancelled. So they put me on another flight to Shanghai which too so long to wait for a takeoff slot lunch was served while the plane was still parked at the gate. Eventually I was airborne, however the problem was that Shanghai has two airports, my flight for Melbourne was leaving from Pudong Airport, whereas this plane was landing in Hongqiao airport. Once there I dashed to the China Eastern transfer desk and they gave me a free ticket for the cross-town coach service that links the two airports, and after an hour in Shanghai's peak period traffic I eventually made it to my plane, where I managed to wangle another exit row seat. Hooray. The only other problem from there on was my wine at dinner was served in a paper cup, but these are what we like to call our first world problems.
My only other experience in “China” had been Joanne and I’s 2009 visit to Hong Kong, and it goes without saying that mainland China is a vastly different country due to language, culture, but most importantly history. Hong Kong, despite formally severing ties with the UK in 1997, remains strongly influenced by British culture and societal structure, whereas Beijing pulsates with feral hypercapitalism overlaid atop a quite traditional Chinese society, while communist thought, values and imagery slowly fade from brilliant red to blackness, almost unnoticed and unmentioned. Beijing has the crowds and bustle of any large Asian city, but there does seem to be an extra sort of dog-eat-dog jostling for position in the rat race; in today’s China you have to strive just to keep up with the rapid pace of development and change. Initially I found this a bit off-putting, however after the sort of dejected listlessness that prevails in North Korea, I found the Chinese attitude towards commerce and life invigorating. This visit was instructive as being a student of international affairs you tend to think in terms of governments, armies and treaties, but getting a feel for life on the ground in these two crucial countries gave a fresh perspective on the debates in government and academia over these two semi-allies role in Asia and the world. We’re continue to hear plenty more about China and North Korea in the years ahead, so all I can say is book your trip now.