Just one easy day please!!
Trip Start
May 24, 2004
1
22
70
Trip End
Jun 2005
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Nanjing, China
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Backpacking around China seems to not be the most efficient past-time one can have. There looks to be a bit of a rule of thumb formulating - 1 day to get somewhere, 1 day to work out where you are and all the vitals, 1 day to see stuff, and 1 day to work out how to leave. Maybe we're just spastic - I'll have to check with the others from the course. But I'm certainly looking forward to the next backpacking stint here being with a bit of Mandarin, and !a lot! more research behind us...
Just been hearing that Christchurch has had a massive snow dump. I would like to say that all seems a world away, but as that is literally true, it seems somewhat obvious. The heat here isn't too bad at the mo, in fact we're almost in a cold snap. Suzhou was pretty horrendous some days - 35-40degrees for a few weeks in a row. I don't know how the sun's rays even get through all that smog. So I think a snow dump would just about kill me - we set the a/c on about 25degrees at night, and even then wake up feeling cold now and again. Definitely acclimatising.
We're in Nanjing now, the capital city of Jiangsu province where Suzhou and Xuzhou reside. There seems to be an abundance of westerners here (although this is probably relative...), but everything is still bafflelingly Chinese. Our lonely planet is turning into little more than 0.5kg of extra weight - most of the places it refers to are now building sites. I tell you, the speed of construction here is breath-taking. Everything is a building site, or looks very new. And in amongst it are quite poetic glimpses of what china was like (I fondly imagine) - old men playing mahjong on the roadside, little old ladies struggling with hand-pulled carts the size of mini-vans, hodgepodge old brick "houses". But mostly its just characterless brown and grey buildings, and traffic frantically trying to kill you (China is still a land of (electric) bicycles by the way, its just that they've squashed oodles of cars and buses onto the roads as well).
We got here in a rather haphazard fashion. Marianne was feeling pretty under the weather so we weren't exactly the most mobile of groups. We turned up in the Xuzhou train station, looked lost in the bewildering array of queues, sounds and people, and 10 seconds later a local came up and asked us if they could help. The guide book could not be more wrong in this matter - they claim that it takes 30mins, and they'll probably want a fee or something. Chinese are definitely the most helpful people I've struck, hope it doesn't change in a hurry. The local and the information desk went off and got us a ticket for the next train and it was as simple as that. We headed outside for a seat and a think about how to kill 3 hrs, and Vincent decided he may as well book his ticket for Shanghai. He looked at the timetable for maybe 5 seconds before a guy came over to help, and they went inside to book another ticket.
We headed into MacD's (seems to be a lot of that lately), which was fortuitous, because a couple there saw us looking at the Lonely Planet (this may be the only worthwhile use of the damn thing). They came over and pointed out that our ticket (because we had booked it on the day of travel) was only a ticket for the train - we didn't actually have a seat reserved. With still horrific memories from the trip up when we did actually have a seat, we decided this really wasn't a goer - even after 3 months of traveling, I don't think my immune system is strong enough to sit on that floor. And M was not looking like she would survived even if she had a seat. They went over with us how to upgrade on the train and bid us good luck... In the LP's defence, I notice now that they do mention this little delight of train booking in China.
We said goodbye to Vincent and prepared ourselves for the onslaught which is getting on a train in China. This is definitely something they're going to have to work on for the Olympics in 2008 - basically you all line up in a departure hall, and 2 mins b4 the train arrives they open the gate(s) and probably more than 500 people try to make a mad dash through 1 or 2 tiny slits in the barriers. Not great for those with 20kg strapped to their backs, and feeling like death. We ignored the hard seat carriages and headed straight up to what seemed like richer folk (sometimes it is very useful being white here) and sign-languaged upgrading to the station attendant. He managed to push us into a carriage literally seconds before the train pulled away.
Once onboard, we tried to make our wishes known to the carriage attendant, but were thankfully saved when another local sorted it out for us. They stuck us in a soft-sleeper which is like 1st class, but we figured what the hey and handed over another 400 RMB. Eventually we got some change back too, but I'm not sure if I might have been expected to pay the attendant a gratuity - because she kept back a 100 RMB, and after I tried to find out why, she relented with 50 RMB and I decided to cut my losses. In theory it could have been for a meal or something though I guess. But it was definitely a preferable way to travel - no spitting or smoking or yelling or crying or cramp or shoving or toxic toilets or anything. Marianne passed out on the top bunk for most of the trip (on very pre-used sheeting, but we're getting a bit more relaxed about standards of cleanliness these days), so she got her money's worth at least. Also had a quick look at the hard sleepers, which is probably how we'll try to travel in future - I'm not sure how sleeping in them would go tho. Oh - and if you're ever in this situation - the hard seats are separated from the rest by the kitchen galley, so I'm not sure if you can actually upgrade once you're in the hard seat carriage. No doubt we'll find out one day tho.
Quite a quick train trip got us to Nanjing and the most haphazard train station ever. We had prebooked accommodation (we figured, correctly, the last thing we wanted to do was trudge the city looking for accommodation), and it turned out to be not too bad. Marianne found a website - www.sinohotel.com - that can let you prebook quite a range of chinese hotels at pretty decent prices (prob about the same as if you ask for their "discount price"), but without laying down any cash until you get there. We did actually have a look at the LP's recommendation (which was still there!!) but they had put their prices up to beyond the Egret's so we're still there. Its not in the very centre of town, but instead in the main chinese tourist zone, so its a bit of a tacky-ville outside, with frigging massive tour groups wandering around everywhere. Lots of restaurants (altho a bit overpriced) and also a nice river and a temple to Confucius. Also heaps of stones for sale...
Monday was a bit of a waste of a day just stumbling from building site to building site. Each site was meant to have something useful once-upon-a-time - foreign language bookshop, internet, booking office, tourist sites. Our only success was finding the accommodation, whose prices had gone up (it would appear there has been somewhat wicked inflation in China of late).
Saw the Museum of the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre on Tuesday. A rather grissly affair commemorating the 300,000 Chinese who died (in about a month) when the Japanese army invaded and occupied Nanjing in 1937. There were delights such as actual excavated grave sites with skeletons still in place - I don't think I'd seen a human skeleton younger than Egyptian before today. You could see nails and bayonet wounds in them still, and they were all packed on top of each other. They also had a horrific photo-gallery with pictures of people getting beheaded or massacred or raped. They certainly didn't pull any punches in what they put up. I'm kind of curious to see whether any Japanese people, or possibly even delegations, have gone through. They also had what looked like a temporary display about the chemical weapons that they are still finding in China today - there was fairly large-scale testing and use of them by the Japanese during the occupation as well. Strangely absent from the exhibition was any referral to how the Chinese government and military scarpered from the city just before the occupation, locked the gates and told the citizens to make their country proud...
We also had a failed attempt at trying to find a booking office for the train. This had been a 2 day saga, and culminated on Tuesday with us actually finding an office, just as it was being locked up. Although a very helpful guy looked up the schedule for us and reckoned we should be able to book a ticket at the station (we shall see). We're heading for wuxi, which is only 2 hrs, so we should be right with just a hard seat. Its on the way to Shanghai and there's not much to do there, but just looking forward to being in a slightly smaller town for a change.
Marianne was not feeling too great on Wednesday, so being the great guy I am, I headed off to check out the zhonghua gate without her. Nanjing is surrounded by a ming-dynasty city wall, which has its main gate at the south end of the city, near where we are. Its a pretty big gate, so I sort of just had a wander around up there looking at the view and checking out all the bricks. Which was a bit more interesting that what it sounds. Its a pretty grand structure, still in good condition (especially for a chinese site - they have a disturbing number of fires and most sites are reconstructions). Also, all the bricks are individually stamped with the maker's, overseer's and province's name. Sort of the first example of quality control - except back then I guess if they screwed up they got beheaded instead of just having to go to another training session.
Then that arvo we went up to Zijin shan (purple mountain). Quite a nice little wander as it turns out - forest walks refreshingly absent of honking and spitting. We actually went to see Dr Sun's tomb - he's regarded as the father of modern China and its a bit of a Chinese pilgrimage to see the tomb. It was certainly an impressive affair - especially for a guy who didn't want anything big. A massive walkway straight up the hill, 392 steps or something (Marianne has just pointed out that it was exactly this, and not a god damn step less). Then a rather tiny little mausoleum in comparison at the very top. But great views and pretty spectacular all around, so worth the effort. We had these kids "surreptitiously" taking photos of us in the gardens behind the crypt, which was quite amusing.
We wandered thru the forest over to the Linggo Pagoda, which was a bit of a disappointment, as it was closed for renovations, and covered in scaffolding. Looks pretty impressive though. But we did get to wander through "the beamless hall", which was indeed beamless and quite impressive for the fact (although, you've got to wonder why they didn't just use beams and make life a lot easier) and then down more steps (very keen on these grand walkways on Zijin shan). A bit of a highlight was seeing some woodpeckers actually. Besides the fact that neither of us have seen them before, its just about the first time we've seen birds in China.
Then a rather hairy taxi ride over to the Filial Tomb of the Ming Dynasty. Definitely a repressed rally-driver coming through, he was about 2cm from sending a runner (who had the audacity to be on the road) skywards. The tomb was really a bit of a disappointment, especially for 50 RMB. Some big walls and some ruins, but nothing really out of the ordinary, or well presented. We searched for about 45min looking for an alleyway of camels that was meant to be in it, which obviously would make the 50 RMB all worthwhile. No such luck, and we left in near darkness, noticing the map on the way out which had a picture of them in the gardens on the other side of the road...
Which meant we had missed the last bus, and then had a long walk back down the hill, trying to attract the attention of taxi drivers who seemed not to be overly interested in picking up passengers. Maybe it would ruin their lap-times.
The final morning in Nanjing I left Marianne to the hotel room again and went to Fuzi Miao - I think it was a temple set up in honour of Confucius. Pretty interesting in theory, although we are really missing out in China not knowing the significance of a lot of what we're seeing. They had various disciples lined up, and then a rather ornate temple, with some great jade landscapes pictures lining the walls. The temple cost 5mill RMB - I reckon the jade landscapes cost the bulk of that. Also had some mannequins in various poses that I assume relate some of his life - the Chinese seem very keen on those things - we see them everywhere. Behind was an area where imperial examinations use to be taught - not much. A big bell and a big drum, some museum pieces (with Chinese labels) similar to what we saw in Xuzhou. After all that, it was a bit of a rush off to wuxi on the train.
Haven't quite sorted out a job yet - got 2 we're interested in (a private language school in Jinan, and a vocational college in Qingdao), but just trying to suss out a few details. We're taking so long that we might actually miss the boat - Vicent reckoned he just picked up a job with the crowd who we were interested-in in Jinan. But we got approached today just on the street about whether we wanted to teach english, so worst case is that we just head to a nice place and see if we can get lots of casual work. Probably finding accommodation will be the hardest bit.
