Beijing
Trip Start
May 24, 2005
1
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Beijing, China
Sunday, September 4, 2005
The pragmatic East Asian 'economical use of space' ethic combined with dubious oral hygiene must have inspired the use of the overnight bus to Beijing as a rehearsal studio for the National Spitting Team, who gave an inspiring, through-the-night rendition of 'I can spit further than you can'.
The bus pulled in for one of two pee stops on the 18 hour journey at a dimly-lit Chinese diner - we're in Manchuria, so Manchurian food! Must ignore nagging fatigue and eat! Ran in to encounter a counter of blues, pinks and green-.browns. Mmm. Chinese food! I asked for some of the beige, with a helping of green, but passed on the blue. To my surprise it was FANTASTIC!
The Mad-max bus driver having finished his 42nd cigarette of the pit-stop, began circling us as a cowboy would a reluctant herd of cattle. We gathered our things and went in search of the loo which we were was in the car park out the back. It took us a while to realise the car park was the toilet. As we walked, our boots felt the soft pebbles of the carpark beneath our feet...But needs must, so we took it in turns to crouch behind silhouettes of trucks before gingerly feeling our way back to the road...
Beijing. What an incredible sight! The place lives up to expectations that one has of the capital of the world's most populous country. We took the underground to the first stop on the tourist trail - Tiananmen square - where I paid 4000x (sucker!) the normal price for a Mao watch with Mao arms pointing to the hours and seconds. Prize tat but simple genius.
Off to the Great Wall where Helen bumped into an old colleague, Lars who, with his girlfriend, was on his way to Indonesia to work for PBI. So with fab company we all set off clambering along the 1000 year old World Treasure, stopping regularly to drink a gallon of water and take the same photo a thousand times.
We were rewarded with the flying fox cable ride - (bricking it, I let Helen go first! After a swift swing-off, she slowed down to a stop, hanging over the gorge and had to be winched in. Luckily I'd had a healthy Chinese breakfast that powered me over in one go!)
After marvelling our way through the Forbidden City, and climbing a hill that overlooks the city, dressing up in gaudy traditional gear to have our Polaroid taken, having lunch in a Chinese KFC (delicious!) and nursing sore stomachs at the Youth Hostel, we headed to Xian to check out the terracotta warriors.
It's quite remarkable that a farmer was digging a well, pulling out really odd - hand and leg - shaped rocks, called in an archeaologist and voila! Now you have a football pitch of earth troughs with a zillion terracotta soldiers ogled at by a zillion tourists - and a German student who managed (in the name of art) to smuggle himself into the bosom of the army, dressed as a terracotta footman.
After 8 hours in Xian we boarded the 16 hour overnight train - 4th class - to Chengdu. We were one of the last to enter the smokey, packed-to-the gunnels carriage. With our seats already taken we tried to cram our oversized back-packs onto the already sagging overhead shelf and wedged ourselves between a family of four, a dejected looking businessman and a couple of smokers with hacking coughs.
The family in front of us had a little 18 month old baby boy, and when ever the baby wanted to pee they would simple pull down the nappy, and let the little bugger pee a fountain of urine onto the floor of the carriage. Helen's sleeping mat, that she had lent the boy's father so he could get some kip under the bench, grew gradually wetter and wetter. Thankfully, despite his parents' persistence, the little chap wouldn't perform number 2s.
Chengdu where, from our starting point of Sims Cosy Guest House, we cycled 50 miles past paddy fields and industrial buildings, over roads covered with rice husks, to a Taoist mountain - stopping off along the way at a dramatic water-works project. This was China in slow motion, and the cycle was so inspiring that I went and bought a bike, which became FAR more hassle than it was worth (we had to put it on a different train to ours, which then went to the wrong destination before - thanks to the efforts of the train guard and an Chinese teacher - travelling back to be reunited with us in Shanghai!). Day two of the ride and we spent the morning walking through a misty valley (what was it called?). The 50 miles back was kick started with a 20 minute down hill speed-a-thon. An absolute miracle we made it up all that way the day before (ok - so Helen was pushed up it by our sterling, resilient Guide).
Before leaving Chengdu we had time to spare so, after charades at the box office, ended up watching War of the Worlds in Chinese, which is probably the only way to watch it!
After leafing through our coffee-table size book on China that we'd bought in desperation in Ulaan Bataar, we decided to take ourselves off to HuangShan. HuangShan is a holy Chinese mountain in the middle east of the country. Whilst hiking up the million and one concrete steps, we got chatting to a lovely couple from Argentina who had left lucrative careers as lawyers to go and learn Japanese in Japan and were hating it! Together the four of us powered our way up this giant Chinese mountain, ever so often looking up to see a stream of tourists winding their way up and down. After a while, I had to pull the rip cord as had a bout of flu - aka was too unfit to finish!
From there to Shanghai, where our last few days in China were spent watching fireworks and drinking beer on the roof of our guesthouse! We also managed to fit in an unseemly amount of haggling in the markets (fake pearls, fake watches, fake designer shoes...) as well as eating at the famous Fake Meat restaurant with a crowd of friendly, youthful Indian diamond traders.
A short stint on the world's fastest train and we were on our way back home - jetting across a landscape and adventure which was 3 months in the making and took only hours to reverse.
Comments
hey.can u show me the pics we took togather
hi,helen and eoghan.i'm looking forward to see your travlogue about china.i want to see the picsalso.i like what you wrote.