China Part 1

Now that I've been back in the States for a while, I guess it's time that I started putting up some of my journaling from my time in China.

(The first part was written while flying back to Korea from China)

Wow, what an experience. Quite literally the experience of a lifetime. When I first arrived in China, I was so worried about making my next flight during my layover in Dalian that I wasn't able to appreciate the fact that I was actually in China, until I got to Beijing, anyway.

When I first arrived, I was in real danger of missing my flight due to waiting in a long line for the wrong check-in and having a heck of a time trying to find someone who could speak enough English to point me in the right direction.

When I finally arrived in Beijing, I was getting tired. After the half hour airport train to downtown Beijing and the 20 minutes on the subway, I was even more tired. Finally, I arrived at my stop and set out to find the hostel. Unfortunately, I forgot the walking directions to the hostel and instead was relying on a very undetailed map. I wandered around for a while showing various officers on the street my map and following their unknowing fingers in all different directions before finally giving up and flagging a taxi.

I managed the get to the hostel and it exceeded my expectations. The atmosphere was fantastic. It was like living in a Chinese house but with your own room. I shared a room with three other people with a wall separating the beds into 2 to a smaller room. There was a communal area with computers, a refrigerator, maps and guidebooks, a living area with a sofa, table and tv and an outside area with a larger table for eating breakfast and hanging out with fellow travelers.

I set out for my first adventure that very night after spending a bit of time recovering. I headed to Wangfujing, a huge shopping area in Beijing that rivals Seoul and Tokyo. I was totally surprised at the sight that greeted me as I headed down a street lit up with huge department stores, namebrand stores like Nike, Gucci, Rolex, and massive tv screenS advertising various products all over the place.

I also got my first taste of Chinese culture in a famous side street selling interesting foodstuffs ranging from candy to meat, scorpions and bugs on sticks. It was interesting to watch them writhe around on the stick before being fried. No, I didn't try one.

It was also my first experience bargaining. I was still new to the whole idea of negotiating for something and was as yet unfamiliar with the value of the money and while I didn't do too bad, I didn't do great either. My best purchase was a cool Mao lighter for less than two dollars which I had the great misfortune of losing to the overzealous guards at airport security preparing for my flight back to Korea.

I had a great time, though, and spent the evening with a cup of tea made from tea that I had purchased at a great tea shop earlier that night.


Sunday

On Sunday, after a free breakfast of yogurt with fruit and muesli and some green tea, I walked the ten minutes to the subway and headed to Tiananmen Square. It was incredibly crowded but it was still quite the experience standing in such an historical area with the huge picture of Mao overlooking the square.

As I made my way through the Forbidden City, I was amazed by the history, beauty and detail contained there that had preserved over the past 600 years. It didn't take quite as long as I had expected, about an hour and a half, to go through it but I think I may have missed a few things, which is okay because it kept the day fast-paced, which kept me from getting bored.

Afterwards, I climbed the hill in the park behind the Forbidden City and was greeted by the most incredible views one could hope to get of the palaces below and the cityscape on all sides. After climbing back down, I had my first Chinese food, which I found to be a bit greasy for my tastes that have developed over a year of living in Korea.

I set about to find the closest subway station using my handy dandy map from the hostel and, instead of walking the distance, decided to hop into a motorcycle rickshaw(a motorcycle outfitted with two wheels on the back and a box for a single person to sit in the back). A lot of locals use them as I'm sure they're quite cheap. I expected Chinese people to be too much like the Koreans and be fair about charging everyone the same. I was soon to learn that in China, EVERYTHING is outrageously priced for foreigners and EVERYTHING is negotiable. I didn't ask the price before getting in and was charged about $4 after arriving at the stop a few minutes away, about double what a taxi would've cost. Since he gouged me, I figured he at least owed me a picture and consider the picture and experience to be worth the extra $2.

I used the subway to get to the Temple of Heaven, a very beautiful and culturally rich temple used to worship the heaven and designed accordingly - in a circle(the shape Chinese people thought the heaven was as opposed to a square earth). There were some amazing sites there and you can refer to the pictures and video for those.

After the temple, I headed across the street to the Hongqdiao Pearl Market. I was only able to buy a small gorilla pod for my camera(which really came in handy) for $4 before running out of money.

When I came to China, I came with the expectation I received from websites that I could use my visa to withdraw cash from ATM's. Therefore, I brought only $300 worth of Korean money with me. Fortunately, I had $60 in American money in my wallet that helped tremendously because the ATM's refused to accept my pin when trying to withdraw money from my credit account.

I was a bit frustrated but decided to just call it a day and head back to the hostel. I enjoyed a bit of conversation with some fellow travelers before heading to bed for the night.

Monday

I decided to use Monday for a trip to the Great Wall. I got up in the morning, had my breakfast with a few other guys then took the subway to the train station where I would catch a train that would drop me off right by the wall an hour away. It was at the train station that I saw an example of Chinese police power.

A man had apparently gone to the front of the line for some reason. Whether he was in a hurry and needed a ticket quickly or was just asking a question, I don't know since I don't speak Chinese. The police officer(they are everywhere) promptly grabbed him and gave him a good shove towards the back of the line which kind of took me by surprise coming from America and then Korea, where police are very non-confrontational and don't even carry guns.

The communism, minus the blatant communism, was very apparent in Beijing. Or maybe I should say the government presence was very apparent. All the government workers and many store operators, as well, wore red armbands with gold Chinese characters on them. Would love to know what they said. I'm not sure if it's the norm or if it's related to the 60th anniversary celebrations scheduled for next week for the founding of the communist party in China.

Military officers, police officers and regular citizens with armbands reading "volunteer security" were literally everywhere. On the subway cars, at all the entrances of the subways and large stores. Scattered about on the streets, sometimes carrying automatic rifles. I can't imagine there's much of a threat, expect for maybe from those dangerous democratic protesters that might get brave enough to come out of hiding but I doubt it.

After purchasing my ticket, it was time to wait the hour for my train to leave so I decided to buy some candy and a snack from a convenience store located in the waiting area. Chinese candy is very different from American or even Korean candy and consists of mainly dried fruit and differently prepared jellies.

Once on the train, it wasn't a bad ride to the Wall. It took an hour to hour and a half to get there but when the wall finally started coming into view, it was amazing. We were winding our way through the mountains and you could look out the window and see different parts of the wall going in different directions, it was amazing.

When the train finally stopped, after what felt like an eternity, we were finally able to start making the long walk up to the area where all the stores and restaurants were and past that, to the wall itself. It was amazing walking on such a piece of history and on one of the great wonders of the world. At first it was a fairly easy hike but as I got the higher the wind blew harder and I often had to hold onto my hat to keep it from flying off.

I was up on the wall for probably about 2 hrs. and despite how hard it was, it was totally worth it. The views were incredible. Sometimes it was so steep that it was like walking down a 40-ft. step ladder. You literally had to be careful that you didn't slide and lose your footing. Of course, going up wasn't all that fun either.

Once back down again, I bought a "I climbed the Great Wall t-shirt" after much negotiation and went to look for a restaurant. I found one in the area of the shops and got a good chicken and cucumbers with sweet sauce dish and a glass of green tea. It was hard to know what to buy because they aren't easily labeled like in America with "General Tsao's Chicken."

After the long walk back to the train, I discovered that I would have to wait another hour and a half for the next train. So, instead of waiting, I walked back up to the where all the busses were parked and decided to take the bus back for a 1/4 of the price. But, you do get what you pay for, and I was stuffed next to two Chinese ladies and had to endure early evening Beijing traffic on the way back. It was an experience, though.

Once I got back, I thought I knew where I was, but I didn't. Using my map, I walked back and forth and up and down for about half an hour before giving up again and flagging a taxi. I pointed to what I thought was the nearest subway station only to see a sign for a completely different station and realized that I was way off track. I asked him to just go to that one but he couldn't understand me. Suddenly a woman's voice come's over his radio in English asking where I wanted to go. So, though her, I managed to tell him that I just wanted the nearest subway station where I could pay 1/10 of the price and get anywhere in Beijing.

I managed to get back to the hostel in time for the free bbq night. They cook up meat and vegetable on skewers for free for anyone who is there and wants to eat it after 7:00. So along with some of the people I had gotten to know from America, Scotland, Sweden and Italy, it was a good evening of meat and Chinese beer, despite being exhausted. It was really cool to be able to meet people from various countries who were all passionate about traveling and had been so many different places.

More to come!