Chinese impression Part 1
So far we have only been to Beijing. My impression of the Chinese might be wrong then, but so far it is really a people of duality.
They are nice people but about as polite as a pack of starving hyenas on the queue to the free antelope steakhouse. Example:
We got into the metro station and queued behind the guy buying he tickets. The two Chinese dudes behind us just casually walk by us and stood in line before us. I made some cavemen grumbling noise they turned, looked up (It helps being twice the size) smiled and walked behind us to queue properly. The guy was finished and we were about to take a step towards the register when this Chinese woman, coming just in tried to walk in front of us and to the register! I set my arm in her way, making that grumbling noise again. she looked up at me, smiled said sorry and got in line.
That was the worse part of it all. She said sorry, which means she knows its wrong, but she just went ahead and done it anyway. And this is just one in many cases we encounter this, each day. They seem to be living in a bubble of "Me Me Me" and the rest can go screw themselves.
It might be only the Beijing Chinese. I'm not sure. Ill know in a few days when I have been to Xi'an for a while.
Forbidden city and the communist emperor
A few days ago we visited the forbidden city. The place sure justifies the city part. To call it a palace will be an insult to the shear size of the place. It is probably bigger then most average size villages. For you dutch readers, its probably slightly bigger then the center of Leiden.
In contradiction to European palaces of having one major building with a few small ones, the forbidden city is almost a maze of large and small buildings with walls in between. Less then half of it is open to the public and yet after spending a whole day there we still did not manage to see all of the public areas. It really is that big.
The attention to detail is amazing. They had about 500 years to perfect it, and it looks like they really took the time. Even the stone sewer covers are nicely decorated. Every piece of wall, roof, window and stair has been given attention. You get the feeling that if an area is plain looking its like that because it was the intention, not for lack of attention, or time.
All that said there are some pointers the Chinese government could use to make this place even more interesting to visit. Hiring someone that can actually speak English as a language, and not just translate Chinese text for once. A lot of time when reading the signs next to the building you can see it is just literally translated from Chinese. The other place where improvement can be made is in the content. Every building had pretty much the same sign. It was so bad we eventually started to make jokes about it.
Every building was built in the Ming dynasty and had a name with Harmony, Longevity and/or some season name in it. Each one was rebuilt during the Qing dynasty, renamed twice using the same naming rule. And that's about it. Only 3 buildings actually had more than that on their sign. A place with 500 years of history probably has more to say about its buildings one might think. Not that this will diminish the experience, which is amazing.
Yesterday we went to the Mao memorial. His body is kept there for all to walk by and admire. It is an experience you have to see when in China. Paula and I got the feeling this is their emperor. Its like the Chinese need an emperor, and in the communist time, the only possible emperor is Mao.
Walls, Palaces and some ripoffs
These last few days have been very impressive. Only after landing in China did it sunk in that I am, actually going there. For the first time in my life I was in a place where I could not read anything. Well unless they had some small English translation bellow, but that's beside the point. It was all overwhelming. We took the rich man way and got a taxi to our hotel.
After a short break we decided to play the good tourists and wait straight for Tian'anmen square. Apparently its the biggest public square in the world. and to be honest I believe it. Its huge. And I mean Huge with a capital H. Looking around we noticed how relax everybody was. There were police officers around, but it did not feel imposing. as a western its not easy to forget the sights of the student in front of the tank in this square. Another thing which I found quite ironic is a monument in the middle of the square. Its called the "Obelisk for the people's heroes" and is closed to the public, who can only see it from afar.
Feeling good about ourselfs we went duck hunting, Peking style. We didn't find the restaurant the Lonely planet recommended so we got into some place that looked nice. We didn't know it at the time but we got our wallets drained there with the prices. We figured it was OK, later we found out we got the tourist menu, and basically just for the duck we payed what is normal for a full meal. Oh well, first day mistakes.
We closed our first day with booking a trip to the great wall for the next day, leaving at 6 in the morning. So we went to bed.
Being the dutch people that we are, we were 5 minutes before time. Everybody else of course, was late. We managed to get some sleep on the way there. Its about a 4 hour trip from Beijing to the part of the wall we were going to see. We chose a relatively not touristic part of the wall that also offers a one way hike, for 4 hours across the wall, ending at another point. The wall is, well, great. Actually great does not do it justice. It is like a huge stone serpent stretched across the hill top for as far as the eye could see. It was an amazing experience walking on this wall of myth and legend. Luck was with us and we got good weather. I would love to keep on saying how amazing it all is, but it really is something one must see and feel for oneself to understand.
Getting back late in the evening we collapsed on the bed.
Yesterday we decided to take it down a nudge and just go about the town. The temple of heaven park, with its symbolic temple of good harvest in its center was our choice for the day's activity. The park has a lovely atmosphere to it. Lots of old people, doing their thing. Singing, dancing, playing music, playing cards, or just talking. It was a quite an uplifting experience. From the park we went to Silk road, which is actually a big, multiple-floored building with vendors, selling everything, including silk. Paula was checking out some silk so she can have some custom made for her sister and/or mother. Then we decided to check the price of read- made jackets. Paula started negotiating with the sales woman. She started at 1200 yuan (120 euro). We figured by that start price we can probably go to 400-500 the lowest. We were approaching to closing when a wonderful American woman heard us, walked over and said she had paid 210 yuan for just such a jacket at another vendor. The sales woman was not really happy with that, so she started going down to 400. We decided to leave. She did went down to 210. We didn't buy the jacket but we learned another lesson about what price to expect in china. We were used to middle east 40-50% of the price. It seems here its 20%. After a day at the park, and some price negotiations, we decided to explore our hoel's surrounding. I have been complaining about the lack of coffee since we arrived. It seems Chinese are not big on coffee, so finding coffee was hard. And so it turns out we have a Starbucks 2 min walk from our hotel. Damn. I'm not big on Starbucks, but its coffee, and I need my coffee. We also bought some Nescafe for the hotel. They only give you tea in ours.
Today we took the bus to the summer palace. That on its own is an experience. Trying to not only tell the conductor, who does not a speak of word of English, not only where you are going, but also to let you know when to get out can be a challenge. Though with some good spirit and some cave men communication techniques, pointing and making "hmm" sounds we managed to get there. The weather unfortunately was grey and cold. This being the summer palace, it was less impressive than it could have been. That is not to say that it wasn't because it is. The shear size of it is astonishing. The palace is made out of several complexes each with its own purpose. The palace is located next to a lake, who at one point was increased in size and made deeper, to please the emperor of the time. It is clear to see that this is a house made for a ruler with no end to his resources. Its beautifully made, with a lot of attention to detail. We also had some charming moment with the locals.
We stopped to eat lunch at one of the terraces. There was an old man there, drawing Chinese letters on the ground. He approached us and to our surprise asked in perfect English if we were American. We answered that actually no, we aren't. We started a conversation with him. Mr. Tong has taught us some thing about Chinese symbols, and also talked a bit about himself. It was all so very charming.
The second streak of luck with the locals was just as we were about to leave. We peered into one of the complexes and were immediately pulled in by 3 young Chinese girls who in heavily accented English told us about this complex, pulling us from one room to the next. It was all so lovely and charming. They are, it turned out, from a private school and they practice there every weekend with presentation in English. I got a notebook and a pen, and they asked for my name, nationality and if I had any recommendations. Then they ran giggling, only to come back with a friend and to take their picture with us.
Taking another challenging bus back to Beijing. this time the driver forgot us and didn't tell us when to get out. Luckily Paula's eagle eyes caught the metro station we wanted to get out at and we got out of the bus just in time.
It has occurred to me that the Chinese people have a sort of duality. At least in my impression so far. On the one side they are very friendly and very helpful. On the other side they will rip you off any way they can. I wonder if this is a semi first impression, or if I'm on to something here.
99 days
Not a lot of time, as we are still in the getting-it-all-ready madness. This last week has been all about preparations, and we are still hard pressed to finish everything.
One way or another in a few hours Paula and me will be sitting in the plane, heading to the far east, and what we didnt get done, well nothing to do about it. The first day in our 99 day exploration of the east.