| Submitted by: Jim Chambers , United States |
| Submission Date: 04 February 2005 |
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All in all, Tianjin is a great day trip from Beijing. <<<
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9. Regretfully, this is my last full day in Beijing. I have grown to love this fascinating place and I really hate to leave. Carla comes to the hotel at 9:00 AM, and we head off in a taxi for the Big Bell Temple (also called the Great Bell Temple). On the way, the taxi ran out of gas. Unbelievably, there is a gas station across the street (unbelievable because I had seen only a few gas stations the whole time I was here). The driver got a can from the trunk and got gas, and we were on our way in a few minutes. The Big Bell Temple was terrific. It's not really blurbed in most guidebooks, but it's definitely worth a look if you have the time. It's basically a museum of bells, from little to big, from ancient to relatively modern. The biggest bell is a behemoth weighing 46 tons. It must be over twenty feet high! You can go up some narrow steps to the top and try your hand at tossing coins through a small hole in the top. I got two coins in the hole, which is supposed to ensure good luck. In one room, there is a history of Chinese bells, with a guide who narrates in Chinese. The guide went through her spiel and Carla translated for me. You can do the temple in an hour or less. We left the temple and headed for Tiantin Park and the Temple of Heaven. On the way, however, Carla started feeling a little sick, and I asked her if she wanted to go home. She said that she preferred to go back to my hotel, where we could practice more English until she felt a little better. We did more English 101 for several hours. After a couple of hours, Carla said she felt better (it must have been the Snickers and Peanut M&Ms I fed her), but I was having so much fun with the English practice, I didn't want to quit, and I think she wanted to keep on also. We filled reams of notebook paper with words and pictures, and she even tried to teach me a little Chinese (I'm hopeless, however). Finally, around 4:00 in the afternoon we both knew that she would have to leave for home to beat the tremendous traffic jam that Beijing becomes during commute times. I went outside with her and she called a taxi (she usually takes the bus, but I knew she was still a little under the weather, so I made her take some money for a taxi). I gave her a little hug, and she left for home. A little later, I went to the Silk Market for the last time with Ann and Roula. They both wanted to get some of the (alleged) silk mufflers. The vendors seemed to be stuck on 50 yuan for these, but Roula said that we were going to get them for 40 yuan (a little less than US$5) if we had to kill one of these guys. Finally, one of the vendors said okay to 45 yuan, but he wouldn't go any lower. Roula, who is a Greek-American, then went into the stall with him and proceeded to unload on the poor guy in Greek. We didn't understand a word of it, but I imagine that any nearby Greek sailors would have had their ears singed. Anyway, the vendor surrendered to the Madwoman of Toledo, and we filled our bags with 40-yuan mufflers. I'm thinking of inviting Roula to Atlanta to be chief negotiator the next time I buy a new car. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for dinner at the McDonalds near the hotel. It's just like the McDonalds in the US. The kids in Beijing love McDonalds - it was packed with teenagers. I took a photograph of Ann sitting next to Ronald McDonald (always remember: growing old is required; growing up is optional). After McDonalds, we went into a grocery store, so that Ann and Roula could buy some Chinese green tea to take home. Roula is amazing - she tries to get the store to knock down the price. I think she has bargained so much this week in the street markets that's she's locked into discount mode. Heaven help her when she gets back to Toledo and tries to bargain in Kroger. Well, back to the hotel now and begin the sad job of packing.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10. I'm up at 6:00 AM. Time for a quick breakfast, then take the suitcases downstairs and get on the bus for the airport. Checking in at the airport and going through the departure procedures is a little more of a hassle than when we arrived, but not too bad. The Northwest flight departs right on time, and we're off for a 13-hour flight that will take us up across Manchuria, Siberia, the Bering Strait, over the northern part of Alaska, then down across Canada to Detroit. Then a short flight south to Atlanta and I'm home. There's my wife Deborah waiting for me, and that's always a great sight.
SOME OBSERVATIONS:
BEIJING. Until the Northwest deal came up, I had never seriously considered going to China, because it was just too far away and too expensive to get to. I really went because the deal was too good to pass up. I'm afraid that I'm hooked on China now. I really really want to go back. Beijing was nothing like I expected. I went to the Soviet Union in 1975, and Moscow was a really grim place then, and that's what I expected in Beijing, despite what I had read in the guidebooks. The place is exploding with huge new highrise hotels, offices, apartments, and shopping centers. Some of these developments are as upscale and modern as anything I have seen anywhere. There is a growing middle class who drive cars and carry cellphones. This upscale view of Beijing contrasts sharply with the endless streams of bicycles and pedestrians and the scene of tens of thousands of people crammed like sardines (but sardines have more room!) into the buses that go everywhere in Beijing. An amazing city that appears to be one of the up and coming cosmopolitan cities of the world. I barely scratched the surface, but I want to see more. It's too bad that the Asian economy is stuck in low gear, but the opportunities that this offers for low-cost travel is great news.
WEATHER. I took a real chance going in December. Several Internet pals told me that the Beijing winters are brutally cold, with wind chills below zero (Fahrenheit). Luckily, this was not the case. The average low temperature during my visit was about 20 F (-7 C) and the average high was about 28 F (-2 C). There was very little wind, and except for a couple of days, the skies were a brilliant blue with bright sunshine. One morning it snowed for a couple of hours, but it was more fun than anything for this Atlanta boy who sees snow only every couple of years or so. I packed a ton of warm-weather clothes but never unpacked them.
TOILETS. All right, there are some negatives. Outside of the major hotels and western restaurants, the public toilets are an assault on your senses. Toilets are basically a hole in the floor. Men are of course okay for peeing, but having a bowel movement is a nightmare. It's just a plain nightmare for women to do anything, and they have my deepest and most sincere sympathy. To add insult to injury, they charge admission (usually 2-3 jaio - about 2-3 cents) and they don't provide toilet paper, so bring your own. I read recently that the Chinese government has acknowledged that toilets are a serious problem for tourism, and they have said that the situation will improve. Time will tell.
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TRAFFIC. I suspect that traffic jams were not a problem in Beijing until recently. However, there is a small but growing middle class that can now afford cars (some of them quite expensive). Even though the percentage of Beijingers who can afford cars is small, even a small percentage of twelve million people equals a lot of cars. For a couple of hours in the morning and again in the afternoon, the traffic jams were equal to anything here in Atlanta, sometimes approaching complete gridlock. Unfortunately, I frequently needed to return to the hotel during the afternoon jam time, and it was difficult to find a taxi driver who would take me into the central downtown area at that time. Sometimes, I had to ask four or five drivers before I found one who would take me during the rush hour. This situation is only going to worsen as more and more Beijingers become affluent enough to buy cars. Many streets have separate bicycle lanes for the millions of bicycles in Beijing. A couple of weeks ago, the Beijing government closed one of these streets to bicycles to open more car lanes. I think the handwriting is on the wall - the bicycle lanes and maybe even the wide sidewalks are probably going to gradually disappear in favor of the cars. In any case, we learned quickly to try to plan your taxi trips around the rush hours, or you're going nowhere fast. One more thing about the traffic: When you are a pedestrian, your chances of becoming Beijing roadkill are very high. Crossing a major street is downright terrifying, with cars, buses, and bicycles all determined to ruin your day. Always try to cross with a group of people - apparently, hitting a large group of people causes too much front-end damage to cars, so drivers may actually slow down or swerve to avoid hitting you. In Europe, the trick of avoiding eye contact with drivers usually worked - if you didn't acknowledge seeing them, some unwritten law kept them from running over you. That law never made it to China.
SHOPPING. Even though I'm not too big on shopping, Beijing is a shopper's paradise if you know where to go. The markets can be a lot of fun and really cheap if you can get into the swing of things. Bargaining is expected, and if you don't bargain pretty hard, you are going to pay way too much. Once you catch on to the game, shopping can be a lot of fun. One warning: I think I know now why they took us on the included tours the first two days we were there. They took us to several factories and stores where the merchandise was very good quality but outrageously overpriced. Later in the trip, we found the same stuff at the markets for much less, sometimes as much as 75% less. Avoid the temptation to buy anything on these tours (I suspect that the guides get a big kickback) and wait until you've had a chance to check out the markets.
CARLA. Having Carla as a personal guide and interpreter was the highlight of the trip. Besides the invaluable assistance that she gave, it was really great to meet someone in a very foreign place like Beijing and learn about their life, their family, and their aspirations. Carla was an absolute gem. Just helping her practice and learn English was fun, and she was great at telling taxi drivers where we wanted to go (without an interpreter, you have to get someone at the hotel to write on a card in Chinese where you are going, or show them where you are going on a bilingual map), buying railroad tickets (almost impossible for a foreigner), translating signs, and generally doing all the things that I didn't have a clue about. I probably learned more about everyday life in China from her than by reading ten books. She grew up in a rural part of China, attended a local university for two years, then came to Beijing in 1997 to seek her fortune, so to speak. She is saving her money to continue her education (China recently started charging money to attend its universities). She hopes to attend a university in Beijing, where the universities have native English-speaking teachers to teach English (typically American or British). The rural universities often don't have these native English-speaking teachers, so Beijing is better. Unfortunately, the universities in Beijing cost about twice as much money to attend as the rural universities, so Carla may have to return home and attend the rural school. I wish her the very best, but selfishly, I hope she remains in Beijing so that she will be there if I am fortunate enough to return. NOTE: Please don't email me asking for Carla's real name or address. My Australian Internet friend who arranged for me to meet Carla cares for her very much and feels almost like a grandmother to her. We had communicated with each other for some time before she suggested that I should meet Carla in Beijing. I think that she is understandably very protective of her, and I am sure that she would not arrange such a meeting with anyone who she did not know and trust. I feel very privileged to have gained her trust for her to arrange my meeting with Carla. If you really want an English-speaking Chinese guide, I believe that some people occasionally advertise their services on the rec.travel.asia news group.
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| Copyright © - "Jim Chambers" |
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