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19 February 2008
Ni Hao!This update is coming to you from the Downtown Beijing Holiday Inn. It's Tuesday evening, and the last couple of days have been (in a positive sense) crowded with incident, to borrow a phrase from Wilde. Currently I'm sitting on the floor outside the bathroom, using the shaver socket above the sink for my laptop's power adaptor, as it is the only one which will fit. It remains to be seen whether or not the sockets in the apartment in Qingdao will allow me to use the adaptor I have. Needless to say I will be looking on Thursday in the airport for UK-compatible universal adaptors. The flight from Heathrow to Beijing was more or less as expected. After the fairly chaotic checkin, which involved being forced to check my hand baggage (at no extra cost, I should add) because it was too heavy, there followed a perfectly adequate service from Air China. Three movies, enough personal space, and moist towelettes provided. What more could one reasonably ask? On arriving in China I was interested even from the air to see the regimented style of apartment blocks, set out in neat rows in the bare winter landscape. Stepping off the plane, one noticed the scent of the air immediately: it's not merely exaggeration when people tell you that Beijing has problems with pollution. It doesn't choke you, and it isn't hard to breathe, but there is a cloying engine-mustiness to the air. It leaves a dull, tiring rasp in your throat. I woke up feeling as if I had been chain-smoking. Hopefully the air in QIngdao, with its oceanside location, will be fresher and easier to breathe. Beijing in winter is chilly, with temperatures a bit lower than at home. The guards standing in the street and outside buildings, of whom there are very many, wear heavy coats and Russian-looking hats. The marshals on the airport runway sported fur collars, giving them a thoroughly impressive air. Once everyone had retrieved their baggage and obtained some Yuan, which took a disappointingly long time, we walked out through customs and past an enormous barrier crowded with Chinese people clutching meet and greet signs. We located our tour guide, Tom (whose original name was given also, which I believe was Wang, but I'm not totally sure about this), and he led us outside to catch the bus to the hotel. First impressions of Beijing, as we sped through the city, were amazing. Peering through the exhaust haze which hangs over the city, we saw dozens upon dozens of huge glass-fronted skyscrapers, reminders of China's incredible growth. Everywhere construction: so many new things being built that one hardly knows where to look. Alongside this, shabby old apartment blocks with peeling paint and rickety windows, clothing strung across the ceilings to dry. Flags and banners hang all around, in a multitude of colours, some with characters written on them, others merely decorative, or announcing a restaurant or petrol station. The traffic is fairly heavy, but moving, with broad roads stretching into the distance, teeming with cars. Horns honk as drivers cut one another up and drive mercilessly towards aimlessly wandering pedestrians. Bicycles, as it was so famously pointed out in a song, are everywhere in this city. Mostly well loaded, some motorised, some ridden by warmly-dressed riders wearing surgical masks, some ridden uncomfortably by two people at once. Rickshaws pedal past, and advertisement-plastered bus stops teem with bored-looking people. We arrived at the hotel and were given a good slice of time to relax and gather ourselves before going out for an early supper, which was eaten at a restaurant just down the road. We ate at large round tables with lazy Susans, which seems to be the most common way of doing things in the restaurants here. By that time, I was absolutely exhausted. Having barely slept on the plane, and suffering jet lag from the eight hour time difference, I had to go back to the room and sleep. Happily I got in a good night's worth, and awoke refreshed at precisely six am. After the interesting breakfast (alongside the standard European hotel breakfast fare such as croissants, eggs, bacon, orange juice, coffee and sponge cake there were gross-looking black eggs, presumably pickled, which we had come across at supper the night before, as well as steamed dumplings with meat or vegetables inside, and strange-looking vegetable-based dishes labeled simply 'MUSLIM' (presumably specialities from the west of China). Then we piled into our coach (after being mobbed by street vendors selling bootleg Olympics beanie hats) and were taken to the offices of the British Council, where we were given tea and (chinese) cake, given various useful pieces of advice by the Council, and then separated by nationality to receive information from our respective national diplomats. True to form, the australians were loud, the new zealanders were few, and the british were reserved and dry. It is always in contrast with groups of foreigners that we become particularly aware, and perversely proud, of our national identity. After the meetings, we were taken by bus to heavily-guarded Tian'anmen Square, where we were given lunch at a gaudily-decorated restaurant. Later we were to learn that one of the dishes (I am not sure which, or if I myself actually had some) was frog. Having been fed, we walked through the Square, where a few sellers predictably shoved copies of little red books of Maoist sayings and picture postcards in our faces. The unashamed, curious staring began here, as a group of westerners is still a novel sight in China. Whenever Tom stopped to talk to us, little crowds of Chinese people would gather, some clamouring to have their picture taken with a red-headed girl who seemed particularly novel in their eyes. We walked through the square, under the enormous printed face of Mao, and through the gates into the Forbidden City. This was interesting enough, although sparse at first. As we walked through the different layers, it became richer and more visually arresting, although being so flat and square, the buildings do not lend themselves to being photographed. Some of the textures of carved stone, and the painted decorations on the buildings however, were very attractive. After this, we were taken to another part of the city to see what was, on the building, billed as a 'Macrocosm' of Acrobatics. It turned out to be rather a good show, set up theatre-style, with a troupe of gymnasts performing some very impressive acrobatic tricks, including one very chinese one which involved synchronised bicycle riding, with women riding bicycles standing on the handlebars, and, for the finale, balancing around eight of them on the same bike in a triangular formation, feathery fans outstretched. We also had the opportunity to buy some snacks for consumption during the show, which included (chinese) Pocky, Pretz, noodle cups, popcorn, sweetened cold green tea in a bottle and magnum ice creams. We were given supper in another restaurant, this time with a bank of fishtanks, offering the option of choosing an inhabitant to be caught and served up as supper. There were also two loudly whistling birds in cages. I couldn't work out whether they were for eating or decoration and general ambiance, although one suspects the former. The sample pictures on the staircase had descriptive captions which included a dish of camel meat... After finishing the meal, it was back on the coach, and back here to the hotel, and out with the computer. In a minute I'm hopefully going to log on to the ruinously expensive hotel internet service and post this for you. I'm sure there will be plenty more soon, but for now I've written plenty to be getting on with, and hopefully reassured you that I arrived safely in China, and have already experienced some very different things. I've already taken quite a lot of photos, but don't really have the time and resources to start trying to post those just yet. So, farewell for now. I'll be back online with more soon, and I hope everyone's well :-) utterly utter [
13:56 ]
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Yay for being ok!
Yay for China!
Boo for expensive internets!
Hai Anna! Sounds very cool, apart from all the fish/frog/black egg food varieties. (I think I'll visit China when I want to diet.)
Look forward to seeing all your photos.x
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