There and back again, again - my summer 2008 trip to Beijing Now that I'm back at home in San Francisco I thought I'd relate my thoughts on the trip that I took to Beijing from Sat June 21 to Mon July 7.
The Flight to China
The direct flight from San Francisco to Beijing was uneventful with the main point of interest being my testing out of my new noise canceling Bose Quiet Comfort 3 headphones. My employer provides a one time subsidy for the purchase of noise canceling headphones as a benefit. This is because the work environment is an "open" environment, meaning everyone sits in a big room with minimal barriers for privacy or quiet. Well, they coughed up the $360 for these head phones which do work very well but I wanted to find out how good or bad a flight can be with the headphones. The good news is that most of the white noise on the plane is canceled out making it much more comfortable. The bad news is that if you use these headphones to listen to the on-flight entertainment, the minimum volume on the airplane entertainment system is too high. This is likely because the headphones they hand out don't filter out the background noise so you need to turn the volume up higher. The trick in this case is to wear the noise canceling headphones slightly offset on your ear. By the way, if you want true noise canceling and don't care about listening to music, you can get industrial strength headphones that machine operators wear such as the "Bilsom" brand for $20 or so which are extremely effective. Industrial strength noise cancelling is necessary when standing on the tarmac directing jet airplanes or operating noisy machinery.
We arrived in Beijing in the new Beijing International Capital Airport. I had read a New Yorker article about this recent addition (the New Yorker periodically reviews new architectural wonders being put up for the Olympics). The airport is very good in a simple way. The architectural theme is "large simplicity". Almost all details were well done with one small exception which was a display titled "Rems and Hems With Limited Quite". In English this is completely nonsensical. Even when you learn that the display informs you what items are prohibited on planes (gasoline, knives, guns, grenades, solvent, etc.) it still makes no sense. This will one of the first things that travellers to Beijing will see. Since I obtained this image through Google others have noticed. Perhaps the display has been fixed by now.Beijing
Whenever I mentioned that I was going to Beijing, most people from China would warn me that Beijing is very hot in the summer. Coming from San Francisco where temperatures above 20C in the summer are rare I welcomed the heat. Beijing was definitely quite warm but for our first week there some rainy weather systems came through and cooled the city down somewhat so it was pleasant for me.
With the Olympic preparations, the area around my parents-in-law place was cleaned up quite a bit. There was still frantic construction, mending of sidewalks, redoing building facades, but I noticed that many small details such as the ubiquitous desolate empty lots had been covered with grass and flowers, the dividers on the wide streets had been planted with flowers, and things had generally been cleaned up.
The food in Beijing was very good which is generally one of the things to look forward to these days in China. 'Food' of course means Chinese food although this time I did try some Indian food in what I had formerly dubbed "world's best food court" in Zhongguancuan. I enjoyed talking for a few moments with the guy who ran the food stall who was from India. In the higher end restaurants that we went to, the service was generally great. There are always many attendants to help you, the food comes out almost immediately after you order, and the decor is generally well done. Of course, these high end restaurants are still cheap by North American standards.
One of our side trips was to a Buddhist temple in the 'suburbs' of Beijing - Gui's description not mine. Quasi-countryside. The temple was interesting and peaceful compared to the hectic pace in Beijing. On the walk from the bus station (we took the city bus which goes quite far out) to the temple I noticed someone selling honey from their front gate. I approached this guy who invited us to look inside his courtyard and lo and behold he had perhaps 40 bee hives in the courtyard of his residence. Seems he was a bee farmer who happened to live, along with all his family, with the bees! I bought one jar for 35 yuan which is approximately $7 US. More expensive than the honey my dad buys by the pound directly from beekeepers back in Ashburn but cheaper than the special honeys that you can buy in San Francisco. By 'special' honey I mean honey that is demarcated by the flower it originates from and isn't processed as much as the 'clover' honey that you find in most grocery stores. This Chinese honey was from a particular tree and was very fragrant as far as honey goes. By the way, in case you haven't guessed it I'm a big honey fan (along with maple syrup).
On this trip we took public transit more than previous visits. Before, the ubiquitous red taxis were our primary mode of transportation. While cheap by North American standards the cab fares would still add up. This time, Gui wanted to take the subway and bus more often since they are pretty cheap and more convenient than before. The subway line was expanded and was about a 10 minute walk from the in-laws place. For 2 yuan or $0.30 you could go anywhere in the subway network! The great thing about the subway for foreigners is that (not only is it clean) there is a map and they use Pinyin (the Romanization of Chinese words) as labels. This means that I can read the subway stops plus since there's a map I can choose routes and which lines to transfer to. The bus is cheaper, 1 yuan, but these schedules are basically lists of stops written only in Chinese characters. There's no map to give one a bearing of where the bus goes, plus I can't read the list of stops. The bus also seems more tiring than the subway although both are often crowded. Also, taking a taxi doesn't necessarily get you to your destination faster. During rush hour, if don't need to go on a freeway the fastest mode is probably by bike. If you need to go further then the subway is the fastest method.
Lushan
Lushan is a mountain retreat and national park just south of the Yangzi river. Gui's dad had requested that we head there for his birthday celebration since he had memories of a good trip back in the 80s when he attended a conference there.
The relatively high elevation provides relief from the hot and humid summer weather that blankets Beijing and most of Eastern China. The climate is perfect - neither too hot nor too cold. There are a number of sights to see, mostly sheer cliffs, beautiful vistas, and paths through interesting landscape. Not as scenic as Huangshan or our next destination San Qing Shan but still interesting.
We decided to take a side trip during our week in Lushan. Actually, the older generation stayed behind in Lushan to enjoy the climate while the younger generation hired a van for a quick two day trip to San Qing Shan, a very scenic mountain park 5 hours drive away.
San Qing Shan
The drive to San Qing Shan was through the hot and muggy lowlands that follow the Yangzi river. Amazingly clean and modern and deserted, the freeway was an eery experience. At the rest stops on the way there were only a few truckers. Many of the buildings that looked like they were to house shops were empty. Very empty for China where you expect to see people everywhere.
We arrived in San Qing Shan in the evening, took the gondola, a new Austrian built model, to a high point on the mountain and then walked to the hotel perched at the top of a cliff on the mountain. Little did we know how bad a hotel this would turn out to be.
My nickname for the hotel is 'Hell Hotel'. Simply the worst accomodation I've ever been in. The rooms crawled with bugs, hot water was on for 1 hour per day, the ventilation was bad so the rooms were very humid resulting in mold growing on the sheets, the food was a ripoff and bad quality, and the slightest sound from the hallway echoed through your room. This noise problem was not a problem until a group showed up late in the evening with some rambunctious young boys who enjoyed banging doors, running up and down the halls, and generally making a racket.
The next day, we were glad to get out of there and begin enjoying the scenery. San Qing Shan's vistas, mountain peaks, trees, and everything is quite amazing. As beautiful as Huang Shan without the crowds. The path was carefully constructed as is common in many Chinese parks. A sidewalk in the sky had been built on the side of sheer cliffs so that you were halfway up a 500-1000 foot cliff.
One pleasant surprise was a Taoist temple in a very bucolic woodland that was perched on one of the larger plateaus. The temple and grounds had been laid out according to harmonious principles. The main temple had been restored and there were a few monks and nuns there and a collection plate for donations. There was a small, pretty lake.
After a tiring half day on the long trail around the mountain, with memories of 'Hell Hotel' fading, we headed back down to the van and made the long trip back to Lu Shan.
After another day in Lushan we made our way back to Beijing via overnight train again.
Back to Beijing on the train
The overnight trip was somewhat eventful. After saying goodbye to Gui and her sister who were going to go off by themselves to the tea country of Fujian, the rest of us boarded the train. John struggled under the weight of his oversize backpack that contained a load of items that we never used in Lushan. The two of us headed to the 'hard bed' section. These are rooms with no doors that have triple bunkbeds. The two of us couldn't get better tickets up front - there were only enough sleeper room tickets for the rest of the party. We talked with the attendant, a young woman, and managed to upgrade while on the train. I was placed in a room with 3 strangers, all Chinese. About 2 minutes after entering this sleeper room 2 of these fellow travelers left the room and soon after I heard raised voices. They were arguing with the attendant. Apparently they wouldn't tolerate a foreigner in their room. I hadn't experienced something like this in China before. After some bargaining, we traded people so that I was placed in a different room with a different set of more tolerant strangers.
In the Beijing train station on arrival, we quickly got separated in the zoo of people. Trains are the common method of long distance travel in China and the terminals are consequently absolutely packed. Air travel is more expensive and the air terminals are generally not packed and domestic flights don't seem full when I've taken them. Strangely though, the train ticket system is antiquated. You can only buy 1 way train tickets. After reaching your destination, if you want to return home, you need to go to the ticket office to buy your return ticket. In other words, you can't guarantee up front that you'll be able to return on a specific date. Perhaps travel agents can do that for you, but private individuals can't.
Back to the US
With only a day in Beijing, we hit the local roast duck restaurant, and otherwise relaxed. The two brother-in-laws, John and I, were scheduled to go back to the US to our jobs. Gui and Rong were still on the road having their own adventure in Fujian. They hadn't booked anything up front so had to determine their itinerary on the fly.
The flight back was tiring as usual - 12 hours of sitting there. There was a group of Chinese students at the grade 8 level who were doing a summer English camp in Oregon. They were scheduled to see various destinations in the US then go to Eugene, Oregon for an intensive English camp.
Overall, I was sad to have to return back to work. Visiting relatives, relaxing, and enjoying the warm, hot summer was a welcome relief from long hours spent looking at a computer screen and cool, autumn-like weather of San Francisco.
