What else is going on in Beijing ?

So what else has been going on here in China's capital... Well, I've been taking it easy recently, studying some Chinese, reading and generally just recuperating and contemplating, getting ready to switch back into travel mode and head off to some new and exciting places... or maybe get a job... or maybe something else. Meanwhile I popped into the Imperial Palace better known as the "Forbidden City", visited the Dongyue Temple and revisited the Sanlitun area and the Workers (Gongti) Stadium where I stayed in 2002, to see what had changed around the area. This was quite sad in some ways. While the stadium is being redeveloped ready for the Olympics, across the road where used to stand some nice cafes where I ate a few times, there now stands a building site.. Further into the old and full of character Sanlitun South area which used to be a maze of winding streets, full of local traders with little stalls or shops, kids running around, many homes and some foreign oriented cafes and bars, there now stands just piles of rubble for hundreds of metres around, the cafes I used to visit for a beer in the evening, the homes of the previous residents, all long gone.

Last time in Beijing I met a Norwegian called Torborg with whom I saw many of the sites. Something that amused us was when she spotted a toilet in the Forbidden City with a star rating, jut like you would have on a hotel, we had never seen this before and found it funny. I saw it again on my recent visit, the Forbidden City toilet had a 4* rating.

I also went along to another city temple called Dongyue. With spring festival holiday period now over, it was nice and quiet until a large tour bus of Chinese tourists arrived, but I managed to stay ahead of them and enjoy the peaceful surroundings in relative quiet. There were thousands and thousands of red new year cards, whose proper name I do not know, hanging around every railing and some stands around the grounds. This and a few other decorations made this a very colourful temple. I noticed though the toilet there had only a poor 1* rating, they must do something about that !!


Left: Red Chinese New Year decorations hanging at Dongyue temple.
Centre: Forbidden City's **** toilet.
Right: Dongyue Temple still have some work to do on their toilet, just one * rating.

Crossing Tiananmen Square, you can be sure of being approached by various people trying to sell you a kite, a Chairman Mao little red book of quotations (no other colours available ;-)), a Chinese flag, a map of Beijing, their services as a tour guide to the Great Wall/Forbidden City or maybe they just want to speak English, some unfortunately also want to take you to an 'art gallery' or have a chat over a 'cup of tea' with you, which are scams intended to relieve you of the loads of money they believe all foreigners have in abundance. Each day I walk past the square you can see the clock outside the Chinese National Museum showing how long until the start of the Beijing Olympics, now just around 500 days away.


Left: Something that hasn't changed, Mao Zedong still watches over the gateway to the Forbidden City.
Centre: On Tiananmen Square, everyone tries to sell "Mao's little red book" of quotations.
Right: More red New Year card/decorations at Dongyue temple.

Finally on my wanderings I found just off the main shopping street a newish tourist street,selling typical Chinese souvenirs. Often on my travels, I have mocked souvenirs available in various places; bizarre Soviet items such as cosmonaut's helmets in Kiev, Bush/Blair/Hussein matryoshkas (Russian nesting dolls) in Moscow, freaky masks in Transylvania, but here it's different. There are some oddities; I wonder why they sell Russian matryoshkas, CCCP (USSR) slogan t-shirts and Saddam Hussein playing cards (which some guy shoves in my face every time I walk past his stall), but there are many attractive and interesting items. Silks and traditional Chinese clothing which are really nice, if you like tea, there are all sorts of tea pots and tea-cups available, cuddly Beijing 2008 Olympic pandas, beautifully painted snuff bottles, jade carvings, Chinese scroll paintings, calligraphy and other art, decorative chopsticks and jewellery all of which are quite appealing even if sometimes of dubious quality. If I had space in my rucksack I could easily have bought a load of things.


Left: Here I am in the first main courtyard of the Forbidden City.
Centre: The Hall of Supreme Harmony, is not as attractive as last time I visited !
Right: Cute pandas in the markets.

I've been tagged

Right, a game of tag is being played electronically and I have been tagged by Tina who I met in Sarajevo last year. <Read Tina's blog here.> Now I'm suppose to tell you 5 things you didn't already know about me:

1. My first job was as a ride operator at Blackpool Pleasure Beach...

2. Over the last year, I told everyone who asked that I was travelling alone. Well, this was in fact a big lie, as all this time I have actually had a travel partner, DJ Barnee. DJ was a gift from my dearest friends Nadja & Rebecca in Amsterdam.. Here he is on the Great Wall at JiaoShan:

3. I used to really, really, really like Kylie ! (This one's an Ozzie special for you Tina ;-))

4. I really, really, really don't like snakes.

5. My favourite dish in the world has to be sausages and mash with onion gravy and maybe some baked beans.

What's going on in Beijing now.

Over the last 2 weeks the NPC (National People's Congress) and the CPPCC (Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) have been taking place in the Great Hall of The People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, not far from where I am staying. Each morning and evening a cavalcade of cars and buses arrives and departs the square carrying the thousands of representatives from around the country who have come to discuss the shaping of China's future.

I was interested to know how China's leaders are trying to build China's future, how they plan to generate a "harmonious society" in a land of various ethnic groups with differing backgrounds, cultures, languages, standards of living, economies, education and much much more besides.
So I watched some on TV and for the first few days, it was quite interesting following proceedings, but after two or three days it became simply a repetitive sequence of reports and interviews, packed full of regurgitated buzzwords, that had recently been introduced by Chinese political leaders, in their communications regarding the future development of China.

It reminded me of a game we used to play in meetings when I was in my first IT job at IBM. We soon discovered that any meetings arranged with managers or business/marketing departments were always packed with a heap of IT and business buzzwords. So someone found a game called "Buzzword Bingo" which was a bingo card filled with management/marketing buzzwords instead of numbers. I think it's well I know these days and a game card looked something like this..




Watching CCTV for a day or two during the NPC/CPPCC sessions reminded me of this game and if you replace the words with those listed below you can make your own Chinese political Buzzword Bingo ! ;-)

"harmonious society",
"new socialist countryside",
"one country two systems" (this is an old favourite),
"private property rights",
"level playing field",
"peaceful reunification",
"macroeconomic controls",
"agricultural modernisation",
"five year plan",
"socialist market economy",
"social harmony",
"economic and social development",
"opposition to secessionist activities",
"equal education oppurtunities",
"independent innovation".

Back in Beijing for Spring Festival

I came back to Beijing again as it was necessary before heading to my next intended destination Datong.. But after a couple of weeks I am still in Beijing. It was Spring festival so I had a look around a little more of the city, visited a temple fayre, which was a busy, bustling, noisy affair, with lots of stalls selling Buddhist souvenirs and loads of other typical Chinese things, as well as loads of types of foods from all over China. The most noticeable items were some round whirly wind wheels (no idea what they should be called) that make lots of noise when the wind blows and it was a very windy day! I also bought a diabolo which I still can't master.


Left: Diabolo master demonstrates.
Centre: A local boy holds one of those colourful, noisy wind wheels.
Right: This lady played me a song on this odd-shaped instrument.

The Baiyun (White Cloud) Temple is the home of the Chinese Taoist Association in Beijing. On this day it was incredibly busy due to it still being holiday time, thousands of people heaving their way through the grounds from hall to hall. I spotted some interesting New Year activities there too; On the way in, everyone had to stroke a carving of a monkey on the archway to the entrance, it brings good luck. Inside there were tables full of old coins; people purchased bags of them and then threw them at a large hanging coin which hung from a archway over a kind of well. Everyone furiously joined in attempting to strike the coin as many times and as hard as possible. Other activitied involved people took their turns to walk three times around a Taoist symbol (the famous balck and white ying and yang symbol) on the floor near the cente of the temple grounds while a long queue formed for people to touch the carvings of a particular vase situated in the grounds


Left: Chucking coins at the lucky coin hanging below.
Right: Locals worship in front of a burning incense burner.

Five years ago on my first visit to Beijing, I visited the most important sites, but I decided to head back to the Temple of Heaven (TianTan) which is one of the best sites in Beijing and also later re-visited the Forbidden City, just so I can include a photo or two of these places here. An entry on Beijing would seem odd without mentioning either of these two most famous sites.
Construction of Tiantan, Temple of Heaven was finished in in 1420 and its architecture is based on elaborate symbolism and numerology. It's original design of round buildings in square- shaped areas, were designed in accordance with ancient Chinese beliefs that imagine Heaven as round and the Earth as square. Well worth seeing again despite the hordes of Chinese tourists, due to its original design which offers some variety from other temples.

The Forbidden City however, is currently being renovated (in time for Beijing 2008 Olympics of course) and sadly the two main halls are both covered in scaffolding and tarpaulin and entirely closed to the public, which left me with a pretty unfulfilled feeling when I left the grounds. Signs outside do state that the Hall of Supreme Harmony is currently undergoing renovation, but do not mention that the second main hall is also closed. I'm glad I had been there before or I would have felt disappointed with the visit. But it is still an enormous, amazing site, full of interesting halls and pathways which meander on for ever through the museum's 720,000 square meters, which can keep you occupied for many hours. However, if you must see an Imperial Palace in China and can make it there, at this moment in time, I would recommend the one in Shenyang instead !!


Left: Coins lined up, waiting to be bought and chucked!
Centre: Typical temple doorway at TianTan (Temple of Heaven).
Right: The centrepiece 'Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests" at Tiantan.

So, I am still in Beijing, for two reasons. First, the weather suddenly became very cold in Northern China and my next destination, Datong was a stop-off in order to see some hanging Buddhist caves and a series of temples in the mountains called WuTai Shan. Seeing as some of these are at an elevation of 3000m and there has been lots of snow, it is very likely most, if not all of Wutai Shan, would be unreachable in the snow, so I chose to delay. Secondly, this coincided with my getting some infection in my mouth/cheek which was quite nasty and so after a visit to hospital, I decided it best to stay here until everything was clear. Now, despite being better and improved weather, I will still stay a few days more as in my time of rest I found more things I wanted to do/see while here. Then, I will definitely leave Beijing, to Datong or elsewhere.

Global Warming ? Or Just Global Moaning

Something that has for a long time bugged me is a recent trend for everyone to blame a nice warm sunny week as an effect of global warming. During any hot summer or warmer than average winter, news and newspapers produce sensationalist reports about how we are destroying our planet and how with the increasing temperatures and melting glaciers causing rising water levels, parts of the UK will be under water in 10 years. I don't deny that there is an issue, and a critical one too, but reliable sources report that average temperature changes within the lifetime of these people is still less than 1 degree. So I'm not convinced a warmer than average spell is nothing more than the normal cycle of weather variations that have occurred throughout the existence of our planet.

This subject came to my attention again during the last few weeks as China was experiencing a warmer than average winter and Chinese journalists were following the same path as their European counterparts harping on about global warming being the cause. Well I for one was quite happy because at the time I was in Dongbei, the North East and coldest part of China, which during my visit was no colder than around -15 degrees Celsius; usually they would expect temperatures of 10-15 degrees Celsius lower than this. So, was this an effect of Global Warming?

Well after a relatively warm January, last week, the Dongbei region received some severely bad weather, in Haerbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province, temperatures dropped by 25 degrees, In Shenyang, capital of Jilin province, snow fall brought the city, its transport, its schools, its people, everything, to a halt. In Dalian I saw tv footage of cars completely buried in snow, blizzards, strong winds blowing people off their feet and then carrying them along the icy ground (quite amusing to watch actually), unable to stop themselves until they hit something. The regions worst snowfall in over 50 years it was reported. These are places I visited in February, I was lucky to got out of the area just in time. So, what are the views of these reporters now, was this a side-effect of Global Warming ? They've gone quiet.

Finishing on a positive, rather than cynical note, the response of the Chinese to the heavy snowfall was, for example in Shenyang, to employ ten thousand people for the day, give them a shovel and clear the roads. In a day everything was reported as back to normal again. I had previously seen this in action in Haerbin; when I arrived, the streets were busy with people clearing up the previous day/night's snow into neat large piles out of the way of traffic and pedestrians so life could go on as normal quite quickly. Amazing what you can do with a large and willing population.

Chengde

Next stop, Chengde. Nearly skipped it as I had been feeling a bit "templed out", which I think is the appropriate phrase among Asian travellers' parlance. I found that every temple I went to see recently, whether it was Buddhist or Taoist, was just like every other one in China, no real variety in design, layout, artwork etc. except for Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) which is a little different (round instead of rectangular) and which I revisited as I remember it being fairly interesting last time. But when I went to the train station to ask about train tickets, I found there was one (just 2 in fact) available for next morning and tickets to Datong were not so easily available. So, despite a very early start, I decided to take it, as train tickets were still like rocking horse shit to get hold of at the time with Spring Festival traffic still in full flow.

Well, it turned out to be a good decision.. At last there was some variety in the temples, a breath of fresh air amongst the smog.

Chengde is home to the 'Eight Outer Temples' lying around Chengde. Originally, twelve were built but now only eight remain. Of the eight, one is closed to the public, but I managed to see seven, plus the imperial summer village, a summer retreat for emperors during the Qing dynasty which together filled most of a busy two days.

Left to Right: Pule Si, Anyuan Si, Puning Si.

Pule Si (Temple of Universal Happiness) is shaped rather like the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, with a round two-tiered roof, and is located on a hillside, in a remote spot that feels like the the middle of nowhere. Above which is the entrance to the area's park grounds, which seemed very difficult to get into, officially anyway. Numerous women outside kept trying to sell me second-hand tickets, and kept running after me, grabbing at me and shouting angrily when I refused to buy based on the fact the ticket was used, had no stub and were no cheaper than the official price anyway, I saw no point. But, when I reached the gate, the ticket man, took my money and had no ticket to give me anyway, he also pointed out the gates were closed and gave some signals which I did not understand. I eventually gave up, though it would have been quite easy to just walk through the trees into the park area, but by then I was fed up with the hassle.

Anyuan temple was closed, but I found a metal gate pulled to and latched by a metal bracket which I managed to unlatch and sneaked into the grounds at least to see the main building, but could not get inside.

Puning Si (Temple of Universal Peace), a Tibetan temple, which was a little varied from the Yonghe temple in Beijing, very colourful, prayer wheels, prayer flags, plus a temple whose outer and inner railings were completely covered in padlocks, the purchase and addition of one, is supposed to bring good luck. In the main hall is the huge 23m golden statue of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, with 42 arms and supposedly the largest wooden statue in the world.

Left: Outdoor Buddhas at Puyou Si.

Centre: Main building of Xumifushou temple.

Right: Putuozongshengmiao,the mini Potala Palace.

Puyou Si next door was strange, as you enter the grounds there are rows of buddhas all around, sitting outside and there were no halls. Whether it is always like this or is being reconstructed I don't know.

Xumifushou is a Mongolian style temple modelled on the Tashilunpo Monastery in Shigatse, Tibet, with large grounds, a colourful red building and some impressive dragons on top of the main hall. Here, once inside the main building area, my every act was closely scrutinised by a member of the staff. Photos of statues indoors were as usual banned, but I was surprised that when I tried to take a photo of a sign, just to note some details, my escort growled at me and almost took my camera away, amusing.

Putuozongshengmiao (Temple of Potaraka Doctrine) occupies 220,000 square metres and is by far the largest of all the temples and is based on the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Inside the main building you can get a bit lost wandering around the halls, pagodas and terraces, but there is quite a lot of interesting stuff on display as well as murals and of course the Tibetan and Chinese style decorations and some great views of the surrounding countryside from the roof terrace.

Shuxiang temple was also seemingly closed, but somebody spotted me and let me in a side wooden door, next to some buildings where he and some others clearly lived. After haggling over the price, I made it in for an acceptable charge and was shown around. This was home to a trio of Buddhas sitting on ancient beasts.

Left: Prayer wheels on the first level terrace of Putuozongshengmiao's main building.

Centre: A traditional Chinese New Year dance festival in street nearby to Puning Lu.

Right: Prayer flags at Putuozongshengmiao.

Dydd Gwyl Dewi

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi hapus i chi.

Shanhaiguan - The Other End of The Great Wall

Around three months ago, I was at the Western end of "The Great Wall" (长城) at Jiayuguan (嘉峪关), <Read about Jiayuguan here.> now I have reached the Eastern end of the wall at Shanhaiguan (山海关). The town of Shanhaiguan (meaning 'The Pass between the Mountain and the Sea') was built during the Ming dynasty to defend the Eastern end of the Great Wall from the barbarians to the North. The main site in the old city is The First Pass Under Heaven (第一关下天) is a fortress built into the city walls as an entry point to the 'Middle Kingdom' (中国, Zhongguo), the literal translation of the Chinese name for China.

The old city dates back to 1381 but is currently under a bit of renovation, in fact, to be fair, it's like a war zone. The main north-south road which according to my guide book had the only places to eat, bike rental shops and internet access, currently has but a handful of buildings still standing, the rest on both sides is almost all rubble and a couple of building shells. Strangely there does not appear to be anything going on at all !! So I have no idea how long it has been like this, though it is probable there are no signs of work due to Spring Festival holiday. So when something happens there I don't know, but from some of the large posters scattered around some temporary walling built on some of the demolished roadsides, the aim is to rebuild Shanhaiguan into a"World class tourist Site", by the dubious sounding processes seen on three separate posters, described as "Setup a age-old city", "Build Orient Legend of World" and "Deduct Ancient Culture, Describe New Legend" Whether setting up an "age-old city" or "building a legend" are ethically correct I am not sure.


Left: Me at one of the fortress towers of the "First Pass Under Heaven".
Centre: This is the "First Pass under Heaven".
Right: Is this the best "Bank Of China" building anywhere?

Anyway, the fortress is impressive, you can walk a few hundred metres in both directions along part of the walls and see the full extent of the fortress and it's grounds. At the far end of the wall is "Lao Long Tou" (Old Dragon's Head), another fort, which has been overly re-constructed into a bit of a theme park, but has the impressive sight of the end of The Wall, coming to its end a few metres into the sea. There is also a temple, dedicated to the sea god, also on a pier a few metres out into the China Sea.


Left: A toilet building, one of the few left standing in Shanhaiguan's old town main street.
Centre: "Lao Long Tou" (Old Dragon's Head), the Eastern end of The Great Wall.
Right: Like I had done earlier, a few people got stuck a while in this maze.

The highlight in the area though is undoubtedly JiaoShan (角山) a section of the Great Wall a few kilometres north of the old city. I walked there from town and found you could walk most of the way along a grass covered mound about 4 metres high, which is a part of the original wall. As you approach the Jiaoshan site you can see the reconstructed section of the wall climbing impressively up the mountain ahead. At the site the path is blocked so I jump down off the wall, head to the entrance, pay and off onto the newly stoned and pretty steep climb up the mountain. The steps and slopes are at time very steep and you need a good pair of legs with you. You can climb the reconstructed section for around half an hour and then it is (nowadays) blocked. But if you continue up the footpath towards the temple at the top, follow the signs that faintly say 'Great Wall', (it seems there has been an attempt to wipe it out as currently they seem to want to restrict people from continuing along this part of the wall), you reach a section further up that is in its original form, untouched, crumbling, damaged, but undoubtedly original. Along this section you can clamber a further 30 minutes or so to the top of the mountain from where you have great views of mountains, a lake and the continuation of the wall with passes and towers weaving their way down and up another steep ascent in the distance.

Overall this is a great place to visit the Great Wall. There is the reconstructed part which gives a good impression of how it must have been originally, the crumbly original part with damaged towers, grass and plants growing around, a taste of the real wall and at this time of year at least, it was very quiet, just a few people climbing their way up the paths and nobody getting in your way. There is also a lovely peaceful Qixian temple at the top of JiaoShan near to the cable car stations which was a nice place to sit and rest for a while, while locals came and gave their thanks and offerings to the Buddhist shrines. Finally, a bonus is the lovely clean fresh air environment in the mountains as proclaimed on one sign, "The best oxygen area in negative oxygen ion" !


Left: The reconstructed wall at JiaoShan. (I made it as far as the second peak to the right)
Centre: The original, un-restored part, looking down from near the top.
Right: Archway at "The First Pass Under Heaven" fortress.

This leads me to a final note about Shanhaiguan, that is the abundance of beautifully worded, rather Confucianist sayings on signs scattered around their sites. Here are a few samples:

"You are beautiful when you are smiling,
You are good when you are sight-seeing,
You are terrific when you are behaving yourself."

"Civilize your language,
refine your behaviour."

"Be a spreader of civility,
be a protector of morality."

"This is our home and everyone should cherish it."

"Please don't chuck stones down the mountain"

"Take away the beauty of your memory,
but leave behind the beauty of your heart."

"Safety is mankind's best friend" (I always thought it was supposed to be a dog!)

"Politeness is your elegance,
kindness is your happiness,
humility is your virtue"

"Leave nothing behind except your footprints,
take nothing away except your pictures"

"A small step backward of yours,
a giant step forward of our civilization"

Beijing - The Start of the Chinese New Year

Out of the freezing cold DongBei (North East) of China and into Beijing for a couple of days. I saw the important sites of Beijing on my previous visit here a few years ago and did not plan to stay long, but a glance through the guide book has revealed a few places I would like to see, places that I did not visit before and some areas that will have changed from last time. It has also tempted me to possibly re-visit some of the more well know places I have seen before. So off I go.....

First visit was to the Yonghe Gong Tibetan Lama Temple. Taking the wrong direction out of the station I ended up in Ditan park, which was as good as closed, because it was being set up with all kind of stalls ready for Chinese New Year's Day and Spring Festival. So, I retraced my steps and headed the opposite direction to the temple. Quite a grand, colourful affair, this temple was built in the late seventeenth century and unlike many is still in it's original form having escaped damage during the cultural revolution, thanks to its status as a national monument and having been closed for thirty years during this time. There are five main halls in the usual Buddhist Temple layout, first there is a large gate, protected by warriors, in the first courtyard a spirit wall, to keep away evil spirits (they cannot turn around corners), followed by each of the halls ordered by importance, the most significant temple halls are at the rear of the complex, furthest from the entrance just in case any evil should enter the grounds. In one of the temples I was lucky enough to find a Buddhist ceremony of some kind going on, exactly what I don't know, but many monks were seated around the large bronze statue of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Yellow Hat Sect of Buddhism, slowly passing around some object(s) from one to another while all the time prayer chants continued unabated. The highlight here is in the last temple, a 26m wooden statue of the Maitreya (future buddha) carved out of one solid sandalwood tree. Although not as high/long as two buddhas I saw some time back in Magao caves, Dunhuang, it was still an imposing sight that sadly, as is usual, you are not allowed to photograph.

Left: Yonghe Temple Hall.

Centre: Incense Burning in front of the halls

Right: Houhai Lake

Next, onto the nearby Confucius Temple, obviously a Confucian Temple this one. This unfortunately is currently under renovation and not such a pretty sight at the moment with scaffolding and wooden boards covering much of the buildings. One notable variation from other temples here is the presence of a number of stone tablets (steles) which celebrate the names of those who studied and succeeded in their examinations here. In the grounds a large pavillion in the centre of a small (frozen) pond, among ancient, enveloping trees soon helps you to forget you are in a busy city of 13 million people

Next day was a "park day". Beihai park, with large lakes, a 'round city' within which is a hall containing a white jade buddha carved from one large and perfect piece of white jade and on the central island a series of buildings on the hillside crowned by a giant white dagoba.

Left: 'Round City' in Beihai Park

Centre: North East corner of The Forbidden City and moat.

Right: Forbidden City's first gateway.

A little way to the East is Jingshan Park, this contains a man-made mound created from the digging of the moat around the Forbidden city which the mound overlooks. The park highlight is therefore the climb to the top of this mound for an interesting view of the Forbidden City, which in case you have forgotten, reminds you how vast the area is.

This day was also Chinese New Year's Eve, the evening and all night long was marked by a barrage of fireworks and fire crackers from all around the city. Fireworks are supposedly used to frighten away any evil spirits at the start of the new lunar year. This though is not just one night of fireworks, it's worth mentioning that this had been happening every night for the last week. A couple of nights ago in Dandong, I was startled by some of the loudest fire crackers ever outside my hotel. It will also continue for the next week!!

Left: Happy New Year Pigs, a common sight on shop fronts.

Centre: Buddha image from Beihai Park's temple.

Right: Beijing Railway station at night

Happy Chinese New Year

新年快乐
(Xin Nian Kuai Le)

╭︿︿︿╮
{/ o o \}
( (oo) )
︶︶︶

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone. This Chinese new year is the year of the pig and is also a special year known as the year of the 'Golden Pig', which occurs only every sixty years, so this year is particulalry auspicious for Chinese. A year which should bring prosperity and success.





Left: Fireworks in Shanhaiguan on Chines New Year's Day
Centre: Bang the gong, for good luck in new year. 108 times is an auspicious number apparently.
Right: Chinese New Year lantern

For any of you that are pigs, then here's is a quick personality summary.

The Pig is a fun and enlightening personality blessed with patience and
understanding. People born under the sign of the Pig enjoy life and all it has
to offer, including family and friends. They are honest and thoughtful and
expect the same of other people. Pigs can be perceived as oblivious or gullible
because they do care about others so much that they will do just about anything
for a friend in need.

Dandong and a trip to North Korea !

Next stop was Dandong (丹东). On the train from Shenyang, I chatted a little with my neighbours and someone asked me why I was going to Dandong, I couldn't answer this one really, other than because you could see North Korea from there, and I didn't want to say that to them in case it upset them, there was no justifiable reason.

I had only a hard seat unreserved ticket for the train so sat anywhere I found a place free, most were taken up by people lying gown not wanting to give up their 3 seats!! As I sat, a young girl to the side pointed at me and grabbed her fathers arm, saying 'weiguoren, weiguoren' which means 'foreigner', this is actually quite common, so no strange event for me now, but this time, as I sometimes do, I decided to fight back and with a big grin, pointed back at her and shouted 'Zhongguoren, Zhongguoren!' (Chinese). The lady next to me laughed and said something to me I didn't understand, but moments later, the young girl had swapped seats and was sitting with her (her mother) and opposite me, saying 'Hello' and 'What is your name?' as young Chinese kids tend to do. Well it ended up with me having to give a bit of an English lesson for her and she loved it, it helped pass the 5 hours by a little quicker anyway.

Arrived in Dandong, exit the station and there's yet another identical Mao statue pointing at somewhere in the distance. The station square is huge, open and strangely empty for China, barely any people around, except for a couple of hotel touts, one of which I use and find a pretty decent room with internet PC, TV, everything I need for 8 euros a night.

Next day I head down to the Yalu river, to get a glimpse at North Korea across the icy water, visually, it's pretty uninteresting but for some reason it has some kind of attraction, some kind of curiosity factor that can keep you watching the same scene over and over, purely because it is North Korea, probably the most secretive country in the world. Taxi drivers keep shouting at me here, there are abundant taxis and they clearly have no customers, so toot and shout whenever they pass you, some offered to take me to North Korea, I was tempted but I'm not sure how they would go about doing this and I guess I won't get far anyway without a visa, there must be a border control on the roads around here. Anyway I have some fun with the taxis, if they toot, I wave back at them, which causes them to immediately get excited at the prospect of a client and stop. Parked taxi drivers also have a habit of shouting verbally and typically Chinese, very loudly at me, I have no idea what they say, so I just shout something random back at them, very loudly too, they usually laugh ;)





Left: View of North Korea from Dandong.
Centre: North Korean boats in Sinuiju harbour.
Right: Another identical Mao statue! As in Kashgar and Shenyang.

Then I found out you can go to North Korean territory without any problems, you can't go onto land but you can take a boat trip into North Korean waters very close to the shore and watch closely what is going on there, so I immediately jumped on. Within metres of the North Korean land you can watch closely at what is going on in the North Korean town of Sinuiju, absolutely nothing !! One or two people sit around doing nothing, some men on a rusty old boat, walk around and that's it really, very quiet and boring !! All you can see is a close up of a heap of rusty old boats, some old factory like buildings, some cranes and surprisingly a big wheel ! A South Korean man on the boat told me that 15 years ago, Dandong, was not much different, now it has high buildings stretching out along the shoreline for as far as you can see, all kinds of bright lights shining, buildings everywhere, in contrast on the North Korean side there is almost nothing. Interestingly at night-time, you look across the river and you see absolutely nothing, there is no light whatsoever to be seen, no street lamps, no apparent lighting from buildings even, probably they have no electricity there, I don't know, but the difference between that and Chinese Dandong is overwhelming.


Left: Banknotes from N.Korea; 200 and 100 North Korean Zonks.
Centre: Pavillion on Dandong's seafron park area.
Right: Kite flying with a message if you can read Chinese.

I spent Valentine's Day in Dandong and kept having girls running after me with bunches of roses, great fun... I suppose though, they were trying to sell them, not give them to me, but...

"Polite Queueing" day in Beijing

11 February was "Polite Queueing Day" in Beijing. Last time I was in China, queueing was an alien concept to the Chinese, even impolite queueing had no place in Chinese society, but how it's changed. This time around I noticed right away, that in some places, something resembling queueing and waiting your turn has started to be introduced. In many, busy bus and train stations, it has been enforced by placement of metal barriers, which prevents most (but not all) attempts to join the queue at the front rather than at the back. But in other places, shops, boarding metro's, buses, ordering in cafes, it is down to the individual's attitude still, there are plenty of occasions when standing at the front of the counter is of no value when someone three rows behind you has a long arm and louder voice, or when a metro door is about to open and the 10 or so people who were standing quietly behind you, suddenly burst through pushing and shoving everyone out of the way to get to a seat first.. But it is nowhere near as bad as it used to be, the Chinese (and the Russians) are becoming more 'polite'.

It is something I observed also in Russia compared to last time, a huge change in people's attitudes which make trying to buy something like a train ticket a far less harassing event than it used to be.. I even had occasions in Russia where the people behind me tried to help clarify things when I clearly had problems understanding some Russian question.

While, I found the old style to be an amazing, fascinating, unbelievable, cultural idiosyncrasy of some Asian countries' cultures, (when not in the middle of it that is). When involved in the scrum it is one of the most frustrating experiences in the world. I'm all for this bit of change though, although it will be a shame to no longer be able to sit and watch the endless jostling for position that used to take place, all just for getting a train ticket, it ws such an entertaining sight !