Well I'm finally feeling up to writing about my vacation :) While it was hard to come back to Japan/teaching after such an awesome break, I think I'm almost back into the routine: laundry is done, groceries put away and I've settled back to my position under the warm kotatsu.
We began planning our trip a few months ago, booked a "cheap" flight for the peak season, and set off on our journey on December 22nd. I went with 3 ALT friends: Justin from Freemont, CA - Sara from Evesham (outside Stratford), England - Ryan from San Mateo, CA.
We arrived to Beijing after a 3 hour flight from Osaka, and took a cab to our hostel. It was a clean room, 2 sets of bunk beds, hall bathrooms, overall pretty nice, and for only about $8 a night! We put our stuff down, freshened up and headed out on foot to Tiananamen Square. We walked for only about 10 minutes before we were standing inside the massive square that can hold 1,000,000 people! Regretably I didn't know much about the infmaous massacre that occured in Tiananamen Square in 1989, but being there made me want to learn more about the communist system and the "secrets" of life in China. The demonstrations of '89 were lead by students, intellectuals, and labor activists who believed the communist government was corrupt and too repressive. After weeks of protesting in the square, tanks were brought in and 300 people were killed (so says the Chinese govt.), however the Chinese Red Cross reports as many as 3,000 people died.
I don't know much about the recent history of China and in attempting to read about it realize actually how little I know :( So I won't be writing anything on communism/Mao Zedong here!What I do know is that the square was massive, with thousands of Chinese people from all over the county who were making their likely once in a life time pilgrammage to the capital city - walking around, paying their respects to their great leader Mao Zedong, and taking in the bustling city life.
Facts about China:
1. China's population exceeds 1.3 billion - 1/5th of the world's population. The most populous nation in the world.
2. There are several dialects spoken through the country, however 70% speak Mandarin Chinese. The other most common dialects are Shanghainese and Cantonese.
3. The People's Republic of China is officially secular or athiest - but it does allow personal religions or supervised religious organizations.Buddism and Taoism have dominated for 2 millenia.
4. China is the 4th largest country - 9.6 million km2.
Our first night in Beijing we went to eat the famous Peking Duck! In Chinese and Japanese the city of Beijing is called "Peking" (pronounced Pecking). Justin had been to Beijing before with his family and knew of a famous restaurant in the city for duck-so we set out to find it. Outside the restaurant were pictures of famous world leaders who had eaten there including Fidel Castro and George Bush - pretty cool! The restaurant is the oldest of its kind in Beijing and began in 1864. Despite my "vegetarianism" and all I'd heard about how delicious duck is, I had to try it! 'When in Rome...' It was really good, and we all enjoyed a nice leisurely dinner and lots of delicious Chinese tea (which tasted and is, SO much better than Japanese tea!) After dinner we were given a certificate with the number duck we were served, and then took pictures infront of the duck counter. To date the restaurant has served 115,285,012 ducks!! We walked home past a speed skating group practice in Tiananamen Square, the Olympic Countdown sign and soldiers marching in their heavy green coats and big black hats. We settled in kind of early because our driver was picking us up early to go hike on the Great Wall!!
We hired the same taxi driver that picked us up from the airport to drive us an hour outside of the city to the Great Wall. She would end up making more money driving us for the day than she would doing runs to/from the airport so she seemed happy to take us - besides it was cheap for us, but a lot of money for her. The spot on the Great Wall we were going to is called "Badaling" and is an hour away from the center of the city. While we were driving on the highway you can actually see the beginnings of the wall! We were all so excited to see such a famous site! I couldn't wait to see just how big it would actually be. Justin spoke to her in Mandarin (he speaks the language, which was SO helpful!) on the drive out and she recommended we take the cable car up to the top of the wall and walk from there. We paid about $5 to ride on the cable car up the mountain, exited and were in awe of the beautiful view. Despite being the "most touristy" spot to walk on the wall, it wasn't really crowded because it's winter, and tourists don't normally come to such a cold place in the middle of winter! We were so excited to be there so we decided to have a race up the incredibly steep steps-after which we realized we wouldn't be able to make it any farther if we kept running. Three groups of Chinese people asked to take pictures with me which was funny, because it hasn't happened that much in Japan. There weren't many foreigners on the wall (or in Beijing at all really) so I was stared at SO MUCH-so much more than in Japan. And to top everything off I was walking with Justin (who is Chinese)- that really threw them off ! I'm sure they were all thinking, what is that western girl doing with that chinese man? Little did they know he's actually an American (who happens to speak their language, too) - all very confusing for native Chinese people to understand. How someone who looks like them could live outside of China. But that's a whole 'nother blog :) We hiked past lots of vendors on the wall selling postcards, plaques where you could have your name carved in stone with the date you visited, camels that you could sit on and have your picture taken on top of, etc...anything to get the tourists to pay money! After a few hours of walking we had reached the "end" where our taxi driver was going to pick us up. We all bargained for the must-have "I Climbed the Great Wall" shirts and were on our way. Such a great day!!!
Great Wall Facts:
1. Largest man-made structure, stretching almost 4,000 miles-Gobi Desert to Korea!!
2. Building began as early as the 8th century B.C. but sections were linked together in 221 B.C. after the unification of the empire.
3. Built to keep intruders/foreigners out from the north (current day Mongolia).
4. Over one million workers: peasants, soliders, prisoners were involved in construction.
5. There are 10,000 watchtowers and it is wide enough so that ten soldiers or five horses can travel abreast.
6. Mao Zedong had a saying that translated to "You aren't a real man unless you have climbed the Great Wall." This saying was used to encourage the revolution to move North.
7. Despite conflicting opinions/reports, I have read that you cannot actually see the Great Wall from the moon, even under the most favorable conditions.
8. The Great Wall Marathon has been held annually since 1999. The course is obviously much tougher than traditional marathons and is complete with 3,700 steps.
Our last day in China was spent walking around the nicer shopping districts downtown, eating delicious Chinese dumplings at a local restaurant, and braving the traditional Chinese night markets where we sampled centipede and cicada!! I don't know what came over us, but they were GROSS!! They also sold starfish, shark, snake, all on a stick to eat!
We also visited the Forbidden City, at one time it was the home of 24 Chinese emperors from the 15th century to 1911. It is the largest palatial complex in the world. They believed it was the center of the universe so they literally never left the walled grounds! It was so big there were temples created for the emperor to take a rest while on his long walk to court! The walls surrounding the city are 32 feet high. A massive complex that occupies more than 200,000 acres and is has 800 buildings with 1,000 rooms, in addition to countless pavilions, courtyards, and gardens that make up the "city." It is called the Forbidden City because it was literally off limits to commoners for 500 years!
Another must-see in Beijing was Mao Zedong's embalmed (pickled) body! Apparently China didn't have the technology required to embalm people, so they consulted Vietnam for help in this process. The Vietnamese people learned everything they knew from the USSR, and inturn taught the Chinese. However, there is great speculation as to whether or not Mao's body is real due to the fact that people are ushered by him so quickly. Others believe it is real, but is decaying rapidly since the Mausoleum is only open for a few hours each day. He was the Chairman of the Chinese Communist party and ruled from 1945 until his death in 1976. Mao remains a controversial figure in China. While many Chinese adore him and attribute China's economic rise to him, others blame him for the deaths of millions of Chinese and liken him to Hitler and Stalin. We waited in line outside the mausoleum with hundreds of people for our turn to see him. Many Chinese people actually RENT bouquest of flowers to lay at his side to pay their respects. I just read that Mao actually wanted to be cremated! So much for granting his last requests! He looks really waxy and made up with make-up and stuff, but it was definitely creepy to see him laying in a glass box! We all thought it was quite funny that immediately after stepping outside the Mausoleum you are met by tons of vendors selling everything with Mao on it from watches, pens and coasters to paintings, calendars! What would Mao have thought about that?
Sorry for the length of this entry, I didn't realize how much there was to say about China! And that was only a 3 day visit to ONE city! Overall a fascinating city, I can't wait to go back for the Olympics in '08. If you still feel like reading there's only a little more, I promise!
Thoughts...
1. I didn't feel I was in a communist country even in the capital city. Despite the large number of police we saw posted around the city, the uniform high-rise complexes of apartments, and the gray polluted haze that seems to coat the city I felt as though it was similar to many other modern cities. We went to Outback, Starbucks, McDonalds, and went inside a very western seeming mall. I don't know how much information is still censored these days, but I do know bbc.com is restricted - and the one-child policy is still in effect.
2. Pollution was terrible. Due to the rapid industrial growth throughout the country, there are not laws/restrictions for factories to abide by. The World Health Organization surveyed air quality in cities all over the world in '99 and concluded that 7 of the 10 most polluted cities are in CHINA! How are the athletes going to compete in the Olympics with such poor air quality?? 410,000 Chinese people die as a result of pollution every year. Almost all of the countries rivers are polluted and half the population lacks access to clean water!
3.I realized how polite the Japanese people are and how concerned they are with what everyone else thinks compared to the Chinese. The Chinese seemed 1000 times more pushy, loud and plain rude. This is not an observation about the entire culture obviously, just what I felt from my short time there. I also didn't feel very well received being an American, just slight looks, sighs, groans when I would walk by, pay for something, etc...That was definitely interesting to experience.
4. Mandarin Chinese sounded SO different to me than Japanese. Not like I knew what either really sounded like before I got here, but I guess that just shows how accostomed I am to life in Japan. We all decided we like the sound of Japanese better, it sounds less harsh and seems easier to understand because more sounds are pronounced with the lips and tongue. It was really interesting listening to Justin speak to people throughout our time there - he did a great job navigating for us! It would've been extremely difficult had no one spoken Mandarin!
We flew out of Beijing on Christmas Eve, on China Air, and when we boarded and took off they were playing Christmas songs on the plane speakers.
Next blog will be about our next stop...Thailand!
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