Things I'll miss & things I won't miss

I’m back home now, and although I want to write something about my trip I’ve been up for over 36 hours and I can barely speak straight right now!! So below are a couple of lists I’ve been writing over the last three weeks - more when I’ve had some sleep!!

Things I won’t miss

The shower
Having to wear footwear everywhere (in room and bathroom) as the floor is so dirty
Listening to people bring up phlegm and spitting it on the floor (inside and outside)
Dodging puddles of phlegm in the street and particularly in the toilets (they squat at the toilet and then spit on the floor in front!)
People not bothering to lock, or even shut toilet doors (it’s bad enough having to hear the noises, I don’t want to see as well)
Lack of tea with milk (condensed milk is wrong)
Having to wash my clothes in the shower
Teenage girls making phone calls at 6am
The loud music in the bar next door
Football on the hostel tv
Sleeping in the top of a bunk bed
Having to remember to carry my own personal loo roll (even restaurant toilets don’t have it - actually most restaurants don’t have a toilet!)
Worrying about food poisoning every time I eat
Seeing the poverty many disabled people live in (and they are only the ones I see)
Dry climate - my skin is really in need of some tlc (and I brought cream!)
Having to eat out for every meal - it’s cheap but sometimes it would be nice to stay in!
Oh, and having somewhere private to sit and read or think - top bunks aren’t comfy for sitting

Things I’ll miss

Spending time with Rob (he’s great, reminds me of all the good things about Dad, we also have far more in common than I’d ever have imagined).
Being so carefree and laid back
Cheap public transport (20p subway, 4p bus)
Walking so far each day (I know I can do that at home but a walk without a purpose it seems wrong)
Cheap interesting food
Avoiding Christmas
Taking amazing photos (although I can do that at home and fully intend to)
Writing the blog
Free wifi in most cafés, bars and restaurants
Seeing interesting and thought provoking things (again something I can do at home!)
Cucumber crisps - I kid you not, they are yummy!!
Learning characters - its easier when you’re surrounded by them
The weather, although it’s cold at least there’s no rain!
Everything else!!

Leaving China

I guess I’ve left Beijing, I’m in the airport now having just gone through to the gate.

I bought Rob dinner in a Vietnamese/French restaurant just down from the hostel, and then we had a quick walk to the touristy area as I wanted a ‘I heart 北京’ t-shirt!

Then a quick subway ride and a half hour train ride to the central airport, where we had a last coffee together before I went through to the gates and security checks.

The guy at the X-Ray was being a bit over enthusiastic! He wanted to look at a small wooden spoon I’d bought, a mug and a tea pot - like I’m the only person in the world who’s ever left China with a teapot!!

Anyway, now I’m waiting for my flight, the only coffee shop open is Starfucks, so I’ve bought a bottle of juice and I have two satsumas! There’s nowhere else to get food. I’m resisting the temptation to eat the cucumber flavour crisps I’ve brought back for John!

Hutong Market

My last day, and I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do with it. I packed a couple of days ago, so I could be sure if get it all in!

Rob asked what my favourite thing has been and suggested I do it again. But I’ve loved everything, without exception there has not been a single minute I haven’t loved. So, what to do today?

Actually, I knew the answer. It had to be a day of wandering round the Hutongs near the hostel - if forced to choose the best thing about the trip it has to be the Hutongs and the life going on within them.

I don’t see another westerner at all, and no one has asked me not to take photos - which is good as there is so much to photograph!

The houses, the shops, the people, the produce, the animals ……

As well as the Hutongs I’ve ventured out over the outside of the second ring road - lots going on over there with street vendors and shops.

I found the most amazing market (again mainly used the SLR so the photos will have to wait). Everything you could possibly eat, and many I wouldn’t want to!

The Drum Tower Hostel

Today I leave the hostel for the last time, so I thought you’d like to see what it’s like?

It’s been a great place to be based for three weeks, cheap and practical. The location is perfect as it’s quite far into the city (just outside the second ring road), and on well connected subway lines (2 and 8).

The reception is comfy with sofas or a long table with a bench, and most importantly lots of sockets!

The bathrooms are basic and not clean at all, but mostly they function and the staff do attempt to keep them clean. There’s a choice of normal or squat toilets in the communal bathrooms (normal toilet in our room), and toilet paper goes in the bin, not down the pan (as with many countries, the plumbing couldn’t cope with it).

The communal bathrooms are better than the one in our room as they get a lot more use and are therefore cleaned daily.  The corridors are clean and tidy except when Acpo (the dog) decides to have a crap on the stairs!

In the first week my room was disgusting as three teenage girls just left food and rubbish everywhere, but since they left it’s been fine - just don’t look under the beds!?!

The beds are clean and comfy, I’ve not been bitten by anything so no fleas (believe me I’ve stayed in some flea pits - mainly in Morocco!).

I’ll certainly stay again, but would consider getting a private room (although the lack of lockable storage would bother me - I have a locker in my room).

National Museum

I felt that I really should visit the National Museum of China - the massive imposing building on the east of Tian’anmen Square, the guide book said good things since it reopened in 2011.

First the Ancient China exhibition in the basement - WOW! Some amazing pieces dating back to the Palaeolithic, really brought out the archaeologist in me!

Moving forward through time it’s not surprising that such a large country as China has such an amazing collection of artifacts - and unlike the British Museum, all of them are from the country (a massive amount of the collection of the British Museum is actually ‘plundered’ stuff from our colonial past - embarrassing in a way). I spent hours in there and photographed far too many items!

When I came out there was a student (an intern at the museum) needing westerners to fill in a questionnaire about the English language information in the exhibition - I gladly helped - she’s hoping to do her masters in museum studies in with UCL or Leicester.

Then I really had to visit the ‘Road of Rejuvenation’ exhibition - a big celebration and justification for the rise of communism and the development and legitimacy of the ruling party.

Totally fascinating, especially the early panels which tell how the English subjugated and repressed the Chinese in the Opium War (1840), and then how China saved itself to become a world leader today.

Each section had an intro panel in English, although other than brief descriptions of the artifacts most other text was only in Chinese (saved me a lot of reading!!), I thought John might be interested in reading these so took photos - luckily there weren’t many and they are relatively short.

I really enjoyed this museum, and in a way it’s made me want to revisit the British galleries of the British Museum - it’s been a few years since I’ve been (OH! But I’ve just remembered that I’m taking John to the Pitt Rivers Museum over Christmas - can’t wait!)

Washing up bowls and vegetables

I honestly think this model could work in the UK - with the correct health and safety checks, and clear process management - tonight’s restaurant could be brought to the UK as a novelty. It’s certainly very popular here.

When you arrive you’re handed a washing up bowl and a set of tongs. You then fill your bowl from the racks with things you want to eat - veg, noodles, meat, fish - load it all in your bowl and take the whole thing to the cash desk.

The bowl is weighed and you pay according to weight,(root veggies weigh more than green leaf!), saying if you want spicy or not, a number is clipped to the bowl, and you get a corresponding number and find a seat.

The bowls are piled up and sent into the kitchen for cooking.

When your number is called you pick up your dinner - a bowl of freshly cooked soup containing all your ingredients. You also grab cropsticks and a little bowl of spices or sauce to dip in.

Despite asking for non-spicy, ours were still a little too hot for my comfort but it all tasted fantastic.

The place was rammed, there were even people taking theirs away in carrier bags (not in a bowl, just the whole lot poured into a plastic carrier bag!!).

Hutong Market

My second to last day and the weather has warmed up again, and the wind eased off - so I decide on a little explore of the Hutong just south of Tiān’ānmén Square; down Dazhalan Jie.

I’d explored this area before but knew there’d be more to see if I went a hit further than the touristy areas - so I just kept walking until I was just amongst locals!

It was worth it, I found a market! Amazing piles of fruit and veg, and no one minded me taking photos at all, in fact one guy was happy to pose with his satsumas!!

Most of the photos are on my SLR, but I did take a few on my phone in the meat section due to low light (sorry Jill, Kate and Jen).

To be honest the meat section is actually the most interesting, mainly as nothing goes to waste (unlike in western society where we have a habit of feeding dead animals back to animals - or have we stopped that? I hope so).

Many of the cuts I really couldn’t identify.  The fish were interesting too - plastic tubs crammed full of live fish that customers choose by grabbing the ones they want (with they’re hands), and chucking them in a carrier bag!

The whole place was fascinating, although the strong sunlight and deep shadows made photography a challenge.

Food ratings

Cafés, bars and restaurants have Food Safety checks, and they display their ratings on a poster with one of three emoticon faces - red/sad/C, amber/neutral/B or green/happy/A - nice and simple, no need for words.

Many places aren’t displaying a poster, and these are often the ones that you really know not to eat in - or you have to weigh up yourself (when we were in Inner Mongolia, there wasn’t an option, it was eat or don’t!)

The strange thing is that I’ve seen lots of these posters, Rob has eaten food from a C rated place (in Hohhot), but I’ve only ever seen a green smiley face in one establishment - McDonalds!

No wonder many westerners only eat in McDonalds - and what a shame, they’re really missing out on some amazing food.

Direct Advertising

Not content with covering every available space with neon signs and handwritten posters, many shops like to actually announce their goods.

This could be with a tannoy or loudspeaker with the sound on a continuous loop; or in many cases a young girl with a mouth piece connected to a microphone - she screams out the wares of the shop.
It makes everything very noisy, but after a while I’m sure people must tune out - can you imagine high streets in the UK doing it? Marks and Spencer’s shouting out about their underwear, an John Lewis repeatedly telling us that they are ‘never knowingly undersold’!?

Quizzes with professional gamblers

It’s been a strange evening. First I met Rob for dinner (and transferring of photos to his laptop and my hard drive), then his friend Will invited us to a pub quiz.

But when we got there Will didn’t show up, but Jessica did. We joined forces with a professional gambler from East Sussex called Angus (you couldn’t make it up!!).

I stopped drinking after two beers, but Jessica bought more - I didn’t have more.

The subway stops quite early and I’m not doing taxis (I can’t afford it and I’ve heard far too many horror stories), so when I left them at 10pm we were in second place!! With the music round next I left Angus, Rob and Jessica to it - I hope they do us proud!! Our team name was ‘British bulldogs’, not a name I was comfortable with, but I think we were amongst a minority in the bar - the majority were American.

Medicine

Liz asked me about medicine and healthcare, and although I couldn’t find an answer - I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to a native Chinese person and ask - I can confirm that both traditional Chinese and modern pharmaceutical medicine are very much used together.

When Rob went to get me cold remedy he came back with both from the pharmacy - and I’ve used the Chinese medicine more!

Acupuncture is extensively available, as you’d expect. And gives rise to the strangest thing I’ve seen here (no, not the grown man in Disney pyjamas and slippers in the street getting his shopping!).

It was in the subway, and was like something out of Hellraiser - a woman had obviously just been to see an acupuncturist, and her face was covered in the tiny needles - she looked like a hedgehog!!
Must ask Alison what this could have been treating, whatever it was it looked serious!

Hotpot

Tonight we finally had hotpot for dinner, although I’m not sure how traditional it was!

The restaurant is very popular, everyone sits round at a bar with pans of boiling water (with spices if required) in front of them. You then get to order from a long list of ingredients - we each had a veg platter (which weirdly included fish sticks and fish balls), and we shared a plate of thinly sliced meat.

Using your chopsticks (you really need some skill with this one), you throw items in the hotpot to cook - fishing around and pulling them out when you feel they are cooked enough.

It’s weird but tasty, and surprisingly healthy - unless you have lots of the peanut and sesame paste (I limited the amount of this I had).

You get LOADS, which of course reduces down when you cook it, but still we didn’t eat it all. The whole lot cost us about £3 each (including a fruit juice each too)! Food is so cheap here.

Order - now!

When you go into a cafe or restaurant in China, expect to order immediately - the waiter will bring you a menu, and then stand expectantly waiting for your order - they expect you to know what you want almost before they give you the menu!

Which is fine if you just want a coffee, but not if you actually want to eat, or if you are having trouble deciphering the menu.

Jesus

One of the interesting aspects of being a westerner in China is the seeming assumption by the Chinese about my (and other westerners) religion.

There seems widespread assumption that all westerners are ‘followers of Jesus’ as a taxi driver put it to Rob.

When we got in the taxi to the 798 Art District, the driver discovered that Rob could speak Chinese and decided to lambast him about Jesus!

Most Chinese (I’m told), have no religion, but they are extremely superstitious. They will take particular note of omens, buildings have to be aligned in the most favourable way, and they will make offerings to gods and deities in order to affect a particular outcome.

Windy

Tonight is going to be interesting!! All day the weather has been changing, getting colder. There was a frost last night and this morning was very crisp.

Tonight it’s blowing a gale - the rafters of the hostel are rattling, and I think it’s only going to get worse.

Since Beijing is so dry it’s been a nightmare walking about, the wind has been whipping up mini dust storms in places - horrible if you get a gust to the face.

Thank heavens I’ve got earplugs - it’s going I be a wild night.

Dash for the line

There’s nothing like other people around you running to make you want to run too!!

In order to get back from where Rob lives (and we meet for food), and where I’m staying I have to get two subway lines, first line 13 for four stops, then line 2 for three stops - and it’s between these lines that the dash occurs.

When the train arrives into Xizhimen, which is actually a terminus for the line, people explode out if the carriage like rockets and literally throw themselves across the station.

I’ll admit that there’s a bit of a walk between the two lines, but honestly you’d think people were running for their lives!

The only explanation can be that they’ve got a bit of a distance to go on line 2, and that they need to cover it before the service closes.

Either way, the dashing is infectious!   Anyway, since I don’t know what time the last train is (it’s soon), I joined the dash!!

Gardening with plastic

Another great question from Jill, this time she’s asked if there’s any evidence of people gardening, specifically, growing food an anyway.  She does point out that it’s the wrong time of year, but still you’d be able to see evidence wouldn’t you?

Well there’s certainly no evidence, and I think there are a number of reasons;

1) climate - it’s very dry here, any plant would need to be able to survive on little water, or the gardener would spend a crazy amount of time watering. I’ve seen very little greenery at all, even the grass I’ve seen hasn’t really been grass as we’d call it, and it’s not been green!

2) space - people live in one of two places; in the Hutong which are so cramped that if there’s any space someone will have filled it with something - a bike, a pile of rubbish, a stall selling knick- knacks!, or highrise - no gardens there, and although I’ve occasionally seen window boxes they’ve actually either been empty (time of year?) or had plastic flowers in them - in fact many shops sell garish plastic peonies and carnations.

3) availability - in two senses. Firstly, they eat a lot of veg and I think they’d need to work hard to supply themselves with enough to feed themselves. Secondly, veg is cheap and comes in from the suburbs (I’m guessing that’s where, when we left Beijing on the train I saw fields and fields).

Of course if you wandered round London as a tourist you’d probably get the same impression - which would be wrong, Jill lives in London and has an allotment - so I could be totally wrong!

Islands

Well that’s just great, China has decided to try and grab some islands that the Japanese lay claim to - I know little about it so can’t really comment - but WHY do the Americans, again, feel the need to swoop in with their B52s as if they ruled the World?

That is the end of my slightly political rant - it’s hard to get info on this over here - needless to say there is no mention of it on the state run news channel (or not that I’ve seen when I’ve been in the hostel).

One last temple

My final temple was a great one to end on - totally different from all the others I’ve visited, and totally fascinating.  Dōngyuè Temple is a Taoist shrine in the Sānlitún part of Beijing, surrounded by shopping malls and supermarkets (there’s a Walmart!!).

The usual halls containing statues of Buddhas and others are there, along with giant inscribed stone tablets, all looked after by black robe monks, but it’s the 76 rooms round the edges that are of most interest.

Each is dedicated to a different department of the Taoist Pantheon and presided over by the God of Mount Tai - many departments are simple such as the Flying Birds Department, the Animal Department, and the Life and Death Department, but some are truly terrifying.

The Department of Wandering Ghosts (zombies?), Department for Implementing 15 Kinds of Violent Death, The Punishment Department……all contain statues depicting the department - all are terrifying and gruesome!

The Punishment Department has a man with his entrails in his hands, another having his long tongue cut out by a devil. Others contain zombie like people or horrible creatures.

I spent lots of time viewing them all, and of course took lots of photos!

Today has been so cold that I actually had to retreat to warmth after the temple, and have so far spent the whole afternoon in The Bookworm cafe (where Rob brought me on my first day) - when I face the cold wind again it will be to go back to the hostel.

I’m so glad I’ve done all I wanted to, I don’t think I could face being outside for any length of time (eg more than 5 minutes!) - these guys must be freezing!!

Cats and dogs

Jill has asked another question (thanks Jill), this time about animals - prompted by the photos of the hostel dog I think. What is the attitude towards cats and dogs as pets?

Well I’ve seen both, the hostel has one of each (photo of the cat to follow). But attitudes seems slightly different to each.

Dogs tend to get a lot of attention, many are smaller breeds (although I’ve seen bigger dogs about), and often of the fluffy variety! Many seem to be treated like children, with coats and are often carried. I saw a lady sat outside a cafe with her little ball of fluff in a coat on the seat next to her, after she’d taken a bite from her lunch she offered it to the dog (photo on its way - I couldn’t resist!!).

Cats are a different matter, they are certainly kept as pets; you see them in shops and temples. But also there are hundreds of strays living in the bushes and woodlands of the parks - generally they seem to stay hidden, but you only have to look and you’ll see them.

These too are ‘looked after’, I’ve seen people feeding them, and when I went for a wander in the woodland in Beihai park yesterday in all the bushes there were loads of polystyrene boxes with bowls of cat food around - the cats were all off basking in the sunlight!!

I’ve seen many people in parks stop and ‘talk’ to the cats - and one man ‘stroking’ a cat with a big handful of twigs - the cat was loving it!!