From Behind the Red Curtain . . .

Smog City

Welcome to China! We arrived into Beijing West Train Station around 3:00 in the afternoon on July 27th. First priority: ATM. After taking a pedestrian bridge over the 12 lane boulevard that parallels the train station, we paused to snap a quick photo. Upon reviewing the picture, it struck home that we could barely see the station behind Megan, only 100 meters away. It looked like a dense fog blanketed the city . . . unfortunately, it was smog. However, a little pollution wasn’t going to get us down . . . we were determined to overcome the lung-wrenching air and see the best of the city.

The next morning, we walked over to Tiananmen Square, which is apparently the world’s largest square . . . According to Mao Zedong, the size of the square is supposed to represent the massive nature and uniting force of his communist party. To me, it represented the center of the Chinese tourist world. Holy cow . . . half of China was in the square, taking family photos, flying kites, eating popsicles. Since then, we’ve realized that it was more like 0.00000003168% of the population. The remainder of the 1.3 billion people are spread evenly between train stations, McDonalds, bus stations, KFCs, and every hotel we try to reserve a room at (and every hotel at which we try to reserve a room . . . Thank you Megan).

Moving on, that afternoon we did a nice walk along a section of the old city wall, built over 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty. The highlight of the walk was watching little kids swipe fruit and bolt from the local produce vendors . . . little devils.

Our second and third days in Beijing were spent searching for working internet, doing the last blog update, and applying for our India visas. The only notable event was on Monday when we thought we were well up number two creek without a paddle, finding ourselves short 100 yuan ($12) in line with our visa applications with about 2 minutes before the visa office closed (only open 2 1/2 hours a day, we waited in line for 2 hours outside to get in the application office). The consequence of not getting the forms in on Monday would have been to stay over the upcoming weekend, waiting for our approved visas to be issued the following Monday . . . not an option. 2 bonus days in Beijing were not high on our list. We’ve seen thousands of panhandlers this trip . . . at this point, it was my turn to beg. I took a 100 yuan note and aggressively pursued a loan from the other applicants in line. It was not looking good. After the first 7 or 8 people gave me the “I might as well be talking to a wall” look, a most generous man saved my bacon. He even refused to allow repayment of the loan, which I was in no way allowing. After getting the forms and money in, I acquired some cash and paid the Saint of Smog City back his 100 yuan.

On day 4, after a crap night of sleep, we awoke with plugged sinuses and sore throats. We got an early start, leaving the hotel around 7:00 am for the Dongzhimen bus station. We caught the 916 to Miyun, about 80 kilometers northeast of the city. From there, we hired a taxi to take us the remaining 65 kilometers to Jinshaling, the starting point of our 10 kilometer walk atop the Great Wall. This was a big day (we needed to rebound from the city air and frustrations of the last couple of days).

As children, the Great Wall was the first thing we learned about on this side of the world . . . expectations were sky high. Fortunately, the wall delivered. The hike was great, pretty amazing to think about the history underneath the hundreds of thousands of stones we passed over on our way to Simatai. The sunny skies and clear air provided unbelievable views of the surrounding area and the wall as it chased up and down the distant mountains.

The highlights of the remaining couple of days in Beijing include a visit to the Forbidden City, a self-guided bike trip of old Beijing which included a stop at Wal-Mart, and catching an acrobatics show.

The Forbidden City was okay, a little disappointing in fact. The bike trip was good. We pedaled through the ancient streets (hutongs) north of the Forbidden City, getting a glimpse of Peking life before the 20th century. I also integrated a stop-off at Wal-Mart into the bike trip, straying from the Lonely Planet tour route. The Wal-Mart visit was great. In fact, if I had to choose between visiting the Forbidden City and Wal-Mart, it would be a no-brainer. Does the Forbidden City have Every Day Low Prices? I don’t think so. Megan was also a big fan of Wal-Mart (she discovered that Magnum ice cream bars were on sale for 4 yuan, <$0.50, best price in Asia). Our last evening, we went to the Tianqiao Acrobatics Theater, which was superb . . . Megan informed me that the Chinese gymnastics teams are pretty tough in the Olympics, which made complete sense watching the show. I’m recommending that all my single male friends move to Beijing and marry female Chinese acrobats.

After a week in Beijing, we shared the following conclusions . . . the Beijing air sucks (picture Olympic athletes with oxygen masks), the Great Wall is an incredible thing to see, and McDonalds and Wal-Mart are universally adored.

Westward Ho!

Alright, we picked up our passports from the Indian Embassy on a Friday around 4:00 pm, caught a taxi to the train station, and boarded an overnight train for Pingyao. We shared a sleeper cabin with a friendly Chinese family, who spoke at appropriate volumes and didn’t abuse the word “doi” (which I found out means okay, uh-huh, yeah, etc.). One of the little girls spoke pretty good English. When I complimented her, she told me she preferred to speak French, which she was also studying school. It surprised her (and me) when I was able to recall a bit of French from my high school days . . . or maybe she just humored me.

We got into Pingyao around 6:00 am, and headed towards Yamen Hostel, where we had reserved a double with bath from Beijing. After checking in, we crashed for a couple of hours. That afternoon, we walked about the old town, which was the banking center of China for a good chunk of its early history (yet had no ATMs). The picturesque place reminded us of Hoi An, Vietnam (minus the tailors) . . . very quaint, touristy, welcoming. We strolled around, tried local foods, and played tourist. That evening, we ran into our friend JingJing (a local from Xi’An, works for an American preparing a new hostel for grand opening), who we met on our way to the hostel that morning, and enjoyed a couple of drinks before calling it an early night. The next day, we caught the 9:00 mass at the local Catholic Church, did a walk around the city wall, then headed back to the hostel for some R&R. Back at the hostel, we met a couple friendly guys, Mark (Australian) and Zac (Hawaiin) who recommended we check out the Sheun Ling Temple a short ways outside town. We took the suggestion, borrowed their bikes, and did the 30 minute ride out to the temple. The temple was so-so. Afterwards, we got an ice cream, then did the ride back into town. That evening, we went out with a big group from the hostel. A couple of the locals took us to eat at one of their favorite street vendors . . . digestive Russian roulette (fortunately, no problems occurred). Afterwards, the whole gang headed to a bar for a fun evening, which included a female British stripper running around the table in her underwear among other things. We also learned how to play a drinking game call “Birdwatching Game”, unrelated to the British stripper.

The next day we caught a bus to Xi”An (home of the Terra-Cota Warriors).

Quick Stop in Xi’An

We got into Xi’An around 6:30 pm, headed to the train station to buy tickets to Kunming (next destination), found out all sleeper tickets had been booked 10 days out, grabbed a quick bite, then made our way to the Xiang Zi Men hostel. The next day, Megan, Mark (Aussie from Pingyao), and I caught a bus out to the site of the Terra-Cota Warriors. Around 2000 years ago, a true badass (Emperor Qin) united all the various kingdoms spread out over modern day China, which was kind of a big accomplishment, so they say. He was a bit paranoid. So he ordered up a couple things: 1) construction of the Great Wall and 2) construction of a massive tomb with thousands of warriors to protect him in death. The tomb is actually 3 gigantic chambers, with the largest holding over 6,000 terra-cota warriors for the emperor’s post-mortem protection. You’ll have to check out the pictures.

Megan just reminded me . . . a cool fact about the terra-cota warriors is that they weren’t discovered until 1974 when a peasant, digging a well, broke through to one of the open tomb chambers. Today, the site is still in the process of excavation with approximately 30% still undercover. In spite of my encyclopedic knowledge of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, I will admit that I still don’t know what terra-cota means.

That evening, we met up again with JingJing, who had arrived back in Xi’An that morning, along with several other travelers we met in Pingyao. JingJing took us all out to her favorite restaurant for a delicious Chinese meal.

Time for a Break

The next afternoon, we caught a flight to Kunming. We arrived in the city around 9:00, checked out a couple of places before settling on the Camellia Hotel. While Megan was getting things settled in the room, I went down to check us in. When it came time to pay, they demanded a higher price than earlier agreed upon. I wasn’t having it. I headed back up to the room. We grabbed our things and left. This turned out to be a really bad decision on my part for a couple of reasons. Reason 1: Megan informed me that she didn’t think the lady had agreed to my understood rate. There is still debate over this point. Reason 2: The far more damning issue with our walkout was the fact that everything else seemed to be booked up. There is no debate over this point. After hiking all over the city, we finally found a hostel around 11:30 with a couple of dorm beds available . . . not the most desirable situation. On top of it all, Megan jacked her shin up on a steel tube protruding from the sidewalk. The tears were flowing . . . tough evening with zero chance of recovery for the Robmeister. Eventually, we both made our way to bed (in separate dorms), agreeing to meet up in the restaurant the next morning.

I didn’t sleep too well. I rolled out of bed the next morning around 6:30, grabbed some Mickey D’s coffee, and began my search for a really comfortable hotel room where we could rest, relax, and decongest (we had finally traveled far enough west to get out of the bad pollution). I found us an apartment hotel room in the city center and headed back to the hostel. It was around 7:30 at this time and Megan was nowhere to be seen, still sleeping away. I grabbed our dirty laundry and headed for the hostel laundry room, where I completed the first of two loads before Megan awoke. I told her of my valiant husbandly deeds, which successfully extracted me from the dog house. We sat down for a bit of breakfast while the second load finished up, then headed to the hotel to check in. We spent the next 48 hours doing nothing. We watched DVDs nonstop (on the DVD player that I happened to buy in Beijing at you know where); ate PB&Js for lunch, takeout for dinner, and chocolate ice cream and coke floats for dessert; and took obscenely long hot showers. It was great. We checked out of the hotel yesterday feeling like champions . . . heads clear and sinuses open.

Himalayas . . . Here we come!

Last night, we caught a night bus to Lijiang. We both slept well and arrived in Lijiang shortly after 7:00. We’re going to tool around here a couple of days before heading to Zhongdian to meet up with a couple of people and investigate hiring a jeep for the 1,200 kilometer journey to Lhasa, Tibet.

I’m guessing that our next blog update will take place in Lhasa, Tibet . . . “The Rooftop of the World” . . . or maybe India at current publishing frequency.

Alright, all done for now.