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Here lies the chronicle of my three years of travels around the world, mostly in Asia. I've got lots of stories, lots of pictures, and hopefully some useful advice you can benefit from along the way. Enjoy.

Hutong hopping, Beijing

April 12th, 2007

Beijing’s size in area would have to make it one of the world’s largest, most sprawling cities. It’s set out in a grid of expanding loop road, the second of which used to be the old city wall but is now the main inner city transportation source with wide congested roads and the subway line 2 loop running underneath. Beyond ring road two the city feels inaccessible. Apartment high-rises and cranes are scattered among the old Chinese tenements, rundown or half demolished. Surrounding these neighborhoods is a web of freeways and mega highways that always have me searching for a taxi.

Today I came into the city center to explore. All of the ring roads make Beijing maps look like a dart board with the Forbidden City in the bull’s eye. I started here.

The area surrounding the F.C. has a surprisingly mellow feel to it. Two lane, tree-lined streets carry you past one story grey bricked homes with bright red doors.

I followed this up and past the front of the F.C. and its surrounding moat. Beijing is flat except for a hill just north of the F.C., the site of Jingshan park. Because the moat is so big they ended up with a lot of extra earth that now makes up this beautiful little hill, a great place to look down on the yellow tiled roofs that make up this huge city of royal decadence.
The area north of here is a maze of Hutongs, narrow alleyways for which Beijing is famous. You can wander these cozy little streets for days. In recent years these Hutongs have had a major facelift with new bricks, roofs, sewers and lavatories. This is the Beijing I’m warming up to.

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The Forbidden City, Beijing

April 12th, 2007

It took fourteen years to build the Forbidden City, ten years of prep and four years of actual construction. The emperor Zhu Di was the third of the Ming Dynasty and his vision for China and his legacy was grand. First he moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, started work on the Grand Canal, and set to improve the Great Wall fortifications north of the capital. He also sent out huge treasure fleets with hundreds of ships commanded by the towering eunuch Zheng He. When they set out their goal was to sail the world trading the huge quantities of silk, porcelain, and other fine treasure they brought, bringing the world into the Chinese tribute system. While it’s disputed how far the treasure fleets actually traveled, historians agree that they definitely reached the east coast of Africa. For an interesting theory about further Chinese travels and discoveries check out Gavin Menzies’ book 1421: The year China discovered the world. He’s a retired British Royal Navy submarine captain who retraces the supposed treasure fleet’s voyages. Admittedly, he is more detective than historian but the book is wonderfully entertaining non-fiction.

Regardless of where and how far the treasure fleets traveled, when they returned they were expecting to receive glory and riches. They did not. A year after the Forbidden City was completed in 1420 a lightning storm sparked a fire and it burnt to the ground. To this day 308 water vessels dot the city grounds, a memory of the past fire phobia.

From this time the reign of Zhu Di came to a sputtering end. He became convinced that the gods were punishing him for taking on too much. The event forever altered China’s and probably the world’s history, beginning a long period of international isolationism. The treasure fleets returned to a closed China and slowly rotted into the harbors with many records of their journey being destroyed in the aftermath of Zhu Di’s downfall.The city was rebuilt and is structurally largely the same as the original, occupying an area of one million square meters and containing 8,765 rooms. Running down the exact center is a raised stone walkway reserved for royalty. Only the emperor could walk above the others.
We hired a university student guide working for tips. The immensity of the place can make it all start to look like a maze of red and yellow. Our guide “Jerry” put it all in perspective with his vivid stories of the daily tribulations of royal life.The ceremonial aspects of the emperor’s schedule seem exhausting. We went from room to room, hall to hall, while Jerry explained: “This is where the emperor rested, here he changed clothes, here he celebrated his birthday, and here he rested again. Being the emperor sounds boring to me.

The Forbidden City tour ends in the garden where once again rocks are the centerpieces. The most impressive is the “Hill of Accumulated Elegance, a huge stack of rocks originally held together with a mortar recipe containing glutinous rice, honey and egg whites.
Staying consistent with the poetic Chinese translations, even the do not climb signs manage to stir the imagination:

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Tiananmen Square, Beijing

April 12th, 2007

The world will always view Tiananmen Square as a violent blow to the democratic hopes of China’s young people. When you scratch the surface of this event you’ll find that the communists won not only the battle of June 4, 1989 but have continued to win the ideological battles that have sprouted as the economy has boomed. While continuing to promote free market ideals they refuse to give in to the idea of democracy.

The Tiananmen Square incident has been successfully cleansed from the history books with even the infamous “tank man” photograph unrecognizable to China’s younger generations. For a great documentary on this subject check out PBS Frontline’s “The Tank Man,” viewable online (but not in China).

In today’s Tiananmen it’s still hard to ignore the autocratic feel of the place. Cameras are everywhere as well as military guard marching in perfect 108 step/minute strides. At sunrise and sunset crowds amass at the north end of the square to watch the goose stepping soldiers raise and lower the Chinese flag. About 20 minutes after the evening ceremony the square is cleared of all people and lies empty at night. No street performers here.
In the center of the square is the towering Monument of the People’s Heroes behind which sits Chairman Mao’s mausoleum for those who like to go see pickled dead bodies of controversial leaders. It’s currently closed for renovation as is the National Museum to the east, making a big boring square just a bit more dull.

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No Visa for You!

April 12th, 2007

It’s good that Beijing has grown on me as it has because it looks like I’ll need to spend a lot of time here securing visas for onward travel in Central Asia.  I spent 3 hours last Wednesday in line at the Kyrgyzstan embassy, a random door in an office building, only to be told at 6:30 “no more visas today, come back Friday.”  On Friday morning I had a go at the Uzbekistan visa and despite all my research that claims otherwise, apparently U.S. citizens need a letter of invitation.  So I’ve applied for the Kyrgyzstan visa and will be here another week.

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Laowai on a bike, Beijing

April 12th, 2007

One of the essential Beijing experiences is renting a bike and seeing the city as most residents have in the past 100 years until the recent shift to cars. What could be more fun that putting your life in the hands of 15 million Chinese people all on a bee-line to their destination with little regard for what’s in their way?

Beijing is actually quite nice for cyclists, with huge bike lanes the size of car lanes on the main streets and the mellow Hutongs in between. The only sketchy parts are the intersections where might makes right and buses seem to do whatever they want.

Me and my trusty ’50s era bicycle had a great 6 hour journey through the streets of central Beijing, shocking the masses with my goofy grin. Laowai means foreigner, and the main look on the faces of those I passed was, “who the fuck gave that laowai a bike?” I’m starting to empathize more with loogie hocking culture of China because after a day riding through the haze I was hocking my own and my hair felt like a dust mop.

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The Wall Less Traveled

April 12th, 2007

The restored sections of the Great Wall around Beijing have become a tourist haven with a Disneylike feel. Cable cars, toboggan slides, and hockers galore don’t add up to a very personal wall experience. If you’re looking for that perfect shot of a lonely wall snaking off into the distance, good luck. You won’t find this shot at the main wall area of Badaling or any of the other main restored sections.

The Leo Hostel where I’m staying offers an amazing alternative to the crowds. Their secret wall tour is a bargain at 180RMB ($22) and includes transportation and a delicious Chinese lunch in a tiny rural village just below the mountain on which the wall is perched.

The section here is unrestored and in various stages of disrepair. We followed our old guide, “Mr. Smiley”, for about 20 minutes up a small trail to the wall.

The 12 of us then had the late morning and early afternoon to stroll along the crumbling remains of this amazing section.
The thought I couldn’t shake as I walked along was the persistence of China’s enemies. Those Mongols and Manchurians must have been some badass dudes because the mountains to the north of the wall look like a daunting enough deterrence for invading armies in their own right. It’s just an awful lot of trouble to go through, but I’m neither emperor nor general.
We walked from ridge to ridge for 3-4 kilometers between tower ruins until we caught the trail down for lunch. This was the wall experience I had hoped to find. It felt like it was mine.

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All that is solid melts into air

April 13th, 2007

“To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world–and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are.”                                                                                    –Marshall Berman

China is a construction site.  It’s not just Beijing; all cities are full of cranes, blanketed in scaffolding, and everywhere is the smell of fresh paint.  I’ve been hostel hopping around Beijing the past few weeks to get a feel for the different areas of town.  I spent five days an hour outside the city with my buddy Thommo, his folks, and new bride.  They live in a huge set of apartment blocks that will soon be surrounded by the next generation of high-rises.  Everyday I walked down a narrow dirt alley to the shiny new train station past old brick shanties that will probably be gone before year’s end.  The cranes are moving in fast.

I moved to Leo Hostel next, a nice little place on one of the larger, more touristy hutongs south of Tiananmen.  This area is seeing a massive transformation also.  Until recently this street, Qianmen Dajie, was one of Beijing’s main shopping areas known as Dazhalan, but is now completely under wraps. 

 

The project is called “Dashilar: Legend Street Revived 2006.”  It’s obviously behind schedule and from what I can gather from the censored Chinese press, construction has been halted on more than one occasion since 2004.  The World Heritage Committee is particularly concerned with the massive construction efforts going on around China’s top sites like the Forbidden City, Ming Tombs, and Suzhou Gardens, among others.  Around Dazhalan are huge areas of demolished hutongs and others in a state of uncertainty.  These half demolished areas still bustle with people so someone must still live in some of these old homes. 

 

I’ve been talking to “Robert”, one of the staff members at Leo Hostel about the change the area is seeing.  Generally, the younger people want the modern conveniences that the new construction brings: sewers, public lavatories, and better transportation infrastructure.  The older folks aren’t as keen to trade in the lifestyle they’ve always known, the vibrant street culture of hutong living, and the government has faced many challenges evicting them.  Who can blame them for wanting to stay in what has always been home?  

My next hostel destination is the Red Lantern House, a new place nestled in a beautifully restored Chinese courtyard.  It’s located in the north part of central Beijing in the Xicheng district, an area with a markedly different feel to it.  The hutongs and shops here have recently undergone renovation or are currently being remodeled, but the work is being done by the residents themselves.  Not long after daybreak the saws and hammers start and until sundown they don’t stop.  Hutongs are littered with stacks of bricks and piles of rubble.  On the main street Xinjiekou Nandajie literally 50% of the businesses have scaffolding out front.  “Scott” is a long-haired 19-year-old who works at the Red Lantern but tends to spend most of his time hanging out with in the strip of guitar and music shops outside the hostel.  I ask him who is paying for all of these improvements.  He turns to the shop owner and shoots back the answer I was expecting.

“The government!  We will make Beijing so beautiful for the Olympic Games.  China is very rich!” 

I like this area’s feel and the fact that money is being put in the hands of the people for them to choose how improvements will unfold.  The newly remodeled hutongs still bustle with butchers, fruit stands, and bakeries.  The lifestyle of Beijing has been retained without the demolition ball.  Every day I go to a huge market I stumbled upon wandering the hutongs and stock up on fruit, baked goods and a soy drink I’ve taken a liking to. 

 

It’s been amazing seeing the different faces of the capital and the various ways in which its rapid change is taking place.  China is both blessed and cursed.  It’s in a unique position to be able to look at the successes and failures that other industrial nations slowly learned through trial and error in their quest for modernity.  Now China is undergoing that same quest facing serious population and energy dillemmas.  Sometimes the easiest solution to these problems is demolition, and with this comes the threat of destroying the identity of China’s streets, neighborhood and cities.  I can’t wait to come back when this country is finished.  I’ll be waiting… 

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Beijing Olympics

April 18th, 2007

Since every square inch of Beijing is a construction zone anyway, I decided to head straight to where the action is, north to the Olympic Park.  Like many places ouside the second ring road, the site is a challenge to get to.  Beijing’s bus system is great, but it’s always a challenge figuring out where your particular bus stops.  The city currently has eight new subway or light rail lines under construction, four of which are included under the generic label “suburb line.”  These new lines with fill out the rather lean 3 line rail map that currently exists.  Lines 1 & 2 feel like soviet relics; slow, boxy trains sure to feel out of place among the modern new trains and stations currently being built.

The Olympic Park subway line is still a year from completion so I caught the 409 bus to check the progress.  The main reason to make the trip north is for the Olympic Stadeum, or the “Bird’s Nest” as it’s been nicknamed.  Still a year from completion, its exterior random weave of steel is already quite a sight.

Next door is the Water Cube, a giant square seemingly constructed of bubble wrap

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Meet the Friendlies

April 18th, 2007

Okay, it’s time to introduce the official mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Friendlies (Fuwa).  There’s one for each color of the Olympic rings.  You can’t walk 10 meters in China’s cities without bumping into these colorful little characters.

Beibei is the fish and the cheerleader for the aquatic sports.

Jingjing is the panda and represents strength.

Huanhuan is on fire and is the mascot for ball games.

Yingying is an antelope from Tibet and is of course a runner.

Nini is the gymnast and dressed up like a kite???

When you put the names together, “Beijing huan ying ni”, it means Welcome to Beijing.

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798 Art Factory, Beijing

April 18th, 2007

 

To the northeast of central Beijing just beyond the fourth ring road something special is happening; an artistic utopia has emerged, a creative factory.  It’s called DaShanZi （大山子）in Chinese and the 798 factory in English, but these are mearly old names on the map.  The area was a factory district built by the soviets in the ’50s and pumped out electronics until the late ’80s.  In 2002 artists began moving into these hollow east-German designed relics, a beautiful blend of pipes, brick, and light.  The area is huge with established and future galleries, shops, bookstores, and cafes nestled between quaint tree-lined lanes.

798 slideshow

 

The old Bauhaus sawtooth factories are the best, especially in the afternoon when the light casts interesting shadows on the artwork and weathered brick walls.  Like much of Beijing, 798 has a nice vibe but feels ready to explode with limitless potential.  With international organization from Europe, Japan, and China, the area is really turning heads.  It’s an art lover’s dream come true.

 

  

Directions:  Take the subway to DongZhiMen (东直门) station and catch the 401 bus across from the long distance bus station.  Get off at DaShanZi （大山子）and look for the old factory towers across the street.  It’s set back from the street.

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