Beijing, 21-28 December 2010 - Part One - Arrival

The taxi moved unhindered through the suburbs of Beijing with me in the back, half asleep and clueless to where I was in relation to the hostel. One thing I don't like when arriving in a new city is the not knowing where you are or how much a taxi 'should' cost you. I always surrender to the unfortunate fact that you will get ripped off. The taxi took a sharp right turn and I was confronted with my first sight of the walls surrounding the Forbidden City and soon after the taxi turned left and passed by the world's largest public square, namely the infamous Tienanmen Square. Leo Hostel, where we were bound, is in the Qianmen district just South of the square and even though they said it was in a good location, I was pleasantly surprised how good it was. Qianmen literally means Front Gate in Chinese and is in fact just that. The building housing the gate still remains and the gate itself sits directly on the central North-South axis of Beijing. The car passed the right side of Qianmen gate and headed South for a few hundred yards before hooking a right down a small pedestrianised street and pulled up outside the hostel. I woke the night attendant up and wearily registered and paid for a few nights. He showed me up to my room and I finally collapsed into a bed, the likes of which I hadn't seen for a couple of days. Even though I got a lot of sleep of the bus, it wasn't good enough for my body to recover the trauma of the luggage rack and I was constantly being woken up by the lady beside me shouting down her mobile phone which she really didn't need as I'm sure the pandas could have heard her in Chengdu!

After a couple of hours sleep, I woke up had a shower and headed downstairs to explore the hostel. I walked down the steps to find Justine and Eric, whom I had met in Mongolia, enjoying a nice pot of jasmine tea. This wasn't a surprise as we all planned to meet up in the hostel for Christmas celebrations. We were soon joined by June and Karin who were accompanied by Sam, a London girl teaching English in a small village outside of Guangzhou in Southern China near Hong Kong. Although it had only been a day since we last saw each other, it was really nice to see them again and I looked forward to sharing Christmas with them.

Tienanmen Square

I decided that my first day in Beijing should be used to explore the local surroundings and get my first real taste of the city. I walked outside and was initially struck by the pleasant temperature that did not bite the skin so I removed my hat and gloves that had become part of me through Russia and Mongolia. I felt as though I was in paradise and walked with my jacket unzipped towards Tienanmen Square. It should have been a simple walk to the square, but I was confronted with multiple barriers between me and the Square. I descended into the subway which looked as though it would get me across the road and present me into the square. However, I found another barrier with armed guards restricting access to my intended route and forced to divert to another exit which brought me up on another road still the wrong side of the barriers. I pondered for a second and then noticed a pedestrian crossing up ahead where people looked as though they were entering the square. I followed them like a sheep and had to go through a security checkpoint where people were subjected to metal detectors and their bags being scanned before heading freely into the square.

Chinese government are so scared of an uprising that many plain clothed police officers roam the square, listening into people's conversations and remove any liabilities at the first sign of dissent. Everyday at sunrise and sunset there is a flag ceremony where soldiers will come out from within the Forbidden City and raise and lower the flag. These ceremonies obviously attract a large number of tourists into the square and you can see that they don't like large amount of people in one place at one time. As soon as the ceremony finishes and the soldiers have taken the flag away back through the Tienanmen Gate into the Forbidden City, the police urge you out through the nearest exit to disperse the crowd. Historically, Tienanmen Square has been at the very centre of revolutions and protests over the last century. Even though the Chinese government has done a good job at censuring their citizens to The Tienanmen Square Massacre of 1989, no one outside of the country will forget the iconic image of the 'Tank Man' who halted a line of PLA tanks outside of the Forbidden City or the hundreds, if not thousands, of unarmed protesters killed ruthlessly by soldiers who open fired against them in a nearby street.

Tank Man

***As I write this blog there are series of protests and uprisings across countries North Africa including Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Libya. I was surprised that the news of these uprisings were shown on the news around China as I thought it may provoke the same thing here. This morning my thoughts became a reality when a number of protests were thwarted around major cities in China. The protests were organised via the internet and called for people to gather in specific locations around China and protest for jobs, housing and fairness, it was called 'The Jasmine Revolution' mirroring the Tunisian protests which overthrew their government under the same name. President Hu Jintao today spoke out against the protests and stated that there needs to be tighter control on the internet “to guide public opinion” and “sole prominent problems which might harm the harmony and stability of the society”. It was reported that people had been arrested before the protests took place and a number of people were forcefully removed with them claiming they have done nothing wrong. China today have implemented their controls on the internet and have blocked searches for the word 'jasmine'. China had previously blocked social websites like Facebook, Twitter and blogging websites like Blogger because the websites had been used to spread revolutionary ideas and organise protests. It is know as 'The Great Firewall of China'. I have spoken with young Chinese people who have told me that they need to be very careful about what they say online because everything is filtered.***

Screens with propoganda and Mao's Mausoleum

Once in the square, I was struck by the enormity of it and the sheer communist feeling of the grandiose buildings flanking the square on either side accentuating the powerful heart of the People's Republic of China. Mao Zedong envisioned the square's full potential and ordered an expansion to create the world's largest public square which is a massive 440,000m2 stretching from Tienanmen Gate (Southern entrance to Forbidden City) to Qianmen (Front Gate). After Chairman Mao's death, the People's Government erected a mausoleum where his body lies in state like Lenin in Moscow. At the same time the square was enlarged to enable 600,000 people to congregate, although I couldn't imagine them being very comfortable with this amount of people now.

For the first time on my trip I have had to be aware of potential scams. It is well known in Beijing that young people, usually 'female artists', roam the square and will start talking with you and then ask whether you would like to go for a drink as they would like to 'practice their English'. They will then take you to a tea shop where you will be presented with a ridiculous bill or you will guilt tricked into paying an obscene amount for a painting as you are told the money goes to poor students to go to England and learn English. During my time in Beijing I had met several people who had fallen for this scam. One French guy got conned by a 'Tibetan Monk' and paid 200RMB (£20) for a cup of tea, a Dutch man got coerced into buying a painting and two German men met a group of 'friendly' Chinese people who took them for a drink and the bill came to a huge amount of money. Luckily I learnt from these peoples mistakes and ignored anyone who approached me which was very hard to do as I usually like to say hello to people. Now I say hello but remain vigilant and trust nobody. If they want you to go for a drink, make sure you choose a place and see the price list before ordering anything or you will get into the same situation. It's unfortunate that these people exist as it tarnishes the reputation of the generally friendly and helpful Chinese population. To a certain extent I can understand why they do it as China is a very competitive nation with so many people and not enough jobs to go around. There are so many people selling the same things on the streets and it's very hard for the average person to go elsewhere to earn a living. The difference between the poor/homeless people in the East is that instead of begging, they will try to sell something whether food, shoe shining service or touristy crap. However annoying their constant badgering is, I can respect their persistence.

The NCPA Building

Having strolled around the square I thought it was time to leave and head further afield so I took the North West exit and headed away from the Square and Forbidden City. It must have only been a few hundred yards away when I was stumbled upon a huge glass dome surrounded by an expanse of water. It looked out of place, as though someone had dropped a gigantic marble from the sky into the centre of Beijing. The magnificent building was in fact the National Centre for Peforming Arts (NCPA), another vision Chairman Mao had in the late 1950's and part of the project to build a series of public buildings to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the People's Republic. Even though the plans were drawn up in 1958, construction only started in 1998 and was finally completed in 2007 but as they say 'good things come to those that wait'! I visited the building a few days later with a Danish man and was utterly gob smacked by the sheer size of the building inside. The outer shell acts as protection to a Concert Hall, an Opera House, a Theatre, an Experimental Theatre and several museums depicting the history and culture of Chinese art. It's a fantastic place to wander around and managed to walk in on a rehearsal of Marco Polo with the two main leads on the stage being coached by their choreographer. I felt a greater pleasure seeing them rehearse than I may have actually watching the show. We later tried to watch a rehearsal of an orchestra in the Concert Hall but was stopped when the window magically frosted up. The architectural design of this building is absolutely mesmerising, you enter the building by walking through a tunnel with water flowing above which creates awesome shadows on the floor and each level intertwines providing access to each auditorium. I think it's better this building took nearly fifty years to complete as the technological advancements in theatre have grown exponentially in the last century and have provided this building with the highest technology (made in China no doubt) available. I would advise any theatre/music/architecture lover to go there and spend the day exploring the different performance spaces within the dome.

Inside the NCPA

I returned later that evening to Leo Hostel and met Thom and Hannah, a couple from London who were travelling around the world. Together with Sam, they were the first British people I had met since Moscow. We spent the evening sucking down a few bottles of Tsing Tao and watching 'The Last Emperor' which is an insightful account of Emperor Puyi's life who ascended to the throne in 1908 when he was only two years old. The revolution in 1911 and the creation of Sun Yatsen's republican government that overthrew the dynastic rule making Puyi the last emperor of China.

Next Time... The Forbidden City, A Bloody Big Wall, Food Street, Acrobatics and Christmas

Moving on from Mongolia to China, 20-21 December 2010

I arrived in Zamiin Uud around 7.30am and waited for everyone else to frantically leave the train before I grabbed my bag from the luggage hold and followed them as I was advised to do. It was actually very good advice as the people led me straight to a compound full of Jeeps that were hopefully taking everyone across the border. I got to a black Jeep and settled on 60 Yuan for the journey across the border. There are also buses that take you across the border but I was advised by Christian that he had a bad experience doing this and that I should spend a little extra and get the Jeep. My bag was taken off my shoulders and slung into the boot and I was escorted round to the left hand passenger's door, the driver opened it and I was stupidly shocked to see three people in there already. I wasn't sure how I could fit in there with them as they weren't small people and I'm not the smallest person either but the driver insisted that I got in, which I did. The driver then forced the door shut, slamming it several times against my hip sending a sharp pain through me. I just hoped that it was going to be a quick journey but I remembered that the border didn't open until 9am so we had around an hour to sit in the back, squeezed together like sardines.



My fellow sardines



The vehicle moved off and the driver had the heat on full which made the four of us sardines sweat but luckily had relief from the windows that were, to my surprise, working. The driver seemed to be a wild card and didn't seem to follow the rest of the Jeeps heading to the checkpoint. He pulled up besides the guards hut at the checkpoint and got out for a smoke with the officials leaving us imprisoned in the back of his car. I wanted to get out but the door release handle had been broken off inside the car and the window wasn't lowered far enough for me to reach out and open it from the outside.

The driver suddenly bolted back into the car and fired up the engine only to hear a big bang and plumes of white smoke erupting from beneath the bonnet. The clouds of smoke filled the car through the vents and I was sure that I was going to die as there was no escape but the driver opened the doors and we all baled out gasping for fresh air. I couldn't believe my luck. There were hundreds of Jeeps to choose and I had to choose the only one that had to breakdown. The white smog soon dispersed and we all squeezed our way back into the car as someone arrived with more water to replenish the coolant. We began to move off once again but were stopped by an official who stood in front of the car, my driver did not like this and began to shout at him which did absolutely nothing so he decided to just drive into him. With the guard sitting on the bonnet, we moved our way back into the queue of vehicles heading across the border.

I gave up. I had been sitting in the back of this Jeep for well over an hour and the pain became too much for me so I raised my voice and told the driver to let me out and explained that I wanted to relocate to the boot. He understood perfectly and released me from the back and opened the boot but told me that I could wait outside and walk along beside the slow moving cars which I chose to do. After spending a night on the luggage rack and over an hour squeezed into the back of the car, I was relieved to have fresh air and freedom for a while. The sun was still only resurrecting itself over the Mongolian wilderness at this point and bounced off the long queue of vehicles that cut through the exit road.

The traffic started moving faster and it was obvious that the checkpoints had just opened up for the day. The driver instructed me to get into the boot and began to drive off. This was such a relief and we soon arrived at the Mongolian side to repeat the third land border crossing off my trip. The other people in the car decided to take it upon themselves to look out for me and escorted me through passport control, pushing me to the front of the queue and making sure I got back to the car. We then got to the Chinese side and had to repeat the whole thing again. My fellow sardines were still helping me through but I got separated from them as the Chinese customs official pulled me aside and asked me where I was going and what was in my bag. I told him clothes, electrical stuff , toiletries and a bottle of vodka. He wanted me to open my bag but when I reacted hesitantly you could tell he wasn't too bothered and just sent me on my way to the others. The car started up and drove out of the border area.

I finally arrived in China.

As the car passed through the last checkpoint we had picked up a couple more people who sat on the passengers in the back seat. I was so relieved to be in the boot. It may have been a little dirty but at least I had space to myself. The town of Erenhot was thankfully clinging onto the border which meant I did not have a long drive. The driver asked me through an interpretor where I would like to go and I replied that I needed to get a bus to Beijing. As we drove through the maze the wide streets of Erenhot dodging the mass of cycles he stopped to let people out. When the last person had left the back seat I tried to get out of the boot and into the car but he wouldn't have it and told me to stay. I felt like a dog in the back clinging on as the driver made crazy high speed turns. We pulled up in a bus station car park and he released me from the boot, put my bag on my shoulders and said goodbye before he zoomed back to the border to carry out the whole process again. I have no idea how many times he crosses the border in one day.

As I walked into the bus station I got my first experience of the Chinese touts who buy up all the tickets and sell them on for profit. There was a see of them forcing themselves upon me and thrusting tickets in my face. I entered the empty ticket hall of the station and went to order my first Chines ticket. A sleeper bus to Beijing costing around £12 leaving at 6pm which meant I had a lot of hours to kill so I went for a walk to get my first taste of China.

Travelling over land means that you are constantly being immersed in a cultural transformations, some of which are so small they go by unrecognised. In Russia, the social customs mainly stayed consistent throughout the country but you could notice the people change. The further East you travel the more Asian the people become but the Russian customs and ideal remain in tact. Mongolia is very much like Russia but more Western friendly. China however was a slap in the face. There were masses of people everywhere, ridiculous drivers aiming at me and stopping to shout at me asking if I wanted a taxi. I can cope with those things but the one thing I was hit by and don't think I could ever get used to was the constant spitting. I saw a elderly woman with one finger on her nose closing her left nostril whilst excreting a huge long flow of slimy green snot from her right nostril. I felt my gut wrench and overwhelming nauseousness pass through me, I turned away and tried to ignore it but it repeated through my head and everywhere I looked people were hocking up. Even if you close your eyes, the sound of spitting is still there. I'm sitting in Starbucks writing this blog and the coffee machine is making a similar noise.

I turned around and headed back towards the bus station whilst dodging the bodily fluids on the paths hoping to find a nice restaurant to get some food in and rest for a couple of hours reading the lonely planet and plot my journey through China. I found one across the street from the station and settled into a seat. I was presented with a picture menu, the type of menu I had been looking forward to for a long time as you can just point to what you want. I ordered but was appalled by the waited immediately turning around entered the kitchen and expelling a huge ball of spit along the way.

I finished my meal and had a few more cups of tea to elongate my stay in the restaurant until I had enough and had to leave. I wanted to find a internet café as that is always a good way to stay occupied for a while so I asked where the nearest one was. The manager over heard this and invited me to use his computer which I gratefully accepted. I went into a room which had a suite of computers in and a couple of young men listening to music and discussing various tracks. There was microphone stands leaning up against the wall and cameras sitting on the desk. I came to the conclusion that they were movie and music enthusiasts and it was great to just be sharing the room with them whilst they were editing their tracks.

I had exhausted the internet after 2 hours and had my first experience of the Great Firewall of China which blocks websites like Blogger and Facebook. I crossed the road and returned to wait for the remaining hour in the bus station. The hour soon passed and it was time to get on the bus. I had never been on a sleeper bus before and was pleasantly surprised and excited to have a bed for the next 10 hours. The bus is split into three rows of bunk-beds and I was lucky enough to be on the right hand side on a lower bed with a view from the window. The bus moved out of the station and headed out of the city and into Inner Mongolia but I didn't see much as my sleep deprived body immediately shut down.

Inside a typical sleeper bus

The journey was long and the bus had mechanical issues and was forced to pull over a few times for the driver to tinker with the engine a little. The man above me was eating boiled sweets extremely loudly and the lady next to me intermittently shouted down her mobile phone. I took refuge with my MP3 player and slept for the majority of the trip apart from the quick stop for snacks and the driver's thirty minute snooze. I was shocked to find the ladies who I shared my Mongolian train adventure with were also on my bus and was invited to sit with them whilst they sucked down some noodles.

The bus arrived in Beijing at 4am in the pitch black. The bus station didn't resemble anything of the sort and was just a piece of wasteland in the suburbs. As soon as I left the bus I was confronted by touts yet again, this time I gave in and negotiated for a taxi to the hostel. It was 60 Yuan, I know I got ripped off but at that time I didn't have the energy to care as long as I got to the hostel.