China 2001
The China Express
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Overnight in Seoul and two weeks to visit four cities in China:
These are the updates posted to offyonder.com as I traveled to China from Japan to visit Everett, a friend from College. They are in chronological order as you read down.
Yonder Mail Archived Story:
The China Express [read online] [print version]
Photo Index:
Getting there - Seoul
First Impressions - Shenyang
The Loop - Beijing, Nanjing & Shanghai
Updates:
Meeting Folks
Seoul, S. Korea
21 November, 2001
I made it to the flight no worries, but would have never expected what happened next.
While waiting for the plane to board, an American sitting next to me in the lobby asked me what I was carrying, pointing to my dijeridoo. So we started talking and found out we were both going to have long layover in Seoul, Korea. She had 9 hours on her way to Hawaii, and I overnight to Shenyang.
But there's more! She, Suzanne, met two other gals on the plane sitting near her. One was Hiroko, a Japanese woman going to Seoul for a weeks vacation, the other, Jin from China who has been studying Japanese in Japan and also had an overnight layover.
So, the four of us, none knowing the other before this decided to hang out in Seoul, which worked out great for Suzanne and I as both of the Asian gals spoke Korean! On top of that, Hiroko is the owner of an English school in Gifu city, so she speaks English!
We had a great time, going to lunch and exploring the city. Poor Suzanne had to bail after lunch and catch her flight while the rest of us found a hotel to stash our stuff at and Jin and I were close to the Airport Bus Stop.
Now I've made it to Shenyang, and as it turns out, Jin was on the same flight as I so we were able to get seats together. But between Jin and I, the only common language was Japanese, neither of our native tongues. So, it provided for some creative conversation. But it all went smoothly and I briefly got to meet her family who were waiting for her at the airport.
Everett got there just after I had Jin help me sort out where a phone was so I could call and find out where he was because there was some confusion as to when my flight arrived. But not to fear, he found me, and we made it to one of the hotels serving a Turkey dinner tonight and I met some of Ev's work mates.
First
Impressions
Shenyang, China
24 November, 2001
It was quite a shock going from the very modern and new airport in Seoul to the old, congested, and poorly organized airport of Shenyang. The sky was just as dank with smog as Seoul, but somehow, an indescribable extra layer of filth was present.
Everett gave me the lowdown in the cab ride on the way into town. That the Chinese seem to pride themselves on the grotesque living situations. Quite the contrast from the very image and cleanliness conscious society of Japan.
Spitting in the street is commonplace, if not expected, and after just a few short hours here, I found myself stricken with the same impulse as the thick smog in the air seemed to lace my mouth and throat and it's only natural to want to get it out of your system.
The amount of trash just lying around is quite low, but the streets and sidewalks seem permanently coated and absorbed even in the aforementioned dust and smog.
There are really two type of people here: the ones I've met, and the ones I haven't. Everyone I've met have been very nice and seem happy to welcome me to their country and city. The ones I haven't met, like anywhere else, I can't really speak for, but there is no attempt to be subtle about staring at the white boys as we make our way through the streets.
Driving here is a rare privilege, and hazardous to your health. The streets are mostly caked with red and white taxies who are proud of their horn, and use it liberally while completely ignoring any traffic laws or lines painted on the heavily pot-holed streets. The occasional private vehicle marks the stark contrast in wealth that exists here as many of them are Audi A4's and BMW's, driving past the ubiquitous bicycles that swarm the city like a plague of locust.
It may seem a dark picture I describe here, but it is part of our world. People live and work here, some may feel they are stuck, but many chose this. Why? There are surely an infinite number of reasons, some of which I may uncover. For my friend Everett, he's happy to easily live off the 20 hour work week so he can devote more time to his musical interests. For another it may be that she can afford a house cleaner and weekly masseuse on her relatively high salary for China, although very low by western standards.
As I continue my journey through China, I may uncover more streaks of beauty which is enough to allure people here. Speaking of which, just as I'm typing this, the first light flurry of snow is starting to fall. Somehow, that seems to make anywhere beautiful, even with the square gray deteriorating concrete buildings across the courtyard as the backdrop.
China Express
NE China
3 December, 2001
[Beijing, Nanjing & Shanghai photos]
Back to home base in Shenyang by air after a great trip to Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai by train.
Some of the sights included were the Great Wall, The Imperial Palace (Forbidden City), The Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven, and that was all just in Beijing!
Nanjing is a college town, and an international college town to boot. So, seeing white folk is not too uncommon here and these are foreigners who speak Chinese, so the attempts at beguiling foreigners into obnoxious purchases are not too common.
Last stop was Shanghai. As western of a city as China has, and it's constantly changing so, this report will be void by the time you read it. Of the 33 hours I was in Shanghai, I didn't sleep once. I managed to do touristy things all day: a visit to the Bund, the Shanghai Museum, and walking past the Grand Theater. That evening, after checking e-mail in the internet cafe, I started chatting with a few other folks staying in the same hostel as I. The cafe shut down pretty early and many of us were still keen to be up and about. We opted to find a dance club and whittle the night away.
Another American and I ended up teaming together, meeting a few locals as well as other travelers from Australia, Singapore, France, and Venezuela. We were out all night and ended up at Starbucks to have quiche for breakfast! So, I paid 55 yuan for a room I didn't even use. Oh well, what's $5 to have a place to stash my bags, eh?
After a rinse to scrape away the sweat and smoke of the night, I was back in tourist mode and hit the streets. It had been grey and drizzly the whole time I was there, so I felt right at home being from Seattle. The only objective of the day was to visit one of the larger markets and shrines in town, which I did with Ally from Melbourne. Then he and I wandered around the city a bit more, picked up a train ticket for him to go to Hong Kong in a few days, and finally popped into a cafe to warm up and wait for my bus to the airport, as I had an evening flight back up to cold Shenyang in the north.
[Beijing, Nanjing & Shanghai photos]
Familiar Ground
Komono, Japan
7 December, 2001
The photos from my tour of NE China are finally up and maybe you'll understand why it took me a few days to process them all, as there are more than 50 photos and captions in this series.
China is a world of constant bewilderment. Be it the extreme contrasts of wealth, society, and even something as simple as cleanliness; to the hypocrisy of variable and inconsistent do's and don'ts that plague the most populous nation on the earth.
Everett is doing well in this seemingly backwards world, and by his own admittance, after a trip to Beijing, notes that China is not as bad as his sheltered life in Shenyang had tried to make him think. More on that thought and beyond in the next e-mail adventure newsletter.
The comforting sound of a language I can understand and even communicate in, to a certain degree, was a pleasant change indeed. I'm now back in Japan where I better understand the customs, people, and above all the language (did I already mention that?). How bizarre it is to stand out as much here in Japan as I did in China, but the simple sense of familiarity is soothing to the core.
China was an exciting trip. I was just starting to get comfortable with the language and people, but didn't realize how far off I was until I returned to Japan.
| Country (long form) People's Republic of China |
| Capital Beijing |
| Total Area 3,705,406.97 sq mi 9,596,960.00 sq km (slightly smaller than the US) |
| Population 1,261,832,482 (July 2000 est.) |
| Estimated Population in 2050 1,470,468,924 |
| Languages Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages |
| Literacy 81.5% total, 89.9% male, 72.7% female (1995 est.) |
| Religions Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Muslim 2%-3%, Christian 1% (est.) note: officially atheist |
| Life Expectancy 69.6 male, 73.33 female (2000 est.) |
| Government Type Communist state |
| Currency 1 yuan = 10 jiao |
| GDP (per capita) $3,800 (1999 est.) |
| Labor Force (by occupation) agriculture 50%, industry 24%, services 26% (1998) |
| Industry iron and steel, coal, machine building, armaments, textiles and apparel, petroleum, cement, chemical fertilizers, footwear, toys, food processing, automobiles, consumer electronics, telecommunications |
| Agriculture rice, wheat, potatoes, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton, oilseed; pork; fish |
| Arable Land 10% |
| Exports machinery and equipment; textiles and clothing, footwear, toys and sporting goods; mineral fuels, chemicals |
| Imports machinery and equipment, plastics, chemicals, iron and steel, mineral fuels |
| Natural Resources coal, iron ore, petroleum, natural gas, mercury, tin, tungsten, antimony, manganese, molybdenum, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest) |
| Current Environmental Issues air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates) from reliance on coal, produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly in the north; water pollution from untreated wastes; deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural land since 1949 to soil erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in endangered species |
| Telephones (main lines in use) 110 million (1999 est.) |
| Telephones (mobile cellular) 23.4 million (1998) |
| Internet Service Providers (ISPs) 3 (1999) |
| (U.S. Government sources) |