Reflections on China: the full story

So, as promised here are some thoughts about our trip to China. If you have time and a large cup of tea then check out our photos taken (mostly) by D with his new camera. There is a slide show flicking away to the right of the blog under my lists. This is the cut down album - we started with nearly a thousand so brace yourself...

China was a place I had wanted to visit for a great many years. As an excitable undergraduate living in Aberystwyth I had a number of friends who were fascinated by this great country, and their enthusiasm eventually rubbed off on me. I learnt a lot about Chinese history and about the missionaries who had travelled over to China during the nineteenth century. I own at least five Hudson Taylor books which I read cover-to-cover. And now China is in the midst of great changes economically, socially, politically. It has become a place where the old meets the new, where hutongs make way for skyscrapers and luxury German cars are becoming as prevalent as bicycles. So it seemed an exciting time to visit.

And so it proved. As we wandered around the busy streets of Beijing it all felt rather surreal. Given that I was fulfilling a dream simply by being there, D asked whether I felt a little sad. Often when we achieve something we have been working towards and thinking about for many years we can just feel a little flat. I can honestly say that I didn’t feel sad at all, just a little overwhelmed and very excited. 

So here are the high points of our trip:

Walking the Great Wall

This was an incredible experience. I’m not sure what I was expecting but a complete wall snaking off into the distance with forts and breathtaking views was not it. It is one of the highlights of my life and also proved to be one of the toughest fitness challenges D and I had ever attempted. A four-hour hike (the first hour and a half up an almost vertical mountain) in 36 (ish) degree heat. Phew! You know those lists of things to do before you die…put this on it!

Seeing beautiful stuff

Beijing is full of incredible sights, from the architecture of the Forbidden Palace to the amazing parks at Bei Hai and the Summer Palace. At times it feels as if you have entered 'China World' as it is almost exactly as you would imagine, complete with temples, locals doing tai chi and dragon boats. But it really is like that. Take a scan through the photos (click to the right) and see some of the amazing things we saw. Every site was packed full of Chinese tourists, coming to visit their own history.

The Chinese people

Now it is tough to generalise about the inhabitants of a country that makes up 1/5 of the population of the whole world, but everyone we met was so friendly and welcoming. There weren’t many who could speak English (my knowledge of Chinese adds up to ‘hello’, ‘thank you’ and pointing with a grin) but there was a lot of laughter and smiles. On our trip round the old hutongs a lady welcomed us into her house. We had a good chat through our interpreter. Can you imagine this sort of thing happening in Britain? I miss the Chinese people very much.

Visiting Beijing Baptist Church

We love going to different churches on our trips and this one was no exception. Generally it means trips out into the desert or, in this case, to a tucked away hotel. We had a wonderful time with them and got taken out to lunch where they informed us that we shouldn’t eat anything that falls on the table…a useful factoid that stayed with us for the rest of our trip.

Seeing real Beijing

We had booked a guide for one day of our trip to show us around the real Beijing. As tourists who don’t speak Chinese it can be difficult to get around at times. So she took us to markets, tea ceremonies and art galleries and we caught a glimpse of real Beijing. In fact we were lucky to see it at all as the hutongs are disappearing rapidly to make way for flats or offices. The skyline of Beijing has changed at an unbelievable rate. Unfortunately this means that some of Beijing’s most historical districts are disappearing too. Ancient temples and houses are making way for big glass towers. We saw the effects of this in the rubble of the hutong we visited. When we asked our guide she said that there were good and bad things about this. How true!

Chinese TV

D loves watching local telly whenever we are abroad. Chinese telly, however, is rubbish. There is a lot of patriotic dancing and badminton. That said, in a slightly surreal, nostalgic moment, we got to watch Costner’s magnificent Robin Hood Prince of Thieves one night.

Food

The food in Beijing is really excellent and very cheap. Even the best places are a fraction of the cost of the UK. I enjoyed all the vegetables we ate. The Chinese seem to have a good food ethic, cooking from scratch and including veg, meat and carbs in every meal. Here’s hoping that the growing amount of KFC and MacDonald’s won't ruin this. On Thursday night we ate at the Dadong Duck Restaurant, which was truly incredible. Normally I don’t even really like duck! Oh, and D got to eat a snake on the final night and felt no ill effects. One of his other foodie highlights were the vegetable ice lollies - pea or sweetcorn lolly anyone?

D as a celebrity

One thing we hadn’t really prepared ourselves for was D’s celebrity status in China. As he is 6”5 with blond curly hair (goodness, he sounds like a real hunk!) he stood out like an alien in Beijing. Everyone found him hilarious and wanted their picture taken next to him. Cue much laughter and fun all round. I think D has felt a little flat back in Lincoln. 

Standing in Tiananmen Square

I remember this place well from my childhood and it was a slightly eerie feeling to stand there in the heat surrounded by Soviet-style architecture with Mao looking down on us.

Wandering round 798 Art District

While we saw a lot of old stuff, we were also impressed with the new. 798 is a contemporary arts district that feels like a mad moment of anarchy in an otherwise ordered country. It taps into a modern movement exemplified by the work of Ai Wei Wei. It was a great inspiring place of experiment and I hope it will continue to go from strength to strength.

And here is a list of the things I won’t miss (it is a very short list!):

Not being able to speak the language

This is a very frustrating experience. But our Chinese friends were very forgiving.

The toilets

Ah yes! I am afraid that I am a soft, wimpy Westerner and cannot cope with holes in the ground.

The traffic

Wow, Beijing roads are insane. I have no idea why there aren’t more accidents. They go by the ‘patient impatience’ rule. Do any move you like, however crazy. But if someone gets there before you then you just shrug your shoulders and nod to them as the better man. In Britain there would be riots in the streets and blood on the tarmac, but in Beijing we didn’t even see anyone raise their voice let alone their fist.

And there you are: some not-so-brief reflections on our trip. As a brief footnote, it may well be surprising (given my research interests etc) that I haven’t really mentioned politics. We are well aware of the political situation in China and some the human rights issues that this country faces. To be honest, we didn’t see anything that caused us concern while we were there, though we learnt that the capital punishment statistics are horrendous. I’m not wanting to put my head in the sand over this one but I can’t really comment, given that everyone we met treated us with the greatest warmth and we wandered around the city with total freedom.

Suffice to say, we had a truly wonderful time and are currently working our way through our canon of beautiful Chinese films – last night it was House of Flying Daggers. I cried…a lot….but I wasn’t sure whether I was crying at the film or at the fact that I missed our Chinese friends.

CSW