English Trip to China 2011

The long trip from my Rendsburg home to the Chinese capital


It is November 1st. All preparations for this year´s trip to China have been made. In the morning I go to town to get some cash from the bank and, if possible, a shoehorn to use with my shoes when in China, because I will have to take my shoes off when staying at friends´ homes or other places, and it is uncomfortable to undo the shoelaces many times and bind them again. However I cannot get this gadget. When back at home I spend some time raking the dead leaves in my garden.

After a quick lunch it is time for leaving. The busfare to the small shabby Rendsburg train station is included in the train ticket to Neumünster. I feel strange, when my wife kisses me good-bye at the bus stop. I will be away for almost four weeks. Many things can happen, maybe I will never come home again. Who knows? It will be a long trip. More than 9000 km one way. In Neumünster the school children are running about, some to their local buses, happy that school is over for today. I still enjoy watching the boys and girls, as they remind me of the times when I was a teacher. What would these children say if they knew I was on my way to China now. They are sitting on all the metal chairs with some of their bags on the empty chairs. None of them will take the bag on their knees to let me sit. I do not mind. I will be seated so many hours on the long-distance flight from Amsterdam to Beijing. Eventually the shuttle bus from Kiel to Hamburg airport arrives. The driver is very nice. He accepts the return ticket I still keep from last year´s trip. No problem. So I use the ticket two times for going to Hamburg airport. This time again my son Olaf has promised he will come to the airport on November 26 and drive me home. The bus driver tells a lot of stories. He says he is so happy he escaped when some years ago, there was a terrible accident on the expressway to Berlin, when one of their buses was hit by a van´s engine that had been jerked lose and was hitting the inside of the bus from front to back, killing several people, including the driver. If the driver had been driving at that spot only a few seconds later, nothing would have happened. But so he got killed, and the driver of my bus was happy he is still alive, as it could also have been him steering that bus.

Will I be lucky on all my trip? Everything going to plan and schedule? No injuries, no bad experiences? Who knows?


 

In Hamburg I have to wait three hours for the flight to Amsterdam by Royal Dutch Airlines, KLM. Check-in is quickly done, the employee very friendly. He can check the backpack through to Beijing and also give me a boarding-card for the connecting flight, which is on a big long-distance plane operated by China Southern Airlines, even giving me a window seat which is most appreciated by me. Looking out of the window on my flights is a real pleasure, as I can see the different landscapes, and I can see when sunrise or sunset comes.

Next to me on the small Cityhopper turboprop plane to Amsterdam is a young woman on her way to Jakarta. It is almost completely dark when the plane dives into the sea of clouds and the thousands of lights appear as the plane approaches Schiphol airport. What a sight on this dull November day! Now I have to walk long ways in the airport terminal buildings, go through passport and security checks. I have two hours to do that. No hurry. When at last relaxing in the waiting area for my flight, a man from Malmö is sitting next to me. He tells me that he is a designer of very special furniture on his way to a very small city called Pi Zhou in Jiangsu Province where his manufacturer is running a small company. He shows me some pictures of the chairs that are produced for him. Well, they really are very special.

The plane starts on time on its 9 ½ hour flight from Amsterdam to Beijing. I enjoy looking at the map which is shown on the screen which is installed in the backrest of the seat in front of me. What do I see?! The route is along the Frisian coast of Holland and Germany. Then right over the middle of Schleswig-Holstein, where I live. Why can I not get onboard here?! Maybe my wife has heard the noise of the plane engines eleven kilometers above her in the night sky. Then it is the Danish islands, southern Sweden, Estonia, St. Petersburg, the Ural mountains, etc. But outside I cannot see anything as it is completely dark. Over the plains of western Siberia the plane has completed half of its journey. In Amsterdam it is 2am. In Beijing it is morning already, and here I can see the glow of the morning approaching. The time difference between China and Central European Standard time is minus seven hours. We pass by Omsk and Irkutsk Soon I can see lots of high snow-covered mountains deep below.


Maybe we are flying over Mongolia now. Ulan Bataar down there. Then there is the Gobi desert, already being part of the huge country which is China. Breakfast is being served, or is it lunch? Scrambled eggs with small sausages, apple-pawpaw salad, a soft roll of bread and some jam. I am rather thirsty. My back is aching after the long hours seated on the plane, and my feet are cold. Near Beijing the sight is blurred as it is near midday. But for a fraction of a second I can see a line of man-made construction on the mountains what might be a stretch of the Great Wall. A few minutes before landing when the plane is flying low, I can see yellow ditches beside the houses. Extreme pollution? I wonder what is the cause of the yellow colour, until I realize, it is lots of corncobs put there for drying.
 

The pilot makes a perfect landing. So smooth. It takes a long time for all the people to leave the plane. I imagine how long it might take in an emergency. Only few people would have a chance then. Well, everybody can get out now, the stewardesses wishing everybody good-bye or zai jian, when they look Chinese. The immigration checks are fast. When there are lots of fresh arrivals, there will be more immigration officers to check the passports. My passport is scanned, the visa and the immigration form chequed. There is also a quarantine station where everybody must pass. There the passengers´ temperature is measured by a remote thermometer. I can get my backpack unharmed from the conveyer. I am so excited, I must go to the toilet. The first impression of Chinese hygienic conditions. Special paper baskets. Then through the green customs corridor - the green one means I have nothing to declare. I can go out into the big hall, where lots of people are waiting, but nobody for me. It is rather warm. Half past one in the afternoon. But before I find the bus for going to the city center, I must go to the money exchange, where I get lots of 100 RMB bills. The exchange rate is a little higher than 10 RMB for one Euro. This means my money buys a lot more in China than it would in Europe. Next I take the escalators upstairs where I know there is a small post office. I want to post all my mail at once, so that I need not bother about it during my trip. Time is too valuable. And I also want to post two parcels to friends in China, hoping the parcels will reach them before me. I do not want to carry more than absolutely necessary, as I am not so very strong. For all the postcards, the calendars I am sending to my Japanese friends and to my sister in Puerto Rico, and the two parcels I do not pay more than 150 RMB, which is so much cheaper than in Germany.

I need a phone card, too. I find a stand where I get a 50 RMB card, hoping this might be enough and that with this card I can make calls to anywhere in China and abroad. After all this I get on a bus to Xi Dan in Beijing, which is a place near the Forbidden City and Tian´anmen Square, where I will be meeting my „petite soeur chinoise“, my little Chinese sister at quarter past six, when she is free after working at the bank. The busfare to Xi Dan is only 16 yuan. On the bus next to me sits a businessman from Macau who starts a nice conversation with me and warns me of pickpockets. He has come to Beijing many times. He gives me the address of an unexpensive but safe hotel. How nice.

At Xidan I have plenty of time and can walk very leisurely. It is so warm here. So first of all I take off my big winter coat which I brought from home. And from the depth of the big bag I get out the black shoes which are less hot. The main eight lane road is full of cars driving almost noiselessly. Hooting is forbidden in Beijing. But busdrivers do not care about this. I spend a lot of time near the portrait of Mao, where the meeting place is. There are so many people. Most of them visitors taking pictures, but also some people who are trying to sell city maps or picture postcards. There are also some policemen. Especially at quarter to five, when I can see an orange sky over western Beijing, the policemen are becoming very active. More people have assembled and are looking across the busy road to the great square, where the mausoleum of Mao is and the Chinese parliament. The police take care that nobody steps over an invisible line. Maybe there will be a parade soon. That is what I think. But nothing happens. After some time, I ask someone who I suppose can understand English. He tells me that they are waiting for the lowering of the flag ceremony, which takes place every day at five in the afternoon. They are all waiting patiently. However, nothing exciting happens. So I walk to the other side, to the great square, the Tian´anmen, which was the scene of the June 4th, 1989 massacre. Now it is very peaceful. Some men are still flying their kites there, although it is almost dark. Others pester me offering picture postcards, city maps and so-called Mao watches. On the dial you can see the „great chairman“ waving his hand. I do not want any of them. However I enjoy very much watching how the buildings are being illuminated and the night slowly falls over Central Beijing. Eventually at quarter past six, my little sister appears and we are very happy to meet again after two years. She is 25 now. When I first met her she was only thirteen.
 

Thanks Jacare for your China-report. I'm going to read it later, when there is more time to enjoy it.
Rosemarie

Oh Udo, I was waitimg for a sign that there was a new  insert in the English part and it never came. I have to alert the sign that I receive a "Benachrichtigung". Now I will love to start reading! Thank you Big hug

Now I read it all. Udo you have such a great way to tell! It reads easily and it seems as if I was travelling with you. I realised that you have been going to China something like 12 years. How many times were you over there?
I look forward to more more more!
Thank you Udo
Greetings Yoli

4


First of all she takes me to the youth hostel where she had reserved a room for me. The price is 110 RMB for the night, which is not expensive in Beijing. We get on an underground train which is so full with people that I have problems breathing. I am happy when we get out and see modern buildings. The hostel is not far. Its entrance is behind a street vendor´s stall who grills spits of meat and vegetables. Lovely smell, but poor hygiene. For reaching the hostel we must walk two floors down using dark and very dirty stairs. The stairs are not straight down, they twist round dark corners where people seem to live. Without my little sister I would not have dared entering here. This hostel is so different from any I have ever been to. The position of the rooms on the second underground floor is like a labyrinth. I get a big room with two large beds and four pillows altogether. The room is clean, if you don´t look under the chairs, tables and other furniture, where no mop apparently has ventured for a very long time. I think this is better and safer than sleeping in a dorm. The air is sticky, warm. No windows. I wonder how anyone can get saved from so deep underground, in an emergency. The toilets and showers are a long way down the hall.
The price is OK, compared with prices in Europe it is really cheap. I must deposit 100 yuan for costs that might occur, such as phone calls. My room number is 213. If I were superstitious, I would have declined sleeping in that room. Because number 13 is considered unlucky in Germany. I do not get a key for my room. Whenever I leave, or even go to the toilet or clean my teeth, I must ask one of the assistant girls to come and open the room door for me. At any time, be it day or night.

Next my little sister takes me by taxi to her home. It is in a building which the bank she is working for has rented to its employees at an affordable price. At the entrance we must pass a security person who watches that no strangers enter the building. In the lift a short girl is doing service for hours and hours. In my little sister´s home I must take off my shoes and get my feet in a pair of slippers. My little sister lives there together with a friendly colleague. Her bed is high over her writing and computer desk. As it is dark outside, I cannot enjoy the view from the small balcony. Her friend has prepared lots of food for us. There are chicken legs, chili, vegetables with bits of pork, some ham, beans, seaweed, and best of all: some tasty cucumber. Next there is some fish soup, and coke. After this tasty dinner a taxi takes us back to near the hostel, where we get off and enjoy a relatively long walk. Tomorrow morning my little sister will come at about 9, half past 9, and she has also got my night train ticket for going to Luoyang on Sunday night, my next destination. So I am sure that everything will be going to plan and schedule. I go to bed at half past ten, Beijing time. In Germany it is half past three in the afternoon. But thus I do not get any jetlag, hopefully.

First I slept until half past eight the next morning. In Germany it was half past one in the night. When I went to the washroom, this one is flooded. Luckily I did not walk about barefoot and did not use the slippers, either, but my own shoes. When I get outside into the street, the sun is high up in the sky. There are trees, and lots of high rise buildings. My little sister is coming. She leads me to the stop of bus 802 which takes us to the famous flea and antiques market, called Pan Jia Yuan. It is a wonderful place. Soooo big with sooo many interesting ´treasures`. The market is huge, gigantic. As there is lovely sunshine, we can fully enjoy this place. There are so many people, lots of them foreigners. There are lots of articles whose former usage I cannot guess. There are vases, religious items, statues, small lovely bottles painted wonderfully from inside, little things which the former owners certainly loved very much. There are many copies of the famous red book with chairman Mao´s ideas, in Chinese, but also translated into different languages: English, German, Russian, French, Spanish, Esperanto..... One stall is completely specialized in Mao memorabilia, such as posters, photos, books, uniforms, orders, badges, decorations. All the time, my little sister and I speak French. There are books and stamps, old coins and money bills. There are exotic butterflies, metal tigers, elephants, paintings from olden times, which probably hung on the walls in the houses of rich families. There are collections of long brushes with a long handle, all different, probably used for sweeping the bedding. One stand offers tiny shoes which once were worn by noble ladies with their crippled feet. The shoes are so small, they could not even be used as children´s shoes, too small. It is amazing how many `treasures´ can be found here. I imagine many things offered on this market were taken away from the owners in the Cultural Revolution. This really seems to be a source of studies about what can or at least could be found in Chinese homes. The human creativity, producing things nobody really needs just as well as real works of art, is really beyond description. I think here real studies about Chinese culture can be made. I doubt modern Chinese put any of those in their homes. But there are also new terrible things, devised for putting in a corner of people´s homes, such as a small rock garden with water running permanently, and a coloured lamp illuminating a miniature elephant or a frog sitting on a rock or a plastic waterlily. People certainly love such things. (Compare many Christmas decorations inside and outside German homes.)
 

Hallo jacare, ich habe schon wieder keine Zeit - also alles kopiert und abgespeichert.  Nun suche ich noch die vorhergehenden Nummern 1-3!  Rosemarie

I was with you in that market.. smile... What a lovely person to take you a tour like that. Indeed a little Sister, bless her.
You wrote you were a teacher, what classes did you have?
To be honest I would not have liked to sleep in that hostel....grrr. You spoke French? I did not know that you also speak French... wow!  
That market sounds interesting. It seems that a lot Chinese do not fancy items that are not necessary?

 Quoting Udo But there are also new terrible things, devised for putting in a corner of people´s homes, such as a small rock garden with water running permanently,  
We have a sort of Spring Brunnen in our home in a corner. I am sure you would find that nice….smile…

 I do hope you have collected your travels in a sort of book? Would be a shame not to.
I love to hear more dear Udo
Love Yoli