Beijing and China Summary:
It is with mixed feelings that we leave Beijing and the China portion of our trip. China for me, on a "non-business" basis has been an eye opener. I've been trying to figure out the way to do this, as my wife and I had an experience more appropriate to the "old China" than new the day before our visit ended, and I'm not sure I'm even able to write about it. The "old China" is still there. Oh yes, it is still there.
But there are so many positives. So, since everyone outside of the U.S. seems the think the U.S. is defined by westerns and Clint Eastwood, I think I will do a Beijing and China summary in the form of "the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".
First the Good:
The Chinese People: When one is in a business suit, being whisked from Airport to Hotel to Meeting Room, to Dinner, to hotel, to meeting room, repeat till departure to Airport, one expects that folks around will be responding to the 'westerners in dark suits' syndrome, i.e. great service, not a lot of interaction. When one is in jeans and a sports shirt, travelling around lots of cities, lots of tourist attractions, especially travelling with three young kids in a 'one-child' state, you expect a different set of interactions.
And it was. The Chinese people are warm, humorous, good natured, diligent, and all in all our interactions were wonderful. They love kids, and my four year old had as many pictures taken of her as Madonna on Tour. A few photos of some unique faces, fair play considering the hundreds of photos folks all over China took of my kids!
The photos above and the one below were taken at the Temple of Heaven. There were hundreds of school kids, all in their school track suits.
The Food: We ate phenomenally well. The food was universally good, even in restaurants that were a bit sketchy at best. We were never 'price gouged' (or if we were, not that much, like my Guilin tea example), and portions were always huge and of good quality. My kids ate things that they never had before, duck all different ways, eels, tofu dishes, spicy dishes, all sorts of vegetables that we don't see in the U.S. Counter to popular belief, you don't have to get sick in China. We had five people (three kids) eat for two weeks in restaurants ranging from Sub-One Star to Five Star with only one stomach ache for one kid.
The Hotels: With the exception of one hotel that had great service and needed an upgrade, and another hotel that was beautiful but where we had a significant issue that I can't write about, the hotels are great, and good values.
The Drivers: What can I say about the drivers. Complete Chaos everywhere, a traffic system predicated on 1) who has the larger vehicle and 2) Black Audi's with Party or VIP's in them, bicycles, dozens of types of motorized cycles, every sort of truck imaginable, and somehow it all works. An the drivers kept us safe all through the trip!
The Guides: Some variance here, but all very professional. All VERY constrained on what they can and can't say, especially in Beijing.
The Growth: This one also falls into both the bad and the ugly category, but the growth is obviously providing benefit to a lot of people. In a lot of the palaces there are pictures and statues of the bird the Crane, which is a symbol of Longevity. Almost right in modern China, as the Crane is ubiquitous, but of a different type:
On a lighter note, the National History Museum in Beijing (said I would include some Beijing stuff here). Not touted, but a GREAT visit with kids. Spend time with the dinosaur bones and the dinosaur park, skip the dissected human body parts.
The Airlines: We flew three internal flights, one on Air China, two on China Eastern. These may have been showcase 'tourist routes' but the VAST majority of passengers were Chinese. The planes were clean and on-time, the service was excellent, all ground and flight staff highly professional. A long way from what folks would tell me about Air travel in China ten years ago or more.
There are many "Bads"here as well:
The Traffic: Although infrastructure growth is dramatic, and the freeways between cities (expensive and almost empty), the number of cars is causing near gridlock, worst of all in Beijing.
The Pollution: This one I can actually write about, as the Chinese English language newspapers had daily articles while we were there discussing the degree of river pollution, and discussing the implementation of daily air quality reporting to the people. My kids made an interesting observation that "Sunset" in many Chinese cities began while the Sun was still high up in the sky. Even when the sky was blue, with the exception of a few days, it was hard to see the sky.
These were taken from our hotel room at about 6pm…Sun still high in the sky, near darkness on the ground. Some may say we are mistaken, and that this was "fog". Nope.
History: The Forbidden City, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, all are great sights, and all have been or are being restored meticulously. However, you get a sense that it is all stuff that was shall we say, trashed over the past few decades, and only now being resorted, but it is still new. To be fair, the Chinese are not taking the easy way out, and are restoring everything using traditional methods and techniques, probably to original plans where available, but you still get the sense that it is all new, and a nation with thousands of years of history did itself irreparable hard to its past heritage. That's all I can say I think…
The Blue Buicks: This is more a question than a bad. As I've mentioned, all Government officials, and business / gov't VIPs seem to be in Black Audi's or Mercedes. Grey cars also seemed to be consistent to different types of individuals. There are all types of Minivans, of all sizes and shapes, but somehow we were in SIX different Blue Buick Minivans, in four different cities. All the same model, all the same color. Pure coincidence, our guides in different cities and regions of China would uniformly say when we asked the question. Odd.
English Language Skills: This is going to be a REAL problem when tourists descend for the Olympics. People are well meaning, but even in the five star hotels and key tourist areas, English skills are really lacking. This is going to be especially tough on European tourists and folks from other Asian countries (Japan, Korea etc) where English is a second or third language. Right now, the vast majorities of foreigners that we saw in China over two weeks fall into two categories: 1) Business folks from around the world who are escorted by their local hosts (so no real language issues there), and 2) Senior Citizens from around the world on Escorted tours who are kept well 'between the lines' for their stay in China. Anyone even slightly outside the line (as we were barely 'independent' as we had guides in each city) is going to have issues when the go out and about without 'escort'. And if you have small children, and want to get a babysitter for a night with English language skills, even when requested weeks in advance and confirmed, forget about it.
Chopsticks and Napkins: First of all, we live in California, and eat foods from all areas of the world, often from night to night, my wife will cook Thai chicken one night, and Chinese stir fry the next. We use chopsticks at home, especially for salads, where chopsticks are just a better "Tool" for a salad than a fork and knife. But for some food, peanuts or cashew, other round and slippery foods, what's with the sticks? Also, why is it near impossible to get a napkin at a restaurant (see language skills above).
The Ugly. The interesting and most salient part about "The Ugly" is that you still can't write about it. There is one visible China, that I have discussed over the last few weeks, but the other China is still there, below the surface. I guess I really don't know if it is truly "good, bad, or ugly", but the experience that my wife and I had that got close to this part of China was very disturbing. On a "one to ten" crisis meter, where one is "green" and ten is "red", this was probably a four, nothing life or heath threatening, and a relatively minor amount of property, and we spent a portion of our last night in China only half-joking about being dragged out into the night.
So, without any further ado, a pretty photo (Summer Palace),
Another pretty photo (Summer Palace):
And:
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