I have spent the last few days exploring Beijing and hitting up all of the must sees like the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and of course the Great Wall of China. These sites were good, all that I expected them to be. I was quite pleased with all of them. It was a cold day when I visited the Great Wall, so there were not too many people around and it was very easy for me to walk along and find empty sections to explore and discover by myself. From Beijing I loaded a plane and headed to the city of Chongqing where I walked around for the day and saw a few sights before loading onto a cruise. I am currently on the cruise floating down the Yangtze river through the Three Gorges area. I have stunning scenery all around me. It is a nice relaxing change from the constant go, go, go that I tend to have while I've been traveling the last few months.
While in Beijing I took a day to do as the Chinese do & rode a bicycle to get everywhere. The bicycle is the most popular type of transportation in China. Everywhere you go there are bicycles, so I figured while in China I needed to travel as the Chinese do & hit to the traffic and roads of Beijing on bike. I quite enjoyed it. Since the bike I hired was not exactly in mint condition, better than the average Beijing bike, but non the less not in great condition, I got a good work out as well as I had to work twice as hard to pedal the bike. I hope to hire more bikes as I travel around China, maybe ride some through the countryside.
The main way of traveling long distances between towns is by bus and train. I have quite enjoyed the over-night train experience. On the over-night trains you get a bed a flat bed with a small mattress, they are called hard-beds. There are six people stacked into each little section, 3 bunks high. I prefer the top bunk as it means no one is climbing past me in the middle of night to use the restroom or to get off at their station. Just hope I do not get bed bugs from the sheets and pillows, they look a little sketch to me! It is nice though, as you lay there the rocking back and forth of the train is just like a rocking chair, rocks you right to sleep. Than before you get to your station the conductor comes and wakes you up to ensure you get off a the right station. So you get from point A to B while multitasking and getting a good nights sleep in the process. So efficient, I love it!
Riding the buses are interesting as you never know when they will break down. Some of the newer ones are ok, but you just never know what you are going to get. At one point while coming back from the Great Wall the bus I was on stopped for a check point. After it stopped and all was good, the driver tried to start it up and nothing happened. After he had a few more tries, walked around the bus and got back in, and the conductor and driver had a bit of discussion, next thing I know we are rolling down the hill. The driver was jump starting the bus! Thankfully it worked. I was thinking I might get some good reading done as I thought we would have to wait for the next bus passing by and hope they had room for us. No matter what though, there is zero to no leg room on the buses. They were not made for tall people. I definitely prefer the train over the bus. They are ok for short distances, but not too keen on them for long distance, but they are an experience.
Half the experience is trying to get your ticket. I have encountered a few that speak a little bit of English, but normally I have to walk up, show them the name of the place I want to go in Chinese. From there a process of making hand signals and pointing goes on between the ticket seller and myself. If all goes well, they understood my hand signals and pointing and I understood theres. Than I just start walking in whatever direction they pointed me in and show my ticket to people along the way, who continue to point me along my way. Eventually if all goes well I end up at the gate and load the train.
The best though is the game I play every time I want to eat. As some of you know I do not eat any pork and most seafood. These two things are very much apart of the Chinese diet as are some other crazy animals I have no intention of eating. So the normal chain of events when I want to eat involve me first finding a place that looks like a few people are eating there. I pick these places as I hope that means the food is better and less likely to give me food poisoning. Once I enter the place I usually get a few giggles and smiles as everyone seems to be excited to have a westerner stop and eat at their place. Well that is my guess of why they laugh & giggle, maybe I just look funny. Anyway, I look through the menu and try to find the Chinese character for beef or chicken. Once that is found I pick that item and order it, usually by pointing than, the waiter or waitress points at the same thing with a questioning look at me. From here I shake my head yes and they run off while I take a seat. For the next little bit as I wait for the food is a nervous time for me. I sit and wait in anticipation of what I just ordered, usually a bit scared that I may not be able to eat what they put in front of me. I usually sit there going through my head, are we sure we picked the right Chinese character? Than I start thinking, oh no what am I going to do if this thing comes out with a bunch of shrimp on it? Neither speak the same language, so this could get weird. So far I have been pretty good, and what ends up in front of me is very tasty & something I can eat at the same time. Sometimes some of the other patrons, or the waiters try to have a conversation with me, but after a few tries that normally stops as we both realize there is no hope if they know no English & I know no mandarin.
China has been described to me as a developing country and I have always pictured it as a developing country. Maybe I have been traveling in really developing countries for too long, but it does not feel like a developing country to me here. Perhaps I need to get further inland or something. I do not know for sure what defines a developing vs a developed country, but if I had to guess I would say with in the last 15 years China has made the jump from developing to a developed country. There are high rises everywhere, especially apartments, so so many apartment buildings. The apartment buildings line the skyline. It seems like there sanitation system is working, you get running water everywhere, they have amazing transportation infrastructure established, and you don't see starvation. Yes, pollution is a huge problem here, as it tends to be very smoggy, you do still have people walking down the streets carrying loads, and you see people pushing carts full of things, but this I have seen in parts of Europe as well where the streets are so narrow it does not makes sense to bother with a vehicle. I have not had Internet in a while & a number of websites are blocked here, so I have not been able to research it, but when I can I want to see weather China is still listed as a developing country or not & if so, why.
Well I am off to enjoy a bit more of this rest and relaxation. Hope you are all well in your neck of the woods!
~Laugh & Love Life~
