China Part 3 - Pingyao, Datong & Beijing

Another long Chinese bus journey, another obligatory round of spitting and puking from our fellow passengers, which Is hardly surprising given their bus snacks of choice - vacuum packed bite sized chunks of meat, chickens feet being a particular favourite, along with all sorts of tiny bird eggs being merrily chomped away on like we would enjoy chocolate eggs. Whilst we were happy to sample most of the food options on offer we were strangely never tempted by these delights. The mildly concerning aspect of this bus journey was that the bus was dropping people off in the hard shoulder of the motorway, not a huge problem if you are aware of this in advance and have made arrangements for someone to pick you up but as we had no idea this would be the case, we hadn’t made any such plans. As it turned out we were slightly more fortunate than some of the other passengers with our drop off point, still by the side of the motorway though it was actually at a toll booth, so at least there were a couple of people milling around. It was however about 10pm and absolutely freezing...and there didn't turn out to be much in the way of stopping or slowing traffic and no taxis.

After some resourceful miming and pointing from Claire, we were able to convince some guy who seemed to be stood around in the freezing cold just for the fun of it, to phone the guesthouse we had pre-booked and ask them to send a taxi or something to collect us. About 20 minutes later, what can best be described as an elongated golf cart being towed by a moped pulled up to taxi us into town.

Like 3 blocks of ice we creaked into our guesthouse, a fantastic traditional style Chinese dwelling, complete with its own lanterned courtyard out the back, managed by one of the friendliest chaps in China who went by the name of Bob; who became affectionately known as ‘discount Bob’ by us, owing to his propensity to offer considerable discounts or even give away items for free without any hint or request from us.

Pingyao, in Shanxi province, is famed as one of China’s best preserved ancient walled towns, what this apparently translated as is it was an area that the Chinese government hadn’t quite got round to bulldozing to be replaced by soulless communist architecture, before they woke up to the fact that the traditional style architecture actually draws in tourists and therefore left it as it was. Throughout China this destruction of their cultural and architectural heritage in favour of the rampant rush towards modernity is unfortunately irreversible in many areas. There are tell tale signs of how close Pingyao came to a similar fate, as within the newly restored ancient city walls you can see areas where the traditional buildings were knocked down and replaced by horrible small industrial factory units, now all being pulled down and replaced with old style buildings again.

For the privilege of walking around the tops of the city walls, and paying a visit to a few buildings of apparent note (what used to be the old police station, the old post office etc) you buy a ticket for £12. Obviously this is not that expensive by European standards, but by Chinese standards and particularly weighed up against the cost of visiting the Terracotta Warriors (£9), it feels like blatant tourist exploitation, because to be perfectly honest Pingyao is not worth the money. Discount Bob however made the place worthwhile and the money we wasted on the £12 ticket we probably gained back in free or reduced price food and drinks Bob gave us.

While here Claire & Jonny took a day trip to Zhangbi, an ‘Underground Castle’. An elaborate network of defence tunnels and rooms developed by a paranoid emperor from the Sui dynasty, some 1400 years ago, convinced he was under imminent attack. The 'castle' stretches some 1500m underground, going directly underneath the site of an existing village built some 800 years ago. Another example of the impressive paranoid craziness from the ancient Chinese rulers.

Outside the walled city the rest of the town of Pingyao has not been saved, as we discovered on our trip to the train station to buy our onward journey tickets. Soulless buildings, industrial chimneys and half mud half asphalt roads pretty much sum it up.

After another great night at discount Bob's and him slashing an unnecessary amount off of our bill, we took a tuc tuc to the station for our joyous journey. Our onward journey was a mere 7 hour train journey, though as is so often the case in China, all the good seats were gone, leaving us only the option of the bench seats in the 3rd class carriage. Fearing the worst, having heard numerous horror stories from other travellers we had met along the way, of overcrowded carriages, people smoking the entire journey and spitting all over the floor, we found it was nowhere near as overcrowded as feared, and no sign of smoking or spitting so we were mildly relieved. After the initial clamber over people and possessions to get onto the train, the locals graciously rearranged themselves so the three of us could sit together. One of the advantages of being in the lowest class of carriage on the train was the fact we were literally the last carriage on the train, and the back door was left open, meaning when the smoking started (which didn't take long) we at least had some flow of air to clear the carriage. This soon became a double edged sword, as the further north we went into the mountains, the colder it became. By the time there was snow on the ground outside it was time to close the door and start breathing in the second hand smoke. The saving grace was that the spitting on the floor never started, and we proved to be quite a novelty to the rest of the train - the Chinese not being shy to stare and point it wasn't difficult to see who was keeping them entertained for the most part.

Passing by endless coal mines and power plants belching out pollution into the air, we finally pulled into snow covered Datong station. A mining town rapidly on the move, Datong lies in northern China close to the border with Inner Mongolia. The surrounding landscapes are all vast plains, rolling hills and mountains, dusted in a light covering of snow all adding to the beauty. The city itself is pretty uninspiring however, in keeping with every other new city and town we have been through in China there is a huge amount of apartment tower blocks being built in a rapid attempt by the government to house the 100 million migrants from the countryside to the cities that is taking place. They have also recognised the value in their heritage, as the once grand city wall that was knocked down several years ago to make way for 'progress' is now being hastily rebuilt again to make the place more attractive.

Our reason for coming to Datong was to visit what we found to be one of the most impressive sights in China, the Hanging Monastery. Built into the face of a sheer cliff out in the mountains surrounding Datong, suspended some 50 odd metres above the ground, it is an incredible sight. It must’ve constituted an inordinate amount of man power when it was constructed several hundred years ago and yet again as with so many of the remnants of ancient China, you are left asking why????

One of the things we discovered while in China is that they offer student concessions on most of their tourist attractions, though as a huge section of the population don't speak or understand any English you can pretty much show them anything and pass it off as a student card. As we were feeling somewhat exploited by the governments entry charges we decided to play them at their own game and wave around our Hostelling International cards and pass them off as student cards to get the concessions. There were some particularly confused and suspicious looks as we pulled this one off at the Hanging Monastery, surely now only being a matter of time before the government issues the staff with genuine student ID cards to cross reference against.

After a couple of nights in a really poor but overpriced hotel (cleaning products clearly not something to have hit these parts yet, just plain old water and a sweeper), we took another 3rd class carriage for the final 6 hour train journey up to Beijing but not before managing to find some of the best quality, cheapest food in the form of the best steamed pork buns and noodle soup of the trip so far!

Winding our way through Northern China’s mountains, past numerous coal mines & huge power stations we pulled into the city of Beijing. Bitterly cold, incredibly polluted & insanely busy were our initial impressions. Huge amounts of money were spent on Beijing prior to China hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, and as a result Beijing now has a Metro system to rival anywhere else in the world. On a mission to buy some more warm clothes to cope with the Beijing cold, in particular for our pending visit to the Great Wall, we hopped on the Metro & made our way round to the Silk Market. Buying the Metro tickets couldn’t have been easier; you just touch the station you want to get to on a display of the tube map & bingo. On the train there are maps that light up to tell you which station you are approaching & then lit in a different colour to tell you which station you have arrived at. Announcements in English (well, American actually) & Chinese, accompany the map lights to make it pretty much fool proof. They have also come up with a new way of advertising while on the underground, they have long lengths of computerized displays that line the walls of the tunnel, outside the train windows that are set to move at the same speed as the train, so as you whizz past the advert keeps up with you in bright lights, forcing you to take notice of it. Whether this is actually advertising or some form of subliminal messaging that the Chinese Government has employed to continually brainwash the population is a matter of debate however…

The Silk Market is actually a huge tower block, linked directly into the Metro station, so without having to go outside into the cold polluted air at all you can browse endless floors of goods. Each floor has a different type of product for sale, Clothing on a few floors, electrical goods on another, jewellery, carpets, household appliances etc on the other floors. It is a pretty full on market place however & you have to be in the mood for it as the vendors are all yelling & pawing at you to get you into their particular stall. Endless rows of counterfeit goods sit alongside the genuine articles, not always so easy to distinguish which ones are which. In most places in China the general rule of thumb when it comes to negotiating prices is that you should end up paying between 10-15% of the original asking price which means if you can bargain well and hard, there are some great bargains to be had, however in the Silk Market they weren’t quite playing that game & were either working on a fixed price basis or wouldn’t go below about 60% of their original price. Needless to say we didn’t end up buying much here that day.

Getting back on the Metro again around to Tiananmen Square was amusing…. on the platform everyone waits in orderly queues at the spaces marked out where the doors will be when the train arrives, all policed by security guards to ensure order is maintained. Then, the second the train doors open there is an almighty scrum to get on the train, this section of the line being particularly busy, people were literally launching themselves into the carriage when it got to the stage of looking like it couldn’t possibly hold another person. Meanwhile the security guards that had so staunchly ensured the queues were 100% orderly stand back & turn a blind eye to the ensuing chaos.

Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City, are interesting places. The Forbidden City, as the name suggests was once off limits to anyone other than the Emperors & their entourage, now open to all, it is a huge area within a boundary wall that just seems to go on & on - we actually had seen enough before we got to the area right at the back. Full of old palaces, places of worship & grand sculptures it is an impressive glimpse into the opulence of the ancient Chinese rulers.

Even relatively mundane tasks such as going to the supermarket in China can be an entertaining experience. They are have the strangest things on sale, half of which we have no idea what it is... lots of jellied looking things, every cut of meat or offal splayed out on shelves, fruit and veg we have never seen before and over the tannoy staff are announcing in Chinese and English (strange as few people speak English), “please do not consume food until you have paid for it!” just as we see a Chinese man munching his way through a pile of self serve biscuits with one hand and smashing them in his hand with the other claiming they were broken so could not possibly be sold anyway! We also found a huge Carrefour Supermarket & while walking around, noticed the fresh fish counter. They have tanks full of live fish & a row of nets alongside the tanks where you just help yourself to whatever fish takes your fancy. While we were there a woman was just scooping the live fish out of the tanks & placing them in her trolley like you would a loaf of bread. She then just carried on around the supermarket with a selection of live fish flapping around in her trolley, almost sending her vacuum packed chickens feet flying as they thrashed around.

Raphael, our Swiss friend we had spent time with earlier in China turned out to be staying at the same hostel as us, so along with a few others that were staying at the same place we got stuck into some Chinese beers. The beer in China is rubbish it has to be said, nearly every brand on offer is about 3.2% & is so full of artificial preservatives & chemicals it gives the worst hangovers without much of the fun of getting really drunk. A German guy we were drinking with who was working in China as an architect, though living in a hostel as it was cheaper & more fun than an apartment, told us a little saying that ex-pats have while working in China. Bearing in the mind the disgusting nature of most of the toilets in China & the fact that many of them are the hole in the ground squat style, the saying goes that you know you have spent too long in China when you look down & see your own bare feet around the edges of the toilet. Thankfully we hadn’t actually got to that stage yet, but it was starting to feel like we were approaching the stage of having spent enough time in China, many of the day to day hassles & bureaucratic nonsense really starting to get on our nerves a bit now.

Before leaving Beijing however, we obviously had to go & check out the Great Wall. There are numerous stretches of the wall around Beijing that are in various states of renovation or disrepair. We decided to visit a stretch at a place a couple of hours out of Beijing, called Mutianyu. They actually have a cable car that takes you up the side of the mountain to get to the wall at this site, and although it is actually relatively touristy, there were very few people there and we had very little hassle to buy something from the many vendors selling naff ‘Great Wall’ merchandise. Having come prepared for the worst in terms of how cold we thought it was going to be, it actually turned out to be a really nice day & dressed in all our newly acquired warm clothes we were overheating somewhat, particularly once we started walking. Stretching out as far as the eye can see along a mountain ridgeline protecting China from invasion from the Mongolians, it climbs up some seriously steep slopes & walking along it gives a pretty good cardio-workout. Really impressive, really big, insanely paranoid & slightly ridiculous, the Great Wall has come to represent China in all sorts of different ways depending on your point of view…

The last thing we were told we must do whilst in Beijing is sample the 'peking duck'. The peking duck is a special kind of duck bred especially for this dish and is not the same as the one we consume in the UK. The whole duck was served to us, pre sliced by a waiter and served with small pancakes and spring onions, just as it is in the UK. It is a completely different colour however and tasted lovely although it was very fatty and we only managed about 3 small pancakes each out of the entire birdas the rest was fat... the remaining parts of the bird being served up in a glass soup, not the best meal we have had!

The following day Beijing was caught under a massive sand storm that had blown in from the Gobi desert, the sky became yellow & combined with the pollution it was even harder than usual to see 10 feet in front of your face. Ready for some warmer & better weather we took a flight out of Beijing headed for Hong Kong.