Five Pills to Survive China

And we are nearly at the end of the first stop, all in one piece and within budget. After having seen the Bund, the French Concession, Pearl Tower and the old city, the last thrill that Shanghai has to offer will be the Maglev Train (some are more excited than others), the magnetic levitation train that will take us to Pudong International Airport. After having kicked the cases in a fit of rage (mine) in Yichang Airport, finally we got rid of some stuff and sent home the first parcel. I am more and more convinced that the only essential things are passport and credit cards, the rest is useless. Even more, it's a burden. Anything can be bought and abandoned on the way.


Having said that, now a few lines to share the wisdom of three weeks in China:


1) Public toilets are disgusting and the place is in general very polluted. I don't have the numbers, and probably the official ones differ from the real ones a great deal, but they must be dying by the thousands of respiratory problems caused by the poisonous air of the big cities.


2) To avoid the curse of Shi Huang Di, never put into your mouth water that is not boiled or bought, not even to brush your teeth. Eat only where the locals do, even in the streets, but avoid any kind of raw food. Westerner cuisine is available almost everywhere (even chains like Pizza Hut, Starbucks, McDonald's etc), but it costs like in Europe and it is neither as clean nor as tasty as the local one.

3) Even if they spit everywhere and they really do not know how to queue, (they'll try to stampede you but if you complain firmly they politely stand aside), Chinese people are very open and curious about foreigners. We never felt threatened or in danger, not even in the dodgy parts of Beijing or Shanghai, maybe because they have a more refined, almost elegant way of stealing money from us laowei=foreigners... that brings me to the next point:

4) Always haggle every price, in shops, but even restaurants, hotels and taxis:

"How much to take me to the airport?"
"150."
"90!"
"150!!"
"90, and if you make me miss my plane I won't give you even those!!!"
"OK, 90."
Even this way, as soon as you lower your guard, and in three weeks it has happened only too often, they take you for a ride.

5) Very few speak English, the little they speak is a more or less incomprehensible form of Chinglish. Even signs and information are rarely translated. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS AT HOME WITHOUT SOME CHINESE!! All the independent travelers we met had at least a bit of Chinese.

Various:
Unless you have some specific reasons, like a timetable similar to our own, avoid winter and summer as the weather is extreme.


Hotels, hostels and guesthouses:
Beijing: Novotel Xinqiao
Xi'an; Bell Tower Hotel
Chengdu: Sim's Cozy Guesthouse
Yangtze: Victoria Cruise
Shanghai: The Seventh Heaven
The only cash machine who speaks English: Bank of China
Chain of Japanese restaurants cheap and clean: Ramen Ajisien
For the first time the Rough Guide disappointed us. Imprecise and not up to date, we often had to improvise.

The heroes of our three weeks in China:
Beiyan who prevented a disaster by booking our transfers from Beijing to Xi'an, Xi'an-Chengdu, Yichang-Shanghai.
Jolin from Yatour that called on the phone to fill in the gaps in Brendan's Chinese that blocked the queue at the ticket office in the station, helped us to book the train from Chengdu to Chongqing.
Luther from Victoria Cruise, who let us out from the engine room of the ship and shouted for a taxi before we even docked, allowing us not to miss the plane for Shanghai.
Sim, because whoever can offer a bed and hot water for 5 euro per night, practically free food and make a profit, deserves to be a hero!
Brendan, 'wo de laogong', without whose irritating talent for speaking foreign languages we would have never survived 3 weeks of China without a scratch.

Thanks to all of those who left a comment, above all the new arrivals: Mauro, Luigi and Silvia, but even Max, Luz, Gio, Mamma, Ivan and Giangi. As soon as I'll be out from behind the Firewall I'll start to reply to everybody :-)

Next post from Sydney

Beijing: The Forbidden City











Tea House in Chengdu





Dian Dian




"How many of these will I have to kiss?!"




Shanghai: View from the Seventh Heaven




Loonie in Beijing Tea House




Backpackers

Chinglish

We have so far seen many examples of Chinglish but this one stands out:



After we spent the morning looking for a phantom tourist bus that should have taken us for a trip around the city, we arrived to Chenghuang Miao, another Chinatown for Chinese, where Brendan insisted in going for lunch to a place that according to the Book of Lies served authentic food. The girls and I, tired, cold, wet, and glancing longingly at a McDonalds, reluctantly followed him. When we finally arrived at our destination, we found this sign on a window of a canteen where people pushed their way through a crowd to get in:



"Dumplings stuffed with the ovary and digestive glands of a crad"



After a general mutiny we ended up in Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Shanghai

After a week in the heart deep and spicy of China we arrive to Shanghai and WOW! It's like being beamed into another universe. More modern and sparkly than a European capital, with shops and cosmopolitan restaurants at every street corner, it seems well capable of satisfying any caprice. For the following 7 days, the Seventh Heaven, found in a French guide abandoned in Sim's library, will be our home. We are on the Nanjing Dong Lu, once a dangerous quarter frequented by sailors, now the most famous shopping street in China. The first 24 hours were definitely positive: we were pleasantly surprised with the first real cappuccino after the last one drank in Sardinia last September. Later we bought 1000 Nintendo DS Games for 60 euro, to Nina and Sara's delight.

We don't have any special ambitions for the next few days, we just want to explore the city at our leisure and take it easy. The days on the river have been intense, packed with excursions and guided tours, all laced with a cold that challenged even our extreme weather gear. Keeping an eye on our daughters while surrounded by water required our constant vigilance. Whenever given the chance, Sara ran on deck mimicking Kate on the stern of the boat, maybe hoping that Leo would save her, but having to settle in the end for her parents' telling off.

Three Days on the Yangtze

Fengdu - the city of ghosts.











Gorges of the Yangtze

From Travellers to Tourists

Trains stress me out. Chinese trains send me into a panic. Chengdu Station is better than the Beijing one, but people are the same: they push, they can't queue and passing the security checks with 80kg luggage while trying not to lose your daughters is a nightmare. Luckily the only tickets left were the expensive ones (5 euro a ticket for a 4 hour journey!) so we could use the VIP lounge where we spent a couple of hours before departure. Once again we were the only Westerners around, once again people were open, curious, almost anxious to make friends. After the initial faff getting settled into your seat, the train is always a good place to have a chat, to observe and learn something about the locals. Within the first hour, Brendan had engaged his neighbours into a debate on regional variations of Chinese cuisine. Soon even another four from the next row joined the discussion and half of the carriage was happily talking food. Sara and I, without any chance to contribute, were busy doing her maths homework under the scrutiny of our travel companions who commented on every page of the maths book, giving us big smiles every time Sara got the answers right. Getting off the train, everybody helped us with the luggage.

In Chongqing, our destination, we switched worlds. At the station, the tour operator came to collect us to bring us to the boat where we'll be spending the next three days on the Yangtze River, through the Three Gorges Dam, all the way to Yichang where we'll finally catch a flight to Shanghai. For the first time since we left home we give in to the luxury of delegating all responsibility, while putting ourselves in the capable hands of the organizers of the cruise. The idea of being just passengers for the next three days is pleasant but at the same time it feels odd to stick to somebody else's timetable. Even our travel mates are different from before, mostly English speaking and part of a group tour. The contrast with the atmosphere cultural-hippy from Sim's Garden Hostel is dramatic. The change requires a mental readjustment. Apart from everything, it is simply wonderful being able to dump your dirty jeans into the laundry bag to find them magically cleaned and ironed some hours later!

Chengdu

The city is a black hole, there is no arguing with it. We got here from Xi'an by plane and immediately were suffocated by the smog in the air that sticks to your throat making breathing difficult. Chengdu seems to embody all the negative traits of China that we had so far escaped. The city is dirty, humid with a polluted fog that constantly shades the sun.

But apart from that, even Chengdu has its good side. The panda bears and the Giant Buddha of Leshan delivered on their promise. We saw the pandas from up close in a breeding colony on the outskirts of the city. It was a half day trip where we were all very taken with these giant teddies.

The statue of the Buddha was the most striking site so far. We reached the town of Leshan after a 4 hour journey in a car without any suspension. The motorway was closed due to fog and the driver had to take an alternative route through alleys clogged by traffic. Chinese people drive like crazy, overtaking on both sides, often even in the emergency lane. There seem to be no rules except the one that the biggest on the road has right of way. First buses, then cars, motorbikes and bicycles. Pedestrian do not count and every time you cross the road you take your life into your hands. Even getting off a bus, bicycles run you over without even slowing down.

The statue of the Buddha is 70 mt tall, sculpted in the mountain side and 1300 years old. It is inside a park with other temples and manicured gardens, at the end of a long staircase carved from the same rock as the statue.


The other cool thing about Chengdu is our guesthouse. At our arrival, after getting over the shock of seeing two pigs playing with a puppy in the garden, we immediately entered in the spirit of Sim's Cozy Guesthouse and mingled with its population. The washing machine is not as good as the one at home, the whole place is a bit of a mess because they just moved here, but staff are very friendly and welcoming and the food is to die for! Sechuanese cuisine is known worldwide as one of the best in China: it definitely didn't disappoint us. All dishes are very spicy because they are full of chili and sechuan pepper, but the flavours are original and well defined, the ingredients are fresh and even the vegetables don't lose their taste despite the spices. Sim's chef seems to be particularly gifted and able to concoct anything on the menu at any hour of the day or night. Here we have dinner, the four of us, with 4 euro including beer, while we sleep for 20e per night. Our favourite hangout is the Japanese style room on the second floor above the bar where sitting on the big cushions on the floor we eat, play mahjong or write a blog entry. Sara became best friends with Dian Dian, the puppy that was playing with the pigs on the first day. Every now and then he grabs the bottom of her jeans and doesn't let go until we lift her up. By now we look like real backpackers. Shame that tomorrow we have to leave.

Xi'an

We got to Xi'an after a 12 hour trip by night train. Beijing Western Station was quite difficult to negotiate. It's as big as an airport and extremely busy with not so disciplined crowds even at nine o'clock in the evening. With luggage and kids in tow it was no joke. We were the only Westerners around and in the departure lounge people were as usual keen on trying their English while others just stared at us as if we were a traveling circus. The night on the train was comfortable, much more so than the last equivalent European trip I did.




We spent the day walking around the city, one of the richest and most industrialized of the whole country. The centre is divided between a commercial area with department stores, designer shops and all the international chains like Starbucks and MacDonald's, and the Muslim quarter, a maze of shops and stalls of food and local handicraft. There we learned a hard lesson in the art of haggling. We saw a set of chopsticks we liked in one of the first stalls, for the price of 240Y (24E), found them again in another stall 180Y, bought for 140, convinced that we really clever and getting a good deal, only to see them around the corner for 65! As soon as I realized the mistake I started to say "NOOO!", more to myself than anybody else but the girl in the shop, thinking that I was complaining about the price, started to come down, "Ok then, 50, 40..." The more she lowered the price, the more I despaired. The more I despaired, the more she lowered the price. When we arrived at 35 I explained to her that I had no intention of buying because I had already bought them somewhere else. She finally understood what was happening and it ended in a good laugh. Now we haggle for everything, even bottled water. If they ask 200 we offer 20 and in the end we always win. When they part with the goods with bad grace, then you probably paid the fair price. You pay for lessons and so far we clocked up about 50E in stuff that we could surely have got cheaper.


Terracotta Warriors





Nina eating a rice pudding bought on a street stall in the Muslim Quarter. We all had lunch on the street for a grand total of 2 euro. Let's hope we escape the curse of Qin Shi Huang Di...

Last Hours in Beijing

Sitting at a table in Pizza Hut (yes, we succumbed once more to the call of the West), we pass time before boarding the train that will bring us to Xi'an. We spent the day between the Forbidden City and the Temple of Yong He Gong where Sara was fascinated by the Buddha. Between my two daughters she is definitely the one that takes her religion more seriously, while after her first communion, Nina professes herself agnostic. I was observing them today while they watched, transfixed, the golden statues and their fruit and flowers offerings, the faithful who burned incense while praying. I saw how, for the first time, they really understood what we tried to teach them all along, that different people have different beliefs but no less valid than our own and the world is big enough for everybody.

We really liked Beijing but it is time to leave it behind. Even in transit, sitting at a table of a public restaurant as the only fixed point, I strangely feel at home. I think for the others it's the same. Brendan reads his book and the girls are drawing, nobody seems bothered by the precariousness of the situation. Very early on, at the beginning of this experience, we are learning how feeling at home is a mental state and has little to do with a specific place. Feeling at home in our own heads seems to be what counts. Once that happens we realize we don't need much more.

Good Morning China!

[Original Blog Entry Monday December 30 by Letizia. Translated by Brendan. ]

It's four in the morning and we finally concede to the jetlag and surrender to Greenwich Mean Time: The girls are playing on their Nintendos in the other room, Brendan is studying the guide, and I'm writing my first post on the road. China has welcomed us with open arms. After 10 hours of half-light on the airplane, we landed in Beijing to the kind of beautiful sunlight that we haven't seen in Ireland since September. At the passport check we were waved through with wide smiles. We noticed a button on the policeman's kiosk that we could press in the event that we weren't satisfied with our treatment. Our suitcases arrived even before we did, and soon afterwards we were already in a taxi called by an airport official whose job seemed to entail helping passengers in whatever way necessary.

Brendan passed his first test in Chinese with flying colours, chatting with the taxi driver while the kids and I were giggling in the back. Once in the hotel, we colonized our room, opening the suitcases and taking out books, slippers, computer and the various other items that for the next months will constitute our home. They are exactly those things that differentiate between a normal holiday and what we are doing - vital for helping us at least feel as if we are not always in a hotel, but difficult to drag across four continents. I'm already thinking impatiently about the first parcel that we'll send home.

Despite the tiredness - for us it was 2 in the morning and none of us had slept on the plane - we headed out and reached Tiananmen Square by foot. Very quickly we realised that we were amongst the very few Westerners around. Locals looked at us with intense curiosity, especially at the girls, and more than once we were stopped in order to have our picture taken with complete strangers. Nina: "I feel like I'm Avril Lavigne!". When we got to the square, the souvenir vendors descended on us, and for the second time we saw the proof of Brendan's Chinese. Along with the language, he also acquired the ability to haggle, without which you can't survive here. From him we learned the magic words to free ourselves from the vendors. When nothing else works; no, no thank you, I don't want it, just say bu yao! with a certain authority, and they vanish. First they freeze, silent, and then they disappear. He assures me that we're not being rude, but I'm not convinced.

The cold at that point was too much, as was the tiredness, so we took shelter in a nearby subway station. Once inside, nobody was inclined to venture back out into the cold and so Brendan gave his final demonstration of his command of the language: with the map of the subway on the wall, in Chinese, he managed to get us back to the hotel, changing train along the way. Needless to say we were the only Westerners around. I don't know if I'll be able to compete with this when it's my turn to translate in South America.

A Puff of white smoke from the Magic Dragon

Anybody who lives abroad and has regular dealings with consulates knows very well how frustrating the experience can be. If bureaucracy is heavy in the country of origins, it's guaranteed that in the respective consulate it has the specific gravity of lead. Not to mention all the other national defects that for whatever reason when exported abroad become worse (It's not my place, who cares?), and when concentrated in a public and happy island like the consulate they reach maximum potential. In the Italian Embassy in Dublin they put Catarella to answer the phones so that to whoever calls, my country introduces itself with an individual that doesn't speak either Italian or English, when in a good mood he grunts, when God forbid you find him in a bad mood he showers you with insults: "For f*** sake, who the f*** is it now? Can't you leave me in peace today?"

The Chinese consulate doesn't seem any better. Located in Dublin, it doesn't accept visa applications by post, you should go there in person to apply and the go back 5 working days later to collect the passport. They concede to use a courier, which is the solutions we chose: cost 100E, plus 130E for the visas.

Because of the money involved, we wanted to be double sure that the documents we wanted to send were ok, so about a month ago we started to try and inform ourselves by phone. On their website they give the opening times to the public and the ones when they answer the phones. No matter how many times we tried though nobody came to answer our calls. After a week of no luck, Brendan sent an email with a list of our documentation, details of flights and itinerary, asking if it was enough to get our visas. They answered within minutes with a clear yes. So we sent our courier and after ten days with no answer I asked Brendan: "Still no news from the Chinese consulate? The five days are up."
"Don't worry, maybe it takes a bit longer, you'll see that...SHIT!!"
"WHAT?!"
"I forgot to include pictures!"

We sent an email profusely apologizing for the oversight, telling them we put the pictures in the post that day and asking them to please join them with the application they received nearly two weeks previously.
Red Dragon: "Bring pictures when you came to collect passports. Mon-Thurs 9 to 12."
Green Shamrock: "Thanks for the suggestion, but it will be a courier to collect the passports, can't we send the pictures in the post and then collect by courier?"
Red Dragon: "We don't accept applications by post."
Green Shamrock: "The application is not by post, it's just the pictures. You already received the application by courier, can you please accept the pictures by post?"
SILENCE...PLEASE...SILENCE...PLEASE, PLEASE...
Green Shamrock: "Tell me now if you are going to accept the damn pictures by post or I have to come to Dublin to bring them myself!"
Red Dragon: "Give pictures to person who comes to collect the passports."
Green Shamrock: "Who comes to collect the passports is a courier who already charged me 50e to bring you the application and 50 to collect the visas! If I bring him the pictures now he is going to charge me another 50!! Can't you please put together the pictures that now surely have with the application you've had for the last 2 weeks??"

SILENCE

Finally Brendan sent another email starting again with the apologies and politely explaining that we needed an answer straight away because if they insisted in receiving the pictures directly one of us had to get on a plane and bring them to Dublin as it was cheaper then sending a courier (God Bless Ryanair!).

With money coming into the equation we find a way to communicate and finally they empathize with our problem: "Brendan, this is incredible! I thought much cheaper sending pictures by courier! As you already have put them in the post it's ok."
An hour later we got an email to say that the the visas were ready.

Booking China

In the last few days we have started to look at hotels in China. There is a huge choice for all kinds of budgets and in Beijing and Shanghai prices are average lower of 1/3 compared to Europe, in Chengdu less than half. The bases for our research were once again the Rough Guide and the WEB.

In Beijing we booked the Novhotel. As a first stop, just arrived and jet lagged, we picked something not very adventurous: 3 stars, near Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. It will help us settle in, even if it doesn't look very exciting. On the other end though, booking the hotel was an adventure in itself. All their rooms seemed to offer accommodation for just one child and we travel with two. It took at least 6 emails to reach an agreement. Whatever way we formulated our request for a double room with 2 extra single beds, the first answer was always "Yes", followed by a complicated song and dance that meant no. In the end we got what we wanted (I think!), but we have probably been very rude in forcing out such a direct answer.

The next stop will be in Xi'an, to see the terracotta warriors. We haven't booked anything yet, but we know we want to stay inside the walls as the city is worth visiting.

The best discovery was the one for our third stop, a guesthouse in Chengdu that Brendan found in a blog. It's called Sim's Cozy Guesthouse, owned by a Japanese-Korean couple, Sim and Maki. Of all the places we'll be in this is the one we are most excited about as it looks like a place where you can meet people and have fun. They organize Sichuanese cooking courses, ping pong contests, and they even have a library for the guests, with "all kind of novels and lomance books"! It looks like the perfect place to free some of ours and start traveling a bit lighter.

Next we'll spend three days on a cruise on the Yangtze from Chongqing to Ychang. Once again, we found a deal on the WEB: a local tour operator called Yatour.
Up until now, we haven't been asked any deposit or credit card number to guarantee our bookings. It will be interesting to discover if it is due to a grater trust on humankind or if there is some trick behind it, (like pre-payed discounted rates...), it's all part of the fun.

Pricing the plane tickets was the easy part, the safest part for sure, no surprises there. Costing all the rest was more difficult and no matter how many calculations and research we have done, the truth is that we won't know for sure until we get back. Obviously we have a figure in mind, we can make a reasonably educated guess, add contingency, but until August the 20Th when we'll be back on Irish soil we can't give a definite answer.

Once again the key to tackle the problem was dividing the eight months into smaller segments and start budgeting for the shortest ones: the first 3 weeks in China and the last 5 in South America. Up until now we have always used the 'Rough Guides' every time we traveled and were never disappointed. We'll trust them even this time :
China 70$ pp a day
Chile 350$ pp a week
Bolivia 40$ pp a day
Peru 60$ pp a day
The figures refer to food, accommodation and transport. All touristy stuff is extra, at least the big ones like a trip to Machu Pichu or a cruise on the Yangtze river. For the children we have budgeted half quote.

The guides always provide three budgets: economic (for backpackers using exclusively hostels and sometimes not even those), moderate (B&B or Hotel and a bit more comfort) and luxury (for who travels 4 stars all the time). At this stage of our life we fall into the second category. Adding the tourist's bits and contingency, the budget for the holidays within the holiday is as follows:

China 4000e
Chile 1700e
Bolivia 1000e
Peru 1300e

We still have to add 5 days in Buenos Aires for which we haven't a figure yet but we assume a cost of living similar to the one in Chile rather than Peru or Bolivia where it is definitely lower.

The next segment to be quoted was the week in Fiji. Even there no surprises because it will be a week in the sun staying put in a resort, getting ready for 5 weeks in South America where we'll be constantly on the move, covering the distance between Santiago and Lima by land. We'll then jump on a plane to Buenos Aires where we'll spend the last few days before getting back to Europe. Prices in Fiji vary greatly. For now we stuck to the middle range and budgeted 2500e for the week, but we won't book anything until much closer to the date.