My 21 days in China | Part One

It has occurred to me that most of my posts thus far have not been actually about travel and to let you all know I am in a holding pattern for travel until September when I hit the road in full force…so I have decided that I should fill the few weeks I have with some of my stories from the road that you will, hopefully, find entertaining. So here it is, the epic story of my 21 days travelling through China….Part One.

There are a few characters that I should setup before I start in, you can decide for yourself what type of traveller they are:

Me: Your hero, bringing the good word of an institution that will remain nameless to the “masses” in the world’s biggest popluation. The trip takes place 3 weeks after our wedding.

Dave: Your second hero, bringing the good word of a school district that will remain nameless to the good people of China. Dave is one of the nicest people that I have met, personable, joker, helluva crib player and he possesses some  amazing Mandarin skills that unfortunately did not rub off on me.

Shawn: Our guide and mildly confused associate throughout the trip. Never without his mobile phone, which never stopped ringing with some Chinese Operatic tune and a penchant for telling jokes that neither Dave nor I understood but we both laughed politely.

And now on with the story…

In the Spring of 2009 I spent 21 days travelling through various cities in China. While this trip was for work I was afforded, not by my choice, plenty of time to discover and explore many cities, villages and places throughout the country, a country who for me has always been mysterious and yet familiar all at the same time. From growing up in East Vancouver you grow up with many different cultures around you and so while I felt familiar with some of the culture I now know that you can never get a true taste for it until you set foot on the ground.

The Flight (First of Many)

One of the best parts about this trip is that I flew first class everywhere I went and was always on the fastest train, had the best driver and stayed at the “nicest” hotel. If you have the means to fly first class for a 13 hour flight I highly recommend it.

Great food if you can get it

Good food, comfortable beds, drinks flowing…it is basically a lounge in the skies. The fact that the steward introduced himself by first name and new my name (and that it was Mr. Payne) helped me relax and get comfortable for my 13 hours to Beijing. On the plane I met Dave Ryder, one of the most caring and down-to-earth people I have ever met. It’s also rare to travel with someone who is taller than me, not that I’m tall, I guess most recruiters and advisors are just not at 6’2″. Dave is about 6’4″ so we were quite the pair especially when we got to Beijing and found that our guide for the week, Shawn, was about 5’2″….Needless to say the Odd Trio’s China Adventure had begun.

The Real Big Smoke – Beijing

I had been to Beijing twice before this trip and there are three things about this city that you have to get used to 1. It is huge 2. It is congested 3. It is diverse. The first two you could probably easy to assume but they need to be mentioned. The third is a comment on it’s contrast from major metropolitan city to the hutongs. The hutongs are the narrowed-alleyed streets in the middle of Beijing that are located within walking distance to Tianamen Square. People and entire families live in these cramped compartments while towering skycrapers which are either under construction or empty shadow them. We met with a few students in Beijing on the top floor of a massive building with a view of the CCTV centre. If you have the chance to get to Beijing take some time to walk around and explore the city. You will find beautiful small alleys throughout the city. Ignore the skycrapers and buildings take advantage of the walkability of the downtown core.

If it’s Thursday it must be…. – Shijiazhuang, Tianjin

After four days in Beijing we took the train east to the city of Shijiazhuang, which I am sure not many of you have heard of but it has 2 million people, roughly the size of Vancouver. Not much to say about this city other than the train ride itself. We left Beijing right on time and were whisked out of the city into the countryside. One thing that stood out for me is the amount of schools and playgrounds we past along the way. No matter where you travel or where you are in the world, the sound and actions on the playground are the same. Kids playing on jungle gyms, monkey bars and basketball. I don’t know why it stood out for me but I guess my thoughts of Chinese schools were ones of “always studying” and “no play, just focusing on academics”. But those kids that I saw for a brief 0.1 seconds were giving it their all at recess. From Shijiazhaung we took a car, driven by a former military aide, to Tianjin. I have never been driven so fast in my life. No word of a lie, I wrote my address and details in the front of my travel log so if they had to identify the bodies after the accident at least my final thoughts could get back to Jo.

We arrived in Tianjin, Shawn’s home city, after a pretty easy day in Shijiazhuang, and there is something about being in your home city that brings back an energy and pride to your soul. Shawn, despite all of his quirkiness and downright weirdness, was very proud of Tianjin and took us to a beautiful public market.

Tianjin's answer to Granville Island

It reminded me of a more spread out version of the Granville Island Market with different sights and smells. It was a gorgeous day and a great way to spend an afternoon. You are probably starting to notice by now that there is not much work talk here…get used to this pattern.

History in a garden – Xi’an

We moved on to Xi’an which is a city in the interior of China and most well known for being the home of the Terracotta Warriors. It was rainy for most of our time in Xi’an and again there was not much work to do so we went for dinner at a pretty seedy restaurant in the middle of the night market in downtown Xi’an. In the morning both Dave and I were told that no students wanted to meet with us, we had wondered what we’d said, and that it had been arranged for us that we would go to the Terracotta Warriors and to the Hua Ching Po gardens. Both pretty historical sites so despite the rain Dave and I trudged off to these sites and had a wonderful time.

The Terracotta Warriors are a must see. The absolute size and beauty of these statues and the intracacies of the sculptures are unbelievable. Don’t bother getting one of the guides that are waiting outside for you, there are plenty of plaques and enough to look at it is kind of a waste of time and money.

While most people had heard of the Terracotta warriors not as many have heard of the Hua Ching Po gardens. These gardens were a pivotal location in the history of China, especially it’s socialist roots. These gardens were the headquarters of Chiang Kai Shek during the Cultural Revolution. You can still see the bullet holes in some of the buildings from the Xi’an incident. This was not well published when we walked in, just a simple plaque and no other mentions of anything to do with Chiang. The gardens are beautiful ladened with gorgeous masonry, stone archways and beautiful pagodas.

You have to remember that while China is one of the oldest countries with long-established traditions that modern China still has a recent and fresh past that is not widely publicized while you are in the country. Chiang Kai-Shek, Tibet, Muslims and the prosecution of many other religions is still a common occurrence. I found it fascinating that a gardens, like Hua Ching Po, were built during an ancient dynasty yet were still a major flashpoint in modern Chinese development.

Find these types of spots wherever you go

The first part of my trip was filled with a lot of moving around, a lot of small groups of students to meet with and enough history for any history buff. The lesson that I took away was to always look for historical sites that are often the beaten paths and the neon lights of the city. There are always spots out there and they are easy to find, just go where the hoards aren’t.