Super Hospitality

Super Hospitality I was fortunate to have an invitation to stay with some people in Beijing. Considering that they were friends of a friend of a friend I was lucky indeed. In fact, I hit the jackpot. My hosts Taylor and MCK weren't just generous they were all around great guys; really interesting, fun to hang out with, extremely creative, nice friends, plus handsome to boot. I have no problem admitting a small man crush on my hosts, and it was difficult to finally leave their place. It was great because I got to experience Beijing from an ex-pats prospective and I felt like I actually got to sample life in the city. Not only did I travel around and see the sites, I also had the pleasure of dinner parties and meeting many great people. This is just the second capital I visited on this trip so far-Tokyo being the other, and I've loved them both, but for different reasons. Tokyo is the epitome of a metropolis and since it's Japanese it has all the craziness and excitement of that culture. These are just two of several reasons why it's great. What I loved about Beijing was totally different. The history of the city is interesting, but it's the dynamic nature of the place that I loved. China is going through a revolution unlike anything we know. It's a simultaneous industrial and information revolution taking place in the twenty first century. Beijing is the nexus of this development- some say Shanghai but Beijing is the political capital in any case. And it seems to be attracting people interested in benefiting and shaping the development of the country. The people I met in the capital were all doing some very interesting things from running their own non-profits to working for embassies. My hosts were no exception. Taylor has a number of interesting consulting gigs including helping Chinese companies list on the German market. MCK runs his own strategic marketing company called Khaki Creative. There is an entrepreneurial bent to expat life in China that's very exciting at the moment. I loved that I got to see this life close, even if it was just for a week.

Pumping it Up
So the guys I stayed with are real go getters. In go getter fashion they would start their days with an early morning workout. This was first introduced to them by a guy named Matt, who also happened to be staying there. Matt is a former army captain who was in China to follow Mao's Long March. He's currently applying for a Fulbright to come back here for research on the subject (see what I'm talking about when i say interesting people). Aside from being a great guy, the man is huge! Matt used a set of workout tapes called P 90x during his service, and passed along his wisdom to MCK and Taylor when he saw that they were interested in intense workouts. The boys asked me if I was interested in joining them for a killer morning workout. This never really crossed my mind, but when in Rome.... I think I'll always associate Beijing with this routine because for a week plus this became an important part of my daily routine, starting everyday at 6:30. P 90x (this and other tapes can be found on www.beachbody.com) is a ninety day fitness challenge that is supposed to transform the fit and healthy to ass-kicking super-specimens. The tapes are led by an overly energetic fitness guru named Tony Horton. The man could probably kick Sergeant Slaughter's ass and is very likely on speed (he's way too energetic not to be). Without going into too much detail, there are about ten routines, that alternate through the three months, jumping, lunging, stretching, and lifting, using nothing more than weight bands and a pull-up bar. This man will destroy you! Even though it was only one week, I think I could feel results. I'm certainly not cut now, but I am fitter than when I started. There was something really great about starting my days with this intense activity and although I was constantly sore, hopefully it's something that will be part of my life when returning to some degree of normalcy. Since my situation was so comfortable , I was in no hurry to see all the sites, although I saw plenty. Instead, I focused on hanging with my new friends, and eating some yummy food. I spent a day in the old hutong neighborhoods of the city. Another wandering in open markets and pretending to be interested in the mounds of cheap knockoffs and 'antiques'. It's fun to bargain especially when there's nothing you fear not getting. Before I knew it, I was in Beijing a number of days without having seen the obligatory sites.

TRAINING EAST

Training East

The last flight to Beijing left Dunhuang at the end of October. It sucked that I missed it by a couple of weeks, but it meant I would have the pleasure of taking my first sleeper train, a nice easy 30 hour ride. Dunhaung is not on the main east-west transit line so it meant that I had to first get to Liuyang, some hour or two north, and since my train was to leave at five in the morning I figured I might as well sleep in the station.

After help from the hostel, I found myself in a shared cab at about nine in the evening. After running a few errands, including picking up more passengers to squeeze into the back, we were on our way, weaving along an unlit desert highway. It was a bit scary, so I dozed off. By one we were in the station and within five minutes I had picked out my very own spot amid the grime and cigarette butts to sleep on the floor. At five, I stumbled into the train and in no time I was asleep again nestled in my own little sleeper bed.

By eight thirty the cabin was alive with activity. I fought the urge to get up mainly because there was no where to go. I was stuck for a day plus; sleep seemed like my best option. The next day was spent alternating between reading, writing and sleeping, kind of like my trip from Japan. This time though all the characters were front and center (sometimes on my bed) for me to observe. I think I turned out to be more interesting for them, then vice versa. As the only foreigner I had to struggle with some major language issues. I had an initial conversation with my neighbors for about an hour. That sounds impressive, but in fact, I only understood the first minute or two and thereafter I was just nodding politely. Most of my interlocutors peeled off as they lost interest, but one guy kept me sitting there for a while. Where was I to go? If I scampered off to the bathroom, he would just be there when I got back. I just had to wait until he decided to shut up.

A number of people on the train thought I was Chinese. They would approach me and ask, "Are you from Xinjiang?" This question is only slight less ridiculous after you learn that this is the home of the Muslim Uigher population. Some of them have beards, I have a beard. I guess it makes sense.

Two observations from the train. Chinese travelers are terrible packers for train journeys. This is apparent in their selection of food, and bizarre attire. It seemed that the average traveler brought a quantity of food equal to or greater than a fifth of their body weight. As if they are prepared to spend not one day, but possibly one week with this stock. As if this weren't enough, several bought additional boxes of fruit. Many of the male travelers wore cheap sport coats, which I found odd because they weren't warm, didn't' look good and there was no place to hang the jacket. Odder still was the amount of pant layers worn by the guy in the bunk next to me. After the trousers came off, he removed his sweatpants, after which he had thinner pants, which were over long johns. This made no sense to me since the cabin was totally temperature controlled and rather pleasant.

The toilet was also stranger. Rather than keeping the waste to be drained at the station. The toilet opened upon flushing and seemed to let everything fly. I'll have to have a closer look the next time I pass some tracks. The trip passed without any major discomfort and I arrived in El Capital without any problem.

Rockets A Flying
Before I get to my wonderful time in Beijing. I wanted to discuss a couple recent events. Prior to my visit, I learned that Beijing experienced one of the largest snowfall in the past thirty years. Apparently the city is having some water problems so the government tried to induce rainfall. This was done by shooting a rocket into the sky to seed the clouds. Unfortunately, the dosage was mistakenly too large and the weather was colder than expected. The result, snow, lots and lots of snow. Ooops. No biggy, as it melted a few days later, and fortunately, it snowed two more times in the week plus I spent there.

The other event that caught my attention was the opening of a new stock exchange. I believe it's called the GEM market. On it's first day of trading all the stocks were up twenty percent, such that trading temporarily suspended. The excitement of the opening I think is common here when discussing the economic situation. The euphoria together with the massive level of development and lack of the true oversight (read rampant corruption) worried me. Stocks don't go up forever, companies don't effectively /police themselves , tax dollars get misappropriated. Everything is all good right now, but what happens if there's a problem

Caravaning West

Caravaning West

After a week of abdicating most minor decisions to my new Chinese speaking friends, I was once again on my own and totally lost in translation. I shouldn't say totally since I've picked up a bit of Chinese. I can now ask for directions. Unfortunately, I won't understand the answer. I don't actually mind the helplessness, it's funny at times and a good lesson in trust. But at times it does lead to adventures.

The goal for my first day on my own was to visit the mountainside monastery some two hours from where I stayed. It was a struggle from the get go as the tax driver charged three times the actual price to get me to the bus station. Fortunately, I knew the price and when he said 12, I paid four, we were both happy. The next bus, supposedly every half hour, wasn't to leave for an hour and when it did we went five minutes before stopping for an additional hour to find more passengers. From the book, I learned to take the bus to a small town, some seven km from the monastery where frequent minibuses shuttle back and forth to. Small town was an understatement as this village didn't have more than twenty houses by Chinese standards this place is nonexistent, there was no minibus to be found and it turned out to be twenty km away. There didn't seem to be anything around. Yet with little hesitation I hoped off as the bus driver gesticulated this as my destination. By this time it was already mid-afternoon and I didn't want to be stranded here. So I walked through the neighboring hills. Accompanied only by the buzzing of cicadas and the distant howling of dogs, I was by myself in the middle of the high desert, totally lost. It was great, much more enjoyable than the monastery for sure. Surrounded by dirt fields, a blue blue sky, snow capped mountains, I really enjoyed this time of being in the middle of nowhere.

That experience was replicated a few days later in Jayaguan. the only reason to visit this dusty little desert town is to see the fort, which was located at the western point of the Chinese Empire. It was nice, but like many of the other sites here, too much theme park, not enough history. I was tempted to pay the dollar to defend the fort from attackers by shooting arrows down from the wall at a straw man. And I was really hooping that a tourist would try their luck firing a cannon juts outside the fort's gate. Who owns a cannon? And how did they get it? Once I was down with the fort, I spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering along the Great Wall. This was my first experience with the wall and rather than the dramatic twists and turns in the mountainside, this section just flowed into the barren desert. It was fun to do, but not the amazing experience I'm hoping for outside of Beijing.

Riding Off Into the Sunset, On A Camel

My last stop out West turned out to be one of my favorites. The Great Wall is supposedly the border, but Dunhuang really is at the edge of civilization. My hostel literally backed into sand dunes. I had previously been convinced of the pleasure of an overnight stay in the desert and the camel trek sounded fun. I was prepared to go by myself, but I was grateful when I found the other two guests in my hostel were equally keen on spending the night among the freezing elements.

Before riding off into the sunset on my camel, I first visited the Magao Caves, the largest complex of Buddhist Grottoes in China. As you can probably guess from my two previous experiences, I had an interesting visit here. Louyang and Tianshui have impressive carvings, Magao has that, plus some very unique artwork throughout the site. Think Buddhist art meets Arabic art. Flying Buddhas, dramatic colors, something unlike anything I've previously seen. I think this site along would justify coming all the way out here. The desert is an added bonus.

Dunhuang is home to some of the tallest sand dunes in the world, and the desert here looks like it does in the movies. It's no coincidence since they actually film movies out here. We could see their trucks in the distance. I was hoping to be an extra in a Chinese Kung Fu desert movie (how cool would that have been?), but it didn't happen. The camel trek was nice, nothing to blow my mind since I've been in the desert before, unlike my Chinese companions. It's always peaceful to be in the middle of nowhere. Since there was a full moon, midnight felt like dusk and while the stars were out in full force, it wasn't one of those nights where they blanket the sky.

It was very cold, certainly less than freezing and even with my warmest clothes on, I still felt chilly. The camel guide was fortunately well prepared bringing along old army jackets. Unfortunately he didn't have the matching maozi (hat) since that would have had the double benefit of warming the ears and making for a funny picture. His other technique to battle the cold was to light dried camel dung on fire and bury the embers under the tent. He clams to have discovered this technique himself. Which is a shame, since this is a well-known strategy for adding warmth when needed. Let me tell you, nuzzling into your sleeping bag in the freezing desert is much easier when you're on top of some smouldering poop.

The next day, we got up to watch the sunrise. But since china doesn't 'believe' in time zones, this was easier than it sounds. Sunrise was at 8:30 or so, kind of weird. What I enjoyed most about the desert was climbing up the sizable dunes and tromping back down. Invariably the dune peaks seemed closer than they were and it was tough, yet rewarding work. Some times the sand was nice and compact and no problem to walk in, at other points, I would sink in to my knees. The climbing up was nice and the view from the dunes was really great, but my favorite part of the whole trip was finding my way down the dunes. This was best done by running as fast as I could through the powdery sand. The inclination was very steep and the only way to prevent tumbling down was to keep running. Oh, what great fun. It was with great satisfaction that I would take off my shoes and empty the ample quantities of sand.

So that was Dunhuang and the desert. Really pleasurable, if the temperature was a little bit more accommodating I would stay longer. It was certainly time for me to see the capital and after a thirty hour train trip that would finally happen.

A TASTE of TIBET

A Taste of Tibet

There is so much discussion of Tibet in the West that it's hard not to be curious and want to see it for yourself. Currently, the only way for non-Chinese to go the region is with a guided tour group, with a cost of two to three times actual travel costs. I am certainly curious to see Lahsa and it would be interesting to see what must be beautiful mountains and countryside, but I don't like the idea of seeing a Tibetan theme park. For travelers in the West, there are plenty of Tibetan towns that are open and with a short detour can be visited no problem. This past week, I've seen several of these towns in the Gansu and Qinghai Provinces. Some travelers have discussed this as a more 'authentic Tibetan experience,' since there are a higher percentage of Tibetans than in much of Tibet, with a less (but frequent) prominent police and government presence.

I'm going to leave all the politics to the side, especially since I'm waiting for a visa at the moment. I'll say only this; the post-colonial dialogue that we often hear in the West, "China bad, Tibet good," is a ridiculous oversimplification of the issue and should be rejected.

The three cities I've been to are all one-street towns of various sizes. The smallest being 3,000, the largest of about 70,000. Two things hit me immediately as I left the bus station in Xiahe. First, you can't but notice the dust, soot, exhaust that chokes you on any main street. It's enough to make one want to buy those little gas masks. At times, I was surprised not to be coughing up a dust clod. Second, the Tibetans are spitting images of the Andeans, same round face, flush checks, big smiles, layered dress, silly cowboy hats, even the scenery is similar. Of course you see monks here, and rather than little alpaca dolls you see tiny yaks,. But the similarities are uncanny and there must be some relation. This observation was shared by a Canadian and American that I spent the next couple of days with. Since the American could speak Mandarin, we had some funny discussions and good times with the Tibetans. Plus she taught me two new terms. ABC- American Born Chinese, and Sea Turtles- Chinese that live abroad but eventually make their way back to China. Funny. The first day we walked down some random street where some water system was being installed. In a short time we were in discussion with ten Tibetans ranging in age from 15 to 30. Much merriment ensued and in no time they were inviting us to their house half an hour away. Their hospitality was great as they offered the little they could, tea and an edible, yet unappetizing paste/bread called tsampa. They really enjoyed our digital cameras and took pleasure not only in looking at past pictures and seeing themselves, but also at trying their hand at photography.

Monkeying Around

Xiahe is home to one of Tibetan Buddhism most important monasteries- Labrang. This monastery and much of the city took part in riots last year. As a result, it is much less active-less monks, than in previous years. Still the monastery gives the town a special feel and you can't help but notice the presence of monks in the city. After poking out heads into various temples we climbed a stupa where we discovered a small basketball court with monks shooting some hoops. They were very excited when we walked onto their dirt court and in no time we were playing a spirited game of four on four. I chuckled when I saw one of them wearing an Iverson jersey and I was pleased to discover that I dominated the game. I think it's been five years since I've touched a basketball, but I was of course a college baller. I believe I was described in the local paper at the time as a raw talent at best. Oh Yeah! Once you start moving the altitude at 3,000 meter causes a burning in your lungs and shortness of breath.

After the game we were invited for lunch- some type of rice slop that tasted kind of like risotto. We took lots of pictures and laughed a lot, it was great. Several of the monks were excited to see my arm hair, delighted to see my hairy legs and went nuts when they discovered hair on my chest. At one point a monk grabbed my pants to sneak a peak at what lies below. He was unsuccessful, but I'll tell you, more hair. I have a rip in one of my pants and a kind monk suggested I make a patch with my leg hair. If I were easily offended, I promptly would have kicked him off the team. Instead, I've penciled him in as the starting two- I like his aggressiveness.

I spent the next week traveling with a Chinese speaking Belgian guy, and a constantly giggling Chinese lady. My favorite line from her- you look like a Bin Laden but cuter. Wow great!? We spent the first couple of days walking around. Langmusi was our favorite hiking spot and after waiting out the weather-it was snowing, something that I am completely unprepared for. We had a nice hike to the neighboring cliffs. The altitude really affected me and when we climbed three hundred meters to our peak of 3700m, I was pooped. After downing many a beer and gobbling up something called a yak burger we slipped under our electric blankets and off into sleep.

Xining was our destination since as a regional capital it was a safe bet to extend our visas. With no direct buses we were forced to stop over at Hezuo. Nothing too exciting here, and after a few days of no hot water we decided to go to a bathhouse. For five bucks we got all the hot water we would need and a massage to boot. It was an odd experience starting with the ample application of vinegar followed by a rubdown with a scouring pad normally used for pans. After scrapping us back, front and in between a balm of salt, random bag A and random bag B was applied. We were then tenderized by being whacked up and down- it really hurt. With the abuse over, we were ready to cook over low heat in the sauna. Our Chinese gal pal was equally indifferent to her massage, suggesting the masseur had more practice using her hands in a different more 'adult' way.

No problem with the visa in Xining and after a couple of uneventful days there, the highlight being learning Chinese drinking games and partying at a local club, I've headed back on my own NW along the Silk Road. Unfortunately, I'm heading the wrong direction (west) and flights back to Beijing are no longer available. This means I'll either have to detour or take a really long train back. Then again, I can always keep going until I hit Khazakstan, I heard about some event called running of the Jew. Nah, I'm excited to finally see Beijing, it's time. But first a couple last days in the wild wild West playing in the desert.