Beijing, CHINA - 24 june 2002
Beijing was a blurry, foggy mess when I arrived. I had expected searing-hot 40°C summer temperatures but I heard that a cold front had moved in a few days ago and it had been raining everyday since.
I found Jing Hua Hotel without much difficulty and was issued Bed 3 in the 20-bed dormitory.
Bed 11 guy was playing guitar in the room when I entered. He introduced himself as Raymond, from the Philippines. He is a musician and had been playing in bars around China for months. I recalled another Filipino musician Ato I met earlier in Dali and asked if Raymond knew him. Bingo. They had jammed with each other for years before in Manila and even here in China. What a coincidence!
Eager to exercise my limbs after the 48-hour train confinement, I checked out the massive city immediately. The place to start wandering would be the Tiananmen area. I soon realised that due to an internet bar fire incident a few weeks ago which killed 20+ young people in Beijing, the authorities had gone and shut down all internet bars in China. Well, I guess, travellers like me would be ‘shut out’ from communications with the outside world for a while.
Beijing is impressively modern. I could really feel the efforts put in by the government to improve its facilities and roads, etc… and be spiffy and ready for Olympics 2008. I mean, there are many FREE and CLEAN public toilets around the Tiananmen Square - something almost unheard of in other parts of China.
There seemed to be more toilet attendants than users. I had barely opened the cubicle door to depart before a toilet attendant stuck her head in and demanded to know if I had flushed. Yes, unlike the Chinese, I had been toilet-trained since birth to flush my rose bowl.
For want of a destination, I plucked the Silk Market from the map and strove to get there by walking. The map of Beijing in my guide-book looked innocent enough but Beijing is impossibly gigantic. It took 3 hours before I reached the Silk Market from the Tiananmen area, thoroughly exhausted.
The Silk Market sold Oriental costumes, fake NORTH-FACE jackets and outdoor backpacks and bags, ties, etc… By chance, I ran into Robin and Louise (from England) whom I had previously met on the horse-trek in Songpan! Woah, what a pleasant surprise! It was wonderful to see them again. Louise was buying two Oriental cheong-sams or qi-paos. I would never be caught dead in a cheong-sam but I guess, Western tourists found them exotic.
We caught up with our travels and had a great laugh over the silly things that had happened. Then, I went with them to a famous Beijing Duck restaurant and helped them order two sets of take-away Beijing Ducks as their form of thanks to the friends they had been staying with in Beijing. Y105 each. Wow… that was a lot of money to me. But Robin and Louise were heading home tomorrow and it was time to splurge. Great for them!
Beijing, CHINA - 25 june 2002
Bed 2 guy, Guillaume from Canada, invited me to join him to visit the Great Wall. We decided to head to a section called the Huang Hua Great Wall which we heard was wild and crumbling and which had very few tourists.
It had rained continuously since last night. We had chosen the worst day to climb the wall. But we were not alone in this error of judgement. We ran into two other room-mates, Matt and Tim from England, at the metro station and they had decided to camp out at Huang Hua Great Wall tonight… in this weather.
The company was great fun and the 4-hour metro-and-bus ride to get there did not feel that long.
Indeed, this section was absolutely wild. It was NOT set up like a kitsch amusement park catered for the packaged-Chinese tourists, with T-shirts and souvenir kiosks, a place to print certificates with photos stating ‘I climbed the Great Wall’, etc…
There was only one food stall selling drinks before and after your climb… and a handful of obligatory T-shirts for sale. Hang on, there was no admission fees here. This was incredible news to us.
We huffed and puffed up the Great Wall, scrambling up the rubble and meandering between shrubs in the rain. I was lucky. I had three guys to help lift me up the tricky bits. The view ahead was enshrouded in mist and fog. We could hardly make out the trail of the wall around the mountains. Sometimes, we thought we could see it but then, we could not be sure. Still, in a way, it greatly mystified the Great Wall.
Beijing, CHINA - 26 june 2002
Bed 6 Pablo from Argentina had overheard that I needed to make a trip to the Bolivian Embassy to try and apply for a visa authorisation. I explained to him that a Bolivian visa application for Singaporeans seemed to be long and tedious.
As he spoke Spanish, he had offered to go with me just in case he could help explain anything in Spanish to the Bolivian staff there. Also, he needed to pick up his passport from the Mongolian Embassy where he had left for the visa.
So, today was embassy-hopping day. I read somewhere I did not require a Mongolian visa if I stayed in the country for less than 14 days. At the Mongolian Embassy, I tried to get a confirmation. The lady surprised me by telling me I had 21 days free. Excellent!
We eventually located the Bolivian Embassy, which seemed to be undergoing some sort of renovations. Side-stepping the rubble outside, Pablo kindly opened the door for us and we entered.
Well, there was not a single Bolivian in sight. An elderly Chinese woman came out and frowned. I explained my intention to her in Mandarin. She barked back that Asians needed to wait 2 to 3 months before an authorisation could be issued. Was I willing to wait? Yes, that was why I came here 3 to 4 months ahead of my intended travel to try and get the authorisation.
She snatched my passport from me and retorted that my China visa would be invalid by then. I patiently informed her I was leaving the country soon and I would have to be contacted by email and with the (hopefully) APPROVE authorisation, I would go to a Bolivian Embassy in United Kingdom, for example, to process the visa. While she disagreed with this move, she grudgingly, very grudgingly, took out an application form and barked out the things I needed to provide - a letter explaining my intention of travel, where I was going, photocopy of my passport, a photo, contact numbers, etc… And I was to return on Monday, not tomorrow, not the day after… but Monday.
Pablo, stunned by the rapid exchanges of Mandarin between us, was once again put to good use by opening the door for us when we departed.
Argh, what an awful woman!
Beijing, CHINA - 27 june 2002
Another rainy day today. I spent the day wandering around the Forbidden City. I had thought I could visit a museum later but seriously, one could only do one thing in one day in Beijing. If you visited a sight, that was it… no chance for another. If you went to the embassies to stock up on visas, that was it too… no chance to visit a sight. Beijing is just massive.
The Forbidden City is vast. I must have spent 4 or 5 hours meandering in there and still, I probably only covered 70% of the things available.
As expected, the place was packed with tourists, many of whom were Chinese, many of whom were spitting on the precious Imperial grounds. And as expected, one could dress up in Imperial costumes and pretend to be the child emperor or the concubine or the mostachioed emperor on horse-back. Kitsch.
Beijing, CHINA - 28 june 2002
Yesterday’s tour of the Forbidden City thoroughly exhausted me for today. I am sorry to report today was a day off for me.
A few of us late-risers in the dorm did laundry together and then, returned and fought for space to hang our clothes.
Beijing was turning out quite fun for me because of the people I met in the dorm. The 20-bed dorm was great. There was always music in the dorm. One could not really sleep as the lights were on late and people were chatting and laughing in the corner. There was no room to hang your laundry. The bathroom was a 25 minute trek down the damp and mouldy basement and as I descended and headed down the long corridor, sometimes, I felt like I was going through a worm-hole and emerging as ‘John Malkovich’; sometimes, I imagined seeing a pair of twins standing at the end of the corridor, with blood flowing towards me. The hostel is located next to a very smelly river. When I was in the crowded bus, I always knew when to get off… you can smell the river before you see it. Like I said, it was a great hostel.
There were always new people popping in and out and new friends to make.
Bed 16 had a Korean-Japanese guy who came wandering in with his possessions tied in a small bundle at the end of a pole. He had untied his bundle and left his entire earthly possessions strewn around the bed. We veered near to check out his minimalist life-style and spotted two tiny souvenir toy-yaks. Yep, there was always room for yaks.
Bed 1 Jackie from New Zealand had been staying here for four months, studying Chinese and teaching English. She and Bed 11 Raymond won the long-stayer awards hands-down.
Bed 12 had Ben from USA. He had shown me his Russian visa invitation letter last night. As I already had my Russian visa, it appeared I was the one most qualified to peruse his invitation letter. He let out a sigh of relief when I nodded my approval of the Cyrillic letters printed on the letter. Today, he must have paid for the emergency processing of the visa, for he had apparently fled Beijing already.
My next bed, Bed 4, now slept Goretti from The Netherlands. Bed 17 and 18 were soon taken up by Slovenians Jus and Tina. They were all heading to Mongolia soon too.
Beijing, CHINA - 29 june 2002
It was the seventh month of Pablo’s 8-month trip around India, Nepal and now, China. Hence, for him, it was time to think of shopping for souvenirs for his friends and loved ones back home.
We headed down to Panjiayuan Market. Gosh, it was an immense market selling all sort of Oriental things. Perhaps some were antiques but I guess most were fakes.
The market had paintings, furniture, vases, giant Buddhas, brass sculptures, coins, wooden carvings, embroideries, ‘ancient’ scriptures, every Oriental thing that you could imagine. It was unbelievable.
We walked around for 4 hours and Pablo bought many items. At one point, we got down to a corner and shoved as many things as possible into his bag before we proceeded on. I was looking out for snuff bottles as presents for the friends whom I would be visiting in Europe. I finally spotted some which I loved and bought three.
About 1½ hours after we had stopped to repack, we passed by the same spot and Pablo eyed a ball of toilet-paper wrapped in a plastic bag lying on the ground. “Hey, that’s my toilet paper…” It must have dropped out just now when we repacked. Imagine, it had been lying there for the past 1½ hours. Incredulous and giggling away, he reached down to stuff it into his bag. As he was doing so, a few stall-holders started yelling at him, “Hey!! Wo de! [Mine!] Wo de!” “No, it's WO DE!” Pablo retorted adamantly.
Hmmm… Fighting over toilet-paper?
Beijing, CHINA - 30 june 2002
Today, Bed 11 Raymond would finally leave Jing Hua Hotel. He would attempt to hitch his way to Lhasa, Tibet via local trucks, without a permit. Bed 12 Ben had done the same in the reverse direction and had advised Raymond on certain tips. Best wishes to him.
I realised my Monday deadline to hand up my application form and letter to the Bolivian Embassy would be due soon. I usually got an A for Procrastination.
I hurriedly wrote a letter and requested for Pablo and Bed 5 Jack (from Spain) to help me translate into Spanish for the Bolivian authorities. I imagined if I submitted my letter in English, they would probably take another month to find someone who understand English to read it.
Then, I headed out to town to try and get my letters typed and printed. Sheesh, when I did not need the service, I would see the signs for ‘Typing/Photocopy’ all over Beijing. But now that I wanted the service, for the life of me, I could not locate these places.
Also, I needed to post my photos and guide-book home. But, first I needed money for the postal services and again, I could not locate an ATM that worked. This one rejected my card. That one had no cash. It was an ordeal as I trudged around Beijing, hunting for a working ATM.
Once armed with money, I then had no idea where the nearest post office was. Yeah, this was the story of my life in Beijing, wandering around in circles for hours.
At the end of the day, I must have walked for 6 hours today. So, I figured I thoroughly deserved a street-side foot massage done near my hostel.
Beijing, CHINA - 01 july 2002
I returned to the Bolivian Embassy gingerly. The same elderly Chinese woman came out to check out who had just walked in.
She looked at me with dead eyes, indifference and showed no sign of recognition. There was no smile, no flicker of life in her eyes. I cooed and purred as best as I could to try and ignite something in her. My charm failed miserably. Defeated, I proffered my application form and letter nervously.
She glanced at my photo and went, “Hey, this is a very nice photo of you. When did you take it?” She looked back at me, smiling. SMILING! WHAT THE?!?? I stared back at her, stunned beyond words. She continued to make little concerned noises, worrying about my travelling alone, etc…
Well, hey… what a difference my gorgeous photo made.
Beijing to Ereenhot, CHINA - 02 july 2002
Pablo and I had decided to head off to Mongolia together today. Yesterday, Goretti, Jus and Tina had gone to the bus station and attempted to get on the 5pm bus to Ereenhot (border town with Mongolia) and could not get bus tickets.
So, now I was worried that we could not get tickets too. I wanted to try for the earlier 1pm bus for if we could not get on that one, we would try for the 5pm bus. But Pablo had to pack all his souvenirs into his backpack and he suspected he would not be ready by then. He suggested I leave first. We guessed we would see each other across the border tomorrow.
Well, I did make it to the 1pm bus. But this stupid bus went to another bus station and stayed there until 5pm before leaving. Darn!! I should have gone for the 5pm bus instead with all my friends from the Beijing hostel. I was really angry with myself for making this stupid decision to try and cross the border alone. Well, I was not entirely alone. There was one other tourist with me, Barbara from the USA.
She was a peculiar girl. She is only 18 and she informed me that she intended to buy a bicycle in Mongolia and cycle around Mongolia for three months. She hoped that she needed not return to Ulaan Baator to renew her visa after each month, so her idea was to cycle way way way out from the capital. I had no idea how experienced her camping skills were but I had serious doubts about this stunt, especially since I learnt she was a vegan - no meat, no dairy products. Imagine that in Mongolia!
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