Leaving China

Above: Gentrified hutong area of Beijing known as Nanluoguxiang.

Final exploration

My last day in China today. I fly out at 2355 bound for Dubai and continuing to Karachi.

I walked to a gentrified hutong area known as Nanluoguxiang. It was quite nice and shaded by willows as it was a 37degC day. Most shops were snack eateries, cafes, craft shops … the usual.  As I had been travelling around Beijing by underground yesterday, I hadn’t seen anything of the city on the surface. So I took a taxi to Qianmen (the City’s front gate to the Forbidden City) and had a walk around there before returning to the hostel.

Gentrified hutong area of Beijing known as Nanluoguxiang.

After a rest and a late check-out at 1800 I managed to fit in a very good massage in an alley near the hostel operated by blind and partially-sighted men. It was a bit pricey compared to Shanghai at CNY80 and it put me a few yuans short for the transport to the airport by metro and bus.

So I had to withdraw more money and decided I’d take the easy way to the airport by taxi combined with the Express train; otherwise the good from the massage may be undone (my sore back and hip) by lugging luggage up-and-down the metro.

Leaving Beijing

I made use of the airport authority’s Business Class lounge (due to credit card affiliation; I’m flying cattle class).  Beautiful prawn dumplings; and white-carrot cake with prawns and eggs.  I followed up with a chicken and century egg congee with various garnishes.  Then my first cuppa white tea in more than 2 weeks.  I had  to pass on all those yummy cream cakes and desserts. Certainly exceeded my expectations as I didn’t expect much from a public-service caterer!  Their First Class section of the lounge must be even better!

As I’m leaving China after two weeks, I’ll rambles on about some things I found amusing plus my Likes and Dislikes from this trip.

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The strength and endurance of Chinese people

I reckon Chinese people are very strong; life is hard and people keep active.  When I went to Shaolin Temple, our 70+ year old kept up with us most of the time.  It wasn’t a cruisy day.

And on the train, I saw granny carry a child (perhaps 2 years old) in a basket on her back.  I have trouble with an 11kg backpack over long distances.

Then there’s Chinese women who outclimb westerners on hills and mountains in platform flip-flops while carrying an umbrella and a handbag, and also playing on their iPhones.  Chinese women used to have bound feet … maybe this has been programmed into their genes and platform flip-flops are super-comfy relative to bound feet.  Some might argue that vanity and the desire for beauty conquers all.

No speak English

Some Westerners think that their immigrant population do the “No speak English” thing suddenly when it suits them in tricky situations. I certainly do the same (or opposite) here in China.While my language skills allow me to get around fine, I can’t hold good conversations with anyone … except that I manage to sustain a whole day’s conversation with my hosts on my Shaolin outing because they dumbed down their choice of words when talking to me. I actually sound fluent for simple stuff.

However, I conveniently do the “No speak Chinese” thing when people try to:

• offer guiding services (true, I wouldn’t understand enough).
• approach me for whatever reason (true, I don’t know what they want)
• sell me their bodies on the street (yes, I understand what they’re selling but no thank you).

Likes

• Cheap (Y1 for small water, less than Y3 for big water, Y5 for big beer, Y5 for local meal, Y5 for short taxi rides in smaller towns). In many places, a big beer is the same price as a big water.
• Reasonably cheap long-distance bullet train.
• World class infrastructure for public transport.
• Everything works like it should (except some websites).
• Nice fluffy duvets in even budget accommodation, enveloped in white-on-white stripey duvet covers. This is despite China being the culprit in exporting all these ghastly synthetic psychedelic blankets to the rest of the world, notably the Middle East.

Dislikes

• Getting expensive: Many entrances are around Y30, developed world pricing of around Y20+ for local or western fast food, relatively expensive long-distance buses compared to bullet trains.
• People that push their way ahead of you; usually the same ones that hoik and spit.
• World class public transport infrastructure that is ahead of its time for the users they serve; many will spit and throw food scraps on the beautiful marble floor.
• Food swims in oil.
• Public buildings eg. stations and airports (and even public transport) are not sufficiently cool.  I guess they stinge on air-conditioning.  I’m sweating in the airport lounge as I write this.