This post runs a bit (more than a bit, more than more than a bit) long since I had almost no downtime to actually finish posting anything from China meaning the entire stay melded into one entry, I'm finishing up from the plane to Japan (edit, from the train to Nagoya) (edit, edit from the highway to Kyoto) (edit^3 from somewhere in Takatsuki to actually post) but wrote many of the different sections of the post at different times so I've left them as is. My next update from Japan I'm not 100% sure when it'll be, probably with 2 days. Downtime has been in short supply these days. Anywho, I'll update the photo album with captions at some point and proofread...
*March 30* -- I'm starting this post from the plane but will finish it later, I'm about 7 hours in so far so less than half to go! What inspired me to start writing now was that I just spent a while looking out the window down at as close to the North Pole as the flight route will take us. You can kind of see it in the image but I wasn't able to really capture the way you could see giant sheets of ice with cracks spiderwebbing through them, they were surprisingly clear from this altitude giving a somewhat terrifying sense of the scale of those cracks and crevices.
So far the plane-ride has been pretty uneventful, watched some shows I'd gotten for the trip (probably should have gotten more and I'm disappointed the newest episode of Doctor Who didn't finish downloading in time but such is life), some music, rereading "THe Way of Kings" (highly recommended if you like epic fantasy and a good place to start if you don't know if you do), not talking to my seat neighbours too much as they speak no English -- not even the word water--, sadly, so my dreams of chatting up a random stranger will have to wait. In-flight entertainment-wise the other options are a bit slim, it somewhat reminds me of my childhood back when long trips still had one (poor) screen per plane section. Oh, also, whatever Chinese movie they played earlier was terribly translated, and the fact that I know that without knowing Chinese should say something. Let's see when I get a chance to finish this post. Probably sometime tonight or tomorrow.
*April 1, 6:30AM* -- Local Time. That was a pretty fun first night here, I got here and *luckily* got to experience Beijing in its natural state of "Cloudy weather". That's code for very grey and smog-y for those not in the know. It's somewhat unfortunate since my friend, Kat (a friend from McGill), had planned on showing me a place with an excellent view, today it seems pretty "cloudy" as well, so not sure if that'll happen. After arriing at the airport things went pretty smoothly. I got my 72-hour visaless stay stamp and was through to go see her. We took a cab back to her place, dropped stuff off then headed out to go see/do things. I got to experience probably the first rear-ending I can remember (and, no I'm not implying I had one before that caused me not to remember) as the person driving behind our cab slammed into us at a red light causing the cab to hit the car in front of us. Surprisingly there seemed to be almost no damage on either us or the cars (not no damage on the cars but it felt a lot worse than it looked). The driver told us we could leave and she proceeded to take me to "The Place" because the enormity/uselessness of the TV screen amused her, Then we went out for food and had some strange hot-pot like thing which was pretty good. It was here where I experienced my biggest culture shock, nothing came close of the entire Beijing stay. When they brought us water it was slightly steaming, "too cold?", I thought naively, but no, they serve hot (not lukewarm or room-temperature water) as a normal thing. Kat's reaction to my reaction was priceless. [inserting something here from the Shinkansen to Nagoya I have to say I still can't get over it, I don't dislike it but it was definitely the most unexpected thing] From there we went to a lounge first, very classy-seeming and had a drink while catching up and then moved over to a different bar to finish catching up. Overall not a particularly Chinese first night but today should be better now that there's actual daylight, filtered through the "clouds" as though it may be. But the catching up part was a lot of fun as I hadn't seen her in a couple of years, defintely brought me back to the Montreal days.
The current plan is for me to go with her to her office as she has to go in for a bit. Then I'll head out to a temple that I can't remember the name of and after she's done with work she'll come meet me and we'll go do other things that I'll mention later. It's still pretty foggy out which is unfortunate but I guess it's part of the true Beijing experience. It's also pretty weird to be behind the fabled "Great Firewall" of China, not used to sites not loading on purpose. I could get around it through her VPN or my own server if I tried hard enough but as I'm heading up I won't. It's too bad I wasn't able to post this today in the morning as she seems to be almost ready to leave and I don't want to keep her so I guess this'll have to wait until I'm back at some point during the day/night if I can. I think in Japan given all the train travelling it'll be a bit easier to reflect during down times.
April 2, 3:45 AM -- I'm waiting for the wash cycle to end on the clothes I've worn so far as I write this, because I need to set the dryer before catching some semblance of sleep before around 5:40am. I have to say that even given the possible jetlag and lack of sleep I've been surprisingly ok. It's possible it'll be the first day in Japan where I crash but I think not being to properly sleep for too long on the Beijing flight + arriving at 6pm (perfect to stay up until a normal time) helped a lot. Today was really fun as well, a very good start to the trip and it makes me wish I'd set aside an extra day to stay in Beijing as I really had a blast and it's unfortunate I have to leave tomorrow morning. I'll have to finish updating the 31st later as I need to sleep.
*April 2, 11:00AM* -- Now I'm on the plane to Japan after a somewhat harried morning but we'll get to that later. First I'll go over what what we did yesterday. Things started like I mentioned in a prevous update. We took a Beijing bus (they are really cheap and pretty good, though the voice that says "The next stop is --long Chinese placename--" amused me a little as I would think if you know the name of the place you're going to you could catch it during the normal announcement but who knows) to her office building. I had breakfast outside it at a street vendor that sold some kind of pancake with green onions, egg, soy-ish sauces, a sausge and some form of cracker. Not bad, I have to say. Kat had suggested I have a traditional breakfast at KFC and, while I grant you KFC in China is a completely different type of restaurant I don't think I could have shown my face anywhere if I'd done that. After that we went up to her office briefly, nice view, then I got sent off to take the metro which was really nice and easy to use to go to the Lama Temple while she did some work stuff.
The Yonghegong Lama Temple is a buddhist temple of some sort that was the manor of a prince who ascended to the Qing throne. The architecture and style was very much what comes to mind when one thinks of China, and consisted of lots of little pavilions spead out of a surprisingly large area. Lots of red wooden frames and red/green decorations? not sure what the word is, at the top of entries and arches. Lots of Buddhas everywhere as well. I found it interesting how different the experience of the Chinese people I saw going must have been. To me it was a very nice, traditional temple but given how many people were there offering sticks of incense (not lighting them as it was windy and there were warnings not to) and bowing in a very ritualized manner that really remineded me of believers that visit Cathedrals in Europe. In Cathedrals I at least understand the conext and the significance of different symbols and rituals and understand their cultural gravitas but seeing something very similar yet at the same time completely alien as I've never studied Buddhist rites and beliefs it really struck me how different it must be to come to this kind of temple in a culture where this is not just a place to go take pictures. It's a bit odd but it had never ocurred to me it might be used for its intended purpose and not just as a place to sightsee. I feel somewhat bad that to me the bowing and incense offering seemed almost comically exaggerated but that's largely due to a lack of understanding of what the rituals mean (not that certain western rites' meaning helps in explaining them, but at least it helps with understanding why believers are doing them).
I was supposed to meet up with Kat at 11am and it was already... 9:35 or something. I'd even had to wait as I got there around 20 minutes before it opened so I walked around the area for a while, the area was not too modern looking so it wasn't too bad. I walked around a bit and wandered over to a nearby Confucian Temple I'd seen a sign for while wandering around. Apparently Kat didn't know it was there but I told her she should definitely check it out as it's really gorgeous. It's built in a similar style but I like the variety (as while the Lama Temple is large the types of structures are somewhat repetitive). It also dates back to about 400 years earlier than the other, having been built in the early 1300s though it's not clear to me how much remodelling/changes it experienced. Very serene places with very gnarly (literally and figuratively) trees and this one with ancestor plaques / Confucius statues instead of a variety of buddhas. Unlike the other one which was relatively crowded, this one was practically empty which to me seems like a shame but it makes sense if most people visiting the other one were actually using it to some degree.
After that I walked back to the coffee store we were going to meet at and waited briefly before Kat showed up. It's also worth mentioning that because of the wind that made them put up signs saying not to light incense, the sky had cleared up a lot which is why you'll see blue in my pictures even though the start of the day was pretty grim.
April 2, 3:15pm -- Finishing this from the Shinkansen en route to Nagoya as I started to finish too late on the plane. Probably won't be able to post until I get to somewhere with wifi, though.
Anywho, proceeding. We wandered around the area near the temple a bit as the buildings there were a bit more reminiscent of the older styles before a store caught my eye as they seemed to have some tea things inside. I was about to keep walking when Kat something she seems fond of saying, "If you want to, don't be shy", I theorize it's some Chinese construct that snuck into her English and she seemed to think it plausible. So we did. There went 3 hours or there abouts. It was a very nice store, had a tea ceremony set on display, other teaware on the walls, very tastefully decorated. The girl working there came out and offered us a pu'erh tea sample prepared in the ceremony manner (I don't think she was going all out with the formalities but it was in that vein), this vaguely reminded me of that scam in China were unsuspecting foreigners are tricked into getting tea by some friendly natives and then get a gigantic bill. Not in that that's what I thought was going on, but it was funny that if anything in the end we got reverse-scammed.
Because while it just started with that pu'erh, the shopgirl and Kat hit it off and were talking quite a bit in Mandarin (mostly the girl talking, Kat relaying after a long speech) but she talked about many things including certain aspects of the ceremony, how to say thanks (tap with two fingers in a kind of claw-grip), how to hold your cup (different for guys and gals), how some customers were ridiculously rude but she couldn't do anything while she was in the store uniform, which seasons teas went with, how "Mondays are business" or something to that effect because nobody sells anything on Mondays. It was thoroughly entertaining, we got to try a green tea as well, oolong twig tea, another pu'erh... we got homecooked noodles in a really nice room. The place seems to hold calligraphy classes and tea ceremonies and that kind of 'traditional values' gatherings and had some very nice rooms spread throughout the inside which was surprisingly large. All in all it was a pretty fortuitous usage of "don't by shy". Kat even ended up adding the shopgirl (there was no one else in the store) on the Chinese FB/WhatsApp. I ended up buying a sculpture-y thing which I really liked which apparently can also be used as a flute? it wasn't clear exactly how nice it could sound since the shopgirl didn't know how to use it but it was pretty so I got it. She added a bunch of samples in the bag and all the ceremonies and lunch and all ended up being free which is why it's like a reverse scam. From what Kat said it seemed like she was just really lonely on Mondays which I can believe as only 2 other people came in during the 3 hours we were there. It was a great and unique experience. It also furthered my being impressed by Kat's Mandarin, which looking back I realize I didn't mention. It was very impressive to me given that she didn't know any before heading to Beijing. She claims it's only conversationally good but I don't know, the way that shopgirl takled when she got excited was probably not easy to follow, and her dealings with cab drivers and other people really impressed upon me how good one can get with practicing.
We then walked past a lake that had some nice new constructions on the way to Prince Kung's Mansion which was also the old-style architecture. We looked around for a bit but I feel like by that point we were both a bit out of it and didn't really spend too long, I was probably starting to get a little "been there" with the fact that all three places I went to had similar motifs and looked not dissimilar, loosely speaking. I did like the rock maze-like gardens. After this our plans were to go to the street-food street as Kat called it and after we were meeting some of her friends to have dinner. We took the long and non-scenic route to the street-food street as Kat('s subconscious) really wanted to show me the less picturesque, more 'normal' parts of the city. This decision wasn't entirely on purpose but, hey, this fits in with one of my goals which was to go to places 'normal' people are just doing their thing so it worked out. Thanks, Kat! Don't feel bad about it!
Anywho, we eventually made it to the street and it really reminded my of Duluth (a restaurant filled street in Montreal), it had a similar look and vibe though the focus was more on street-food instead of restaurants. I tried a duck skewer with some kind of curry-like powder, pretty tasty, then some fried chicken that was also pretty decent (if, as Kat was well aware of, not the healthiest thing in the world). While waiting for her friends after that we had a beer at some bar owned? run-by? an Australian dude that was called 12m^2 because that's how much floorspace it has. After that when meeting up with her friends we ended up at a Yunan-food restaurant which is not something you often see outside of China, I think. I'd only ever associated Yunan with certain teas but the food was quite excellent. The pictures won't be up yet as Kat took them but I'll update the album with them later. I particularly liked a mushroom dish, a dish of mint leaves with some chili, some kind of fried red beans where each bean was fried individually to be crispy outside and bean-y inside. Very good food overall. Kat's friends seemed pretty cool as well, they met teaching English when she first arrived but they are going back to the States soon, it's never fun when friends leave your city.
After we went to a bar called Mai (Mai bar?) not sure exactly. They had some kind of deal where the third drink was free (also known as 3 for 2) on mixed drinks that were very well presented and tasty. We talked at the bar for a while, definitely a cool crew to be with. After that they left and we went to "Atmosphere" which is a fancier lounge that's very high up and thus has a great view of Beijing. This is the place she'd thought to take me my first night here but it was too smoggy out so this fantastically nice day--night now--, weatherwise and I guess just in general, was a good time to do so to get a night time view. The views were nice, but I feel like cities tend to look especially similar at night.
We got there at around 11:30pm and seem to have left at around 2:20 based on my photos which at least partially I use to document where/when things happen. We only had one drink there so I feel like they probably wanted us to leave earlier but they're not the boss of us. The place was pretty much empty by the time we left but we talked for a while on love, life and the pursuit of happiness. Not even trying to be (too) clever there. But it was pretty real talk which was nice to do with an old friend as my visited winded down. I feel like in a lot of ways we're pretty similar which is probably one of the reasons we get along pretty well. Going to miss you, Kat!
April 3, 10:26AM -- Now I'm finishing from the highway en route to Kyoto. This post never ends, if you've made it this far congratulations!
I guess all that's left for Beijing is the somewhat hectic exit. After getting her place, we put my clothes in the washer to have everything fresh for Japan. It's apparently a very slow washer as it wasn't done until slightly before 4:00AM so that sucked as when I started the drier the timer read 2:00 which meant it wouldn't even be done when I woke up at 5:40AM. After waking up I tried to take the clothes out but that was apparently harder than you would think. It knew better than me (and Kat when she woke up) and it took a while to cool down enough to let the door open. Kat was amazing enough to gift me a tea-set and some tea as well before I left, I normally don't like playing the "oh, no, no, have it", "oh but I just couldn't", "no, no, I insist", game but do it anyway because you kind of have to. I didn't protest too strongly this time because I did like it and because I think Kat is one of the few people that I know that really wouldn't offer things like that if she didn't want me to have them if I liked them. I do really appreciate the gesture! After that originally she'd planned to go with me to the airport but I felt bad as she had work that day so I told her to stay in, that it was no big deal, learned the word for airport and went to go catch a cab after saying goodbyes. She'd made it seem so easy and there were always a lot of cabs around her place. I tried with the ones nearby but they didn't seem to want to so I went to the main street and hailed down around 5 cabs that all didn't want to. At this point it was starting to get a bit later than I wanted it to be and I started to get stressed.
I rushed back to her apartment (so much for having gates and locks and keycards) and originally went into the wrong building as when I got to her floor there was no Christmas tree / decoration at her door. I rushed back down, went into the right building, then knocked on her door and she graciously put on a coat and rushed out with me. Grabbed a cab and negotiated with him at a non-metered fare as apparently they don't like going there as it's far and to pick people up at the airport there is a long line. A real lifesaver that girl, who I don't think I mentioned to that she looked a lot more Russian than normal for some reason. Again, without her Beijing would have been a lot less fun, not being able to communicate with people is pretty scary and not something I can remember really experiencing. After I got in there was a lot of traffic getting out of the city and I started to get really stressed because I could see the clock going 7:00, 7:10... and the flight was at 8:45. Luckily after a certain point traffic broke or I really would have been late. After getting to the airport I ran to the counter and the guy basically said, "we're leaving", I was instantly petrified but it didn't make sense to me as it was still an hour before the flight. When he repeated what he said it was, "where leaving?" which let me breathe out (but my heart kept going for a bit). After doing the checkin and getting into the securue are I bought some things at the duty-free shop to give as gifts if need be. Then headed to gate E-1 (which if anyone is counting is reallly far). After sitting down I was finally able to breath.
Bye Beijing, bye Kat, thanks for everything! I'll try to come back for longer at some point if you're still around, definitely feel like I could have done 2 full days there (though if you have to go to bed sleeping so little is probably not a good idea, I think the on the plane I managed around 2 or 3 hours, then 5? the 31, then 2 the 1st). I totally agree with you that while there I was also really happy so I can only hope Japan will be at least close! Maybe at some point I'll write a bit more about Beijing in a more reflexive way but this post is more than long enough.
