Amazing China

I couldn't prepare for an 'unplanned' trip, I did not choose to start to learn twenty new languages but somehow I felt my mind was more prepared to travel through Russia then for being in China. Such a huge amount of 'new' things. And it goes far beyond just leaving fork and knive behind, which we consiously did in Mongolia! I adapted quickly to at least read the cyrillic alphabet but now at the time of writing being 12 days in China I must admit not to know any of the chinese signs! They have over 10.000 signs if you also take some older ones which are not used frequently anymore. The pinyin, or chinese in our letters, is a bit easier but this comes with four tones which still make correct pronounciation very hard! Our first hitchhiking experiences here also went with some difficulties but with joy as well. At the border town Erlian, an English speaking girl helped us to get some useful sentences on paper and to get to the gas station at the road to Beijing. Sometimes we would feel like an unknown animal in a zoo. In extreme hot weather and only desert surrounding us the local people surely showed interest and were curious about us, but remained far from understanding what is hitchhiking. With spending some money for a ride we conclude our first day in China with sleeping in the desert in our tent. By nine in the morning we would feel already again like being in a dry sauna. Mouth feels dry and almost no need for going to toilet! What we saw? Empty land with some attempt to plant trees. The sand storms from Gobi frequently attack bigger cities southwards like Beijing but desertification goes on ... . The villages we passed were also in strong contrast with Siberian colourful wooden houses or the gers. It felt like passing true history. Old loam houses, all with the same sandy colour and structured in a linear and unsocial pattern. Driving further along some antennas interrupted this dream. Chinese roads were very good compared to Russia but also here many people drove off-road, just on sandy roads next to the good one, this time to circumvent the road tax! The second day we ended up in Jining and again exposed to the help, or attention, of quite many people we managed to get to the right road out of the city, but five hours of unsuccessful hitchhiking brought us to take a bus to Beijing.
Though we are again gifted with time we reached Beijing quite quickly, we did not know at all what to expect but in general you could say we are not so keen on cities ... Walking in Beijing I just had too few eyes and even less place in my mind to absorb what I saw. A whole new world! This city embraced us and probably remains a place to visit. We were extremely lucky to meet with Zhoya, Carina's teacher of Chinese in Tallinn, with whom we stayed. I don't know where or how to start to describe feelings and impressions I had. Wow Wauw Mmmmm. I really like it and again soon my preconceptions became clear and prooved incorrect. First of all I have to say something about the food. To stamp it quickly: "the most rich kitchen I ever met". From donkey, to chicken fingers, famous Peking Duck, to fish that you see alive 5 minutes before it is on your plate, to bugs and spices. There is so much variety and the tastes and ways of eating are so new and different! Copsticks feel already totally naturally to us, but there is much more like the joy of ordering many dishes and sharing everything. Zhoya is a real food lover and introduced us many times to the most wonderful meals. Among the many dishes tried and seen I recognised none of what we in Europe 'know' as Chinese food! It must be said also that the food is really cheap so even we as budget travellers could afford a 'Burgundian' lifestyle. Now that I touched the issue of money though we did feel a change in ourselves. As everything is so cheap we ended up spending quite a lot. But we also became tourists both for the Chinese people (merchands) we became people whom they can charge more (untill Carina became very good in the bargaining 'game') and in our actions like visiting 'costly' tourist attractions. When we yesterday found a place in Xian where the real old tempels and houses where not restored yet, we felt pure joy and confirmed our doubts about the value of tourist attractions. In Beijing there are many of those but the most I liked really just hanging around in the small alleys (hutongs), joining in for some evening dancing on the streets and discovering faces, smiles and smells. We left aside some of the 'have to see's' but we did visit the Great Wall, though with a personal touch! By closing time we hid in the forests next to the wall under a mosquito net and then when the 'coast' was free we climbed a watchtower and slept under an amazing starry sky. We lived a full week in Beijing and the top five moments of immense happiness and satisfaction were probably the tea ceremony offered by Zhoya who graduated from masterclass, the food, the so right-not kitch appearance of chinese architecture and red pawns, the bicycles and the blue sky after four days of smog. Because it is true, you see the smog! And even when temperatures already rose to 36 I was happy to see the sun! It might have been that the four green days, which obligated half of the cars to stay at home, helped a hand but if Beijing will be able to make a real change by summer 2008, when it hosts the Olympic games, remains a question. China is truly amazing, a too crazy and intense experience to put into words!
I was writing now from Xian, a former capital of China, very different to Beijing but also beautiful! Tomorrow we hit the road again!