China or the Nation at the Center of the Earth

Part One

We arrived at Tianjin, the port of Beijing, China before dawn on Wednesday, October 6.  The first thing I saw when I looked out the cabin window was a large building wreathed in fog.  My sinuses were acting up.  It was clear that the haze was full of dirt and chemicals.

We weren't really in Tianjin. That city is located about ten miles inland.  We were, however, docked at a huge container port, even bigger than Busan.  The port was still under construction.  There were also a complete city, highways, train tracks and industrial sites under construction and hundreds of acres of swampland being filled in for more building sites.  The vastness of the project was overwhelming.

Michael and I had scheduled two full day tours, one to the Great Wall and the other to Beijing.  As a result, we spent two days traveling by bus three hours in each direction to and from the Beijing area.  The smog stayed thick the first day and lifted slightly the second day.  There was construction all the way to and in Beijing itself.  China is now using more construction cranes than any other place on earth.

Michael had heard from his friend Ray, two days ahead of us taking essentially the same route on the Seven Seas Navigator that the Navigator trip to the Great Wall never made it there as there was a several daylong traffic jam leading to Beijing.  There are many millions of newly prosperous people in China and they all want large automobiles.  These cars clog all the roads.  We heard stories of a recent ten-day traffic jam.

Fortunately, we did not see any major traffic tie-ups.  Our Chinese tour guide told us that the air was relatively clear and the traffic relatively light because China was nearing the end of a week long public holiday and most people were on vacation.

We stopped for a Chinese style lunch and shopping opportunity at a jade factory in Beijing before proceeding to the Great Wall.  One of my objections to the tours offered by the cruise line is that they ALWAYS include shopping opportunities.  It's probably how they negotiate a reasonable price (for them) for the tour.  I did find out that when traveling with a group including many grandmothers, shopping opportunities are for some the highlight of any tour.  Those grand kids are getting some strange gifts from Asia.

The Great Wall, or as our guide said the Chinese call it, the Long Wall was certainly great.  We went to one of the less visited but nonetheless busy sections northeast of Beijing.  We had been traveling for hours through the flat delta of the Yellow river.  Suddenly rounded mountains loomed.  Then we spotted the wall through the haze.  We Silver Seas tourists had several hours to look at and climb the wall.  I surprised myself by making it up to the first watchtower, a climb of about 400 feet steeply up.  The worn stone steps were tall and irregular.  I found the climbing difficult.  The view, when I finally made it, was impressive.  I kept saying to myself, "I'm on the Great Wall of China!"  Michael had scampered up ahead of me.  I found him sitting on the steps almost at the top of the climb, really, really exhausted.  He had momentarily forgotten that we had been at sea level for most of a month and he had lost his Colorado conditioning.

We repeated the long drive to Beijing again Thursday.  This time we got an early start and missed the traffic.  The drive was straightforward.  Beijing has ring roads and spoke roads so access to the inner city is relatively easy when there is little traffic.

The Forbidden City is a majestic monument to China's past.  I immensely enjoyed our several hour tour.  Traditionally the Chinese say that the Forbidden City has 9,999 rooms.  It is immense and we probably saw only a quarter of it.  At any time, a good portion of it is under renovation and is off-limits to tourists.

When we arrived at 9 am, the tourists were mostly foreigners.  By the time we left, shortly after 11, the place was becoming filled with wall-to-wall people, mostly Chinese on vacation.

Our next stop was supposed to have been Tienanmen Square.  The avenues surrounding the square were blocked off due to the national holiday.  We saw nothing of the square though the guide described what we should have been seeing.   Michael's blog at http://cbu-nrt.blogspot.com   describes our experience well.  I also agree with most of his comments and analysis about China.  They really do think they live at the center of the universe and everyone else is peripheral.

We drove across Beijing to a Swiss owned hotel for a buffet lunch featuring both Chinese and western food.  Michael and I of course opted for the Chinese dishes.  I had Peking Duck for the first time.  I found it rich and tasty.  It was interesting, and to me somewhat strange, that the servers served the men before recognizing women who were at the serving station first.  Chinese beer is good but their wine needs a lot of work.  Tea is as excellent, as expected.

Our visit to Beijing was to have concluded with a drive by and photo stop at the 2009 Olympic venues.  We circled the area but did not stop.  The guide's narration indicated that the Chinese government doesn't quite know what to do with the buildings.  They may tear them all down except for the "Bird's Nest" stadium and the "Water Cube."  The water cube will survive because of the swimming world records set there.  The stadium may be somehow re purposed.

Our two busloads of cruise passengers were taken instead to an unscheduled stop at a silk factory and another shopping opportunity.  A large number of Silver Shadow's guests objected.  We did get a portion of the tour cost back due to the missed locations.

Modern Beijing doesn't look like any Chinatown I have ever visited.  It resembles big cities everywhere except for the heavy smog and constant construction.  The Chinese living in the cities appear to be doing very well economically.  The young adults don't remember Mao or the Cultural Revolution.  They do know that they are expected to be a-political and concentrate on making money.  They have been taught that "real" Chinese history started in 1949 when Mao declared the "new China."  Except for believing in "luck" the young Chinese don't seem much connected to their history or culture.