One week down

With my first week in China marked, here are a few things I've noticed so far.

In the US, we highly value personal space. It's totally different in the world's largest country. If you're a people-phobe, you wouldn't fare too well here. Subways and buses can be quite crowded, even when it's not rush hour. Even lining up for anything can be a problem, with a queue more often looking like a mob. Think you're next up to buy a ticket? Think again--someone probably will try to budge in front of you. And if you're trying to take a photo, do it fast, because somebody is about to walk through it.

Cleanliness is of the utmost importance. But at the same time it's not. Someone is always cleaning something, sweeping the street, picking up garbage or emptying rubbish bins. But at the same time, no one hesitates to hock a loogie on the floor of a restaurant or subway station.

I've really enjoyed strolling through the hutongs, the narrow streets and alleys that crisscross Beijing's center. They're often not fully paved and you can see right into people's homes.

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They're also home to some great food. I've eaten in some real shitholes here. Imagine a room about as big as your bedroom. Probably smaller. Throw in a few tables, a tiny kitchen and a guy sleeping in the corner and you've got a great Beijing restaurant. And if it looks like the US health inspector would rather burn the place down than give them a list of things to fix, all the better.

As you might expect in a communist state, police are everywhere. But they're usually either in totally pointless locations or too busy texting to noticing anything amiss.

Yesterday, I visisted the Summer Palace, just on the edge of central Beijing. It's a decent-sized complex set on a lake, so I was thrilled when it was actually a sunny day. We had a ton of rain in the last several days and it seems to have cleared out a lot of the crap in the air (which, by the way, has ravaged my nose and lungs).

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You could actually see more than one kilometer away:

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Today, I'm hopping a train to Qingdao, which is about 800 or so kms south of Beijing, on the coast. It was formerly occupied by Germans, who introduced TsingTao beer. Turns out there's a major international beer festival that starts next week. I don't know that I'll have enough to do in the area to keep me occupied until then, so I might have to give it a miss.

After Qingdao, it's on to Shangai for a few days, which is about 1000 kms further south. And after that, I'll be heading west.

The Great Wall of China

We've heard about the Great Wall since we were little kids. What is there to say? There are several sections open for tourists near Beijing. I went to the section at Mutianyu. They Beijing haze permeates everything...

I'll begin with proof that I was there and move on to more interesting photos.

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Crossing the street in Beijing

To see all of Beijing, you certainly can't just stay on one block. But proper crossings at controlled intersections are found about only once every kilometer. And other stripe-marked crossings may as well not be there. So your only choice is to take part in human frogger.

Step one: Don't show your fear; the drivers can smell it. If you hesitate, you can see them thinking, "Look at that silly foreigner trying to cross the street! I bet it takes him 10 minutes." You have to take a breath and go for it. If you can find some other people to cross with, this also helps. Especially if they're old ladies.

Step two: Begin your crossing. Look for a slow-moving bus or a gap larger than 20 feet to begin your crossing. Step out into the street quickly and confidently. Make your way for the center line, which the drivers hopefully will observe.

Step three: Complete the crossing. Hopefully you will be presented with an equally oportunistic time to cross through the other flow of traffic. Any gap greater than 10 feet will do here; just mad dash for the curb. With any luck, you've made it to the other side and can continue on your journey. If not, this isn't Frogger and you don't get three lives. Game over.


In other news...

--Tried to get a look at the Olympics facilities yesterday. With the opening ceremony of the paralympics tonight, it was difficult. A highway separated me from the Bird's Nest, so all I got was a long-distance photo. And unfortunately tickets to tonight's event are sold out, so I won't be going. Good riddance, though--security seems ultra-tight.

--Checked out the "snack street" market last night. A Canadian named Sarah and I played the point-and-eat game. Some of the foods were easily identifiable, such as skewered grapes dipped in caramelized sugar and fried banana cakes. Others were not. Several skewers we tried seemed to be just different shapes of tofu, in other words, rubber on a stick. We didn't try the scorpions, chicken hearts or seahorses. Sorry. If you want to know what they're like, plan your own trip to China.

--Going to the Great Wall on Monday.

Day one

Spent my first day walking. And walking. And walking. I saw Tiananment Square, then headed north through the Forbidden City and into Jingshan Park, where I was treated to a phenomonal panorama of the city.

Tiananmen Square was built by Mao as a testament to the strength of the country. The buildings surrounding it are definitely soviet-influenced. It's currently softened with several displays to the Olympic Games.

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And of course there's the famous Mao portrait.

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The Forbidden City was home to the emporers of two of the most powerful dynasties, the Ming and Qing. Some of the buildings were built as early as 1420.

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And finally a great view from Jingshan Park, looking back over the Forbidden City and on toward Tiananmen. As you can see, yes it is hazy in Beijing.

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The foreigner has landed

Of all the places I ever thought I'd visit, Beijing usually wasn't one of them. But am I glad I came. It's nuts. It's hazy. It's awesome. I've only been here for about five hours and seen just a couple things, but I'm excited for the next six days. I wouldn't know exactly what to compare the city to. It's sprawling and loud and busy.

I took a bus to stop by Tiananmen Square this evening, only to learn that the sun sets at seven here. That's what you get when the whole country's on one time zone and you're in the eastern part of it. But that round trip on the bus only cost me 30 cents. Tack on a 60-cent bowl of noodles, that I enjoyed at a table shared with locals in a small restaurant and I've had a cheap night.

Olympic fever is still here--signs and billboards are EVERYWHERE. The official signage has been modifed to reflect the upcoming Paralympics, and a huge welcoming committee was on hand at the airport for the athletes.

The place where I am staying is in what you would call the "real" part of town. It's not overly touristy by any stretch. Nearly no whities around except the ones I'm staying with. Shop--some no bigger than a closet--line the streets. The area has a lot of character.

So, I'll take some photos tomorrow. Tiananmen and the Forbidden City I think are on my agenda. But most importantly, I'm here, I'm safe and I'm impressed.

Zai jian, USA

I leave Omaha in about nine hours. Omaha-Denver-Vancouver-Beijing. Feeling the nerves much more than I did when I went to NZ, but I'm ridiculously excited, because I'm going to see and experience things that most people only dream of. Sometime in the next week, I'll visit the Great Wall. I'll walk around the Forbidden City. I'm going to see the terra cotta warriors. And that's only in China.

I'll keep you updated with plenty of photos and thoughts.

"100 Things" author dies

Dave Freeman, co-author of "100 Things to do Before You Die," died earlier this month at the age of 47 after hitting his head. I've never read the book, but I have known of it and I'm sure you have too. But this is why I've decided to take a different approach at life. Life's short; sometimes too short. I'm not going to waste it in a box just because I thought that was what I should be doing. It's important to me to do what I want to do now. Not in 10 years; not when I retire. Waiting all year for that two percent raise just doesn't cut it.


**And I will put a caveat on this, because some people do live in the moment to the point of endangering themselves or others. I'm mindful of my finances and do think ahead enough to keep myself out of the gutter.

Preview

Many of you know my love for all things Google, especially Google Maps. So here's a map-based preview of where I'll be traveling over the next six-plus months. I'll add to this map as my travels go, so you can keep track of where I am and where I've been. Enjoy!


View Larger Map

Test

This is a test post that I've made via e-mail. It occurred to me that
I may not be able to access the Blogger site while in China (gmail
reportedly works perfectly, though). Fortunately, Blogger allows its
users to post items simply by sending an e-mail to a unique address.
Hopefully I won't need to do it this way, though.

Getting nervous

With just more than a month before I'm on a plane for Beijing, I'm starting to feel nervous. Very. Now last summer, before I went to NZ, my friends will remember that I was pretty much cool as a cucumber. I was pumped and ready to go, and barely looking back. But in New Zealand, they speak English, eat identifiable food (with a knife and fork!) and poop sitting down, rather than squatting. Oh, and New Zealand is about the size of Colorado. Hard to get lost.

China, on the other hand, is approximately the same size as the United States. I've struggled with how to tackle a destination of such magnitude. Imagine coming to the United States for the first time--You've probably heard of New York, DC and Los Angeles. Maybe a few other cities. But after that, where do you go? I've made some headway in this area and have narrowed the scope of my trip somewhat. I'll delve into this more later.

Now back to the language barrier. The Chinese speak a language that Americans have very little contact with, unlike, say, Spanish (which I can speak to a usable degree) and other European languages. Fortunately, some half-assed studying has somewhat eased my fears of Mandarin. But being able to understand a couple key phrases and blurt out some (perhaps) understandable essential requests doesn't help when you're looking at a map or train timetable.

Does 中华人民共和国 make any sense to you?? I didn't think so.

Yet, I'm also excited. While my time in New Zealand was my "great escape," my travels in China, and other to-be-determined Asian countries, will be my opportunity to see what I'm made of. Can I maintain some level of patience when I can't figure out how to get to my next destination? Will I lose my sanity during those long bus or train rides? (Think of driving across Nebraska and switch out the corn for rice...) How will I get through that first trip to the squatter?

I'm looking forward to testing myself and enjoying all that China has to offer.

Reading

To get ready for my trip to China, not only have I been studying Mandarin, I have been doing some reading. I've enjoyed some excellent books on the Middle Kingdom that have helped me understand the state of things in the country and how it got to where it is over the last century.

Wild Swans by Jung Chang



"Wild Swans" is about 15 years old and has been a best seller. It's the true story of three generations of women living in China during the rise of the Chinese Communist party and Mao's Great Leap Forward and the later Cultural Revolution. The author's grandmother was the concubine of a military general. Their daughter, Jung's mother, married a communist and faced many years of struggling to be accepted in the Party. The author herself was a member of the Red Guard and witnessed many members of her community, including her parents, "criticized" quite severely. This book was a great way to learn about the extreme changes the country went through in less than a century.


Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux



I am a huge fan of Paul Theroux. He's a great travel writer and especially likes to write about train travel. Riding the Iron Rooster is about his extensive train travel through China in the 1980s, after the fall of Mao. He talks to a lot of locals and compares his trip with one he took through the country two decades earlier.


Red Dust by Ma Jian



This is a very different book from the others I read (though I'm not completely done with it). Also nonfiction, Red Dust was originally written in Chinese. It's a personal narrative of a man's journey through his motherland in the early 1980s. During the Cultural Revolution, as an artist, Ma definitely would have been called bourgeois during the cultural revolution, but even after, he was seen as a person of questionable character. He decided to leave his job in Beijing and set off to see China. It's a nice contrast with Theroux's experience as a total outsider at the same time.


China, Inc. by Ted Fishman



China, Inc., is the most-recently published book I have read, and perhaps the most important. It highlights the transformation China has made since the end of the Cultural Revolution, toward industrialism and its own brand of capitalism. In a land where the government once owned virtually everything, China is now teaming with small and large business owners. In fact, towns and cities become known for one thing, because when one business takes off (say, umbrella manufacturing), dozens of copycats spring up in no time. The book explores not only this transformation, but also how it affects America's economy, from job outsourcing to the cost of our products to Wal-Mart's role in the whole thing. Very enlightening.


Thanks to these four books, I've been able to see how China has transformed from a dynasty-run society at the beginning of the 19th century, through Maoism and onto capitalism in just over a century. I feel much more prepared to experience this new and exciting culture--one that most of us simply don't take the time to understand.

Killer visa!

I got my passport back today from the visa service and inside was the exact visa that I wanted! Twelve months (from the date of issue--July 10), multiple entries and 90 days per entry! This leaves the possibilities wide open. I can stay in China until Dec 3, assuming the unidentifiable food, squat toilets and people spitting everywhere haven't gotten to me yet. And if I want to hop somewhere warmer for winter and come back for a few weeks in spring, I have that flexibility! Very exciting. Only 47 days until I leave!

Back to the grind

Well, sort of. I work two shifts this week at the restaurant I was at last year before I left. Sounds like I will be picking up some kitchen shifts, as well, which will be a fun change. On the downside, I have opted not to get a car for the summer, so I will rely on a ride from my parents or my bike for transportation--it's only about a mile away.

I sent for my Chinese visa yesterday. Cross your fingers for me--I left out one part of my application, my flight itinerary from the US to Beijing. I e-mailed it to the visa service company, hoping they can print it out and tack it on for me. But I did include an itinerary for a flight OUT of China, which is certainly the more important of the two. But The thing about my incoming flight is that it shows that I'm not going until AFTER the Olympics, which is what has inspired the clamp down on visas.

Aside from work, I've been playing lots of video games. Real productive I know. I've also been trying to keep up with my Mandarin lessons. Hopefully I'll do a better job of that this week. More updates to come as I continue my preparations for China--which I depart for just 55 days from now!

Back in the US--First a week in San Diego

Yes, I am alive and well, back in the states. I'm writing this from San Diego's airport (thank god for free wifi!). I spent the last week here, because my best friend, Paul, got married last night to Liz. I couldn't have picked him a better woman. They were terribly generous, letting me invade their place for a week. I got to go swimming in the ocean and enjoyed some nice local beers, which didn't cost the $7 I'm used to! Long story short, they had a great ceremony last night.

The site was the Thursday Club in San Diego's Sunset Cliffs area. Great location, overlooking the ocean:




Me and Paul:




Me and the maid of honor, Liz's sister Becky:




Me with Paul and Liz (stunner, eh?)




And the happy couple:





Anyway, I have to get on a plane now! I'll be back in Omaha at 1030 tonight. Looking forward to seeing everyone!

My last photos of New Zealand

Probably. I thought I would go out with a bang...so here are some good ones I got during my trip last week.


Mt Ruapehu contains the highest peak on the North Island. It's also an active volcano, erupting as recently as last September (when I was just a few hundred kilometers north).




Cathedral Cove, Coromandel. This is one of the country's most famous landmarks. It's a beautiful beach, with a cave hewn out of the rock nearby. This cave is featured in the new Chronicles of Narnia movie as the place through which the children enter Narnia.








Off the east coast of the Coromandel. Lots of little islands.




Hot Water Beach. Just a brief drive south of Cathedral Cove. A couple of geothermally heated pools rise to fill the holes that are dug out of the sand at low tide. It can get scaldingly hot--up to about 140 degrees F.






Along the beach where I stayed in Coromandel.




I finished my trip with a drive out around the East Cape on the Pacific Coast Highway. Lots of nice views along the coast.




...including an isolated Anglican church.




Only three more days left. I'm spending them with a shitload of children. There's a big kapa haka competition in town right now, and a couple teams are staying here--at least 60 kids. They are dictating when we can eat and do our laundry. It's cool to see them practice, but I do like it better when the hostel is empty.

North Island road trip: Days 1 and 2

On Monday, I got the car and drove north. Was a fairly uneventful, except I drove past Mts. Ruapehu and Tongariro, two of the tallest on the North Island. Some cool photos to come.

Today, Tuesday, I continued driving North to the Coromandel, a beautiful peninsula east of Auckland.


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I'm in the town of Whitianga (the "Wh," in Maori, is pronounced like an F). It's a nice little town on the coast, and my hostel is right next to the beach.

I'll need to upload my photos later to appropriately show you what I got up to tonight, but one activity I took part in was digging my own spa pool on Hot Water Beach. After I dug out a hole with a few folks I met there, we just lounged on the beach, staring at the moon coming up. Photos to come, I promise.

Coming to an end

Two weeks from now, I'll be back stateside, spending a week in San Diego. I can't believe my time here is nearly done. My last night of work was Saturday. I'm unemployed once again. In New Zealand, you are entitled to eight percent of your total earned income as holiday pay, which you can have paid out as you earn it, or in a lump sum at the end of the year or when you leave your job. So I'm due for a nice bonus before I leave.

Tonight is my last night in my long-term room at Wellywood. Tomorrow, I'm getting a car and doing a brief tour of the North Island, seeing some things I haven't yet seem. I will have plenty of nice photos to share next week. My last week will be spent in Wellington--have to close my bank account and whatnot. I'm excited for something new!

Enjoying a nice day in Wellington

After a string of truly crap days of cold, wind and rain, we finally got a pretty nice one. Blue skies, calm winds. How better to spend it than perched--that is, swinging--over the city?

Halfway up Mt. Victoria, just a 15-minute walk from where I live, is a great rope swing on a giant eucalyptus tree. It's in a great clearing with a wonderful view of the city. My English friends, Mark and Tom, and I enjoyed this wonderful view from the "Welli Swing."

Tom gets ready to take the inaugural swing of the day:





I enjoy my first swing of the day:




Tom takes a go:



Mark's turn:





Me from a different view (what a drop!):




And the view:







And here's a blast from the past. A gorgeous view of NZ's highest peak, Mt. Cook, taken during my South Island road trip with my brother:







And an update on my China trip. I think I'll wait until after the Olympics have begun to apply for my visa, through a special service. It's likely that my odds to get the visa I want will be much higher if I apply through my home consulate.

That's all for now! 22 days until I'm back stateside--first to the lovely San Diego for Paul's wedding. Very excited!

A little nervous!

So I have a one-way plane ticket to Beijing for Sept 2. But that doesn't guarantee that I'll be going to China.

Getting a visa to China (and you must get one before you go--no visas on arrival) has gotten a lot harder in the last month or so. According to official rules, one must present proof of return travel (one-way ticket doesn't cut it) and proof of booked accommodation. I had no intention of restricting my time in China, let alone figuring out my entire itinerary before I got there. I don't even know where I'll be going after China (most likely Southeast Asia). These crackdowns are said to be lasting until after the Olympics. The gap between when the Games end and when I'm supposed to be going is very narrow, and wouldn't allow for my to get a visa.

So what does this mean? I'm not sure yet. I will attempt to get a visa here in Wellington at the embassy next week. There's a good chance they will be relaxed with the rules (Americans pay more for their visa than any other nationality). If it seems like this is going to be a struggle, I might have to change my travel plans. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Nearly done...

Two weeks from tomorrow is (hopefully) my last day of work. Four weeks from tomorrow I hop a plane back stateside. Wow has time flown.

One of the owners, it would see, is under the impression that I want to destroy the place as I leave. I noted to him yesterday that a couple other waiters have put in their notice this week. It's a bad coincidence that their last days will be the same week as mine. Apparently this means that I am trying to get everyone to quit with me?

I will mention one point of frustration, however. My replacement, as assistant manager, started this week. Now I have no problem training my replacement, and I let the manager know that. But then I met my replacement. Nice guy, seems to want to work hard. But he's 18 (EIGHTEEN) and has SIX MONTHS of restaurant (actually cafe) experience. I don't know if they are desperate or what, but that seems like a rather unbalanced replacement for me. I guess that's for them to worry about.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this chapter wrapping up. I think I will be doing one last work exchange before I leave. More on that later. Just looking to wrap up my time here with some nice scenery and good Kiwi hospitality!