Shanghai, Nanchang, Wanzai, Beijing. Thirteen days and nine flights totaling over 20,000 air miles not counting the travel in private cars.
Because of my commitment to bring jobs and investment to Honduras, I was asked to host an all expense paid trip to China to visit several potential investors. During this trip I rediscovered something I already knew. I was born to travel. During this trip also I discovered something new. The best kind of world travel is on someone else's credit card! Finest hotels, restaurants, sightseeing, airfare, acrobatic and Kung Fu shows...no problem, Just sit back and enjoy.
On the Boeing 747 to Shanghai, I sat next to a young Chinese gal who spoke just a little English. Between her English and her Apple translator I was able to learn a lot about life in China. She also gave me an impromptu and invaluable lesson in the use of chopsticks. She was so excited for me as I clumsily made progress using them, a skill I immediately forgot the next day...and the day after.
Something else she taught me was how to limit jet lag. Flying west for 13 hours at 550 mph, almost keeping up with the setting sun, she kept telling, "No sleep, Mike, no sleep". And she was right. Arriving in Shanghai in the late evening I was tired and ready for bed, but on Chinese time.
Traveling on to Nanchang we met with directors of economic development for Jiangxi Province. Jiangxi is a province of about 45,000,000 people and has a rapidly growing GDP, which the director proudly told last year was 9.8%, which if true is truly amazing.
Everywhere I looked there were new or under construction high rise apartment buildings...for miles and miles. The cities' populations continue to rise as people from the country flock to the cities for work. So much so that China has begun paying people to stay home and farm. I'm pretty sure I saw a housing bubble forming though because most of the new buildings seemed to be unoccupied and the prices for a very small apartment were outrageous.
Driving in Wanzai was what I termed "random". Even being used to the seeming chaos of Tegucigalpa, it was somewhat nerve wracking. The drivers in Wanzai had the oddest way of making left turns. They would begin a gradual turn left about 300 feet before the intersection wandering slowly and aimlessly across two lanes of oncoming traffic. Entering the main highway was even worse. This process was begun by driving on the right hand shoulder towards oncoming two lane traffic and then beginning to slowly drift across towards the correct lanes, often splitting the oncoming truck traffic. Our driver had the rather discomfiting habit of driving mostly in the oncoming traffics lane, blowing his horn and flashing his lights to make them move over, which never worked, forcing him to dive back into our lane at the last moment. We also spent a lot of time driving on the shoulder.
As good as the food was, after 5 days of non stop Chinese food, breakfast, lunch and dinner, my guest and I were craving beans and tortillas. I was able to find a bag of red beans in a small international market in Beijing along with some tortillas imported from Mexico (I didn't even want to look at the expiration date) and as we were staying in a house that night, I got up at 3:30 am to cook us up a pot of beans, omelettes and tortillas for breakfast, chased by good Honduran coffee we had brought with us as gifts. After that, all of our spirits rose and we were able to face with enthusiasm another five days of new and exotic foods.
I don't want to misrepresent the food. These were just some of the "fun" things that ended up on our plates. Overall the culinary experience was fantastic and every meal a new experience. I have observed that each culture has it's own "soul food"and after a time we long for that food with a craving that goes beyond just hunger.
I loved Beijing. An incredibly beautiful and new city full of skyscrapers, wide spacious boulevards and amazingly, all new cars. I did not see one, not one old vehicle. Not only were they new, but they were Mercedes, BMWs, Audis and VWs. I find it incredible that China has gone from a third world country to a first world country in 35 years all the while holding politically to Communism while walking a Capitalistic path, apparently rather successfully. If anyone has any doubts that hard work, incentive to invest and the hopes of personal gain are the best way to bring about economic growth, I urge you to visit China. I come from the heavily welfarized State of Maine and the difference is clear. You cannot give your way out of poverty, you can only work your way out of it. And speaking of hard work. The Chinese work week is 30 days. You read that right. One day off a month.
Oh yes, in Beijing the driving was very, very orderly, that is all except for our bus driver who seemed to picture himself as the Chinese Mario Andretti. He spoke Chinese with a very interesting accent that sounded a bit like a dog yowling. He and I would talk to each other as we wove furiously in and out of traffic, he in Chinese, I in English, neither of us understanding the other. I, for the most part, was telling him to watch out for the rear bumper of the Mercedes he was about to scrape or the BMW he was cutting off.
Of course we were able to visit the Great Wall of China. I was amazed at the quality of the ancient construction and at it's vastness stretching for almost 2000 miles. The only troubling aspect to me was that it's multitude of stairs had no consistent height, varying from 3 to 14 inches, which made it difficult to climb...well, that and the extreme angle upwards and too many Chinese banquets. And it was cold and bleak!
I was just going to get some of the many excellent photos of all these places online, but this is what it looked like when we were there. Cold, grey and windy I would love to go back in the fall and spend more time exploring these ancient wonders in better weather.
The picture above is me with several "elderly" Chinese women who were probably about my age. They asked me to take a picture with them which I thought meant they wanted me to take the picture of them. Imagine my surprise when I ended up in it. When I asked why, they told me it was because I was handsome. Gotta' admit it, I was kind of flattered until I found out that is was actually because I was an American and they love to have photos with themselves standing beside us. I ended up in photos with a Tibetan monk in a red robe standing with his arm around my shoulders on the Great Wall, standing next to a young wife and daughter as her husband took our picture.... I did insist on taking a picture of them standing together as a family, just in case there was ever a question.
Travel Note: Be sure and use the public restroom before entering the Forbidden City and limit your water intake as there are no bathrooms except at the entrances and it is a very long way from one end to the other. Halfway through I was forced hurry to find a restroom barely arriving in time and missing much of what there was to see. The signs pointing the way to the restrooms were very inadequate and finally in desperation I went up to one of the soldiers guarding the entrance to the city and asked in English for the bathroom. He gave me a blank stare so I pointed at the appropriate body part and he pointed in the direction where I eventually found the bathroom. It occurred later to me that he could have arrested me for propositioning him...as I suppose my sign language could have been taken either way.
Shanghai, population 23.9 million and growing. Another new city and full of new cars and skyscrapers. Below is the view of the river from the 15th story restaurant of our hotel, our rooms were on the 22nd floor. Either my camera is slightly off plumb or the entire city is built on a 5 degree tilt.
So what are my thoughts on China and the trip? Well, without a doubt I am glad I went and hope to return some day, when it is warmer. I do hold a 10 year visa. I also discovered that even as capitalistic as China is, communism is still evident. I was almost completely unable communicate with the outside world as I exclusively use Google, Gmail and Facebook, both of which are blocked by the government. One thing the trip did do for me was to solidify in me the fact that I love Honduras. I missed Honduras in a way I never imagined. I of course missed my family very much, but I also missed the life we have here. I missed our language school. I missed our teachers and our students. I missed our home fellowship group. I missed the warm weather and the warm, Latin American culture. I missed beans and baleadas, pupusas and oh, did I ever miss coffee.
Because of my commitment to bring jobs and investment to Honduras, I was asked to host an all expense paid trip to China to visit several potential investors. During this trip I rediscovered something I already knew. I was born to travel. During this trip also I discovered something new. The best kind of world travel is on someone else's credit card! Finest hotels, restaurants, sightseeing, airfare, acrobatic and Kung Fu shows...no problem, Just sit back and enjoy.
On the Boeing 747 to Shanghai, I sat next to a young Chinese gal who spoke just a little English. Between her English and her Apple translator I was able to learn a lot about life in China. She also gave me an impromptu and invaluable lesson in the use of chopsticks. She was so excited for me as I clumsily made progress using them, a skill I immediately forgot the next day...and the day after.
Traveling on to Nanchang we met with directors of economic development for Jiangxi Province. Jiangxi is a province of about 45,000,000 people and has a rapidly growing GDP, which the director proudly told last year was 9.8%, which if true is truly amazing.
Everywhere I looked there were new or under construction high rise apartment buildings...for miles and miles. The cities' populations continue to rise as people from the country flock to the cities for work. So much so that China has begun paying people to stay home and farm. I'm pretty sure I saw a housing bubble forming though because most of the new buildings seemed to be unoccupied and the prices for a very small apartment were outrageous.
Driving in Wanzai was what I termed "random". Even being used to the seeming chaos of Tegucigalpa, it was somewhat nerve wracking. The drivers in Wanzai had the oddest way of making left turns. They would begin a gradual turn left about 300 feet before the intersection wandering slowly and aimlessly across two lanes of oncoming traffic. Entering the main highway was even worse. This process was begun by driving on the right hand shoulder towards oncoming two lane traffic and then beginning to slowly drift across towards the correct lanes, often splitting the oncoming truck traffic. Our driver had the rather discomfiting habit of driving mostly in the oncoming traffics lane, blowing his horn and flashing his lights to make them move over, which never worked, forcing him to dive back into our lane at the last moment. We also spent a lot of time driving on the shoulder.
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| One of the interesting things that ended up on my plate, a fried pigeon head |
As good as the food was, after 5 days of non stop Chinese food, breakfast, lunch and dinner, my guest and I were craving beans and tortillas. I was able to find a bag of red beans in a small international market in Beijing along with some tortillas imported from Mexico (I didn't even want to look at the expiration date) and as we were staying in a house that night, I got up at 3:30 am to cook us up a pot of beans, omelettes and tortillas for breakfast, chased by good Honduran coffee we had brought with us as gifts. After that, all of our spirits rose and we were able to face with enthusiasm another five days of new and exotic foods.
 |
| A menu we found on the wall at one place we ate.. |
I don't want to misrepresent the food. These were just some of the "fun" things that ended up on our plates. Overall the culinary experience was fantastic and every meal a new experience. I have observed that each culture has it's own "soul food"and after a time we long for that food with a craving that goes beyond just hunger.
I loved Beijing. An incredibly beautiful and new city full of skyscrapers, wide spacious boulevards and amazingly, all new cars. I did not see one, not one old vehicle. Not only were they new, but they were Mercedes, BMWs, Audis and VWs. I find it incredible that China has gone from a third world country to a first world country in 35 years all the while holding politically to Communism while walking a Capitalistic path, apparently rather successfully. If anyone has any doubts that hard work, incentive to invest and the hopes of personal gain are the best way to bring about economic growth, I urge you to visit China. I come from the heavily welfarized State of Maine and the difference is clear. You cannot give your way out of poverty, you can only work your way out of it. And speaking of hard work. The Chinese work week is 30 days. You read that right. One day off a month.
Oh yes, in Beijing the driving was very, very orderly, that is all except for our bus driver who seemed to picture himself as the Chinese Mario Andretti. He spoke Chinese with a very interesting accent that sounded a bit like a dog yowling. He and I would talk to each other as we wove furiously in and out of traffic, he in Chinese, I in English, neither of us understanding the other. I, for the most part, was telling him to watch out for the rear bumper of the Mercedes he was about to scrape or the BMW he was cutting off.
Of course we were able to visit the Great Wall of China. I was amazed at the quality of the ancient construction and at it's vastness stretching for almost 2000 miles. The only troubling aspect to me was that it's multitude of stairs had no consistent height, varying from 3 to 14 inches, which made it difficult to climb...well, that and the extreme angle upwards and too many Chinese banquets. And it was cold and bleak!
We also visited the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square.
 |
| One of the many buildings in the Forbidden City |
The picture above is me with several "elderly" Chinese women who were probably about my age. They asked me to take a picture with them which I thought meant they wanted me to take the picture of them. Imagine my surprise when I ended up in it. When I asked why, they told me it was because I was handsome. Gotta' admit it, I was kind of flattered until I found out that is was actually because I was an American and they love to have photos with themselves standing beside us. I ended up in photos with a Tibetan monk in a red robe standing with his arm around my shoulders on the Great Wall, standing next to a young wife and daughter as her husband took our picture.... I did insist on taking a picture of them standing together as a family, just in case there was ever a question.
Travel Note: Be sure and use the public restroom before entering the Forbidden City and limit your water intake as there are no bathrooms except at the entrances and it is a very long way from one end to the other. Halfway through I was forced hurry to find a restroom barely arriving in time and missing much of what there was to see. The signs pointing the way to the restrooms were very inadequate and finally in desperation I went up to one of the soldiers guarding the entrance to the city and asked in English for the bathroom. He gave me a blank stare so I pointed at the appropriate body part and he pointed in the direction where I eventually found the bathroom. It occurred later to me that he could have arrested me for propositioning him...as I suppose my sign language could have been taken either way.
Shanghai, population 23.9 million and growing. Another new city and full of new cars and skyscrapers. Below is the view of the river from the 15th story restaurant of our hotel, our rooms were on the 22nd floor. Either my camera is slightly off plumb or the entire city is built on a 5 degree tilt.
So what are my thoughts on China and the trip? Well, without a doubt I am glad I went and hope to return some day, when it is warmer. I do hold a 10 year visa. I also discovered that even as capitalistic as China is, communism is still evident. I was almost completely unable communicate with the outside world as I exclusively use Google, Gmail and Facebook, both of which are blocked by the government. One thing the trip did do for me was to solidify in me the fact that I love Honduras. I missed Honduras in a way I never imagined. I of course missed my family very much, but I also missed the life we have here. I missed our language school. I missed our teachers and our students. I missed our home fellowship group. I missed the warm weather and the warm, Latin American culture. I missed beans and baleadas, pupusas and oh, did I ever miss coffee.
It can be pretty astounding to see all those new cars. Beijing operates on a car licence lottery system. Average numbers of applicants per month amount to over 1.5 million, while the number of licenses awarded are 18,400, with the government seeking to almost half that number. As you can imagine, the rich have better luck when it comes to the lottery. Another dynamic is that many people with pay almost double the value of an ordinary mid-level car on the black market to obtain a license. The lottery system was introduced before Beijing 2008 Olympics to reduce pollution. Millions of lower-end cars/older cars were kicked off the roads from Beijing's 5th Ring road in, also to reduce pollution.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the cost of living in Beijing is sky-rocket high compared to the average wage of your typical and invaluable working class (i.e. migrant factory workers), unfortunately Beijing has a reputation for kicking out the poor, as well. Of course there are parts of the city that are more like slums. One of the reasons China is so interesting to me is the vast difference between a city and the more commonplace rural life, which is so underrepresented even in academia. I'm sure you got a glimpse of that, if you got to ride one of those overnight trains (fun stuff). You are definitely right about the housing bubble, it has been deflating for a few years in some areas, while other areas keep inflating. Also, Tegus driving always seemed so tame compared to the Chinese driving I encountered in Wuhan (but not in Beijing).
Thanks for the blog, loved reading it!
Hannah C
Sounds like you have spent a lot of time in China Hannah. Yes, I heard about the lottery. I also heard that Shanghai has stopped giving all new car plates, and that previously it has cost $20,000 for a plate.
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