China Revisited, August 2016

You have to see China to believe it and even though Misti and I just spent three weeks there I still can’t believe what we saw.  What did we see- incredible wealth, new buildings that go on forever, new and huge high tech airports and train stations, streets and highways that are litter-free, what appeared to be a healthy and happy populace who seem to be supportive of their government, well-dressed and well-behaved kids going to school, no tattooed or pierced people, many expensive high-end autos, many electric vehicles, no homeless or graffiti, virtually no crime or Islamic terrorism, hard working, friendly and very efficient workers and an amazing show of wealth that made me feel like a poor country cousin.

China has done in the past fifteen or so years what had taken the US and European countries a hundred years to accomplish.  It’s said that they have poured more concrete in the past three years than the US did in the entire 20th century; that China can build a city the size of Rome in three weeks.  From what I’ve seen I can believe this and it’s  quite amazing.

How can they do this?  With a population of 1.4 billion which is four times the size of the US and a GDP growth rate averaging seven percent for the past ten years, as compared with the US struggling in recent years to reach two percent, you can pretty much accomplish miracles.  Money has flowed into China from the US and countries all over the world.  You know the joke that everything in your house is made in China, well it’s pretty much true and their immense manufacturing capability with cheap labor is a main source of their tremendous wealth. 

China, which is referred to as the Middle Kingdom, has been somnolent for hundreds of years; now it’s awakening big time, under the stewardship of a Communist dictatorship which continues to make five year plans for economic growth, which seem to be working.

I’m not a sinophile (lover of China) and I abhor the idea of a communist dictatorship, but when I contrast China’s successes with the US political deadlock, it makes me wonder.  China is flush with money, their middle class is now larger than the entire US population and they’re traveling the world spending money as their government invests in Africa, South America and the Middle East.

Because it is a dictatorship with central control you can forget about niceties that we take for granted such as voting, courts, right to a fair trial, innocent until proven guilty, etc. – those things don’t exist in China.  But so much there seems to be functional as compared to our Democratic Republic which seems so dysfunctional and can’t get things done.  Why is that?

But what about the downside; is China’s rapid development a good thing for China and the world?  I’m not sure anyone can answer that  now.  From what I’ve observed, I get the feeling that the Chinese people generally are supportive of their government and what it has done to develop the country.  Cleverly, the government has been giving people what they need and want, housing, schools, health care, transportation which perhaps are more important to them than having a representative government.

It’s difficult to predict future events in China politically and economically and how China will interact with the rest of the world.  No crystal balls here because there are so many variables including China’s relations with Russia, control of their client state North Korea, how aggressive they are with Asian countries and their claims in the South China Sea, their relations with the US, etc.  But regardless of the turn of events,  it would be difficult to believe that China will not be a major player, perhaps the major player, in future world affairs. 

It’s true that pollution is a big problem in China.  We were there in late May and while pollution in Shanghai and Beijing was moderate (these metro areas have populations of 22 and 24 million respectively), pollution in two other cities we visited- Shenyang and Dalian both in the northeast- was so high that we were reluctant to leave the hotel.

Much of the pollution is from the country’s rapid industrialization with disregard for environmental safeguards.  The government is very much aware of the severity of the problem and they say they’re taking steps to mitigate pollution by closing offending factories and regulating others.  It remains to be seen how successful these programs will be but it’s likely the government knows it must bear the cost of health care for hundreds of thousands of its citizens whose health is affected by the pollution and that might be enough of an incentive for them to make some real changes.

Now, about our trip.  Our trip in May/June this year was our fourth visit to China over the past thirty-five years.  Our first was in 1988 when David was in school in Shanghai and before China was opened to tourism, the second in 1998 when the country was beginning a building boom, and the third in 2010 when Shanghai was hosting a World Expo. 

We tied this trip in with a visit to South Korea, about the only other country in Asia we hadn’t visited, and our son Mike had invited us to join him at the Ultra Music Festival in Seoul.  Our itinerary included Shanghai, Harbin, ShenYang, Dalian, Beijing and Guangzhou.  We also spent three nights in Hanoi, Vietnam, a city we’ve visited before and wanted to see again. 

We had seen a great deal of China on previous trips and decided this time we’d explore the Northeast, sometimes referred to as Manchuria, an area off the beaten tourist path.  Another reason why we chose three northeastern cities was because they border North Korea and we were considering a short jaunt into that hermit kingdom but changed our plans when we couldn’t get the flights we wanted.  

We were curious about Harbin which is near Russia and was under Russian rule for twenty years in the early 20th century.   During construction of the trans-Siberian railway tens of thousands of Russians relocated to Harbin to work on the railway.  While most of the Russian population left years ago, there is still a strong Russian influence through architecture, place names and restaurants.  It was fascinating to see a touch of Russia in China.

Some words about traveling in China and why we would want to make a fourth trip here when there is so much more wonderful world to explore.   It may seem strange but China is an easy country to travel on your own, without a tour.  Perhaps It wasn’t that way years ago, but in the past fifteen years China has built an extensive, easy-to-use and inexpensive air and rail system which facilitates travel.  Most airports and train stations are new, built in the past ten or so years, with modern technology.  Coupled with almost universal wireless access, first class hotels throughout the country with helpful and friendly staffs and low prices due to the government deliberately keeping the yuan undervalued, China is worth exploring.  And it’s safe.

But while the “foreignness” of China makes it interesting and fun, the language can be a roadblock for many, certainly those accustomed only to group travel.  Being in a city (not Shanghai or Beijing) where there are no western people, almost everything is written in Chinese characters and it’s difficult and sometimes impossible to find an English speaker, can be challenging to say the least. 

The key for getting around is staying in hotels with an English speaker, which is most large hotels.  You write on a piece of paper where you want to go and have them write it in Chinese characters.  You show this to a taxi driver and are quickly whisked off to your destination; this works very well.  Almost no drivers speak English and with this system that’s not a problem.  Many hotels write the taxi registration number on a card so if you accidentally leave something or have a problem with the driver (which is unusual) the hotel can contact the taxi company.

Taxis are very inexpensive compared to the US and most rides are only a few dollars -  drivers for the most part are honest as long as you make sure they turn on the meter.

We spent our first four nights in Shanghai staying at the Okura Garden Hotel in the French Concession.  Shanghai is one of our favorite cities in the world; it’s always been China’s “window on the west” and it receives special treatment from the government.  The growth and improvements over the past 28 years since we first visited Shanghai is amazing.  In 1988 there were virtually no cars and for several days after returning home our ears rang from the constant clang of bicycle bells.   

Now the traffic is terrible with hordes of electric motor scooters which are dangerous because you can’t hear them coming and car drivers who have a total disregard for pedestrians.  In China, when in comes to driving, might is indeed right and the foolish pedestrian who isn’t careful will soon wind up in the hospital.

We had a good experience the first day when we went to the Shanghai Museum.  It was raining and while we waited in a long line I saw a sign saying that seniors, those over age 70, were entitled to special entry and did not have to wait in line.  I should have remembered that from our last trip but we immediately went to the entry door and went right in as the guards smiled and didn’t ask for any ID.  All museums in China are free admission.  Unlike the US, seniors are very much respected in China and often given special consideration.

Since we’re not keen on Chinese food for breakfast, we quickly located several Starbucks near our hotel and started our mornings with coffee and a croissant.  We were told that there are more than 10,000 Starbucks in Shanghai which I guess is about right given the population of about 22 million or half the population of California.

We spent one evening strolling the Bund which is the waterfront walk along the Huangpu River.  Like so much else in China, it’s new, huge and most impressive.  We had a drink at the Long Bar in the Peace Hotel which is now a Waldorf Astoria.  When we visited David in Shanghai in 1988 we had a suite at the Peace Hotel for $50 a night; now rooms are $700.  We had two drinks at the Long Bar which set us back about $40, but it was a walk down memory lane.

Lots of other good Shanghai experiences:  foot massage, TianzFang with cute little shops, Yunnan restaurants in the Foreign Concession (Jian GFuo 328 is the best), exploring the back alleys, the three Chinese ladies who insisted we were movie stars and took lots of photos of us, and the Propaganda Poster Center which was a highlight.

On our fifth day in Shanghai we reluctantly taxied to the Pudong Airport for our three hour China Southern flight to Harbin to begin our next round of adventures.  This was the first of six flights we were to have on China Southern, all of them booked by Misti online through Expedia and all of them quite inexpensive.  China has a vast air system with modern planes and airports, although with the country’s huge population there is no such thing as an empty seat. 

Harbin is a different Chinese city, perhaps because of its northern location and Russian influence.  We had thought of Harbin as a relatively small city but learned it has a population of more than ten million or larger than Los Angeles; just another “small” Chinese city.

On the thirty minute taxi ride from the airport to the hotel we saw mile after mile of huge new apartment buildings, some not completed.  Across from the buildings was a miles long park on the river with picnic areas, playgrounds and lots of healthy looking grass.  We wondered how there could be enough people with money to live in so many buildings, but the Chinese middle class has been growing in leaps and bounds.

Harbin’s claim to fame is the annual ice and snow festival held each January.  It’s the largest and most famous festival of its kind with the world’s largest ice sculptures.  Burt not much snow in June so maybe another time for the Snow Festival.

We stayed in the Harbin Shangri La Hotel near Stalin Park on the Songhua River, the fifth longest in China.  Misti booked it on Hotels.com (she is the Queen of that site) getting a large room for $150 a night. 

One nice experience we had in the Shangri La hotel was doing our laundry.  The laundry price list was very expensive and we asked where we could find a launderette outside the hotel.  They called a launderette, asked what their prices were for various items and then told us they would do our laundry at those same prices to make it more convenient for us.  Now that’s service with a smile.

Truthfully, there wasn’t all that much to see in Harbin and two days there would be sufficient.  We started with Saint Sophia Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church built in 1907 by the Russian army after it had been defeated by the Japanese.  The government felt that building a church would lift the army’s morale.  Strange seeing a beautiful and well-preserved Russian Church with its onion domes in a Chinese city.  And since China is essentially a secular country, the interior of the church had been turned into a museum showing Russian “occupation” in the 1920’s.  No religious artifacts whatsoever in this beautiful church.

But the highlight of our time in Harbin was a visit to the Siberian Tiger Park, a fifteen minute taxi ride from our hotel.  Until recently Siberian tigers were an endangered species and likely still are with about 500 remaining in the wild, most in Russia. But the park has more than 800 of these magnificent beasts running around on 250 acres.  You walk through corridors enclosed only by thick wire mesh and can come within inches of a tiger’s face, actually quite exciting.  It smacked a bit of a Jurassic Park adventure. 

We were loaded into a small bus along with ten Russian students from Vladivostok and went out amongst the roaming tigers.  The bus was “armored” with steel around the tires; wouldn’t want a tiger ripping into the rubber tires and then deciding how to get at the feast inside the bus. 

Then a small truck came onto the field and released a live chicken which is quickly brought down and eaten alive by one of the tigers.  Another tiger leaps into the air and pulls down a low flying bird. The park offers several varieties of livestock including calves, sheep and goats to be purchased by tourists for feeding to the cats.  A sickening sight to many but also great excitement to others; certainly something you won’t see in any zoo.

Our plan was to take trains to two other northeastern cities, Shenyang and Dalian, each about a two hour ride with the train getting up to 150 miles an hour, although because of several stops its average speed was much lower.   We had ridden Chinese fast trains on previous trips to China and remembered how well appointed, fast and inexpensive they were.  We asked the concierge in the Shangri La Hotel to help us book the trains.  The reservation procedure made me realize how easy train travel is in China.

The concierge asked us what times we wanted to travel with trains leaving every hour or so.  He showed us online what is available and we selected first class bullet trains leaving at mid morning hours, he booked them online and then went to the train station by taxi (that’s how everyone gets around because it’s so cheap) and brought the tickets to the hotel for us to pickup that evening.  We paid him in cash, about the equivalent of $150 for both trips for two of us and he didn’t want to accept a tip but I insisted.  Even though China has turned quite capitalist, tipping is not part of their culture.

The Harbin train station is huge, new and like everywhere else not a piece of trash to be found anywhere.   While waiting on line I saw a guy try to butt onto the front of the line.  I tapped him on the shoulder indicating he should go to the end of the line.  Good move- he said in broken English that “old people” go right to the front.  He said “follow me” which we did and got right on the train before anyone else.

We always are sure to have the name and address of the next hotel we’re going to written in Chinese characters to show to the taxi driver.  We were staying at a Grand Hyatt in Shenyang, another “small” Chinese city of more than eight million that is absolutely not on the tourist trail, which means there is a scarcity of English speakers.  After getting out of the train station we tried to find a taxi that would take us to the hotel.  Lots of taxis but showing them the words “Grand Hyatt” in English was a non-starter.  Coupled with my inability to say much in Mandarin other than a few restaurant words, we got nowhere fast.  Then one driver tried stopping people coming out of the station trying to find an English speaker.  He finally succeeded with a young student who wrote the hotel name in Mandarin and we were back in business and were whisked away to the hotel.  Lesson here:  always be prepared and have destinations written in Mandarin.  Showing words written in English is the same as our trying to read Chinese characters.

About eating in China:  Living in the San Francisco Bay area, we’re spoiled by the availability, quality and variety of Asian food.  But China offers a totally different gastronomic adventure that can’t be found in the US.  To take advantage of the culinary opportunities, and if you’re traveling independently without benefit of a guide, it’s necessary to prepare for language and communications difficulties. 

Outside of tourist hotels, there is generally no English language, either spoken or written.  Clearly this can be an obstacle to ordering a meal, especially when given a menu in Chinese characters by a waiter who doesn’t even know the word “hello” in English.  The saving grace is that many restaurants throughout the country have menus with excellent color photos of the food often accompanied by an English description which isn’t necessarily related to the dish; for example, “drunken bird in the tree”, “chicken with crazy husband” and so on.  Sometimes the “d” in duck is innocently replaced by an “f” making for an interesting menu item. Can be lots of laughs just from reading the menu,

Also, it’s good to know the magic word “jaega” which in Chinese translates to “this one” or “that one”.  Pointing to a photo or something on the menu or to a dish being eaten at another table and saying “jaega” works well and usually gets both a smile and the dish.  The real challenge is the many seafood restaurants with live fish, no pictures and no English.  In these cases we usually had to find an English speaker or settle for a mystery dish which usually was quite good.

About China’s Ghost Cities: 

 On both our train rides as well as some long taxi rides we saw what appeared to be huge clusters of new apartment houses, thousands of them, that were either not completed or completed but obviously not occupied.  Many were just large building complexes with no surrounding infrastructure such as paved streets, lights, or landscaping and no necessary amenities such as schools and hospitals.  We learned that these are “ghost cities” built by the government working with contractors to quickly build out housing for China’s vast population.   We questioned several hotel managers and also searched online to demystify why the country would continue its non-stop building program when so many of the buildings aren’t being occupied.  Makes no sense and seems like a huge waste of money and resources.  Welcome to China.

We learned that many of the apartments are incredibly expensive- a million US dollars or more- and now with an economic slowdown people are reluctant to invest in housing.  We also learned that in China you can’t“buy” a property as we know it in the US.  Rather you “rent” it from the government for a period of seventy years.  Because the building boom is so new, the rules aren’t as yet established and the government may soon be making changes in the seventy year rule.  It’s difficult for prospective buyers to put down large sums of money without knowing how long they will actually own the property.

Another reason for the ghost cities is the huge infusion of cash over a short period of time.  China has been having an economic growth rate of 7% or more for years, a growth rate unattainable in other countries.  The people have been flush with cash and deposited it in China’s banks.  Now the bank’s had all this cash and as banks do they wanted to put it to work.  The cities owned a surplus of land so the various local governments enticed the banks to invest their new found funds in building on the city owned land.  They clearly overdid it which is why there are so many ghost cities.  Likely the building boom will decelerate and the cities will be occupied.

Life without Google.  Some time ago the top guy in the communist party – Mr Xi- decided to ban Google and several other US sites including Facebook, gmail, Youtube and Dropbox.  In our hotel in Harbin we were given a a list of the banned sites with this message:  “Please be advised that the websites on this tent card are on the prohibition list according to Internet Security Policy of the People’s Republic of China.  Thank you for your understanding.”  It is possible to use the internet for some things and we learned about search engines we were able to use other than Google, but not having access to our good friend Google is tough.

Back to our journey.  After Harbin we spent two nights in Shenyang and then trained to Dalian where we spent another two nights, both at Grand Hyatt hotels with excellent rooms at a very reasonable cost; thank you Hotels.com.  Both were large “little” Chinese cities with about seven million people and since the pollution was bad in both, particularly Dalian, we spent much of our time in and around the hotel.  Dalian is on the Yellow Sea directly across from North Korea and because of its beaches attracts mainly Chinese tourists as well as those from neighboring Japan, Korea and Russia. 

Our hotel in Dalian was right on the beach with an adjacent large amusement park.  Walking at night through the brightly lit park seeing families with kids on what seemed to be very old-fashioned rides like bumper cars that I remember from Coney Island was a walk back in time.  And I must say it was a pleasure to walk at night through a throng of people knowing I was totally safe and there was no threat or crime whatsoever.  A nice feeling.

After two nights in Dalian we flew China Southern again for a two hour flight to Beijing.  This was our third time in Beijing and we lucked out with the weather, it was neither too hot nor too polluted.  Beijing I believe is one of the largest cities in the world.  While its population is officially about twelve million, the municipality is twenty two million.  We stayed at the Ritz Carlton (not expensive when we booked it online) in the Chaoyang District in the heart of what is called China Central District.  A good location except it’s a long taxi ride (inexpensive but slow because of traffic) to some of the major attractions such as The Forbidden City, Summer Palace, etc. which we had seen on previous trips and we didn’t want to deal with the tourist crowds to see them again.

We taxied to different areas and wandered around soaking up the capital city; Beijing means northern capital.  The embassies are a treat to see and Wangfujing Street with its shops and food stands is worth a few hours.  Not many places where you can see every possible kind of bug barbecued and spitted for local consumption.  We spent an afternoon in Nan Luo Gu Xiang Hutong, which is sort of a ghetto of old Beijing that has been preserved and now is a tourist attraction (hutongs meaning narrow streets and alleys) and took the subway to Tianamen Square just for a look-see.

After Beijing we flew to Guangzhou in Southern China, another three hour flight on China Southern.  Misti wanted to see the old Canton, a major city we had never seen.  We finally hit some very hot weather- high 90’s and very humid, so different than the cities in Northern China. 

We stayed at the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island (means sandy island) along the Pearl River, the nicest section of Guangzhou which is another “small” Chinese city of thirteen million (metro area of twenty three million).  The hotel and island were a wonderful refuge and we learned about it from a woman we met in Shenyang who worked for the American Consulate.

Another “Chinese experience”.  When we arrived at the hotel Misti realized she didn’t have her e-book and began to panic.  She thought she might have left it on the plane.  She asked the hotel concierge to call the airport’s lost and found, which he did.  The airport said they had the e-book and the concierge told us he would leave immediately, take a taxi to the airport and retrieve it for us.  It’s about a forty-five minute taxi ride each way to the airport and he said left right away.  I gave him 150 yuan- the equivalent of about $20 and he gave us the e-book late than evening.  I can’t imagine any other country where this would happen.

On this trip we also spent four nights in Hanoi, Vietnam and ten days in Korea, but I’ve covered those adventures separately.

Art Faibisch, San Rafael, California