The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is on the list of the "Seven Wonders of the World" and after visiting it I can appreciate why. The constructed stone wall took over 2,000 years to build, stretches over 5,000 kilometers and was built by hand before modern tools or transportation was available. In fact I am not even aware of any large animals in China to help drag all these stone blocks up the mountain? It's even more impressive when you see the terrain that the building occured. Very dense trees, steep inclines and the weather ranges from snow storms to 95' with humidity. As the stories go, many Chinese citizens were born, worked on the wall and died on the wall only completing a small piece of the construction.

There are seven areas of the wall that can be visited by tourists, 5 of which are near Beijing and 3 that were open during our visit. The Badaling section has a reputation for being busy so we went to Mutianyu section for our visit and we were very lucky as it was not very crowded on the day we went as I think that people thought it might rain so they stayed away. Mutianyu is about a one hour drive outside of Beijing and we hired a private driver that we were able to barter with to about $20 per person. Once you arrive the wall site you walk up through a group of street vendors offering everything from postcards to cold drinks and "best price for you" shouted at every corner. Visitors have the option of walking to the wall (about a 30 minute hike) or taking the tram/chairlift to the top. There are two points of entry both in the middle sections of the wall so you can choose to walk one direction, back track and then go to the other end. We ventured to the highest point of the open wall. The wall is surprisely wide (about 15 feet wide) with carved stone steps with a minimal rise but the wall itself is very steep as it cuts into the surrounding mountain range. (bring walking shoes becuase it is quite a work out!) About every 500-750 feet there is a watch tower that military would stand guard and still be able to see the next post. All of the public sections of the wall have been repaired but it was still in amazingly great shape considering it's over 2,000 years old and has had millions of tourist walk on it. The non-tourist areas of the wall are not in as good of shape and almost completely overgrown with trees and you can see areas of the wall that are falling down. I wonder if at some point there will be a mission to clear out and rebuild other areas of the wall.
Once you've walked on top of the wall gazing out at miles of mountains and the serpenting structure you can either hike down or take an alpine slide to the base. ....of course the boys had to race

It's an amazing structure and somewhat of a bizarre concept to build a wall around a city to both "protect" those inside and "keep out" those on the outside. It stretched over 7 government regimes and cost endless amounts of money.....wait isn't the American government considering something similar on the Mexico border?

Chinese Food Experiences

When you travel to Spain you try Tapas, when you are in Guatemala you have black bean paste, in New Zealand it's lamb and when I traveled to Beijing I just had to try the Peking Duck.
In Spain I was picky about the seafood tapas, in Guatemala I found the paste to be bland, I'm learning to love lamb and on my visit to China I tried Peking Duck--- but I'm not sure it will be on my 'favorites' list anytime soon.

As one travel website wrote "a visit to the capital city of China should involved climbing the Great Wall and eating roast duck at Quandjude." Since we had already tackled the Great Wall earlier in the week, for our last night in Beijing we decided on a meal at the famous Quanjude Restaurant. I think there are 6 Quanjude locations so we chose the one that was closest to our hotel. I had read reviews in books and online that famous politicians and celebrities have all dined at one of the Quanjude locations so we trusted the recommendation and showed up to a packed restaurant filled with large tables of groups of 8-10. We were seated at a large round table (just the two of us) and were presented with a large menu with the first page featuring the famous poultry.
Since most Chinese have one person order for the entire table, typically only one menu is handed to a table and anything that is ordered is assumed to be enough to share with the entire table For example, I ordered Jasmine Tea and Brendan ordered beer but we were both served a glass of each. An entire Duck was 198RMB (about $30US) but since I was the only one eating the local dish I was able to convince the waiter to serve us only half of a duck for 98RMB which is expensive for local cuisine. The other fixings that are offered with it (and cost 2 RMB which is about 10 cents) is the pancakes, shallots, garlic, sugar, hoisen sauce and cucumbers. Since Brendan had already tried the local dish he ordered spicy prawns and fried rice in lieu of my poultry...in turn we got two large plates of rice and prawns (yes we got a lot of duplicate orders)

Other than the items we ordered I'm not sure what else I would have been able to stomach. Our other choices including every part of the duck including: Duck Liver, Fried Duck Heart, Duck
Gizzards, Duck Feet/Webs, Shredded Duck wing, A Plate of Duck Skin and the very popular Duck Tongue. Other famous dishes include Shark Fin soup, fried scorpions, sheep intestines ....need I go on?

When the duck was served, first they come and show you the cooked animal (yes the entire animal with the crooked neck and sad turned down face....Brendan kept calling him "Donald" and then slice it table side. You are presented with a plate of the "skin" first which I tried in effort to seem polite. It tasted like fried chicken skin but much thicker and was almost the consistency of fried fat. They they brought out the plate of sliced duck. Since I only ordered half a duck I was only given half of the duck head as the garnish. Apparently people eat that part as well.
The Peking Duck is eaten in a pancake with hoisen sauce and onions. Even with the onions and sauce I found the Duck to have a very strong "gamey" flavour with a strong after taste that I experienced into the night. I saw the Great Wall
I ate the duck
They are officially crossed off the list :-) and for dessert we passed on the "duck meat cakes"

Here is the website for the restaurant if you want to read further http://quanjude.com.au/about.html which oddly has a a totally different menu that the one we were given. I didn't see Pork, chicken or beef anywhere on our list of options and I would have certainly remembered the option of lobster or scallops. But maybe these were options at the other Quanjude locations?
The other food that is available in Beijing includes some of the following (none of which I personally sampled) donkey meat, dog meat, stir fried pig liver, fried chicken heart, pig kidney, roasted pigeon, fried silk worms, fried scorpions-circadias and centipedes, sheep penis, starfish, crickets, rabbit meat on a stick, lamb kidneys, bee cocoons, fried fish head. and yes people seem to love most of it. The above pictures are from the menus at the infamous outdoor food market (which is only open at night), however we did see many of these same items in sit down diners as well "fried bugs" anyone? "Dog Meat Pot" for you? (double click on the pictures to see all the bugs!)

Overall I found eating in China to be a challenge if you went to local establishments. One, I wanted to make sure I was ordering what I intended i.e. chicken and not dog meat. And there was a concern with the food health given the recent Chinese milk contamination (as well as other concerns with toxic levels of pesticides, fish from waste ponds ect).
With that said there are plenty of Western places you can eat including the nicer hotels, Starbucks, McDonalds, KFC, TGI Fridays....but you will pay more in the hotels (at least 5 times) and the fast food places were still not what you expect from the Western branches. We did visit a KFC and the had a "meat stick" that was suspicious at best.

I didn't get sick except for towards the end of our trip when I didn't venture far from the -Western toilets--Although this could have been from the water. There is NO clean drinking water in all of Beijing. Even in our 4 star hotel we were provided bottled water with instructions not to drink the tap water. This is apparently how the majority of China is and therefore fresh vegetables are rarely eaten as most is cooked/boiled for cleanliness and water is not offered at meals (maybe boiling water and making tea was how they got around it?).

I don't intend to be judgemental as I'm sure plenty of people would view the food I eat as "weird" ....but for now I think I'm going to stick with my Western appetite

Pollution in Beijing?

The World Health Organization reports that on an average day, the pollution in Beijing is five times the standards for safety. In preparation for the Olympics China has reportedly spent $17billion dollars just in efforts to clean up air pollution and I thought that overall the pollution was low while we were visiting (or was it just better than expected?). We were lucky that the weather was mild temperatures and that it rained a couple of times which seems to "hose off" the city. In visiting the Great Wall we were with two people who had visited the exact area before and they were astonished at the visibility this time around. Apparently some people visit the Great Wall only to be able to see 40 feet in front of the them. The first day we arrived the smog was pretty thick (seen above) and we could only see about 5 blocks down the road but then it cleared up as the week progressed. (the clearer picture of the dragon building was taken 5 days later)

We read and I agree that late Sept/Oct is the best time to visit for mild temperatures and decreased smog if you are thinking of planning a trip.

Spitting from pollution?.....one thing that absolutely shocked me was how much the Chinese people spit. I'm not talking about the casual spit as if stepping up to the pitcher's mound. I'm talking about full body, gutterly spitting from men, women and elderly. Someone mentioned it was a common occurrence due to the pollution and apparently there's not a rude stigma to the loogie-tossing but I was shocked and even giggled when I watched some of these dainty women really get their whole body into clearing their lungs.

Maybe we visiting during a low pollution time and after a few years I could be doing some throat clearing as well.....

Beijing Olympic Mania

Here are some pics of all of the Olympic excitement around Beijing. We arrived the Saturday after the ParaOlympics concluded so the Bird's Nest was closed until the Thursday before we left (sept 25th)when they offered limited tickets to Beijing volunteers, their families and certain tour groups to those who could wait in line for a few hours. We also heard that additional tickets were being offered to Beijing residents as a "thank you" for helping host the games. These tickets allowed the patron to view the Olympic "grounds" but not enter the Bird's Nest or Water Cube which are surrounded by 8 foot fences and plenty of security guards. One American couple we talked to said the grounds at night were awesome with colored lights in the fountains and flower and plant displays everywhere

Starting Oct 5th they are opening those venues for public touring. They are expecting millions to pass through the gates on the Olympic grounds.

Our hotel was one block down from the Olympic area which is on the North side of Beijing somewhat in the suburbs near a large hotel district (about 20 min from Ti anamen Square).

Gotta Go China Style

Chinese Toilets

While our hotel offered perfectly new porcelain thrones (often sprinkled with orchid leaves in the bowl) in both our rooms and the lobby I was surprised that 99% of the toilets beyond the hotel were "Chinese Toilets"

I just googled "Chinese Toilets" and ehow.com provides the best explanation of the "how to" use the Chinese Toilets most effectively for the ladies:

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• toilet paper
• strong knees and ankles
• courage to endure very unpleasant odors and sights
• anti-bacterial hand sanitizer, or wipes

Step1

You are at that point. You cannot hold it any longer and the hotel is miles away. You find a place to go and nope, not a single stall is hiding the treasured Western toilet. Fret not, with a bit of practice and preparation, you will be in and out, business concluded, before you faint from the smell.First thing's first. Take your tissue (you should always keep some with you) out and hang up any bags or coats or objects that might drag. If you feel uncomfortable with this, or if there aren't any hooks, secure whatever items you may have on you. You don't want anything dangling off you.

Step2

Stand with a foot on either side of the bowl, or trough, or hole, facing toward the door (or where the door should be). There might even be places for the feet made obvious with ridged footpads.

Step3

If wearing trousers, unfasten them. Now, in one move, grab your underwear and trousers at the hips, slide them down AND bend the knees. This will leave you with the seat of your trousers baggy, so with a firm grip on both your trousers and underwear, lower further, bunch up the material and tuck it under your knees. You should now be squatting over the toilet, rear end exposed, and trousers securely fixed in the bend of the knees.

Step4

Before you relieve yourself, check for alignment. You should be squarely over the toilet/hole, as low as you can be, and if you have properly tucked your trousers under you, you should see an ample gap between your lap and your knees. Also, if wearing baggy pants, you should make sure that no part of the lower leg is in danger of getting splashed on.

Step5

Complete your business, doing your best to balance. If feeling wobbly, you might want to hold the bottom of the door in front of you, if there is one.

Step6

Once done, remember that toilet paper goes in the bin provided next to the toilet (if there isn't one, just drop it as usual). Now that that's finished, pull up and congratulate yourself for a job well done!

Other commentary: http://www.thebeijingguide.com/toilets/chinese_toilets.html

China Visit Summary

China has over 1.3 billion people (Yes that billion with a "B") and of that great population, over 13 million live in the capital city of Beijing where I just spent the last 8 days. Prior to our journey there my only real exposure to China was for the coverage for the recent Olympics. Prior to that I remember hearing my Aunt and Uncle talk about their trip there (when I tried to block out the fact that there is a culture that eats puppies) and of course I've eaten at P.F. Chang's enough that I thought for sure I was an expert on the local cuisine.

Let's just say all of my prior "knowledge" was quickly re-conformed upon arrival.

My first observation was that I was surprised at how spread out the city seemed to be. Everything I had heard and read about Chinese population I was expecting New York City with twice as many people all crowded into one small area pushing each other on the sidewalks. However, the geography was quite spread out and I think that it would take about an hour to drive from one end of the city to the other. With that said, you still noticed that there was a giant population increase from the 4million total people that live in New Zealand and with 13 million it made Denver seem like a small farm town--With Olympic fever still going on strong (we arrived a few days after the Para-Olympics ended) there is an additional influx of tourists. The papers estimated that the next few weeks with Chinese holidays and additional tourists that there would be an additional7-10 million visitors in the city. That means that we were snuggled up with about 20 million people in just one city!

With large cities come the problems and benefits that all large cities offer and I think that Beijing is in it's best form after the country has spent over $50 BILLION dollars prepping the town for the Olympic games. The roads are in great repair, there is security everywhere (and the city feels very safe) there are flowers and grass lining all of the streets and Olympic flags proclaiming "One World One Dream" on every street corner and tourist stop. It may be for the media attention (or not) but I was impressed with how many trees lined the major roads, at the lack of trash and I didn't see one homeless person on the sidewalk.

Overall, if I had to sum up the city in one word I would use "Paradox." Much like the Chinese Yin and Yang the city offers perspectives from very poor citizens that live in dirt floor homes just outside of town and across the street would be million dollar gated communities. One of the drivers that took us to the Great Wall said that a "so so" salary in Beijing is about $500 USD/month. Yet we also saw plenty of expensive hotels and stores including Rolex, Dior, Burberry....who can afford a Cartier watch on $500 a month? During rush hour you could witness Mercedes driving intertwined with bicycle couriers carrying 4 bags of trash) like the picture above but during rush hour there are 100s of bikes on the roads) businessmen in suits walking next to children peeing into a bush. There was something for everyone!

My overall conclusion of visiting Beijing is that of amazement and discomfort. I struggled with the food choices and contamination scares, being able to communicate with those who spoke a different language with a different alphabet and coping with what seemed like ancient toilets in a very modern community (next blog post offers more on the toilets). But I was also amazed at how Westernized a lot of the city is, how clean and well run the city is, how inexpensive some items are and how expensive others seemed. It is amazing to consider one of the largest cities in the world also has some of the largest historical dwellings....right downtown. We spent 7 full days in Beijing and you could easily spend 7 months and barely scratch the surface. Between the shopping, the cultural tours, museums, artifacts, food.....you could stay busy for months.

It's an experience I wholly recommend for those who appreciate history, new cultures and living outside of the box

September 12th

"September 12th"

Unless this is the day of your birthday it's just another day on the calendar much like April 19th or December 3rd. It doesn't have any real significance. However, in New Zealand, September 12th is the date that Kiwis remember waking up to pictures of the Twin Towers engulfed in flames.

On September 11th at 8:46 a.m New Yorkers were struck with a day that will never be forgotten. It was 12:46am on September 12th in New Zealand. While most kiwis slept Americans were glued to their television sets watching in both horror and amazement at the pictures of the Twin Towers that CNN showed for hours on end.

However, even though the tragedy occurred half way around the globe, New Zealanders were just as shocked and just as glued to their television sets. While driving on the highway this morning back from dropping off the pilot at the airport I listened to every radio station as they re-counted what they remember reporting 7 years ago today and they re-played tracks from President Bush's "acts of evil" speech. One Kiwi reported "I remember watching the television and I couldn't get my head around what I was seeing quickly enough to be able to report it on the air"

Kiwis were just as shocked as Americans and "September 11th" is a day remembered and discussed just as much in this country as it is in America. Kiwis remember where they were when they heard of the attacks just as much as Americans- and yet I am a bit curious on why. I do not discount that the attacks on September 11th were some of the most gruesome and horrifying scenes ever televised. I do not ignore the 2,751 people that died that day and I recognize that it was a major threat on US territory. However, as Americans do you pay tribute and recognize the tragedies of other countries in the same light that foreigners mourn our loss? Do Americans remember where they were on December 26, 2004 when the Indonesian Tsunami hit killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries. Do you remember where you were in July of 1994 when it the Rwandan genocide death rates hit over 1 million? (I'm embarrassed to say that I never even remember hearing about Rwanda until Hollywood brought it in to my living room long enough to pay attention to Don Cheedle in "Hotel Rwanda")
How about where you were on May 12, 2008 when 69,197 Chinese died in the largest earthquake in 30 years and over 4.8 million people were rendered homeless.

I wonder if it was the nature of the Al Queda attacks that is everlasting. I wonder if it was the fact that it was an attack on the "World's Super Power" -I wonder if it was the number of Americans that died that is so alarming.

Where I will forever be shocked at the concept that human beings could believe in something so much that they could justify flying a plane full of innocent people into an office building. I am also a bit amazed at all of the atrocities that happen across the world everyday and yet it barely makes the 3rd page news in the States.

However, as it stands September 11th is a date that is remembered here as well as at home. At an investment seminar I attended the other day the advisor discussed market trends and focused on the effects of September 11th on the world market and on Kiwis in particular. Kiwi travelers remember being stranded in airports. (Since I've been in New Zealand I have already met 3 people who were or who knew someone in the air and/or about to board a plane somewhere in the world when the attacks occurred). Last night on the news a Kiwi reporter discussed the effects on air travel today and interviewed mainly Americans and Kiwis for their opionin on increased secuirty.

It is a day that is forever branded in everyone's memories and maybe it's not becuase of the number of people that were actually killed. Maybe it's not because of the comparable property damage to other disasters. Perhaps it's an event that transpires geographic lines and translates into thousands of languages since it was a disaster from people, to people and it was seemingly unstoppable. Maybe it's the sense of vulnerability that bonds our memories. Regardless, it is a day to remember. A day to pay tribute and day that reminds us all to acknowledge life.




Here's the full page AP article covering Sept 11th events in the U.S. from today's New Zealand Herald http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10531812&ref=rss

Beaches Near Us

Kiws are known for their love of Sport (yes they call is "Sport" not "Sports") and one of the most popular Aucklander sport is Kite-Surfing. Therefore more kiters are also weathermen (you want a on-shore breeze so that you don't blow out to sea).

In living with a Kiter comes some touring of great beaches. Here are two popular kiting beaches near us......

Kiwi T.V.

Now I can't say that I've gotten a chance to watch much t.v. while I've been in NZ but everyone is very interested in knowing how secluded (or not) I am being away from home. Surprisingly, I don't feel secluded at all on the news or entertainment front. We've gotten plenty of election coverage including Obama's and McCain's speeches and anchors from Denver reported on the DNC. The leading story on the news tonight was regarding Hurricane Gustav. The morning shows were all reporting on Angelina Jolie's post-partum depression, Pallin's daughter's news.

Any clip of Bush that could or does demonstrate his naivete is shown over and over (they love Bush-bashing on all channels)


I think that we get every primetime show here in NZ that we get at home although a lot of shows are a season (or two) behind. I'm considering using my knowledge of storylines from watching the episodes at home to start a small gambling ring predicting what characters will do next. Stay tuned for how long that will last :-)

NZ even is starting to get it's own versions of gameshows. Tonight is the new "NZ's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and they have "NZ Deal or No Deal" (but regular citizens holding the suitcases instead of models). It is pretty impressive how many "NZ" shows there are considering the country's entire population and geographic size is smaller than Colorado.

There is even similar entertainment news including "Entertainment Tonight" However, I have noticed that the hosts for their entertainment channels are not the decked out beauty queens but some just seem like your regular guy off the street. I think that is either becuase of their limited population or becuase like in everything else I've seen, NZ is just less into "looks" and drama.

They are also hooked to our same talkshows i.e. Rachel Ray, Tyra, The View.....You can never escape!

The news has sections dedicated to the US but the bonus is you get other world news as well so it's a bit of everything.

The equivalent of TIVO is just being introduced on their satellite t.v. and it's all the buzz. We just have the four basic channels which really has most of what you need and blends from multiple networks in the US and across the world.

Their commercials are a mix of US commercials (some with dubbed over background commentating by a Kiwi), Australian and some home-grown Kiwi commercials. The Kiwi commercials seem to play over and over. I'm not going to lie. This is my favorite commercial (and he pops up on your computer too) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_poYUF5znQ&watch_response

The morale of the story is, not only does the island have running water and electricity but it also has all the smut t.v. you could want mixed in with some odd Australia soap operas, some British t.v. and the local Kiwi sitcoms are the best. For those of you who watch Flight of the Concords at home (on HBO about two Kiwis in the US) there is plenty more of that kind of humor and bad outfits here too.