Life before and after China

Six months in a country where culture and language varies a lot even within the country, not to even talking about compare to Europe. I have had an opportunity to get to know Chinas culture in many aspects tasting different foods, meeting new people (both, Chinese and non-Chinese) and travel many places.

I will admit that there have been moments of different feelings, there have been no way to avoid moments of frustration but there have been also many moments of glad and joy fulfilled with different experiences. I've seen many faces of China, from Shanghai skyscrapers to old farmer who lives in a cave, from Inner-Mongolian grasslands to Li-river green hills, from busy life in Beijing to peacefulness of Tibet. Every place includes own stories and memories, but like I said after I left Ireland: Its the people that make places.

People... yes people in China are truly a chapter of its own, even that it almost feel bad for me to talk Chinese people as one because there is such a huge difference among them. Chinese have their own habits and event that they might feel weird from our perspective, I still think that they need to respected as the way they are, not judge them. For example spitting on a streets or “slurping” noodles/soup can be irritating, but have you ever head that louder you “slurp” your food, the better it tastes! Another funny combination is Chinese and cameras, especially in the phones, which connects to selfies. Here people love to pose on cameras, it even comes naturally from 4 years old child, and it is important to pose in front everything as all things that moves and even if they dont move, they are still worth of taking picture -or few just in case if first one is not good enough or something...

Oh, and bathrooms, which mostly are just holes in the ground some of them having more privacy but some of then are basically just holes side by side, no walls or nothinhg between (Japanese call those ones “Ni Hao Toilets”). I know that topic is not the most interesting one, but I share it still: I managed almost whole six months without squatting in bathrooms, but that 42hrs train ride toTibet broke me. But I mean even the squat toilets are part of Chinese culture and habit to use them is so deep in mind that there have to be a sign over normal toilet “no standing on a toilet seat, sit down please”

One thing I learned in here is that actually with how little its possible to get along and be happy. Even that sometimes Chinese seem ignorant towards other, mostly if they dont know you, but when you “break the ice”, the way they actually do care from others who are close to them is amazing and definately something worth to learn. On the other hand living here have shown clearly inequalities in society, how much wealthiness can give you power and how Chinese who have money are definately not afraid to show it in a way that everyone should know their place in Chinese society. Same applies for foreigners, being a Western person in China, gives you a priviledges and good opportunities in society, but on the other hand adds it adds some extra challenges (especially if you dont speak language). It is stunning to notice how openly racist Chinese culture is.

There is an statement I've heard that there is a life before and after exchange in China and I completely agree with that. Some people fall in love with China completely, for some it has been more like an awesome experience but the country is not the place where to spend longer time in life. I belong this second group, China has been great experience but it is time to move on. One thing that influences is most likely the language, here I realised first time in my life how important is to know the language in order to be able to integrate better on surrounding culture and in that way have much more out of it.

Thank you for those ones who have been reading my blog. This is now last post because it is time for new adventures. It is not time to return Finland yet, I will spend next two months backpacking around South-East Asia, which will be completely another story to tell.

Ps. Now you can check also pictures for two previous blog posts!

Tibet - At the top of the world

So my last stop in China was Tibet, place that is called to be a rooftop of the world. To reach it was slightly pain in the ass, as I spent 42hrs in the train. I had a sleeper, but travel agent did book a top one (there are 3 bunk beds top of eachother), which had such small place that could not even sit on a bed, so I was forced to rest. Positive was that especially during second day the views from train were great!


Finally when reached Lhasa, first I was taken to a side because police have to register all foreigners who arrive in Tibet because they require special travel permit that shows that you have an official tour guide with you. Its all because of political reasons, in Tibet there are stationed lots of police officers and military troops to “maintain and supervise order in Tibet.” It was very interesting to talk with our tour guide and also see his attidute towards Chinese government. The way how certain type of power struggles of identity can be seen in Tibetian people daily life i.e. Government dont allow Tibetian people have passports so they cant travel outside China oron the other hand Tibetian people dont like to drink Lhasa beer because its owned by Chinese businessman.

To understand history and Tibetian way of thinking, the most important figure is Dalai Lama who is head of Tibet in political and religious issues. Buddhism is the backbone of life as people are very religious. In Lhasa there are three main “Pilgrim circles” that people walk around daily bases praying., they are like 10km, 3km and 1km. Then people pray on yearly bases 100 00 times by bending down and up, and some people even complete that amount within few months. Of course monks are then a group of their own as they devode their life for studying religious text books, which have to first be memorized and then understand them. By doing that it is possibleto complete a bachelor degree (6years) and master degree (another 6years), exams are based on debating with other monks and our group was lucky to see this debate going on when visitng in Sera monastery. There are two main monasteries in Lhasa, Sera and Drepung - those used to have thousands of monks living there, nowadays there are only hundreds anymore.

Besides those monasteries there are two main places to visit which symbolizes Tibet, Potala Palace, home of Dalai Lama and Jokhang Temple, center of old town of Tibet and a place “where all starts”, according our tour guide (like demonstrations in 2008). Potala palace is massive, one thousands rooms and one thousand windows (symbolizes 1000 lives of Buddha), visitors are only allowed see some parts of palace, which is good in a way that walking through thousand rooms might take a while... I tried to spot Dalai Lama but because he is in excile it was only possile tombs of previous ones. Most massive was tomb of fifth one (almost 4tons of gold and huge ammount of precious stones) as he is the one who started construction of Potala Palace.

Jokhang temple is main place for Tibetians for worshipping. There were many people praying outside of the temple, walking around it (one of the Pilgrim circles) or praying inside. One way to get blessing is to bring your religious statue to temple overnight and then monks will give a blessing for it and you can pick it up next day. Like I said, Tibetian are quite religious people.

Of course Tibet is not only about Buddhism, it also have a stunningly beautiful landscapes. My Tibet trip took me overnight for lake Namtso, one of the holy lakes in Tibet. It took totally five hours to drive there even that distance is only 250km, but the roads and speed controlling. I think they have one of the most efficient speed control system in Tibet that I have come across with: There are police checkpoints between certain distances (i.e.60km) where they check your timing how long it was when you passed previous checkpoint and the speed ticket is then based on timing and it costs 100rmb per minute if driving too fast. Of course it can be questioned, is it only for speed control or also for general people control not so spend too much time “somewhere” as the destination also needed to be mentioned...

When we finally did reach the lake, altidute of 4700m above sea level, sun was shining and wind blowing. Lhasa is 3600m altidute and there i didn't have any signs of mountain sickness, but reaching 4700m day was fine but evening got little bit mountain sick (headache and lack of apetite). Place itself was really beautiful, huge lake surrounded by snow-top mountains. Yak's, goats wondering around freely. Never tried Yak meat before, but here in Tibet had a chance for that and have to say that it was delicious.

But now it is time to leave Tibet behind. Im flying to Kunming at evening and stay a night at airport before saying goodbye China when heading to Bangkok.... Or actually thanks to Chinese government ""Great Wall" Im already in Bangkok and able to access facebook, google etc. again freely so I can publish my blog texts...

Last Weeks in Beijing

So almost six months have passed and like always, farewells come at the end. So last 1,5 weeks have been quite busy, not just because of deadlines for handling in assignments but also saying goodbye for people leaving. Obviously it also meant some fun!

There were many different evenings in both nightlife areas (Woudakou & Sanlitun). At beginning of my studies I tried study Chinese, a good point from that was that we got a nice language class so I still hang around with them event that I dropped of from language studies to other major. One night we went out with class, with a private space in bar where we hang arounded, had a laugh before continuing to the place called Wu-Club. Interesting evening but nothing more about that -those who participate, those knows...




Another day direction was Sanlitun and club name Latte. Cool club, that has different shows during evening separates it slightly on basic clubs. In Beijing the basic logic how club works is following: Clubs want to be popular among foreigners (non-Asian looking), because it is seemed to make the club more attractive also among Chinese. In clubs rules changes a bit, but i.e. in Latte foreigners get free entry and free drinks (3 different choices) until like 2am or something. Chinese will pay a table and order their drinks before on there that easily costs thousands rmbs. So basically rich Chinese brings money for the clubs and foreigners enjoy the fun for free. It was a also fun evening just was a bit more rough than usual as I ended up with black eye and some bruises, but nothing more about that either -those who participate, those knows...

Life is not just clubbing (its actually quite little part of time here in China), its more about food I would say. We were a group of fifteen people who went to one buffet place, 60rmb all you cane eat and drink (incl. beer, baiju...). So many options, so limited time but I still managed eat so much that I felt exploding when walking out, straight to bed and sleep.Another day, I had a sushi lunch with my two Japanese friend.

Lastly, my Finnish friend Jussi who was studying Hong Kong this spring was on a China tour with his friends and Beijing was last stop. I met them when I was in Hong Kong, so now it was other way around. There was one wish: Would be cool see nightlife... You got what you ordered, so Latte was destination and I remember the words said there: “This is cool, but there is one thing that I dont understand, how this all can be free???”

So it was time to pack my backpack and leave Beijing behind, I have one more stop to go before I leave China. Its a bit more than 4000 km from Beijing and takes 42 hrs in train going as high as 5000 meters ending up on 3500 meters above sea level: Place is Lhasa, Tibet.

Inner Mongolia - From Grassland to Desert

I already thought that all my trips here in China would be more or less done before I leave Beijing, but random things do happen… I have just enjoying a beer with my friend and she was telling about her plan to travel Inner Mongolia with couple of other friends and that one of then cancelled so there was a free spot to fill up. Yes, I was in – And what a great trip it was! Usually I am more or less prepared myself a trip to know at least where Im going or so on, but at this time only thing I knew about whole trip was time of departure and arrival, price included everything and it was toward Inner Mongolia… But that is what is often said: when you don’t know what to expect, you won’t get disappointed easily.

Clock stroke 5am in Friday morning, some people were on their way home from the bars but we were sitting in a tour bus ready to head up towards Inner Mongolia. The worst part of the tour was definitely long bus rides, first around 7 hours Hohhot where we had our lunch: 10 people sitting around round table and more food just kept coming from kitchen = paradise!

Then it was another two hours in bus as we drove to grasslands. Mongolia is famous of its horses so what would be better time to get familiar Mongolian culture than riding horses over grasslands. In total the riding tour took almost three hours but luckily we had few stops on the way because otherwise my ass would hurt as hell. And not just the riding was great experience, but also the whole place where we staying overnight. It was type of hotel that every room was built to remind a shape of a tent that Mongolians traditionally used to live with, I counted that there was almost two hundred “rooms” so it was kind of a village in the middle of grasslands. At the evening in the main building there was a dinner served, and also a show with traditional songs and dances. Table was again full of food but the “main dish” was over others easily. We had lamb which was so delicious that I cant even describe it: Chef was cutting huge chunks of meat on the plates from a whole lamb and the plates were bought to our table, and we “tried” manage them with chopsticks – although I realised that using hands were must convenient in this case. Later at evening we had some beers and bbq outside under Mongolian stars – so bright and so beautiful sky.

Second day we change environment completely as we were heading to Gobi desert for different activities. To get to the desert the tour bus dropped us on a parking place, there were few shops if someone wanted to do last minute purchases to protect him/herself against desert… As known, Chinese people are generally not really those ones who enjoy sun that much, so they were really preparing themselves: Putting their phones and other stuff in small plastic bags (because of sand) and covering themselves all over with scarfs… I mean it wise in the desert but still a bit over in my opinion. Anyways we took a miles long cable car to the desert, feeling was like going to skiing as the cable car was exactly the same… only difference was direction: It went straight forward instead upwards to the top of some hill. Finally it reached to its destination where we were surrounded by sand. In total we had four activities: camel riding, sand sliding, quad bike driving and kind of “desert boat” round (a car that drove fast over dynes making us feel that were in the rollercoaster). Camel riding was interesting… especially after riding horses previous day. I thought to get my ass sore riding a horse but no way, after riding a camel, horse feels like sitting on a soft pillow.  I mean everything was really cool experiences, also because I they were all something that I haven’t ever experienced before in that kind of surroundings.

Last day was a really long day in a way that in total we spend more than 12 hours in a bus… But luckily we had some stops. Absolutely the funniest one at one traditional courtyard house. It was renovated to show what kind of housing were built in the cities early ages. It reminded a lot traditional Chinese courtyard houses on its structure so that itself wasn't that stunning but which made it fun was that there a possibility to try archery skills and dress up on traditional clothes to take photos. After a session of photo shooting it was time to get up back into the bus… Finally at evening we arrived back to Beijing, long exhausting trip but I really worth.  

Datong

It has been a moment of since my last blog post… And to be honest, it just of being lazy to write J

I did a two days trip to city called Datong, it’s (not more than) around 400 km West from Beijing, easily accessible by train as most of the bigger cities in China. Datong is definitely not the most popular tourist attraction point in China, which made it very interesting place to visit. During the whole few days I saw maybe around 5 foreign people and obviously this lack of foreigner influenced on prices also… For example staying in five star hotel junior suite paying 25 euros for a night – not bad! Or I had a haircut that cost me 2 euros. Datong is also known as “city of the coal” as it is one of the main coal producers in China. There was few huge coal mines that could be seen from distance, but the way how it actually realized was the amount of trucks fully loaded with coal transporting it to the other parts of China – Hip hip hooray green energy!

There was two main things I wanted to see in Datong: Hanging monastery and Yungang Grottoes, but actually managed to see much more than that. On the morning arriving Datong, the day started for seeking breakfast: Bao chis (steamed buns with various fillings) were a good option as usual. While eating breakfast a local guy came to talk and introducing himself as a local guide. By being curious and listening what he had to tell and suggest the two day tour itinerary was completed: First day, see Northern section of great wall and some local village and second day go to see Hanging monastery and Yungang Grottoes.

With our tour guide (“Simon”) we took a local bus to the some small town outside of Datong, and I really mean a local bus: more like a minibus which didn’t seem to have a real schedule as it left when it was full and stopped on the way places when people told it to stop. After a bit more than hour long ride in a bus, it reached the town – surely there are not many foreigners there as it felt that as walking through the town everyone stopped whatever they were doing and stared, even some cars slowed down – even stopped to stare. The Great Wall Northern sections was built over there but ruins only left, but now I have been standing on the border of Inner-Mongolia.

There we continued to the old fortress which was now an area where some farmers were living, we were even very lucky to visit one of the farmers house. A really simple house: Two rooms only, no running water or heating, but still kind of everything you need and the man seemed to be really happy of his life in there. Like it is said that China always surprises somehow, so it happened again while we were taking another bus (normal size) back to the Datong. It was really full and there were no seats for all so we needed to stand almost whole trip and finally when bus got closer to the city and some people get out, the one reason for lack of space in the bus revealed: There was a cage full of pigeon at the floor of the bus… Gourmet dinner for someone or just for…hmm.. fun? And which made it even more hilarious that the whoever had put those pigeons in the bus were not there as at one bus stop a man just entered the bus and picked pigeons with him.

Second day after a well slept night Simon came to a hotel for a pick up with a driver so the journey to Hanging monastery could start. The name “Hanging monastery” comes from the way the place is built. Monastery is built on the side of the cliffs and supported by using wooden pillars so it kind of looks like it is “hanging.” A very beautiful small place, but definitely not for those who are afraid of highs as the peak outside from monastery revealed almost straight drop down and the fact that you were basically standing over nothing. But as the monastery has been hanging around there more than 1500 years, I guess it still will keep hanging there for a while. It is an architectural wonder but also only existing temple in China that combines all three traditional Chinese religions: Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism.

 It was a warm day so thank god there was no need to use public transportations (if there even were any?) as sitting in the car half-awake and half-asleep was a great option to spend distances between places. Because Datong is a border city to Inner-Mongolia in the past it has been often being under attacks of Mongolians (or other Northern tribes) so farmers have at that time dug caves in order to provide them safe place to escape in the case of attacks. Still even on these days there are farmers who are living in those caves, we met one. An old man with half of teeth missing maybe around age of 80. He spoke some very very traditional dialect as even our tour guide could not understand completely what he was saying. This one the local house day before has been really showing a simple way of Chinese living in countryside.

Then the second main attraction, Yungang Grottoes. It is considered as UNESCO World Heritage site built also around 1500 years ago providing an excellent example of rock cut architecture. The area covers around 250 grottoes which have around 50 000 Buddha statues, few huge ones and thousands of small ones. I can just imagine how much patience it is needed to carve all those things especially when thinking about that time tools and techniques. It took around few hours to walk through the area, although I didn't count did I saw all those 250 grottoes or did I miss some, but I guess it doesn't matter even if I did. Then our tour guide drove us back to the Datong to drop us of. It was time to say goodbye to him, a really friendly and polite guy indeed. Before it was time to catch a night train again, we enjoyed a super delicious meal which was also much cheaper than here in Beijing. I would really recommend to visit Datong, it was overall very positive experience.