1 一
Just left the airport. Beijing decided to welcome us with a humid 33°C evening, apparently the hottest day of the month so far. Richard and I are being driven through Monday's rush hour traffic courtesy of Richard's Uncle and his Audi A4. I notice the hazy red sun disappearing and reappearing between the mostly grey buildings as we drive along; it looks cloudy and distant. I wonder for the first time how often Beijing actually gets blue skies.
The highways are complex and meant to handle a diverse combination of traffic. At one point, we're one of three separate lanes of traffic merging into a single road. There are cars, buses, taxis, electric scooters, bikes, and pedestrians crisscrossing and slowly negotiating towards their desired destinations. I notice a sort of lazy indifference to the chaos on the commuter's faces. I see, what would be considered dangerous manoeuvres on the roads of Canada, met with a reflexive adjustment by any affected drivers without even the slightest acknowledgement. Perhaps a quick honk if the move was particularly egregious, but not because their angry. It's just to alert the other driver to the honker's presence.
I'm amazed with how everyone is able to adapt to the wild and unpredictable road conditions. It felt like, as a driver, you're always almost killing someone the entire time you're driving...
Driving in Beijing requires planning and precise execution, being clear and confident with your movements. I think the same purposefulness of movement is needed to live in a city like this too. Do things correctly, and plan ahead, or risk being left behind by all the masses of people who did instead. This is only a theory at the moment, so I'll see if I still believe this 12 days from now.
2 二
We went to visit Richard's Aunt today. We took the subway to the neighbourhood she lives in, and like other areas I've seen already it's rather dirty and dilapidated, at least by my Westerner standards. However, despite the look of the exterior building, their apartment is clean and tidy, albeit small. I realized later this was a recurring theme with the homes I visited in China. No matter what the building looks like on the outside, or even in the common spaces like the elevator, every home I went to was clean, well furnished, and comfortable despite not being too spacious.
Richard's Aunt, Uncle, Grandmother, and their two dogs live in the apartment together. His grandmother is very old and can't leave her bed any more. The whole apartment is probably 500 sqft. I was very jetlagged still, so I took a nap on a bed across the room from his grandmother.
It was a humid and sunny mid-morning on a tuesday; through the window were the strange and exotic sounds of a city starting it's workday. Birds, car horns, the sounds of men and machines labouring in tandem, and the odd unintelligible shout all combined to form a urban melody to my ears. Richard and his Aunt conversing in Mandarin in the kitchen. Their two tiny dogs yapping in tandem every time someone got within a kilometre of the front door. The bed was essentially a wooden frame with blankets over it (which was actually great for my back). It was bright, hot, and loud yet I quickly fell asleep amidst the panoply of sound. Maybe because of the jet lag, but also because I was just happy to have my feet off the ground. I appreciated the space and moment, the comfort of a world proceeding around me in a country I've been in less than 24 hours.
500 sqft. of familiarity in a city of the unknown was all I needed that morning.
3 三
4:42AM. That's the time my phone showed when I woke up. I was on an overnight train to Xi'An, nestled into a 6 bed (triple-decker bunks on both sides) cabin; shared between me, Richard, Victor, and 3 middle aged Xi'An locals. One man and two women.
I chose the top-most bunk and—despite some earlier technical difficulties—the AC was thankfully working at this point. I was awake due to a combination of jet lag, having to pee, and from the sounds of both the women from Xi'An snoring beside me in harmony, filling the air with synchronized inhalation and exhalation. My bladder was going to burst at any moment so, despite my fear of stepping on one of the four heads sleeping below me, I climbed down and headed to the washroom.
Fortunately, as I was planning my escape, I saw that Richard was awake too, and on his phone. To be completely honest, I've always had a suspicion, deep down, that Richard has a sort of superpower that allows him to exist without sleeping...so seeing him awake right now basically affirmed my theory. Upon quiet inquiry, I learnt that he had to use the washroom too. So we made the journey together to the far end of the train car where the washroom was—which was a closet with a hole in the floor.
It was here that we hung out for a bit, in that period right before dawn where everything is the quietest it's going to be that day. Not even the farmers in the rural countryside we were passing had gotten up yet. Being awake in these moments makes you feel as if you've escaped time.
Richard told me he was up because he'd just received a job offer back in Canada (where it was currently the middle of the afternoon). It was really exciting news. At this point, sleep seemed out of the question so we stayed and just chatted in the cramped hallway, thinking about the future.
The train was still chugging along through the vast farmlands that fill the space between cities. We were above a green speckled carpet, with beige plastic walls and cigarette smoke surrounding us (the washrooms doubled as the smoking area). Just hanging out at 5 in the morning, that interstitial space between night and day and halfway between here and there—our biological clocks trying to convince us we're still in Canada.
4 四
After midnight and it's our last hours in Xi'An. We're leaving in the morning for the airport to fly to Shenzhen. We're back in the Muslim quarter grabbing some late night eats. All three of us hop in a little scooter / taxi / tuk-tuk type thing from our hotel. My leg's hanging out the side because we're all 200lb+ guys and the scooter is way too small for the three of us.
We were lucky enough that Victor knew a friend of a friend who lived in Xi'An, and they were nice enough to show us around the city all day—he even drove us all out to the famous Terracotta Army site which is over an hour away from the city! For dinner, Victor's friend brought us to the Muslim quarter, a well known food market in Xi'An. All the food I tried was delicious. There's apparently a more touristy section of the market, but we went to the section that locals go to.
While we ate, Victor's friend recommended we check out a food stall which is only open late and was somewhat famous for a beef sandwich type thing that I can't really explain very well. So that's where we were headed, although we had already stopped for some meat skewers on wooden sticks too.
The street I was walking down, if I could describe it in one word, was dirty. But overall this doesn't seem to be a big concern for people here. The quality of the products are what matters to them, and that is the reason to go. The Muslim quarter is a district full of street food vendors and restaurants serving a variety of food influenced by the Middle East—no pork in sight. This ethnic diaspora is a consequence of Xi'An's history as a the final destination of the silk road, China's trade route with the Middle East.
As I was walking back to the hotel, beef sandwich thing safely in hand, I couldn't help but be overwhelmed with joy by the entire experience. Food really is the heart and soul of China, and their creativity and diversity of ingredients and flavours is what makes Chinese food culture so interesting. I couldn't recognize half of the ingredients on this sandwichy thing, but it tasted incredible. Granted, I was also several beers and baijiu shots deep at this point, so I was in an appreciative mood.
5 五
Hong Kong feels like taking the biggest city in the world, halving its size, and then building it on an ocean coast with mountains surrounding it from all sides. It is dense. I was walking around Mongkok today; it's apparently the most densely populated neighbourhood in the world. The markets flanking the streets were never-ending. Sneaker street, which I spent a good hour or so exploring, was a street with only sneaker stores lining both sides. Most of them were selling the exact same styles: Nike LeBron 15's with the knitted upper, Adidas Ultra Boosts with Cloud Foam in 1000000 different colourways, Curry 4's, and every Jordan from 1 to infinity.
Sneaker street, and a lot of Hong Kong, was an absolute spectacle of consumerism. Amidst the crowds of people moving in every single direction, I passed by a guy with a shirt that said:
everything is something to us
I don't know why, but for some reason it really stuck out to me and I thought about it for awhile. It could've just been just a non-sensical translation like a lot of the English text you see on products and clothes here. Or maybe someone actually thought about those words and put them on a shirt. Who knows?
Chinese culture is strange in a lot of ways. Most people under the age of 60 are glued to their phones almost every moment of the day. They are avid consumers of technology* (*government approved technology) and they love to adopt new goods and services, collectively and with remarkable speed.
At first glance, it doesn't seem like individualism is important to them—everyone is more than happy to plop down on the subway and pull out their phone among the hundreds of others doing the same thing. But I think they actually value their differences a lot and they are meticulous when it comes to adding personal flair to their belongings. In a country of over a billion people, finding the right car accessory to match one's unique style is important. Everything means something. Diversity and uniqueness is critical to providing you with a personal foundation. Something you can hold on to and say "this is me". If you live in a 50 story apartment building with big numbers painted on the side to distinguish it from the ten other 50 story buildings that look exactly the same, it's understandable that you would covet and value your possessions so much. Everything is something, and everyone is someone.
6 六
We spent the day in Hong Kong. Again, fortunate enough to have a local show us around—Phoebe.
It was hot and humid, as Hong Kong generally is. We checked out Lantau Island, quite hungover, and hiked up to see the Big Golden Buddha™. It was quite nice, and big, and golden, and Buddha.
After that sweaty experience, we went to a "ratchet ass mall", in Phoebe's words, near Mongkok to enjoy some cheap food, found in what I guess could be called a food court on the 3rd floor. The food vendors were still intermingled with clothing and other retail stores so there really wasn't an obvious separation of purpose between the floors.
We had the pleasure of experiencing the mall without air conditioning, so it was nice and toasty. It was also packed. Since it was a travel day, I was carrying around a big duffle bag with me. It wasn't easy navigating through the crowds with it, especially when most of them were half my size.
Things took an interesting turn when I was sitting down enjoying a nice sushi hand roll (which normally I don't like as I find them hard to eat and also mostly rice) and I thought, you know what, I'm basically eating a seaweed and rice triangle right now, I'm gonna add some soy sauce to it. So I grabbed the soy sauce from the sauce table in front of me and drizzled some on it. Unfortunately, what I had actually grabbed was wasabi soy sauce which, for some reason, is way hotter than just wasabi.
I love spicy food. I love really spicy food. I put hot sauce on almost everything. BUT...getting blindsided by a shot of wasabi soy sauce, while in a crowded, AC-less mall was something I was not prepared for. I had been trojan-horsed by a wasabi spice bomb and there was nothing I could do about it. It was a sweaty, uncomfortable experience to remember.
After a shirt change and a bubble tea, I was back on my feet and we were making our way to Shenzhen.
7 七
Shenzhen is a relatively new city by China's standards. In 1979 it had a population of just 30,000. In the 80s, it was designated as a Special Economic Zone, a first for China. This meant it was granted more free-market trade laws and it was open to foreign investment. After becoming one of the fastest growing cities in the world over the next three decades, today Shenzhen has a population of over 10 million people, one of the busiest shipping ports in the world, and a booming technology industry.
I went to check out Shenzhen's semi-famous electronics market, specifically to get my phone screen fixed. Like most places I'd been to in China so far, it was way bigger than I thought it'd be. An entire street of malls filled with individual vendors selling every device and technology you can think of, and also the individual parts that these devices are made using. It was overwhelming—but I was able to find someone to fix my phone shortly (for less than half of what it would've cost in Canada).
Later in the day we went to SheKou district. It's a sprawling mall and entertainment district with lights, fountain shows, restaurants, bars, and shopping. A huge boat sits in the middle of the entertainment district on a small patch of water. The MingHua, a French passenger ship from the 60s which was sold to China in the 80s. It's now home to a hotel and some restaurants and it serves as a tourist attraction for Shenzhen. It's completely landlocked due to land reclamation efforts surrounding it.
In fact, the whole SheKou district, which sits on the water, literally was part of the ocean just 30 years ago. It was interesting to me that everything I saw, all the roads and tall buildings and malls, was all built on terraformed land. The entire district is a visual indication of the progress and prosperity that Shenzhen has experienced over the past few decades. Also really speaks to the amount of effort put in by the Chinese government to development Shenzhen, and how efficiently it all happened.
8 八
Hopped on another plane today and flew back to Beijing. Didn't do too much else. Tried a Pidan, or "1000 year old egg" and almost yuked.
9 九
Victor skipped out on the touristy stuff today, so Richard and I went to the forbidden city in the morning and it was absolutely packed with tourists. Still, it was very beautiful and an impressive place with an interesting history.
In the afternoon we began our journey to the Great Wall, north of Beijing—the Badaling section to be specific, which is the most popular part to visit. To our surprise, by the time we got there after taking a subway, another subway, and then an hour train ride...the wall was practically empty! It was incredible. The only people we saw were some who were making their way back as we started out, but as we continued walking there was no one left and we had the wall to ourselves.
It was so quiet and serene. I was actually able to take in how incredible this structure really is. Miles and miles of stone wall, 10-20 feet high and 8 or so feet wide, built along the edges of mountains. I can't fathom the persistence, ingenuity, and manpower needed to construct something of this magnitude, especially over 500 years ago. I was floored by the beauty of this simple stone wall, weaving through the surrounding mountains like a snake.
10 十
Played badminton last night in a local gym with Richard and Victor. Victor used to go here to train during the summer back in university. There were some seriously good players, and we played doubles with a few of them. I'm used to playing badminton with mainly Chinese people, but I felt like I stuck out a bit more than usual when I showed up in a random high school gym in Beijing.
After badminton, we went to a skewer restaurant close by called 京朋串吧 , which Victor said is one of the best in the city. With a recommendation like that, and with the appetites the three of us were walking in there with, it only made sense to order a hundred thousand skewers.
11 十一
Learned how to make dumplings today. I was pretty terrible at it but Winnie gave me some pointers and showed me a couple different ways to make them. Richard was passed out with Jade and his grandfather was helping prepare dinner. His grandfather told me, or showed me rather since he does not speak English, that the trick is to keep the far side of the dumpling pouch slightly shorter than the side nearest to you. I tried that, and it helped somewhat, but my dumplings were still pretty ugly and had holes in them.
Then, Winnie pointed out that I should only be folding one side of the dumpling pouch, not both sides—the other side should stay flat. After that, my dumplings started to get better. Nowhere near as round or dumplingy as Winnie's, but they weren't gonna explode in the boiling water which was the important thing.
Besides, since we were in Beijing we'd only be boiling them, Winnie told me, because that's generally how Northern Chinese people prepare dumplings. In the south, where she's from, it's more common to either pan fry them or do a mixture of both frying and boiling. Because they were getting boiled, it didn't matter as much what they looked like because the boiling distorts their shape a lot. Made me feel better about my ugly ass dumplings. Thanks Winnie.
I don't really have anything deep or profound to say about this experience, it was just the most interesting part of my day.
12 十二
Flying out today but managed to steal some time this morning. This trip should not have been so good, and it didn't need to end so well, but it did, and I feel very fortunate to have these opportunities and to experience so much life in the short time I had here. These 12 days were more than I could've asked for.