Well,here we are again, dear readers. This time it is China, England and Wales.
I start by flying down to Sydney from here in Coffs Harbour on Sunday 2nd
August. An early start to catch the 6:30 am flight. Although, because I will go
for my daily walk before going to the airport it is a 3:30 am rise. I fly to
Hong Kong and get the metro to China. Yes, you read that correctly, the metro
goes to the Hong Kong suburb of LoWu where the border control with China is
situated. Through border control in the metro station and into Luohu, Shenzhen
to catch a China metro one station to the stop for my hotel. Shenzhen is noted
for it shopping and I am there 4 days before I catch a high speed train to Xian
to see the Terracotta Warriors. The trip is 2221 km with an average speed of 230
km per hour. I then go to Pingyao Old City build 1 thousand years ago and it is
noted as a World Cultural Heritage site. Finally in China I go on to Beijing to
revisit the Forbidden City and some of the museums I have yet to see. That was
the introduction I wrote 10 days ago, much has happened since, most, but not all
good. Rather than dive in to the nitty gritty I should tell it to you as it
happened. So, are you sitting comfortably… Good, then I shall begin.
Batteries
I never knew that these little cylinders of energy could cause so much fun. It
started when I checked in at the airports in Coffs Harbour. But, I get ahead of
myself. As you doubtless know I am more or less a “fly by the seat of my pants
man” and rarely plan anything. Well, on closer reflection, I do plan a few
things, like packing for a holiday. I supposed I started packing for this trip
about 8 weeks ago when I updated my packing list. Of course, I did not start to
physically pack then, that would be silly. No, I only started to actually pack
about 6 weeks ago. I then cross off items from the list as they go into the
suitcase. I did the pre- final pack last Wednesday and so by Saturday I only had
8 items left to pack. The final- final pack was an hour before we left for the
airport. It was an early rise for my walk, 3:40 am, when one has already walked
3,500 days without a break there has to be a better excuse that having to get up
early to change one’s habit. Anyway, I digress. So you now realise that with 6
weeks packing time all was neatly arranged. I was in good time to check in and
this went smoothly. My suitcase was booked through to Hong Kong and I had the
seat I wanted. Just was I was about to go when the check-in lady asked if I had
any explosives or batteries in my case. I misunderstood her at first as I
thought she wanted some of my explosives and I nearly said “No, should get your
own explosives” then I realized that I would have to undo 6 weeks of diligent
effort and delve to get my batteries out of the case and transfer them into my
hand-baggage. Why are batteries stored at the bottom of a suitcase in an ideal
pack? I tried to reason with her and said that I had spent 8 weeks packing my
case but my pleas fell on deaf ears (Just like mine). OK, I know, I exaggerated,
it only took 6 weeks but it was only a small inaccuracy. I did transfer the
batteries and went through the security screen. They saw the batteries in my
hand luggage and said they would have to come out of the bag and go through
separately. This was also done. At Coffs Harbour you board the plane by walking
out onto the tarmac and up a ramp up to the door of the plane. At the bottom of
the ramp I asked the lady (the same one who checked me in) – a few staff do all
the jobs – if I could put the cabin bag into the hold as a Premium Cabin bag to
save cluttering up the overhead lockers. She readily agreed and a baggage
handler stowed it in the hold, so, dear readers, my batteries did travel to
Sydney in the hold after all, a couple of feet from my disheveled and
disarranged suitcase.
Turn right – Indian Ocean?
I had a moment of panic as we approached Sydney an hour or so after we flew out
of Coffs. The flight from Coffs to Sydney hugs the coast so, image my horror, as
we saw the runway and carried on past. I immediately thought of flight MH370
that is considered to have come down in the Indian Ocean. Our fate would have
been a colder one as we were heading to Antarctica. Just as the airport was left
behind in the mist we turned right. I knew then that we were really headed for
the Indian Ocean. Lucky for all of us the co-pilot must have wrested control
from the insane captain and we went right again and the runway come up out of
the mist. I was so sorry that I did not have time to say a thank you to the
co-pilot but I had a tight connection to make. I did make the connection and we
are over 3 hours out from Sydney. It is very lucky that this text is not all
wiggly as we are flying over Mt Isa and the plane is bouncing up and down. I
know a bit about flying so let me explain. The turbulence, in this case, is
caused because the mining at Mt Isa leaves big holes in the ground so of course,
as we fly over the uneven ground the plane goes up and down.
Google and China
I knew before I came that China does not allow any access to Google but I did
not know that the ban extended to GMail. On reflection I should have realised
that fact but I did not. So that is why you received the email telling you about
how to read my latest exploits from a different email source, namely
barrycoffs@yahoo.com. I have managed to setup a Yahoo free email account and it
appears to work. Oh! Well, if you are reading this then the mail, e variety, got
through. Technology is quite good on occasions. I can take control of the
computer at home by using the remote connection software Teamviewer. Because I
can do everything as if I am sitting at home in the office and as our home
theater system is able to controlled via a browser, when I want to Skype Judy I
jump on the home computer, change the home theater from Pay TV to say, DVD and
back so Judy knows I am around and we Skype. Unless of course she has just got
to the exciting bit of a program then nothing will happen until it has finished.
Shopping in Shenzhen
Rose Garden
Earlier in the week I found a shop that sold Display Port (DP – in Chinese)
leads, one of which I wanted. I needed a lead greater than 1.5m and they had a
1.8 lead in the warehouse. While I waited for it to be delivered I chatted to
the owners Justin and Candy. Candy’s mum was deaf and they were interested in my
experience with my aids to help them convince her to get some. I explained the
process of the hearing test and what digital aids could do. I rather think Kate,
my longsuffering audiologist, would have been proud. Sadly, though I stopped
short of telling them to give Kate a ring for a free hearing test (there is a
board on the pavement outside Hearing Life in Coffs that attests to this). I
thought there was probably a place they could go to a bit nearer that Coffs. I
did give them my email address so that if they needed any more help they could
get in touch.
Attached to the hotel in Shenzhen was a spa and sauna complex. So I decided to
indulge. I was sitting in the sauna and I suddenly realised how like it was to a
day on Brighton beach in England in summer. Imagine the scene; I was sitting on
a wooden bench with a square of towel on my head not unlike the knotted
handkerchief one finds on heads in Brighton. This was to protect one from the
heat even though I was sat down the cold end of the sauna where it was 83C
(181F). On reflection it was a bit hotter than Brighton and I also had no
clothes on which would have frightened a few English natives. I was a little
unprepared for the heat because I had just washed a couple of pairs of socks
before I went down to have the sauna and I should have taken them with me. I
calculated that would have been dry in that heat in around 37 seconds. Undies by
the way I reckon would be done in 29.
Near Guomao
When buy drink from self-service machine best to wear glasses – New Chinese
Proverb
The problem is that without glasses one thinks one is buying a lemon drink but
it can turn out to be a sweet corn drink. Something I did not know existed so I
was caught out. No matter, liquid sweetcorn was an interesting drink, not that I
would rush to buy one again. Because I always buy Chinese food and cannot read
Chinese I buy from menus with pictures. This also does not always work, I got
caught out when I thought I was buying chicken with capsicum and instead ended
up with pork skins with chilli peppers. The rice was good – I got that right. I
am now on the high speed train from Shenzhen to Xian. It travels at an average
speed of 230 km/hr and regularly goes over 300 km/hr, I clocked 308 km/hr on my
GPS. The 2221 km journey takes 9:45min, so far we have gone over 1000kms and the
only time we slow is for a station and after 4:30mins it is exactly on time. I
am travelling this leg of the broken journey to Beijing in 1st class.
One is provided with a welcome snack and a continuous glass of China tea. In the
snack are some dried peas, crab flavour! I have never drunk so much China Tea in
one day before. I shared the first part of the journey with a lady who was Vice
President – Sales – Asia Pacific of a Spanish Wind Turbine manufacturing
company. She told me, among other things, that China is about to change the
rules for children born to a family from one to two. Her father is quite hard of
hearing and quizzed me regarding my hearing aids. This time my sales pitch was
rather more polished than when I gave it to Justin and Candy. I purchased the
ticket on line and had to collect a paper ticket from the station in Shenzhen. I
had been queueing up at window 11 booking hall A2 for about 30mins and was
nearing the front of the line when a Canadian named Rick came up to chat. He
wanted to know if I was sure that it was the right line and I said I was nearly
certain. Anyway we chatted for a few minutes and I said he should wait with me
to save the long wait at the back of the line. We collected out tickets and my
reward from him was a Metro pass with 90yuan (over $20) credit. An act of
kindness repaid. We have now been going 8hrs and have just left Luoyang Longmen.
We had a short wait in the station as we arrived early. I am thinking it is a
lot easier to run a high speed train system in China than in other places with
all relatively new trains and equipment.
King Town No.1
That was yesterday, the train arrived 1min 30secs early – well done CHR (China
High-speed Rail). I had done my research and I knew how to get to my hotel by
metro, that bit was easy, with the help of friends. I asked a couple at the
metro station if I was at the best exit for King Town No.1 Hotel. They were not
sure and another young lady stopped. She knew the hotel but knew no English.I
understood the hand signals for come this way, so, 850 meters later (by my GPS)
we arrived at the hotel. Where is a stuffed Koala when you need one. She
eventually took 10 yuan – for a cup of coffee. She was happy and turned around
and went on her way. No so well done King Town No.1 – they wanted me to pay for
the room again on top of the payment I made last February. None of the 4 evening
receptionists knew any English and none of me understood any Chinese. The only
Chinese I know is Bei Khan 北鐵路站, North Railway station that did not seem to
come naturally into the flow of conversation. We were saved by an IPhone app
that translates Chinese to English although it did not seem to be fool-proof.
The first attempt was money for a brush compartment. After about an hour or of
phone calls, translations, lots of sorries it was accepted by a majority of 3 to
2 (me + 2 girls against the 2 other girls) that I had, in fact, paid. I parted
with 300 yuan as a cash deposit. I knew nothing else would go wrong. That is
until…..
Breakfast
I went to breakfast and they needed a ticket from reception. That is when more
fun started. The young man on duty spoke some English – more than North Railway
station thank goodness. He wanted me to pay again but due to my hour of practice
last night he was on a looser. I returned to my room and got my booking receipt
which clearly said I had paid for breakfast. Out came the IPhone and off we went
translating Breakfast and Included. That was when we started bargaining – he
wanted to give me 2 days instead of 4. I told him I had reduced Indian market
tea traders to tears with my bargaining so he had better be good. I stood firm
at 4 when the manager came out. He was clearly a man of integrity and after a
brief chat 4 tickets were written out. Hand shakes all round, bowing and the
manager escorted me to breakfast. Phew, I was exhausted. I am ready for any
trouble with the Xian warriors tomorrow although I think the majority are made
of terracotta.
Ray was right and beware to whom you ask the way.
Ray Dowsett, a longtime friend of both Judy and I was perfectly correct when he
told me that GPS coordinates and their position on Chinese maps do not agree.
Ray is an engineer and, like me he computer dabbles. Earlier you will have read
that a young lady helped me find the King Town No1 so I had no need to use the
GPS to find it. However, after a walk around the Mosque market I wanted to go
home. No problem I thought, I set a course for the hotel (which I had stored in
the GPS at home before I left) and when the GPS marked the exact spot, I was in
a back alley outside a fruit and veg stall with no hotels in sight. I walked
around in circles for a bit and then gave up. I spotted a man in uniform so I
showed him the hotel address (in Chinese) and he went over to a man on a
motorbike. This, for me, turned out to be a grave mistake. Before I knew it I
was on the pillion and we were off. I soon came to realise 7 things.
- My uniformed gent was the taxis-motorbike controller.
- The Chinese or foreigners don’t wear crash helmets.
- Real Aussie men don’t hold other men (of any nationality) around the waist.
- The back seat of a motorbike does not have handles.
-
Size does not matter. A motorbike will happily play ‘chicken’ with a 58
seater coach. - A horn replaces brakes in China.
-
A 68 year old heart can beat very, very, fast with no apparent long-term
ill effects.
As soon as my knees ceased to knock I plotted the correct location of the hotel
on the GPS for future, less traumatic, homecomings.
I checked out the main railway station from whence the coach leaves for the
terracotta warriors’ site. It was just after 2 pm when I located the No 5 (306)
stand There was no queue and a few people were boarding the coach so all looked
good for the trip next day. I set out early from the new position of the hotel
(not the fruit and veg stall).When I arrived at the coach stand there was queue
about 50m long. Luckily the queue moved quickly because as one No 5 (306) filled
and moved off another empty No 5… took its place. I was impressed as the coaches
looked new and comfortable – except the one I got on. This was a local bus style
just like the ones that do the 354 run down Bray street at home.
In fact, strange to say the driver looked a tad familiar and I was tempted to
ask him if he had even done the 354 to Park Plaza run. The ride was fine, one
cannot complain about 42 km for Aus $1.54 The warriors are stunning to see,
anyway judge for yourself. These are a few of what is thought to be 8000
warriors, many of which still await excavation.
Pingyao
I will write again because at least one more fun thing happened with 10
teenagers learning English but for now here are a few photos. The images have
been scaled down to fit on the web page and as such do not convey the full
impact. I will upload larger versions in the next few days. Rishengchang
Exchange Bank -Pingyao
<Click on the photos to see a larger image>
The earliest draft bank in China, Rishengchang (means that the shop would be
prosperous like the rising sun in Chinese) was established in 1823 during the
early Qing Dynasty. It was the cornerstone of modern Chinese banking. It was the
forerunner for organizing China’s early finance system, handling remittance,
money exchange, deposit, loan and other financial business. There were 35
branches throughout China. Its business covered Europe, America and Southeast
Asia.
This is the main courtyard of the hotel that I am staying in. Pingyao is world
heritage listed and is over 2,700 years old. The husband and wife who own the
hotel both speak excellent English which is refreshing. Interestingly there are
more English speakers here in China (300 million) than in the USA (280 million)
Below is a typical street with a gate in the city wall at the end. The streets
have a relaxed (for China) feel about them as there are limited cars allowed
inside the city wall.
Xian City wall
I did not mention to you earlier that Xian had a large wall around the old city.
It was a huge structure, so wide at the top one could hire bicycles or tandems
and ride around the top of the wall. The wall built initially during the old
Tang Dynasty (618 – 907) and later extended, now it stands 12 meters tall, 12-14
meters wide at the top and 15-18 meters thick at the bottom. It covers 13.7 km
in length with a deep moat surrounding it. Every 120 meters, there is a rampart
which extends out from the main wall. Altogether, there are 98 ramparts, which
were built to defend against the enemy climbing up. What am I? I promised you
earlier to relate the story of the 10 teenagers learning English and I will keep
that promise. I am now on the way to Beijing at a brisk 240 km. The CRH – China
Rail High speed is a marvelous service being clean, efficient, comfortable and
punctual. A real delight to a train loving youth challenged person. First, can
you guess what this describes? It is word for word and capitalisation from the
packaging:
- Quality stems from the quality
- Human nature is feeling comfortable.
- Widely used in melons, JiaGuoLei, French fries and the fruit class of taro.
-
Planing leather suitable for all kinds of fruitis, Vegetables, potatoes and
shredded. - Made in China
-
Jieyang city, Guangdong provence RongCheng zone fairy bridge duo who
hardware factory - Address: jieyang RongCheng district six fairy bridge street.
If you can guess and want to check your answer or give up then look at the
bottom of the page. I was out for my morning walk the other day when a group of
10 teenagers led by a young man called Jerry came up to me. They wanted to
practice English for a school project and wondered if I would mind them talking
to me. Of course, I agreed. Their command of English was very good using words
like ‘appreciation’. First they all took a photo of me; they requested that my
sun hat remain on. We talked about Australia, Sydney and Perth, distances and
climate. I thought about telling them about Coffs Harbour and Park Plaza
Shopping centre but decided it would not get them any extra marks so I left that
out. I also took care not to include words like Bonza, struth mate etc. We spent
a very pleasant 10 minutes chatting and I wished them all well and I left much
better for the experience.
The Chinese origin of a well know saying
Likewise
Pingyao has a wall around the city which is 6.3 km around the perimeter. It was
built approximately 2275 years ago, 260BC. Near one of the 8 gates there was
this pair of bronze statues.
The men were nightwatchmen; they would walk around the city in pairs, in the
hours of darkness, and effectively announce the time. One of the men had a gong
and the other had a ‘clapper’ and so when the men were late they would have to
hurry to catch up, hence the expression – ‘To go like the clappers ’. I
particularly want to spend time seeing the Forbidden City again in Beijing. I
have seen it once before but it really worth another visit. So, I will sign off
for now. By the way did you guess what I bought from the text on the package? It
was a vegetable peeler. Too easy!!
The sky is no longer the limit!
Hold on to your socks. I hope you will be impressed when you learn that I have
created and uploaded this web page to our web server whilst on EK001 from Dubai
to London seat 58G at 38,000 a bit to the left of Tehran. Emirates, the airline
with whom I am flying, now provide a Wi-Fi connection in economy. If I get bored
with the Internet I can watch over 2000 channels of entertainment.
Some observations on Chinese customs
-
Pedestrian crossings are used to concentrate their users in one spot to make
them easier targets for motorists and cycle bike riders to pick off. There
is no concept that a person on a pedestrian crossing has any right of way.
In fact, I found it easier to cross a road anywhere but on a crossing as one
is better able to catch the motorist/cyclist unawares and sneak over the
road before they can take aim. If you do get caught in their headlamps stare
them down and defy them to run you over. -
Westerners are a novelty and are expected to pose for a photograph for and
with anyone of any age. -
The Chinese are very happy to queue for anything but all this does is just
to make the subsequent stampede rather more symmetrical. -
I found all the Chinese I met to be helpful and trustworthy. Admittedly this
was not so many of the 1.357 billion in China.
I can’t leave Beijing without posting some images of the Forbidden City. I think
the most beautiful parts are the roofs. There are very few items on display in
the palaces and any beautiful artworks in the city are in the museum and not in
their natural settings hence my images of the roof designs.
A response
You might realise that I have been back from my trip for a few weeks now. I have
had many, many complaints from 2 of my readers wondering why I just stopped
writing. There are a few complex reasons but let me just say that here I am to
finish off my trip. After leaving Beijing I flew to London and spent some 5
weeks in the UK. There were some great highlights inluding a wedding in Wales.
Sadly the wedding clashed with the Wales vs Italy World Cup Rugby warm up match
and an England vs Austrlia one day cricket match. I am glad to say all three
fixtures were well attended. Two had to be watched on the repeat. Needless to
say I watched the cricket live – no! no! I am joking I attended the wedding live
and even took some photos to prove it. I saw live the first England vs Austrlia
one day cricket match at Southhampton. My long suffering friend Jeremy and I had
great seats and really enjoyed thge day out. Maybe I enjoyed it marginally more
as the Aussies won! We also spent two great days in London and saw some
outstanding art and architecture. A week was spent in Wallace and Grommit
country – the Yorshire Dales. This is where Wensledale cheese is made and great
cheese it is too. There is a famous line in the animation “A Close Shave” where
Wallace falls for the owner of the local wool shop, the lovely Wendolene
Ramsbottom and asks her in for tea and cheese. She does not like cheese and
Wallace says “It’s Wensledale” it abject horror. The Wensledale creamary has
never looked back since. We saw a sign advertising a Steam Fair so Jeremy and I
thought we would have a look. There was no clear address so we asked in our
village and found that it was at Hunton some 22 kms away. Now the strange thing,
during the whole drive to the villiage there was no one sign pointing the way.
When we arrived at Hunton we asked a local man and he told us which field it was
in. There were 100’s of people there but it was a mystery how they all found out
about it. OK, that’s all folks. See you next time, Barry