Living in Beijing: useful stuff

As I start to see the end of my time in Beijing approaching (still a fair way away yet!), I'm thinking of what things I would have liked to have known at the start, and also of how I can make all this knowledge about the city I've accumulated somehow useful to other people. 

So this is a list of stuff that is useful.

Touristing stuff:

• It's easy to see all the main touristy things like the Forbidden City, Summer Palace and the temples by bus or subway. I'd suggest either get yourself a good guidebook (not lonely planet, which is only useful for practical information) or look out through your connections for some kind of local (e.g. a language partner) who will take you there.
• Getting the Great Wall is a bit of a challenge by yourself, because it's a fair way out of Beijing. You could hire a driver or there's a bus-taxi method (in lonely planet) but I'd strongly recommend going with a tour group. If you like walking/hiking, I strongly recommend Beijing Hikers. Alternatively, I've heard the China Culture Centre does good tours. I would be wary of the random internet tour companies you might come across, especially if their English is not good. One other thing: avoid the Badaling area at all costs! You can hardly move for the tourists, and there are so many other amazing places to go. 
• Good places to go for weekend trips are (in order of preference): Shanghai, Qingdao, Chengde, Datong, Pingyao, and Tianjin, among many others (keep an eye on the expat mags for suggestions). You can also get to a huge number of places in China within a short flight, but it's probably going to be expensive.

Stuff to do around town that's not (too) touristy:

• I love cooking, and I knew almost nothing about cooking Chinese food when I came here. It's also a very practical skill for living in Beijing, as it can be quite difficult to cook food you normally eat at home for a variety of reasons (see below). So I've been to about a dozen classes at The Hutong. I thoroughly recommend any of their classes (make sure you get the membership on your first visit!)—check out this post for a taster. Black Sesame also does cooking classes, but I have never been to any of them.
• Check out all the green spaces in Beijing, especially during summer. There are loads of cool parks around the place where you'll laugh at the old people doing Tai Chi or Qi Gong in the morning, smile at the kiddies playing in the daytime or enjoy the music and dancing in the evening. The more time I spend here, the more I find myself wondering why we don't get together to dance or sing in public spaces at home, although it seemed so ridiculous to me when I arrived. I recommend Ritan Park or Temple of the Earth Park, but seriously any of them will do.
• Check out Houhai lake. It's a full of people most of the time (doing Tai Chi or just walking), but is definitely worth the visit. You can also grab a drink at one of the bazillion cafe/bars.
• If you like hiking, go with Beijing Hikers on any of their trips. They're all pretty great. There's also a local hiking group called Beijing Walkers (or Wallkers, depending on who you listen to), which goes for hikes every Sunday, but you have to know someone to get on the email list. If you do, jump on it, because the hikes are great and a lot cheaper than paying a tour company. Make sure you sign up as soon as the email comes out and be prepared for a hike that's on the difficult side.
• Go to any of the cool new hip and trendy restaurants that are opening all the time. To find out what's cool and hip, check out the expat mags (see below).
• Try out dragon boating. There's an expat-friendly club that trains on Houhai on Sunday afternoons at about 4.30pm—they're very chilled and you definitely don't need to be fit or have any skills in dragon boating to participate. It's a good way to meet people and get some exercise, but be prepared to be very sore the next day!
• Check out the streets of Nanluoguxiang, Guloudong dajie and Wudaoying Hutong for boutique clothes shopping, funky gifts, cool bars and cafes. I spent a large part of my life walking around these streets.
• Cycle through the hutongs south of Yonghegong, Andingmen and Gulou stations. It's one of the most fun, relaxing and cultural things you can do in Beijing.

Internet stuff:

• Before I launch into what's available on the web, I'll say this: Get a VPN before you come here if you can. You'll be amazed at how many websites you use regularly are not available at all (e.g. facebook/twitter, news sites), or at least not available consistently (google products). I suggest Strong VPN, which is reliable and trustworthy, with great tech support. Make sure you get one that is compatible with your phone, as well!
• 
  By far the best source for information about what's going on around town is the expat magazines. Timeout and The Beijinger are the best. Pick one up at any of the expat type cafes around town or check out their websites, which have loads and loads of information.
• For blogs, I like to follow The China Story, Danwei, and Lost Laowai when I have the time. There are plenty of others, plus all the major international news services generally have good China blogs.
• As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I like to listen to the China History Podcast and Sinica for China-related stuff.

Living stuff:

• Language training is a must in Beijing. Of course, there are millions of people who tour through the city without Chinese, but it's actually quite difficult to get around without at least a few words. Far fewer people speak English than you might assume. Plus, Chinese is fun to study after the first uphill battle with sounds and characters. If you ask me, you need to study both characters and pinyin, but that's just my preference because I'm a visual learner and I like to be able to read signs. Most people do one-on-one classes or intensive group classes. I can recommend Rose Finch (although it's quite expensive), or my friends have also recommended The Hutong School.
• Groceries. I've mentioned this in earlier posts, but it can be quite difficult and expensive to get ingredients for foreign foods. It's not just that you can't get your favourite brand of crackers or some vegemite, it's that you can't buy breakfast cereal, or bread that's not sweetened, or cheese. Chinese supermarkets (Merry Mart, Dia, Wumart, etc) can be very confronting and uncomfortable, or loads of fun, depending on your outlook. If you can't cope, which has been me for a large portion of my time here, there are western or semi-western supermarkets around. Look for BHG, Jenny Lou's or April Gourmet in the expat districts (largely in Chaoyang). Expect to pay the same price at home for anything that's imported.
• How do you know which bus or subway to catch? Plug it into google maps on your phone. Seriously, I couldn't live without google maps. Just tell google maps where you want to go, select public transport, and you're away. It has all the bus and train routes already plugged in.
• Public transport doesn't run after 10.30-11pm ish. Catch a taxi, if you can get one. I could go on a rant about cabs, but I won't. Suffice to say the cabs are hard to pull over (particularly at night) and the drivers are mean, and they definitely don't speak English. Remind yourself they treat everyone the same way, including Chinese locals.
• Electricity and gas super cheap and is usually paid with a card that you take to the bank. Now, the only way of doing this is with a Chinese bank account card, but if you smile sweetly enough, the staff will do it for you.
• Re. finding a place to live, this is mostly done through agents (you generally pay them a fee of one month's rent, up front, for this privilege). Check out the classifieds on The Beijinger for recommendations and for rooms available.
• Clothes shopping is not as cheap as you might think. Anything you could get at home is the same price as at home, unless you're at a market. I suggest visiting Yaxiu (Yashow) Markets or the Beijing Zoo Market. Be prepared to bargain hard (starting at 1/10th their asking price is a good idea) and to have to push through swathes of people.
• Buy a bike! Seriously, it's so much fun cycling in Beijing. I wouldn't pay more than about RMB 300 for a reasonable, if clunky, second-hand bike. If it breaks down, there are plenty of shops in the hutongs that fix them quickly and cheaply. Buy a helmet from one of the expat areas (or, even better, bring it from home) because, even if nobody else wears them, you're an idiot if you think your brain is safe in Beijing traffic.

Wow that was a huge brain dump! I'm sure there's more useful stuff I could provide, but that's the bones of it. Hope it's useful to someone, and if you need more info, feel free to comment!

Shanghai, land of ... Westerners?

So I finally made it down to Shanghai over the weekend. To be honest, I was a bit ambivalent about it when we were organising the trip. Shanghai wasn't on my list of 'must-see' places because I usually don't like big cities, and I particularly don't like touristy places. I try (often unsuccessfully) to get off the beaten track and make a bee-line (aside: do bees really fly that straight??) to anywhere that is famed for natural beauty. Particularly mountains. Unless you very tall buildings as mountains, Shanghai is not known for any kind of natural beauty. And it's a big city. And it's touristy. But, as it turns out, Shanghai is absolutely magnificent.

It's so incredibly Western that I almost forgot I was in China at times. In fact, it reminded me so much of Sydney the resemblance was uncanny. The Bund is exactly like Sydney Harbour—tall buildings, a long esplanade, pretty lights, expensive shops and lots of tourists (a key difference is, at the Bund, everyone is interested in taking photos of me, rather than the buildings!). The (former) French Concession really reminds me of the ritzy suburbs in Sydney like Wollahra, with loads of little boutiques, cool cafes and tree-lined streets. And East Nanjing Road pedestrian street seems unsettlingly similar to Pitt Street Mall.

The Bund:

Shanghai Museum:

Cool ceramic camel in Shanghai Museum:

Even the people seem to be more 'westernised' than in other parts of China, including Beijing. Like, they pause for you when you approach a pedestrian crossing. I was so confused the first time this happened I stared at the driver wide-eyed until he crossed in front of me anyway. And the streets are far less noisy because drivers don't feel the need to honk every few seconds lest there be a moment of peace and quiet in the middle of the day. Taxi drivers didn't scorn us just for existing, and picked us up as soon as we raised our hands.

English seems to be much more widely spoken than in Beijing, and we discovered that 'western' food is actually cooked into something that resembles what I eat at home. It even seems as if they don't push as much as the rest of China does to get on the subway or across the street or into a doorway. We got to the end of the trip and realised that, not only had we not had the pleasure of seeing someone vomit or piss in the street, but we so not a single person spitting, either. What is this strange alternate universe?

It was a nice break from China for a weekend, but I'm still glad of my decision to move to Beijing, even if I had had the option of moving to Shanghai. What's the point of living in China if you're not experiencing Chinese culture?

Notes for travellers:

• The fast train from Beijing to Shanghai goes at least once an hour every day. It takes 5 hours, is very comfortable, and costs 555 RMB (cheaper than air tickets, so I hear). Not difficult to get a ticket at all, so no need to stress out about booking too early.
• We stayed at The Phoenix in a triple room. Very comfortable, quiet, and more hotelish than a hostel. It's kind of in the middle of everything but just far enough away to catch a cab or subway anywhere. Next time, I'd stay in the French Concession. All accommodation is expensive in Shanghai, so it's worth just staying where you want to be.

The lush island

Qingdao (青岛, literally Lush Island) is a cute little German-style town on the seaside. It was invaded and occupied by the Germans from the late 1800s until the first world war, at which point the Japanese took over, then the Chinese, then the Japanese again, and finally the Chinese post-WW2. During the time it was occupied by the Germans, they built roads, sewers, shops, etc. and gave it some of the best public services in Asia at the time. They also built a brewery—Tsingtao (see? Qingdao/Tsingtao, same same but different), which is still the most famous brewery in China, domestically and internationally. Although the Chinese clearly see the German (and, subsequently, Japanese) invasion as subjugation by a foreign power, it’s one of the primary reasons that Qingdao is so nice to visit and so prosperous today. 

Actually, for those who have been there, it reminded me a lot of the Gold Coast in Queensland—tall shiny buildings, huge public areas by the seaside, people are relaxed and the weather is humid from the sea. Amazingly refreshing from the dirty, smelly and very flat cityscape that is Beijing. 

We went there for the international beer festival, which I expected to be a tiny little expat wank. But, as it turns out, it’s a huge Chinese tourist event, which attracts almost 4 MILLION people per year. On the day we were there I reckon there would have been HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people. We were fooled into thinking the half-kilometre square at which we entered was the extent of the festival, which resulted in a very long and confused phone call to our friends when we were trying to find each other.

As the day wore on, we uncovered more and more different parts of the festival—beer tent after beer tent, rides (horrendously expensive), several hundred food stalls that were ALL selling the same chuanr, incredibly kitsch mouse ears/masks/bracelet things, pole dancers (in the middle of the children's rides!), character parades, contortionists, food sellers dressed in drag, half naked men jumping on tables in response to an African man on stage yelling 中国好不好? (Is China alright?). What is it with Chinese men deciding that shirts are optional as soon as the temperature goes over 30 degrees?

The sheer volume of the festival, everything about it, was astounding. It's hard to describe how it feels to be in the middle of a sea of sweaty, drunk, loud, enthused, mostly male Chinese. To be honest, all the lights and sounds and people pushing was a bit too much for the senses. What got us in the end was the BLARING music from every direction. We are a group of young people who enjoy going out for a drink and seeing some live music, but seriously, the noise from this place was unbelievable. I honestly don't understand why it is that Chinese people must have music up just loud enough to make the speakers start crackling, no matter how large they are. Anyway, end of rant. Let's just say it was definitely a cultural experience—definitely worth one visit, but I wouldn't be going back without earplugs.

Notes for travellers: 

• Fast train Beijing to Qingdao is 4.5 hours, 315RMB, very comfortable. They book out quickly, esp on weekends for events like the International Beer Festival, so get your tickets as early as possible within the 10 day window allowed by the ticket sellers.
• We stayed at Old Observatory Hostel. Pros: great service, chilled out vibe, amazing rooftop bar with Western food and good beers and cocktails. Cons: beds are super hard, it's noisy because of the type of people who stay there, it's a taxi ride away from much of the seaside. Overall would go there again.
• International Beer Festival: Travel from the old city area is about 15km (40-50 kuai in a taxi), entry is 20 kuai , beers are 20 kuai each minimum. Beware almost everything inside is relatively expensive, and it's hard to get decent food unless you love chuanr.

Camping at the Great Wall

(Continued from Great Wall part 1)

Then we decided to get a bit adventurous. My friends had a festival of birthdays (since when are there so many birthdays in June? ... that makes then September conceptions in case you couldn't work it out) so they decided to go away for a weekend to celebrate. What better thing to do to celebrate your birthday than go out to the hills, haul a 10kg pack up a mountain, get covered in sweat and dirt, sleep on a rock, wake up at 5am and repeat the whole thing again backwards? Yes! I say best birthday idea ever. So that's what we did.

I'm going to give some detail for those who are wishing to do a similar trip. We hired a driver with a small truck, only just big enough to accommodate all of us and our bags. We left Beijing in the middle of the day, stopping at Sanfo to hire some gear. Both the driver and the equipment hire were quite cheap—a few hundred kuai per person all up—and you can basically hire everything except boots. Unfortunately the gear is not particularly well designed for hiking (it's heavy and not weather-proof) but it's fine for a night.

Back to the exciting stuff. We went to 箭扣 (Jiankou, near the town of 西栅子村—Xizhazi), which is one of the most rugged sections of the Great Wall near Beijing. It took us two hours in our tiny van to get there—by which time all of our extremities had gone to sleep, which is really lucky because it was incredibly hot. That is, it was hot until it started raining. Pouring, actually. It was like we arrived in the mountains, and the sky broke in half. Thunder and lightning and huge gusts of wind. When we arrived at the little guesthouse (info here) at the bottom of the mountain the locals were actually laughing at us. Great Wall fail.

We ate. We waited. We lamented our forgotten raincoats safely in our dry wardrobes at home. We considered the likelihood of being struck by lightning on a tower. We drank beer to calm the sense of frustration.

Somebody must have prayed as well, because as suddenly as it had started, the inclement weather miraculously dissipated. What the? As it turns out, the rain was a godsend because it cooled the air to a bearable hiking temperature and, the best part, it cleared the smog completely! So my adventures at the Great Wall had now come full circle. And it was glorious:

And the best thing is ... I got a room with a view:

It's at this point, you inch yourself to make sure you're not dreaming and think: what an amazing adventure I'm on!