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Visiting China, the land of my ancestors (2)

China visas: a tightening of rules?

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NO, I DID NOT BALIK CINA. I MELAWAT CINA.

My grandparents came from China. They came from the south. I visited the north, Beijing and Shanghai. I went with my wife, my son and his wife, and our grandchildren, to the land of our ancestors….

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My first impressions of China remain my most lasting impressions, and none are good.

1. The crowds were huge and noisy.
2 The toilets stank!
3. Service was bad except what was provided by the tour guide in Beijing and the van driver in Shanghai.
4. People can be downright aggressive.
5. They shout and when they ask you to enter their restaurant, they sound like they are barking.
6. It was very hot and dry.

WELL, THAT’S FOR STARTERS….

(D) I CLIMBED THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA, AND SO DID RACHEL, MY 2 YEAR OLD GRAND DAUGHTER…

This part of the Great Wall is in Badaling, Beijing.

Here is Rachel, all ready to climb the Great Wall.

Actually, Rachel took only a few steps up but they were such steep steps and she was so tired that I decided to carry her up for several flights…and then, it was just too difficult and dangerous carrying her up, so I stopped.

See how steep the climb is! I couldn’t risk her safety.

We sat and waited.

Rachel’s older brother, Josiah, only 4 years old, climbed as far up as his parents and came down with them, on his own legs!

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(C) OF INTEREST…

I saw this tee-shirt on sale in a little shop in a medium-sized shopping complex.

People seem to pee everywhere. One night, on the highway back to Shanghai, we drove past a man standing at the roadside peeing onto the wall. He had stopped his car and come out to urinate there in full view of every passing car. Then, in Pudong (Shanghai), we walked past a man urinating on the roadside, beside a building.

Quite a number of streets in both Beijing and Shanghai stank of urine. You can’t avoid the stink when you walk almost anywhere.

 At the Palace of the Dowager’s Empress, there was this sign.

There was also this boy coming down from a ‘perilous hill’. He looks worried, doesn’t he? He saw me take a photo of him.

The yak is found throughout Tibet. It is something like a hairy cow. The yak bone referred to is a prayer bead, made of the bones of Yaks. Nowadays, these prayer beads are made of recycled water buffalo bones.  They still carry the traditional name of yak bones.

Are those made from genuine yak bone or recycled water buffalo bones? Considering that this place is at the Water Village in Suzhou, not far from Shanghai, I think that they can’t be genuine yak bone.

By the way, evil spiyits is a mispelling of evil spirits.

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(B) THE BEIJING HOTEL WE STAYED IN AND ITS RESTAURANT

We bought our hotel-tour package through Groupon, and since we didn’t pay much, we didn’t get much. The room was fine, but the restaurant was not.

On our first morning, we went for breakfast. There was bread but no butter or jam.The tour guide asked for feed back, so I requested butter, or at least, jam. Next morning, there was no bread, so why offer you butter or jam? 🙂

There was no cup for hot coffee, just paper cups. By our last morning, even a half hour after breakfast began, only soup bowls were left for coffee. There was no spoon for stirring your hot drink, so I resorted to a fork, chopstick or knife.

On the first morning, my grand daughter of 2 years knocked over a plastic holder. One part broke off since it was VERY POOR AND CHEAP STUFF. Here it is…

A waitress came running, waving it at my face, demanding 80 remimbi. She was loud, fierce and unreasonable. Suddenly, she ran off and returned within seconds with a man, probably the person in charge of that section, who waved his hands, shouted, and demanded 80 remimbi. That is just over rm40! Rm40 for THAT? Still, my guide was nowhere around, and I had to pay them.

When I  handed over the money, I asked for a receipt, which shut them up. but only for a moment. NO RECEIPT. They walked off….

Later, my guide asked me why I had paid them. Why didn’t I look for her? The answer is simple: they looked like they were about to assault me.

I finally got a receipt, on the last morning, through my guide.

Such crude, violent people!

The hotel is an International Class B four-star place. What does B mean?

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(A) THE BULLET TRAIN FROM BEIJING TO SHANGHAI.

I didn’t get a good photo of the bullet train. I managed to take a photo of one speeding past.

Most of the time, the train moved at 303-305km/h. It reached 307km/h on several occasions.

The toilets were really clean and did not stink. That is rare in China, I’m told. If you stayed in a 4 or 5 star International hotel, the toilets don’t stink either. ALL OTHERS STINK! It doesn’t matter whether you use the one at a KFC restaurant or a McDonald’s.

Our experience was that, in China, what you get is what you pay for. The ticket for a second class seat is 553 remimbi, which is about RM280. NOT CHEAP AT ALL! Thus, you get clean, non-stinking toilets.

By the way, the flush system is similar to that found on an aeroplane, so be prepared for the sudden, powerful suction when you press the ‘flush’ button!

Once you’re on the train, it’s fine.

It’s the getting onto the train that is the problem. The crowd is immense. There is hardly any place to stand, let alone sit. I sat on the floor at a corner, watching our bags, while the others found a place for mothers with children and waited there.

Here is the crowd we had to get past.

The trains were all on time, thankfully…

You can see that all trains were on time.

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