Christmas in Beijing

On Saturday, December 18, Jill and I caught a high speed boat from the China Ferry Terminal in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui district to the neighbouring city of Shenzhen in Mainland China. From here we caught a domestic flight to Beijing and met up with my good friend and fellow HKU exchange student Anton, who had arrived in the nation’s capital the previous day. Flying from Shenzhen is a useful cost-saving exercise for getting to Mainland Chinese destinations rather than flying direct from Hong Kong International. Chinese domestic flights are surprisingly enjoyable. The only remarkable thing about the Shenzhen Airlines flight is that the plane (a Boeing 737) was one of the oldest I've been on in a long time and near the end of the three hour flight the entire plane participated in in-seat-exercises. The flight attendants took the role as gym instructors as they demonstrated the exercises the same way they show you how to fasten your seatbelt while a recording counts out the movements in Mandarin: Yi! Er! San! Si! Wu... As strange as it was, it really worked out the kinks in my neck and it was actually pretty refreshing.

The night we arrived, the three of us headed out for a celebratory night on the town in San Li Tun, Beijing’s night club district. As we toured the area and consumed remarkably expensive drinks we couldn’t help noticing that several girls in Beijing have a truly unique sense of style. These adventurous fashionistas often dress in tight white or silver outfits with large matching boots that are unquestionably suggestive of the Apollo Moon Landing. On my trip to Japan last August I had expected to see some eye-widening examples of fashion – and saw it I did! However, I hadn’t expected to see such an aggressive sense of style in China. Thus, given the interplanetary imagery and the fact that the look is exclusively sported by females, they’ve come to be known – among the three of us at least – as “space girls.”

We got our shoes, coats, hats and mitts on early the next morning and headed out to the Forbidden City, which lies right in the centre of the city. Heading there on a public bus from our bleak barrack-style guest house near the southern Railway Station was fantastic. The ancient bus putts along the freezing streets passing brave souls on bicycles and unusual three-wheeled motorcycles. The bus isn't heated and doors often remain open while it is in motion. This forces the bus driver and ticket seller to dress like Siberian soldiers. They periodically take a sip from their thermos which bellows with steam as they uncork the top. I love taking public transportation when visiting new cites. While it might be a pain in the ass trying to figure out where you’re going (Anton’s excellent command of Chinese greatly facilitated this), you’re typically the only foreigner and the little vignettes that get locked in your brain are often much more valuable than the snapshots you take at the historical hot-spots.

We hopped off our bus – surprisingly at the right stop – walked north through Tiananmen Square passing Mao Zedong’s mausoleum on the way. At the furthest north side of the square lies the entrance to the Forbidden City which is marked by an enormous portrait of Mao. I don’t know if it’s done on purpose but his eyes appear to be looking at you no matter where you stand – something like the Mona Lisa. The Forbidden City is where the Emperor of China exercised his authority over the rest of the Middle Kingdom until the dynastic system was abolished in 1912 – a period well depicted in Bertolucci’s film The Last Emperor. Taking in the scene as we entered one of the world’s biggest tourist attractions it became obvious that we had chosen a good time to visit. Indeed, Beijing at this time of year is amazing because there are practically no tourists. Nevertheless, you have to take into consideration the fact that it’s also very cold (about -5 Celsius) which means that taking time to sit on a bench and take in the scenery is out of the question – I’ve heard that the oppressive heat and throngs of tourists don’t make this any easier in the summer. Tourist infrastructure here remains pretty underdeveloped which means that even the display centres within the Forbidden City (i.e., the Concubines Quarters) displaying historical objects that managed to survive Mao's Cultural Revolution aren't even heated. It's not a place to linger! Of course, most people visiting here in the summer complain about the heat, so I'm not sure which is worse: -5 with no tourists or +35 with a million tourists?

Visiting the Great Wall of China in the winter was incredible. Despite what I had thought, the Wall is a considerable drive from downtown Beijing. We booked transportation from our new hostel which is located in a Beijing Houtong area just southwest of Tiananmen Square – a great improvement from our depressing Communist-era barracks. We woke up the next morning before dawn and took off in a mini-van with five others for the Simatai section of the Wall. Even today this section of the Great Wall functions as a physical indicator of border between the enormous Beijing Municipality and Hebei Province – formerly Inner Mongolia. By going to this area we managed to completely bypass Badaling, the rebuilt section of the Great Wall most frequented by tourists. Badaling is located 100km southwest of Simatai.

The drive to Simatai took about three hours. Driving in China is completely INSANE. Thankfully, we had a conservative driver who didn't take many chances on the snow-dusted roads. The driver dropped us off near a farmhouse at the side of a rural road. At the top of the nearby hill I could see the fabled structure undulating across the top of the ridge into the distance. A narrow dirt path that had been worn into the ground by previous visitors marked our route to the top of the hill – surprisingly unofficial. Our group of eight were quickly accompanied by a small cluster of dark-faced farm women who would eventually guilt us into buying booklets on Great Wall of China, postcards and other things we didn't need.

Several inches of snow had fallen the previous night. While the blanket of white made the scenery absolutely beautiful, it made for treacherous walking. This became apparent as soon as we began our hike up the steep hill. I quickly discovered that my shoes were the very worst possible pair I could be wearing. I had bought them in Hong Kong and they seemed like they would be ideal for a long walk. This would indeed be true if the unfortunate element of snow hadn’t been introduced. You see, they're Dr. Martens and despite the fact that they're smart-looking and very comfortable, I had forgotten from my high-school days in Toronto that when the soles of Dr. Martens get cold they take on remarkably similar characteristics to Teflon when they come in contact with snow and ice. Since the entire area had just gotten a fresh blanket of snow I was in a really bad situation. I even considered aborting the mission. One of the farm ladies had noticed my problem and retrieved a stick I could use for walking from the brush. As she offered it to me with her coal-stained hands I felt a great sense of relief. It might have actually saved my life a few times on our walk. I was literally skiing down the slopes of the Wall and at times a fall off the edge could have easily been fatal. It’s a much higher wall than you might think! I have a Frenchman, Jerome, to thank for keeping me from tumbling down an enormous embankment. He literally grabbed me by the coat as I was sliding across the stones towards the edge. I’d buy some new shoes, but there’s nothing in my size! Nevertheless, despite my stupid choice of footwear, the trip was amazing! Snow was softly falling all day and we only saw two other tourists during our four hour hike along the top of the Wall. The vistas are simply stunning. Indeed, I can’t help concurring with US President Richard Nixon who insightfully proclaimed during his 1972 visit, "I think that you would have to conclude that this is a great wall."

We had a rather unique Christmas Eve which consisted of drinking way too much baijou and singing karaoke with a bunch of Koreans. Baijou is an extremely potent – as high as 60 percent alcohol – clear rice liquor that is remarkably popular here in northern China. I even caught a glimpse of my first Chinese Santa Claus – check that one off the list! Today we got word of the tsunamis happening down in Southeast Asia – sounds terrible. While BBC is officially banned in China (i.e., nothing on the internet), our hostel has satellite. I guess the Chinese Government hasn’t figured out how to block that yet. Many of us sat around watching the events as they unfolded down in Phuket and Aceh. Tonight, Jill and I are boarding an overnight train which will take us south-west to an old walled city called Pingyao. After that it’s off to the former Chinese capital city of Xi'an, famous for the Army of Terracotta Warriors guarding the Qin Emperor’s tomb.

A.