06 August 2006
Postcard from Beijing - July 2005
It’s an anti-climax. After 6 flights through 4 provinces of China, arriving in the capital does not feel as special as it should. Beijing is more international, safer and above all less strange than what we’ve been through the last few days. Perhaps we are just too used to being amazed, excited and out of our depth suddenly to be so comfortable.
We are met at the airport by Doreen’s father, who seems relieved (and even a little surprised) to find his daughter not just in one piece, but positively glowing. They too have had a great time. After Doreen’ father has told the taxi driver where to take us (and lectured him about not ripping us off), we leave them to head to the Beijing Grand Hotel. It’s right next to Tiananmen Square: home of Mao’s tomb, the Forbidden City, the Museum of China and the place where perhaps 3,000 students met their death in a failed democracy demonstration in 1989. Other than the fact we see more soldiers in the first few minutes than we have seen in our entire trip, there’s not much sign of that milestone. But there is a thirst for knowledge in China: our concise history book on China for example (which has helped me become the world’s worst pub bore on Chinese history) is in great demand, with people wanting to read what other people are saying about this great country.
Everyone wants to talk to us: to find out who we are, what we are doing in China, whether it is our first visit, what we think of it, or just to sell us another of those £5 Rolexes. They start by asking us where we are from, but it’s no good saying “London – have you been there?” (which after all would be a perfectly reasonable question in most other countries); it seems like another planet to them. George’s smattering of Chinese is a great ice breaker, with the ubiquitous “bu yao” (“I don’t want it”) sending most street vendors into hoots of laughter. I have not cracked the race thing here: the ethnically Chinese are called “Han”, but we have not yet met anyone who claims to be anything other than Han, even though there are positive discrimination rules for ethnic minorities. Like Harry Potter’s mudbloods, apparently once a Han has had children with a non-Han, the offspring and further generations are not considered pure Han.
I would love to have more political debates with people here; it is just not something they are used to doing. They are happy to talk about Hong Kong (although they enjoy seeing me squirm about the Opium wars), Taiwan, Tibet and even Tiananmen Square and are very interested in what other countries think about China. The question I have asked a few times, but not had a better response to yet than wide-mouthed amazement at the question, is: “Think forward to the day that the GDP per head of China is the same as that of the USA. Assume that the Chinese government has similar global leadership goals and political aspirations of today’s US government. Would the world feel comfortable being led by a country as assertive as the US today, but with a population of 1.3 billion? It frankly makes me feel a touch queasy (another word for Dickkie to add to what we should dub the Dickkitionary) but a disturbingly common view is that China will not get there without some kind of internal unrest first. And the chance of China invading Taiwan? Zero – the Chinese are too busy making money.
There’s a report today on CNN TV about Sierra Leone (the BBC website is blocked and BBC World TV is not broadcast in China – what can the BBC have done to upset the Chinese, other than perhaps bore them to death?). In an interview, a Sierra Leone minister explains how China has built them a national sports stadium, parliament and resort hotel in “less time than it takes the British to do an environmental impact survey”. Perhaps we could get the Chinese to build Crossrail and, while they are about it, update the Underground. It should cost less too (although no doubt we would have to pay them in cash).
This evening we have the compulsory Peking Duck meal with David Everett (colleague), his wife Betsy and Kim Fechner (god-daughter). Like most of our meals in China, it’s fun, messy and inexpensive.
As you can see, I’m waffling because there’s not much to report – I have spent most of the day on email and Skype and not been a tourist. George on the other hand has been yomping (Dikkitionary entry) along the Great Wall, and trying to chat to the soldiers guarding Mao’s tomb. He discovers they do not have a well-developed sense of humour.
Perhaps there will be more to say before we leave on Friday for Hong Kong.
We are met at the airport by Doreen’s father, who seems relieved (and even a little surprised) to find his daughter not just in one piece, but positively glowing. They too have had a great time. After Doreen’ father has told the taxi driver where to take us (and lectured him about not ripping us off), we leave them to head to the Beijing Grand Hotel. It’s right next to Tiananmen Square: home of Mao’s tomb, the Forbidden City, the Museum of China and the place where perhaps 3,000 students met their death in a failed democracy demonstration in 1989. Other than the fact we see more soldiers in the first few minutes than we have seen in our entire trip, there’s not much sign of that milestone. But there is a thirst for knowledge in China: our concise history book on China for example (which has helped me become the world’s worst pub bore on Chinese history) is in great demand, with people wanting to read what other people are saying about this great country.
Everyone wants to talk to us: to find out who we are, what we are doing in China, whether it is our first visit, what we think of it, or just to sell us another of those £5 Rolexes. They start by asking us where we are from, but it’s no good saying “London – have you been there?” (which after all would be a perfectly reasonable question in most other countries); it seems like another planet to them. George’s smattering of Chinese is a great ice breaker, with the ubiquitous “bu yao” (“I don’t want it”) sending most street vendors into hoots of laughter. I have not cracked the race thing here: the ethnically Chinese are called “Han”, but we have not yet met anyone who claims to be anything other than Han, even though there are positive discrimination rules for ethnic minorities. Like Harry Potter’s mudbloods, apparently once a Han has had children with a non-Han, the offspring and further generations are not considered pure Han.
I would love to have more political debates with people here; it is just not something they are used to doing. They are happy to talk about Hong Kong (although they enjoy seeing me squirm about the Opium wars), Taiwan, Tibet and even Tiananmen Square and are very interested in what other countries think about China. The question I have asked a few times, but not had a better response to yet than wide-mouthed amazement at the question, is: “Think forward to the day that the GDP per head of China is the same as that of the USA. Assume that the Chinese government has similar global leadership goals and political aspirations of today’s US government. Would the world feel comfortable being led by a country as assertive as the US today, but with a population of 1.3 billion? It frankly makes me feel a touch queasy (another word for Dickkie to add to what we should dub the Dickkitionary) but a disturbingly common view is that China will not get there without some kind of internal unrest first. And the chance of China invading Taiwan? Zero – the Chinese are too busy making money.
There’s a report today on CNN TV about Sierra Leone (the BBC website is blocked and BBC World TV is not broadcast in China – what can the BBC have done to upset the Chinese, other than perhaps bore them to death?). In an interview, a Sierra Leone minister explains how China has built them a national sports stadium, parliament and resort hotel in “less time than it takes the British to do an environmental impact survey”. Perhaps we could get the Chinese to build Crossrail and, while they are about it, update the Underground. It should cost less too (although no doubt we would have to pay them in cash).
This evening we have the compulsory Peking Duck meal with David Everett (colleague), his wife Betsy and Kim Fechner (god-daughter). Like most of our meals in China, it’s fun, messy and inexpensive.
As you can see, I’m waffling because there’s not much to report – I have spent most of the day on email and Skype and not been a tourist. George on the other hand has been yomping (Dikkitionary entry) along the Great Wall, and trying to chat to the soldiers guarding Mao’s tomb. He discovers they do not have a well-developed sense of humour.
Perhaps there will be more to say before we leave on Friday for Hong Kong.
# posted by DavidF @ 14:47 
