4 Star Toilets

I traveled like a local today by bus, to the Beijing Botanic Garden and Summer Palace complex. I wanted to mix with the average Beijinger. It’s hard to describe what the people look in Beijing. I guess like most cities there are people from many different countries and also the various regions of China. I caught an early morning bus so there was a good cross section of migrant workers. The largest group really stood out for me because despite looking Asian they did not look Chinese. Very dark skin, hazel coloured eyes, pointed noses and flicking worry beads. We spent much of the bus journey curiously at each other. In fact most of the bus passengers just stared at me. I guess they don’t get many tourists taking the local bus. Tourists, like the ex-pats travel by taxi as they are cheap, however not always easy to catch. I learnt from watching that the only place you can hail a cab is from a minor road. On any of the boulevards it seems that it is illegal to catch a cab.

All of the buses have a conductor or conductress in my case. There is a Chinese version of Celine Dion's (or Jennifer Rush?) The Power of Love playing from somewhere. Over the top of this the conductress is what I can only describe as MC’ing over the top of the music. I don’t speak Chinese so can only guess that she is telling people to move down or what stop we are coming to. After I have paid my fare she asks one of the migrant workers to give me his seat. Do all tourists get this treatment or is because I look more knackered than the guy who has probably worked a double shift?

Lots of the passengers are carrying clear flasks of green tea. No tea bags just leaves in hot water. The leaves sit at the bottom of the container and eventually unfurl and float. Apparently the best leaves float vertically. I got to enjoy some myself when I met the vice director of the Beijing Botanic Garden for an unplanned meeting in the garden's botanical conservatory. At the time, 1999, the conservatory was one of the biggest construction projects in Beijing, covering an area of 6,500 square meters with over 3000 different plants. This building is a mere egg when compared to the nearly finished Birds Nest stadium.

Statues inside the conservatory

Beijing Institute of Architecture www.biad.com.cn/Products/Detail_06_05.htm

The botanical gardens are set at the foot of the West Hill (Xi Shan) in the suburbs of Beijing and seem to be the only place to escape the smog and bustle of the urban areas. Being China though you are never alone for long and despite being set in 200 hectares and being a weekday the garden was busy. I could have easily spent the whole day here but my next location was a much older garden.

More info about the Beijing Botanic Garden www.beijingbg.com/English/index.asp

Originally called 'Qingyi Garden' (Garden of Clear Ripples) the Summer Palace was constructed in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). During the succeeding reign of feudal emperors it continued to be extended. By the time of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), it had become a luxurious royal garden providing royal families with rest and entertainment. Sadly as was the case with Yuyan Gardens, plundering by foreign troops in 1860 destroyed most of the buildings. In 1888 they were renovated by Empress Dowager Cixi using embezzled navy funds to reconstruct it for her own benefit. It was then that it became known as the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). Subsequent foreign destruction occured again in 1900 but happily in 1998 it was listed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

The Summer Palace is an archetypal Chinese garden with water playing a dominant feature namely a giant lake. Dotted around the shoreline and amongst the hills are magnificent palaces and temples. From the Tower of Buddhist Incense you get a panoramic view of Beijing.

This was another place that I could have spent all day as there are over 200 hectares to explore. However the light started to fade quickly and I had no idea what time the garden shut so before it got too dark I looked for any signs that looked like EXIT but I just kept coming across 4 star toilets!

Fears of dying of hyperthermia in the garden overnight began to set in, aided by not knowing the words for 'How to I get out of here?' Luckily I remembered that there was a McDonalds near the entrance. Having on first sight cursed whoever allowed the American golden arches to be built near a world heritage site I was actually glad for this landmark. Using the universal language of fastfood I just had to ask one person 'McDonalds?' and I was shown the way out.

Moving Forward Good Orderly Citizen

I am taking the 10 hour train to Beijing. It could be worse Urumqi takes 44hrs and no I have no idea where that is either it was on the China train travel website which has lots of useful info http://www.seat61.com/China.htm

Having suffered the occasional mild panic attack from people surges I braced myself for Shanghai train station. I had nightmares about the scenes from Christmas time where 2 million people got stranded at stations around China. Thankfully the process was very smooth. The porter did try to charge me 50Y for bumping my bags no more than 2 metres. The taxi to the station only cost 19Y. All bags go through an X-ray machine. Well unless you are carrying what looks like a gift then they don’t seem to bother. So if you see anyone suspicious carrying a big box with a colourful bow – run! Joking aside JC told me that last week some Chinese nationals had threatened to blow themselves up on a internal flight. It seems terrorism has also come to China.

I asked JC to get me a soft class ticket (1st class 439Y) I peered into the hard class expecting wooden benches but the seats were just a little narrower than 1st class. The advantage of traveling by train is that you can use an MP3 player at all times. This is my effective sound blocker from the male phlegm throat chorus. Unlike the long distance trains in the UK there are no quiet zone carriages and as the coach was full of (male) businessmen phones were constantly going off.

From my window seat I had a good opportunity to see the Chinese landscape, another reason to travel by train. We passed lots of new dual carriageways that looked eerily quiet much like the black and white films from the 1960’s showing new motorways in England. Car ownership is clearly confined to the large cities. Housing is a complete mix. High rise blocks some 16 floors tower over shacks and 2 storey townhouses. I was please to see that many had solar panel water heaters. The 2 storey houses had black roof tiles which reminded me of Michael Palin’s leap across a train track to bring back a Chinese roof tile for Terry Gilliam in the BBC programme Around the World in 80 Days.

I joked about the airplane safety video in an earlier post on the Shanghai flight about no remote control cars. In between the mobile phones and throat clearing I could hear a whirring and whining noise. In the aisle behind me were two grown men in suits playing with a remote control Porsche.

The train magazine features an article about an usual barber who has a scary alternative to scissors.

Arriving in Beijing the taxi queue was worse than Paddington station on a train strike day. There did not seem to be a system of dropping off and collecting passengers. I was tired and the wind was blowing Gobi desert sand everywhere. There was no way of getting across the boulevard avenues to hail a cab from the other side of the road. I got into what I thought was a taxi and agreed a price I knew was triple what I should be paying. At the first set of traffic lights the driver jumped out and changed his number plates when he saw a police car around the corner. Despite saying he knew where my guesthouse was and having the map and address in Chinese, he did not seem to know where it was 10 minutes into the journey. He started making calls on his mobile and I had visions of him arranging for me to stay somewhere else, permanently.

I was convinced of his alternative motives even more when he refused to call the owner of where I was staying. He also refused to ask directions when we were roughly in the right district. Perhaps this was due to not showing bad face or men never asking for help with directions. We arrived at the dark alleyway entrance to the Hutong where I was staying and began to demand his fare. I assured him I would pay him when we had reached the front door of the hostel. Did he think I was going to run off with 40kg of my luggage and not pay him? Before I could give him all of the money he grabbed what I had in my hand and ran off into the dark.

The situation quickly changed though when the elaborate antique door of the Hutong was opened by a tired but smiling Mr Yang. Zheng Yang is the husband of the owner to Kelly’s Courtyard, a traditional hutong house now run as a guesthouse. Hutongs are narrow streets or even smaller just alleyways that are characteristic of Beijing. Along the hutongs are siheyuan (courtyard) traditional houses. For many years since the founding of The People’s Republic of China the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.

Lots of beautiful decorative Chinese furniture at Kelly’s Courtyard

Mediterranean lifestyle for the rich and poor

It’s my last full day in Shanghai. The hotel breakfast is becoming monotonous. Noodles and dim sum at 8am are no longer a novelty and I would pay many Yen for a bowl of Coco Pops. I’m on an enforced egg diet. For breakfast the options are eggs boiled, fried or baked. At lunch most soups seem to have either a preserved, picked or boiled egg. For supper any rice dish that is not just plain boiled has an egg thrown in for good measure.

Today has been the first day of rain since I’ve been in Asia. The temperature has been an unseasonably high at around 14C. The metro station Shanxi Road on Metro Line 1 is a few yards from my hotel yet I still get asked 5 times if I want to buy ‘Rolex, Gucci, Lady? Just look?. The aggressive street hawkers might be because the infamous Xlanggyang Market near Central Huaihai Road has been demolished. On my hunt for North Fakes, the Chinese equivalent of North Face clothing, I asked where the market was. A passerby pointed at a huge vacant building plot.

The Shanghai Metro carries 1.9 million people everyday, yes that figure is correct as of 2006! A policy of no food and drink certainly seems to help keep the system clean and a rather German/Swiss feel to the stations. Trains seem to be frequent and single metro tickets get recycled which is a fantastic idea. The issuing machine charges them with you chosen fare/destination and then the barrier machine keeps them on exit. It makes me wonder what happens to the thousands of pink paper tickets that get issued on the London Underground system everyday. How green is our transport system? Something for the new or existing major to consider.

As I crossed over the Wusong River today’s daily bizarre bike was a man carrying a big basket of racing pigeons which he released across the Creek.

Creek Art an art centre and (expensive) restaurant sits on the banks of Suzhou Creek. Their website is not shy to describe the location set amongst the slums and abandoned factories of downtown Shanghai. Inside this former flour factory can be found uber contemporary installations and art. The current exhibition is Deep Breath: Explore the Female Strength in Chinese Contemporary Art. 19 participating artists born between 1950’s and 70’s use various materials and media. The staff are very protective about any pictures being taken which I can understand regarding the art work but not the building. Check out their website for official pictures www.creekart.org

To try to show the contrast between rich and poor yet how closely they rub next to each other I photographed this al fresco kitchen for one of the slum houses. This was within yards of the entrance to Creek Art with its elegant top floor restaurant were diners sip imported wines to accompany their Italian cuisine.

As I was still in the north of the city I thought I would head to Duolun Road also known as Cultural Street. In the early 20th century many of the buildings were home to famous Chinese writers and political figure heads. Today the street has reemrged from a major restoration project and is a popular tourist attraction. Duolun MOMA stands as a large contemporary black building at the beginning of the road. There are numerous antique shops and teahouses along the pedestrian area. At #123 is The Old Film Café. From the outside it looks like a haunted house and the interior has the same feeling not helped by the creeking staircase and dimly lit rooms. Sitting having a cup of tea you feel like you are in your grandma’s best room on your best behaviour. Movie buffs will enjoy the photos of the vintage Chinese movie stars and the screenings of classic films from the '30s.

Champs Elysee de Chine

Spring is great time to visit as the camellia and magnolias are in full bloom. Do be warned that the gardens get big waves of groups but if you are traveling alone try to hang back and you will catch a quiet moment in between each gaggle of tourists. The 5 acre gardens originated in 14^th century. They’ve had a peppered past during the Opium Wars and during the Taiping Rebellion. The high walls provide a secluded area of tranquility not just from the city but also the hectic modern day bazaar and food emporiums that cater of the masses. Vendors within the bazaar sell anything that once had a pulse, deep-fried, including chicken embryos on skewers. I stuck to dumplings or rather the dumplings did to my inside, very gluttonous!

A side road leading away from the gardens has some more interesting places to buy gifts including some good shops selling loose tea. One of my favourites is the flowering teas. These pretty hand-tied ‘flowers’ are made with green tea buds and beautiful aromatic flowers. When you pop them into boiling water they unfurl. I also came across a guy wearing a cowboy hat and doing his rendition of an Elvis song on a guitar. Buy one of the old small comic books that he sells and he might sing you a song.

If anyone knows anything about these books please get in touch.

Having been out in the open all day I got a slight tan. I had wondered why so many Asian women had been hiding under umbrellas. It’s considered unfashionable to have dark skin. In the west we have a huge tan culture. Self tan, tan booths, holidays that have to provide a suntan. The tan industry in the west is big and equal to that must be the opposite in Asia. I went to buy a moisturiser in their equivalent of Boots. Nearly every product had a whitening additive. I did some quick research and found that the main problem with some of these creams is that many of them contain a substance called hydroquinone, which a variety of studies have linked to:

• Increased risk of cancer
• Increased risk of adrenal gland problems
• Increased risk of all health conditions associated with mercury poisoning
• Increased risk of developing a rare metabolic disorder called ochronosis, which can cause physical changes to the skin and tissues surrounding the eyes, ears, and joints

Hydroquinone has already been banned for sale in the European Union, Australia, and Japan. Western brands such as Olay have the whitening selling point and Sephora sells whitening kits. I’m not so sure I want to continue to buy products from companies that promote the idea that whiter is better.

Standing patiently for the go ahead to cross the boulevard back to the hotel a guy on a motorbike pulled up to the crossing. On the back he had balanced a TV powered by a car battery showing DVD’s he had for sale. It was just like being at Brick Lane Market on Sunday morning. In London highly fidgety teams of Chinese migrant workers, mainly females wave illegal hard core porn DVD’s in your face. ‘DVD you want DVD?’

Dive into Shanghai

Deciding against any more complicated taxi journeys I decided to hit the streets on foot.
I would have preferred to have done this on bicycle but I could not find anywhere that would hire one. I asked the hotel and they looked and me puzzled and pointed at the taxi rank.

Heading north I wanted to find a few shops that are mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide to Shanghai. Madame Mao's Dowry (70 Fuxing Road West) was my chance to find some authentic Chinese antiques or at the very least bric a brac. Hoping to nab a few bargain retro items I should have gone to the bank first for a loan. Beautiful handpainted Mao inspired painted vintage mirrors were around £150. Large framed communist posters were a similar price. Having the ability to pick the most expensive items in shops I decided to leave before I got really tempted as there were some really nice pieces of furniture.

Behind Fuxing Road West using a combination of spotting the occasionally sign and detective work, I found Shanghai's Hand-printed Blue Nankeen (batik) Museum and Shop (No. 24, Lane 637 Changle Road). The collection includes a display of dying tools, wooden printing blocks and wax paper cutouts. The small museum shows how the production process has remained unchanged for many years and historic patterns are still reproduced. The technique looks similar to batik. I don’t have much more information about his place as the only leaflet left was in Japanese (I think the owner might be from there also) and the owners speak limited English. The prints echo the blue-glazed porcelain of the Song Dynasty (420-479 AD). I bought some lengths of the more wacky designs. Some of them remind me of African fabric.

Nankeen fabric to add to my small collection of textiles.

This is what wikipedia says about Nankeen.

The term blue nankeen' describes hand-printed fabric of artistic refinement and primitive simplicity, which originated on the Silk Road over three thousand years ago.

Hand-carved stencils, originally made from wood but now from heavy paper, are prepared and a mix of soya bean flour and slaked lime is applied through the openings of the stencil onto the 100% cotton fabric. When dry, the fabric is then dipped numerous times into the large tubs containing the indigo dye. After the right color is achieved and the fabric has dried, the paste is scraped off, revealing the white patterns on the blue cloth. The fabric is then washed, dried, and ironed before fabrication into the Nankeen collection. Such fabric represents a fast-disappearing historic art form which embodies ancient Chinese culture and traditions.

In the courtyard garden lengths of freshly printed fabric are hung over the Camellia bushes.

Even if you are not interesting in textiles the route to find the museum takes you right into the heart of urban residential life in Shanghai. This is a chance to see communal style living which within a short period of time will be replaced by skyscraping apartment blocks. The previous night I had seen a short documentary about life in these communal houses. Residents were asked what was good and bad about living in this way, a concept alien to western cities where most people don't even speak to their neighbour. Here kitchens and bathroom are shared. Each family has their own food but household chores are shared. There is of course no privacy but there is also no isolation. People are not dying alone and undiscovered for weeks.

More on communal living here:

http://www.yawningbread.org/apdx_2002/imp-090.htm

On the subject of textiles I came across this humorous blog about Shanghai and PJ’s

http://pictureyear.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-pjs.html

Within a stroll of Ruijin No 2 Road I chanced upon a miniature version of Shoreditch. Down a dark anonymous alley is a labyrinth of independently owned artisan shops and bars. Many of them are run by young Japanese or Korean owners. Meshi (Shop 37, Lane 248, Taikang Rd) sells Japanese teaware and households items. To get onto the shop you have to walk on large stepping stones set within a miniature Zen garden. There are lots of small bars and restaurants and even a Tibet shop!

In the evening I hooked up with some Brit ex pat guys for a traditional Chinese banquet with obligatory rotating table. The dishes chef seemed to be into creative slicing of fish.

For the full Chinese nightlife after the meal we piled into a taxi to an underground bar otherwise known as a dive bar where drinks are RMB 10. The only way to describe the atmosphere was a Chinese squat party. Expat DJ's play anything they feel like playing. Drinks are cheap and spliffs are passed around. I did not inhale which is just as well as I found out in my final leg of my Asian journey. Female foreigners were in the minority and the couple of guys I was introduced to spent most of the time leaning on their shorter Chinese girlfriends. 'I love it here. Back home I never get dates but Chinese girls zone in on us foreign guys. I can take my pick. I've got several on the go.'

On that comment I quickly made my excuses. Viewpoints like this may be held by some young guys back in the UK but you just don't say this kind of thing. Single female foreigners find it really hard in the dating game in Asia. A ex-London friend of mine says the majority of guys are only interested in the local girls and the ones that are not you really would not date if they were the last guy available. Which is probably why she set up the Asian equivalent to Ann Summers. See my Singapore blog later.

Will the last person to bed please turn the light off?

I spent the night in a cold, smelly insect ridden sex hotel or as described on their website ‘comfortable boutique hotel’. It is situated on the outskirts of the city. I am surrounded by B&Q and IKEA stores and then rows of tiny shops that seem to recycling rubbish. Where are the French restaurants and Zara’s that I was expecting? The one and only good thing about the sextel is there is free internet. I Google (yes it was working) luxury hotels Shanghai and book into the first hotel that comes up.

Alarming room service offerings

My taxi driver does not seem to know where the hotel is which is worrying as we are in the centre of the French Concession and surely it can’t be that hard to find a major hotel. He leaves me outside an office building insisting that is where I am staying. The security guards look at me bemused and a small crowd of office workers on their lunch break gather around me. Everyone seems to be pointing in different directions to show where the hotel is. I point to where I need to go but no one seems to recognise the map I have. I hail another cab and get taken 5 minutes around the corner to the correct hotel. It would have been 2 minutes but the traffic was bad.

I decided to spend the afternoon at Shanghai Botanic Garden to try and escape the mass of people and traffic. The magnolia trees were just starting to loose their petals.

This garden is currently undergoing refurbishment and will be replaced by another botanic garden so I am told by one of the guides. There are lots of preparations for the Olympic themed displays such as this one with the Chinese mascots.

My art director at Corbis had asked me to get some shots of the famous tourist area the Bund and the Pudong. The Bund is a section of Shanghai that runs along the along the western bank of the Huangpu river. Facing it is the financial district, the Pudong. In just 18 years a symbolic skyline of skyscrapers has been created in defiant contrast to the historic colonial buildings along the Bund. Pudong's gross domestic product reached an estimated RMB270 billion (US$38.5 billion) in 2008, an enviable achievement considering that before1990 the Pudong was mainly farmland.

I had to work quickly to get the shots because I was told that after 8pm the lights on the buildings get switched off to conserve power. Sure enough one by one the bling buildings disappeared into the dark night sky.

Upon returning to find my room has been prepared for sleep with my bed sheets turned out and room lighting set to dim. In fact dim is the brightest the room can get with artificial lights probably part of the energy saving directive. There is however a complex light system control from the centre of the twin beds. There is a night light, a lobby light, room light, three lights in the bath and a do not disturb light for outside the room. It’s still too dark to read my book though.

Don’t mention the T (ibet) word

I am on plane to Shanghai, number 2 of 6 flights in total, reminding myself not to mention words such as Dalai, Lama, free, demo and protest. I also decided against buying the Dalai Lama’s biography from Hong Kong airport as I was ultra paranoid that I would be refused entry to mainland China. Riots in Tibet have been reported by the western press. I expect that once I enter China I will not hear anything more about it.

The onboard safety video shows in Cantonese and Mandarin that the use of remote control cars is not allowed onboard. So no mp3 players, mobile phones and remote control cars. How will we amuse ourselves? More about remote control cars later in this China Special.

My fellow passengers are preparing me for the spitting that I have been told is as common as blinking. The whole plane seems to be burping or drawing snot up their nose including the D&G clad lady next to me. I need my mp3 player to block out the noise. Ahh but I can't use it.

The driver AT kindly arranged for me when I was in HK greets me with a sign saying Miss Ema. Hoping for a bit of female conversation I soon discovered that she spoke no English and was determined to drive me to my hotel as fast as possible and with no distractions from a chatty passenger. I wonder if she has stolen the car or left the iron on at home. I kept checking behind to see if we were being chased. Just like the Greeks foot to the floor and no signals. I found it strange that as a nation with a one child policy all the cars on the road are large family saloons. I also found it odd that none of the cars had Sat Nav. Perhaps this is against Chinese State policy and only satellites are used for military purposes in China.

Blogger is playing up and not letting me edit properly. Am I being watched?

Insomnia on an Island

I’m spending a couple of days in Hong Kong shaking off the jet lag and preparing myself for the expected culture shock that is China. I’m waking at random twilight times and having become bored of BBC News 24 I’ve begun taking pictures of and from my hotel room. Past times such as choosing which of the 5 different bottles of water to drink have become popular.

After meeting my art director at Corbis I went to look at the Hong Kong Flower Show. I’m a regular photographer at the RHS Flower Shows in England so I wanted to compare this major Asian show. With an attendance of over 500,000 it was just as hectic as the Chelsea Flower Show. Their seemed to be more emphasis on flower arranging rather than landscaping but considering where most of the visitors live, in high rise buildings perched on rocks, this seemed suitable for the audience.

Average age of visitors was 70+