9/26/2006 China Day 1: Beijing - This place is awesome!

First, let me say that I am here first and foremost for the people. That is, to make myself look at everyone, find out what makes them interesting, and see how they can help me. Because I can't get anything done at all by myself in this country (not knowing how to read or write)! Everything else - the scenery, adventures, experiences, and photos are secondary.

That said, let me say that I met more people in my first day of travelling than I would normally meet in a whole month at home! It was awesome!

Who I met:

• Emily, a yoga-meditation dreads girl


• A well-traveled elderly couple from British Columbia, Canada


• A guy studying martial arts for 6 months in Sichuan province


• Zhang Xin Yu, an accountant in Beijing


• Xiu Xiu, a 17-year old trinket salesgirl in Beijing originally from Anhui province

Emily had just finished a free 2-week meditation course in Napa or Sonoma, I think. She was my neighbor on the flight up from SFO to YVR. They meditated for over 10 hours total per day, almost not moving a muscle for several 3 hour sessions per day. She loved it! She's a gardener living in Hawaii, but was on her way to visit some friends for a week or two on Vancouver Island, where she lived before. She's also travelled for 6-months in South America.　　Oh, and she's gonna help with the ganja harvest somewhere in Mendecino after Vancouver island.

While waiting for the PEK flight in YVR, the woman in an elderly couple struck up a conversation with me. They love traveling and were also headed to China on a guided tour for 5 weeks. They're going to be doing some of the things I want to do while I'm in China, like sail down the Yangzi River and see the 3 Gorges before they're flooded, completely underwater, and not to be seen anymore after the gigantic 3 Gorges Dam is completed circa 2009. Her husband was in the Canadian Air Force, and they were stationed in France near the Belgian border for a while. They love Paris. So do I.

On the flight to PEK, my seat mate was a Canadian studying martial arts for 6 months with a master in Sichuan province. He's also a fire dancer, which allows him to make some money performing in China. He performed in Urumqi, where I'm flying tomorrow. I asked him if he could tell me anyting about the place, but apparently he only stayed about 3 days, and he didn't bring warm enough clothing, so all he could think of at the time was getting the fuck out of that cold place! Ok, no, he remembered that they really know how to cook up lamb. He's trying to pick up some Mandarin while he's here, and he brought whole bunch of DJ stuff like a mixer and his CD collection from Canada this time.

On the way to bathroom still on the PEK flight, the pilot turned on the seatbelt sign, so I was frustrated in my efforts to relieve myself. Instead of going back to my seat though, I sat down next to an attractive Chinese woman and chatted her up. We had a wonderful conversation in my suboptimal Mandarin and her suboptimal English. She pointed out a lot of things to see in my guidebook; we talked about working conditions in China; her dreams about having a better life for herself, her husband, and her 18-month child; not having enough parks and playgrounds to take her child to in Chinese cities; emigrating to another country; sending her child on an exchange program in high school or college; and them hosting an exchange student. Working conditions in China are very generous! If you work for a company for 15 years, you can get 3-weeks sabatical, and if you work for 20 years, you can get 4-weeks sabatical! She and her husband have very successful careers in Petro China.

Once I arrived at my hostel in Beijing, I went out exploring on foot. I picked up some dinner:

• 3 kebabs (squid, lamb, beef) - 7 RMB


• 1 potato wrap - 5 RMB


• Total dinner - 12 RMB = $1.50 (divide by 8)

After I ate, I started looking for a few things I need:

• cheap watch that no one will mug me for


• alarm clock


• China Telecom SIM card

Well, I only managed to find the (not so?) cheap watch. It cost me 150 RMB. I talked to the young girl who was selling the stuff though. She asked me to guess her age, and I guessed correctly, 17. She asked me where I was from, who else was in my family, and where I lived, and I told her. Her English was pretty good. I initially thought she was the daughter of the store owners, but that turned out not to be the case. She is just a girl from a poor family in Anhui province who had to quit school at 15 and come to Beijing to work for money. I asked her what she would do with her money once she had it, and she said, maybe travel in or outside China, or maybe study. I suggested that she continue to work on her English since she was pretty good at it and it would probably help her out a lot.

My hostel in Beijing is great. 60 RMB per night ($7.50). Laundry, showers, shared kitchen, internet all free and included.

Taking a taxi to the hostel was a fun experience too. Initially, car taxis wanted 40-50 RMB because it was rush hour, and a normally 10 minute ride was going to take 40 minutes. I balked, because taxi drivers were only asking for 140-150 RMB for the ride from the Beijing airport to the city, and that was much further and took 2 hours by bus (16 RMB). So eventually a more helpful cab driver asked me how much I wanted to pay to get to my hostel at rush hour in Beijing, and I said 10 RMB. He said, OK, but it will be by motorcycle taxi. I said fine, and the motorcycle taxi proceeded to drive against the flow of traffic in the bike lane and on the sidewalk to avoid traffic (past some cops too!). We got to the hostel pretty quickly after that, and it only cost me a little more than $1!

So yeah, I'm having a blast so far. China is cheap, except for airfare. It's costing me what I consider to be U.S. prices (2600 RMB = $320) to fly from Beijing to Urumqi, Xinjiang province tomorrow. I plan to spend about 2 weeks there.

Talk to you later, Fluid People!