Month: April 2013

City of Springs

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Our day began a few blocks from our hotel at Baotu Spring Park, Jinan’s most popular tourist site. "Spring" refers to the fact that the park is home to many of the 72 famous springs that are located in Jinan’s downtown district but today it could also have referred to the season and the new leaves on the the willows that overhang the many pools and the moat.

After wandering the crowded park for most of the morning, we rested our feet for almost two hours as we enjoyed a boat trip around the moat and across Daming Lake at the north end of the downtown district.

After a late lunch, we spent the remainder of the afternoon strolling along the moat and watching the crowds of holidayers enjoying their day in the sun. People here obviously don’t see very many foreigners. Everywhere we went, heads swivelled to take a second look and people pointed us out to their companions. Though few of them speak any English the word "foreigner" seems to be part of their vocabulary as we heard it often! Children seemed to be particularly startled by our strange appearance but in general, everyone seemed happy that we were out doing what they were doing, enjoying a beautiful day in a beautiful place.

One of the challenges to being in a foreign country where you don’t understand the language can be finding food. Though there are a proliferation of tiny restaurants within a few blocks of our apartment in Dalian, when it came to finding supper tonight, we couldn’t figure out where all these people ate! Though there are McDonalds and KFCs all over the place, we wanted something a little more nourishing and authentic. After a somewhat frustrating search, we found a delicious meal at a crowded and noisy food court just off the sprawling central square which I’ve also seen referred to as the livingroom of Jinan.

As "senior citizens", over the age of 60, we were able to enter Baoto Spring Park free of charge this morning, saving approximately $6.50 each! Although I laughed about being referred to as a senior citizen at the time, after being on my feet in the hot sunshine for most of the day, I feel a bit more like one this evening!

China’s on vacation

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Today was the first day of China’s annual three day Labor Day holiday but we get the whole week off so we boarded a plane early this afternoon and flew to Jinan, the capital city of Shandong province, southwest of Dalian. Jinan is nicknamed the City of Springs because of the vast number of artesian springs that are concentrated in the downtown district which is also circled by a moat.

Our hotel is located in the heart of that area but we had a little difficulty locating it because we didn’t realize that it’s located on the upper floors of a building with only an unassuming elevator entrance at street level. The streets were filled with people in a festive mood so it was easy to find someone to ask for help. I randomly chose Michael who turned out to be a first year university student studying tourism management. He was absolutely delighted to assist us, leading us up to the hotel lobby, helping us with the check-in procedure and walking us to our room. There, he gave us his cell phone number and suggested that we call him if we needed any more help or if we wanted him to act as our guide. He wanted nothing more than the opportunity to practice English with us.

After settling into our room, we headed out to explore the area on foot quickly discovering the moat directly across the street from our hotel and wandering along it until we arrived at the city’s central square which was one big party. It was crowded with people frolicking, flying kites, and shopping at the many booths that had been set up.

Deciding that it was time to find some supper, we left the square and continued walking turning in at nearby Furong Alley, a pedestrian street festooned with hanging lanterns and bright red banners. I immediately recognized it as the street of restaurants and food booths that I’d read about in our Lonely Planet guidebook. It was absolutely packed with people! As we made our way through the throng looking for a place to eat, who should appear out of the crowd but Michael, the only person we knew in the entire city of 2.27 million people! He and two of his roommates had just finished their supper but they happily led us to a restaurant, helped us order a delicious dinner and left us to eat it telling us that they’d be back in half an hour to continue showing us around! We spent the rest of the evening with them enjoying the party atmosphere of a country on vacation and seeing some of the sights of beautiful downtown Jinan.

Statues by the sea

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After figuring out where we went wrong trying to find our way last week, we did Dalian’s seaside walk today. Though it was misty over the ocean, it was a comfortable day for walking and according to my pedometer, we covered about 7.5 km.

Dalian is a city of statues. I couldn’t begin to photograph all the ones we saw today but there were a few that stood out to me so I thought I’d share my favourites with you. We got off the bus and started our walk at the giant seashell at the entrance to Fujiazhuang Beach. Though a few hardy souls were swimming and a couple of wedding parties were having photos taken, most of the people on the beach were fishing or gathering seaweed and a few, like us, were just out for a stroll.

From Fujiazhuang, we followed a boardwalk that wandered along the coastline. At times, it offered great views of the ocean but some of the time it followed a busy road and the views were often blocked by construction. Along the way, I fell in love with the two white statues. They both captured the carefree feeling of a day by the sea.

The inline skating statues near the end of our walk were by far the most fun though. Being a Monday, most of the city was at work and we shared the day with many seniors, some of them with young grandchildren in tow. I waited my turn while a group of older Chinese women took turns having their "skating" photos taken. They were clearly delighted to see that I was going to have mine taken too. In fact, they lingered to watch and offer advice on my pose! As foreigners, we’re a bit of an oddity here. People often take a second look when they see us and it isn’t unusual to notice someone taking our picture. They usually do it somewhat surreptitiously but these women were quite open about it. We couldn’t speak with one another but laughter is the same in any language!

This is China!

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On Tuesday afternoon, people bought roasted chestnuts and other snacks at the little corner kiosk but less than 24 hours later, it was nothing but a pile of rubble! No, we don’t live in a war zone and we’re a long distance away from China’s recent earthquake, but to look at the area a few blocks from here last week, one would have seriously wondered.

We first noticed that something was amiss when we left the school for a quick lunch before Tuesday afternoon’s dance class. (See Can I have this dance? posted on March 26) Along a two or three block stretch, the fronts had literally been torn off every business! Restaurants, bakeries and other businesses were continuing to serve customers while completely open to the street!

The next afternoon, we decided to walk that way again to see what was happening. That’s when we discovered that the snack shop on the corner was gone and that the new fronts on the other businesses were being constructed about a metre further back from the street than where they’d previously been. What in the world was going on? Had they encroached on city property and been forced to move off? Had a bylaw suddenly changed, requiring them to make these alterations? That kind of thing happens in China all the time, we’re told.

On our way home, we decided to circle around through some of the tiny back streets and that’s when we discovered that the destruction was much more widespread than we’d first realized. Piles of broken glass and rubble were everywhere! On one street, we came across a backhoe in the process of demolishing a small structure. The area was cordoned off with yellow ribbon and a row of uniformed policemen stood nearby. I wanted to take photos but I thought better of it. As foreigners, we’re already very conspicuous. I didn’t want to find out what kind of attention a foreigner with a camera might generate!

There are lots of things about this country that we’ll never understand and this situation is definitely one of them! Rumours have abounded this week. We’ve heard tales of an upcoming international gathering of some sort coming to Dalian soon and the city wanting to clean up and put on a good face for the world. Knowing that that’s what happened in Beijing prior to the Olympic Games being held there in 2008, I might have believed that story had I not seen the mess on the back streets. I could imagine a cavalcade of foreign visitors traversing busy Huanghe Road where we initially witnessed the changes happening but they’d have absolutely no reason to enter any of the tiny back streets.

Others have speculated that there may be gang involvement. We’re told that, through extortion, gangs exert firm control over certain territories within the city and that business owners regularly pay the gangs for "protection" ensuring that their establishments will not be disturbed by the ruling gang or by others including the authorities. Did the business owners in the affected area anger the controlling gang and lose their protection allowing the city or the police to enforce changes? I have no idea! I do know that this kind of gang activity has been documented in US cities with large Chinese populations which leads me to believe that it probably happens here too though we would never actually see it.

Today we walked through the affected area again. Though some of the businesses are still undergoing reconstruction, the rubble is mostly gone and the area cleaned up. One would hardly know that anything untoward had happened. Perhaps what surprises me most in all of this is the fact that, in the midst of everything that was happening, for most people business continued as usual. People seemed to simply accept what was happening without protest or emotion.

"This is China" is the simple explanation that most people give!

Searching for the sea

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Dalian is known for its impressive coastline and many beaches. Though I’ve lived on the Alberta prairie for well over 30 years, I’m still a coastal girl at heart and I’ve been looking forward to warmer weather so that we could begin exploring that part of the city.

When the temperature climbed to at least 15ºC each of the past two afternoons, I decided that today might finally be the day to visit the shore. The day dawned bright and sunny and though it was a little cooler, the wind wasn’t blowing. I couldn’t wait any longer!

Our Lonely Planet guidebook suggested taking the bus to Fujiazhuang Beach. From there, we could walk a combination of sidewalks and boardwalks that run along the coast to Xinghai Square, a distance of 4 or 5 km. If we wanted to, we could continue further along the seaside but we haven’t been to Xinghai Square, the biggest city square in Asia, yet so we thought we’d probably spend some time there instead.

The guidebook told us to catch bus 5 on Jiefang Lu not far from the railway station. We know that area fairly well now but we couldn’t find bus 5! After walking along Jiefang checking the various bus stops, which fortunately have signage in English as well as Chinese, we discovered that bus 22 went to Xinghai Beach so we decided to take that one and see where we ended up. As it turns out, we were about 2 km from Xinghai Square but in the opposite direction from where we intended to be. Since we don’t have a city map, we didn’t know that until after we got back to the apartment and I looked it up on Google Maps!

In the meantime, we were on a beach which was all that really mattered to me! The sound of the waves lapping the shore and the smell of the sea was exactly what I was looking for even if there was no boardwalk to stroll on. For a crisp April day, Xinghai Beach was a happening place. While not as crowded as I’m sure it will be when summer comes, there were plenty of people walking the pebbly beach, sitting in the sunshine or flying kites. While I picked up bits of sea glass to add to my collection, many of them were picking up seaweed to take home and cook for dinner! Others were fishing.

We walked the full length of the beach then wandered through an amusement park that’s located at one end. There we rode the rather squeaky and dilapidated ferris wheel in order to get a better view of the area but the windows were so badly scratched that my pictures didn’t turn out very well!

Heading back toward the bus stop hoping to retrace our route and find our way home, we noticed that the tram also ran by and stopped there. There are only three tram routes in Dalian and we hadn’t ridden one yet so when we saw that one was coming and heading in the right direction, we ran for the stop and jumped on. We didn’t know for sure where it went but we knew that it would eventually end up in the city centre. As it turned out, it was a much shorter and quicker ride than the bus would have been.

I’m still determined to do the seaside walk but it will have to wait for another day!

Repairs of the week

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The ongoing saga of breakdowns and repairs in our little apartment continues! I’m not sure if a week has gone by since we arrived that something hasn’t needed to be fixed and this week was certainly no exception!

Late Monday afternoon, our power suddenly went off. Thinking that we’d once again tripped the breaker, I went out to the hall to turn it back on but discovered that this time that wasn’t the problem. Once again, Richard phoned poor Wendy, the girl from the school office whose job includes dealing with these issues. She soon called back to let us know that the caretaker wouldn’t be available until at least 8:00 p,m. The sun goes down before 6:30 so we spent more than an hour in darkness with nothing but our tiny pocket flashlight for light. When the caretaker arrived, he quickly discovered that our electricity meter had burned out. He didn’t have one on hand to replace it with so, not wanting to leave us without power overnight, he bypassed the meter and told us that he’d be back to replace it the next day. In the meantime, we’d have free power. That was five days ago and nothing more has been done! We reminded Wendy yesterday but at this point, we continue to draw free electricity.

Tuesday morning while we were getting ready to go to school, our water went off. We were less surprised by that because we’d seen water seeping out of the ground across the street from our building for several days prior to that and had noticed workmen digging there the afternoon before. When the water went off, we looked out and noticed that they were working there again and assumed that the water to our building had been turned off while the underground pipes were being repaired. Sure enough, a little while later, the water was back on and they were filling in the hole.

The heating unit on the wall of our bedroom/sitting room has been giving us trouble ever since we arrived. Though we’ve used similar units in both Japan and Saipan (it doubles as an air conditioner), we initially assumed that we simply weren’t using the remote correctly. The labels, like everything else around here, are in Chinese. Even after Wendy translated them for us, we still couldn’t figure out how to get it to work properly. Eventually, she contacted the company that made the unit and got detailed instructions for us. For a time, it seemed that everything was fine but then it started randomly shutting itself off and it took many tries to get it working again. That’s when Wendy convinced the company to send out a serviceman to look at it. Wouldn’t you know that it worked perfectly while he was here on Tuesday and that he couldn’t find a thing wrong with it! His only suggestion was that perhaps it wasn’t getting a steady flow of electricity. In this apartment, that’s entirely possible!

In spite of its temperamental nature and the fact that it can only adequately warm the room that it’s in, we’re blessed to have the heating unit. The only source of heat in many homes and most public buildings are radiators that, believe it or not, are controlled by the government! We’ve been told that this time of year is known as the hard season because even though the average daytime highs have been around 10ºC this week and the temperature still drops to less than 5º overnight, the government turned off the heat almost a week ago! Apparently, it was actually left on later than usual this year because it’s been an unusually cold spring. At this point, however, our classrooms, the university dorms and many homes are without any heat other than whatever warmth the sun provides during the day!

This week has definitely reminded us how fortunate we are to have heat, light and water most of the time and how much we take for granted back home in Canada!

What does it cost?

/ edebock / 6 Comments

The official currency of China is the renminbi or RMB. The primary unit of RMB is the yuan and the terms are used interchangeably. In addition, CNY sometimes appears on price tags instead of either of the other two terms. It simply means Chinese yuan.

The value of the yuan fluctuates, of course. This morning 6.16 yuan equal one Canadian dollar which seems to be about average in recent weeks. To make calculating easier, we tend to divide prices by 6 to get an idea how much things would cost in Canadian dollars. It’s not exact but it gives us a ballpark figure and is much easier to figure out in our heads. I’ll use 6.16 (and a calculator!) for the prices I post here.

Let’s begin with our recent trip to Dandong and the Great Wall:

  • 4.5 hour bus trip from Dalian to Dandong – $31.82 per person return
  • budget hotel room with private bathroom – $21.10 per night including a sumptuous buffet breakfast for 2 – we couldn’t help joking that it was like buying breakfast and having a hotel room thrown in for free!
  • 12 km bus ride to the Great Wall – $0.97 per person
  • entrance to the Great Wall – $9.74 per person
  • taxi back to Dandong, shared by 4 people – $6.49

Obviously, for those of us who are blessed to have Canadian or American dollars in our pockets, travel in China is very inexpensive. I’m looking ahead to our upcoming Labor Day holiday at the end of this month and have learned that a return flight to the city of Yantai (one hour each way) would cost less than $140 per person including all taxes and fees.

But what about everyday living? Riding a city bus in Dalian costs 1 yuan, or approximately 16 cents and here are a few prices from our local supermarket:

  • 8 x 100 grams of yogurt – $2.09
  • 50 green tea bags – $2.09
  • 400 grams of noodles – $0.75
  • 8 large slices of hearty bread – $1.27
  • 500 mL bottle of soya sauce – $1.70
  • 500 grams of honey – $3.41
  • 2 L jug of apple juice – $4.22 ($3.86 if you buy two)
  • 330 mL can of Coke – $0.41
  • 600 mL bottle of Coke – $0.49
  • 55 gram Snickers bar – $0.57
  • 10 rolls of 3 ply toilet paper – $4.14

We buy most of our fresh food at the street market. Here’s why:

  • 9 large farm fresh eggs – $0.81
  • 6 bananas from the Philippines – $1.20
  • 1 medium zucchini – $0.31
  • 1 large head of broccoli – $1.54
  • 2 delicious cobs of fresh corn – $1.14
  • 1 kg of white rice – $0.97
  • 540 kg (1.2 lb) of pork – $2.44

Buying water is not an option here as the tap water isn’t safe to drink. Bottled water is available everywhere. We have a dispenser in the kitchen and have an 18.9 L jug delivered to our door (at the top of 67 stairs) for $1.95 whenever we need one. At the supermarket, a 550 mL bottle sells for $0.13 and a 1.5 L bottle for $0.37.

Coffee, on the other hand, is quite expensive. A 200 gram bottle of Nescafe instant sells for $13.23 at the supermarket. A small cup of regular coffee can be had at KFC for under a dollar but the prices are significantly higher and vary quite considerably at western style coffee shops where you’re also paying for the ambiance. We’ve paid from $1.62 to $5.29 for Richard’s large Americano coffees and from $2.92 to $5.36 for my mochas.

We bought a basic cell phone for around $60 and we’re paying approximately $50 for internet service for the entire semester that we’ll be here. When I’m tempted to complain about how slow and unpredictable it is, I remind myself of that!

On Monday, I went for my first haircut in China. I had no idea what to expect in terms of cost. My hair was shampooed, cut by the lead stylist, washed again to get rid of all the bits of hair, then blown dry all for a grand total of $3.25 Canadian! I could have had it done by one of the other stylists for just $2.44 but at prices like that, I decided to splurge and I’m super happy with the results!

The thing to keep in mind when we marvel at prices like these ones is that we’re thinking in terms of Canadian incomes. It’s difficult to find accurate information about Chinese incomes but we understand that, at 5000 yuan (just over $800) each per month, we’re being paid very well compared to many professional people in China. When Richard picked up our paycheques this morning, he discovered that we each had to pay 6 yuan (less than $1) in tax! On top of that, we’re living in a rent free apartment. The majority of Chinese, especially those living outside the cities, are very poor and cannot imagine the luxuries that we take for granted.

One step from North Korea

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According to our Lonely Planet guidebook, after traversing the Great Wall we had two choices for returning to the parking area where we’d catch a ride back to Dandong. We could either follow the river on a narrow dirt path or choose a hiking trail along the cliff face. The couple we were travelling with expressed a preference for the easier riverside trail but I was secretly delighted when we couldn’t locate it and had to set off along the more challenging route instead! We shared it with many other people and didn’t actually see anyone below us so I’m assuming that the easier path isn’t there anymore. Instead, we looked down on the fence that ran along our side of the river and separated us from North Korea.

Even though I’ve pretty much managed to overcome my lifelong fear of heights, as we went along I was very thankful for the sturdy metal fence that provided both protection from falling and a handrail when it was needed. In places, the hike was an easy one but we also scrambled up, down and over some rocky faces that were quite challenging. Then, as we neared the end of the path, we came upon a suspension bridge! In the past, that would have finished me off but instead I was able to enjoy it and even provide encouragement for one of our companions whose fear was written all over his face.

Shortly before we reached the end of our journey, we reached the spot known as Yibukua or ‘one step across’, a particularly narrow part of the river between the two countries. Perhaps the water is high at this time of year because it would have taken more than one giant step to cross it but regardless, the barbed wire fence made it impossible for anyone foolish enough to try. Signs also made it very clear that we shouldn’t attempt to cross and if that wasn’t enough deterrent, the gun-toting North Korean soldiers patrolling in the distance definitely would be.

At no point did we feel that we were in any danger though. Chinese tourists do visit North Korea and we probably could too but I doubt that we ever will. I do feel like I should have a stamp on my passport that says that I was one step away though!

Views from the Wall

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Can you imagine having the Great Wall of China in your own backyard? We were amazed to look over the edge of a lower portion of the wall and see a small farm nestled below. Chickens scratched the bare ground, small fields waited for seed and trees grew on the terraced hillside while the wall towered above. That’s some windbreak!

As we began to climb, we could see a small Chinese village nearby, its red roofs standing out against the brown of early spring, and when we reached the peak, a narrow branch of the Yalu River wound its way across the landscape spread out below. On the North Korean side of the river, flat agricultural land disappeared into the distant haze. The scene was deceptively peaceful considering the tension that that country is visiting on the world stage today.

Great Wall, fantastic experience!

/ edebock / 7 Comments

How can I possibly put the Great Wall of China, the most enormous construction project in human history, into words that truly do it justice? For most of my life I couldn’t possibly have imagined that I would one day stand on this historic structure but that’s exactly what I did on Friday morning!

Known as Tiger Mountain Great Wall, the segment of the wall located about 12 km northeast of Dandong sees far fewer tourists than the sections that are closer to Beijing. Built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1664), it runs parallel to the North Korean border and is the easternmost section of the Great Wall. Buffeted by wind and rain for more than 500 years, the wall had fallen into ruin until a large scale restoration project was begun in 1992. Now fully restored, it snakes its way up the steep mountainside to a height of 146.3 metres. One of three watchtowers stands like a beacon at the peak and provides a panoramic view across the Yalu River and into North Korea. From the peak, the wall makes a quick descent down the back side of the mountain ending near a narrow branch of the river.

As we left our bus and walked up the road toward it, seeing the Great Wall winding its way up the hillside in the morning mist was an absolute thrill. Of course, we couldn’t help wondering how well our old knees would handle the climb but I think the sheer exhilaration of being there helped carry us up the steep incline.

The forecast called for rain on Friday but Colleen (the redhead in one of the photos) and I are convinced that the umbrellas in my backpack and the rain cape in her bag were good luck charms as the weather was great; not too warm or too cold, no wind and not a drop of rain all day!

Since it was a holiday in China, we shared the wall with many other people but it wasn’t overly crowded and there was a wonderful sense of camaraderie as we shared this incredible experience with one another. We only heard a few words of English all day but plenty of delighted laughter as people huffed and puffed their way up the steep cement stairs that made up much of the climb. There were also high fives given as well as the universal thumbs up sign.

After reaching the far end of the wall, we enjoyed a fairly challenging hike back to our starting point but I’ll tell you more about that in a future post. For now though, I’m happy to say that our knees survived both the wall and the hike and we weren’t even sore afterward. Obviously, climbing the 67 stairs up to our apartment more than once a day for the past six weeks was excellent preparation!