ThisIsVlad

This may be one of the most mindblowing things i learned on this trip, so I am putting it in its own post separate from the other logistics post. Since there is no FB here, everyone iuses WeChat. It’s a social network, messaging app, and most interestingly, a payment system. People here use WeChat to pay for *everything*. Every single store. Every single hotel. Every single restauarnt. They all accept WeChat. I was talking to a tourguide and she told me that nobody uses cash anymore. Seriously. Nobody really uses cash. Cash is dead here.

She said that she has 300Y in her purse just in case for emergencies, but it has sat there for months untouched. Even at the veggie market or at outdoor foodstands, they all accept WeChat. She said that sometimes even beggars on the street will have a WeChat QR code and you can pay them using WeChat. Yes. There are beggars that accept WeChat. How is it that back home in San Francisco, we have some bars and restaurants that are cash only and cant even handle credit cards, yet here *everyone*, whether they are a tiny mom and pop shop, or sell trinkets on the street, or sell kabobs from a cart, or just about anything else.. Everyone here can use WeChat. People here think of cash as something that only really really old people use.

Yesterday, as I was scrambling through ancient Buddhist caves, I came upon this beautiful golden buddha statue. To the right, there was a donation box just like you see next to buddha statues all over Asia, to the left there was a WeChat QR code. Yes. Even buddha accepts WeChat.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/16/business/china-cash-smartphone-payments.html

The Great Firewall of China

In China the government controls the internet and only certain information is allowed to get in. Because of that, a lot of sites that the government cannot censor are blocked like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This is pretty annoying while traveling here as it means no Google Maps, Gmail, posting on FB, etc. Luckily, this only applies to Chinese internet, but doesn’t affect data on my Verizon plan. Also, its possible to get a VPN service and circumvent these blocks, but it’s annoying because now i have to turn this vpn on whenever i am using wifi, and turn it back off when i am not. I always end up forgetting to do that and end up with super slow speeds or being blocked. (I know… life is so rough, eh?)

It is pretty insane to think about though. That there are *1 billion* people in this country, and they cannot get access to uncensored information. No free press. No unfiltered internet. The tv channels are all run by the government. I was listening to NPR a while back, and when a reporter went around to ask Chinese college students about the Tiananmen Square protests, even showing them the infamous photo… they didn’t even know what that was. It was just deleted from history. This is some serious 1984 style Big Brother stuff. I know back home we talk alot of shit about the government (and yes, clearly our current administration is fucking awful), but it’s crazy just how much worse it can be and how lucky we are to live in a (relatively) free country.

Also, interestingly, even though google isn’t used here, people still say that they googled something if they looked it up on the internet.

Phone

Despite all the crazyness with the firewall, my phone has been a lifesaver here on this trip. Cellphones are everywhere in China. Sometimes i see people even carrying more than one. And reception is incredible. In the middle of nowhere i still often get a perfect signal. Honestly, it’s much better than back home. How is it that *Silicon Valley* has worse cellphone service than China?

Google translate is the one app that the Chinese firewall doesnt block, and i use it all the time to translate things though it’s not perfect as people sometimes cant understand the translation. Google maps surprisingly has maps of *everything*, even totally remote tiny towns. I can book train tickets, hotels, and flights. I can contact people back home… I was literally texting people back home while walking on the Great Wall of China. It’s hard to remember how people survived while traveling before smart phones. The one thing I cant really do (outside of Beijing) is find restaurant listings/reviews.

Atms

The atms here dont like American cards. Not sure what the deal is but often i need to try 4 or 5 atms. By the 4th one, I am usually breaking a sweat, afraid that i’ll be stranded wherever i am with no way to get money, but eventually it always works out (so far).

Didi

This app is like uber/lyft and has been a lifesaver like crazy. Trying to talk to cab drivers is super hard as they dont speak English, and google cant always translate names of places. Not to mention, cab drivers often try to rip you off etc. It is *so* convenient to just be able to plug in a destination in the app, and just get picked up and dropped off wherever. Also, if you are in a random area at night with no cabs… amazing.

Cup of Noodle

Back home, cup of noodle is mainly for poor college kids, but here it is absolutely everywhere. It is the ultimate travel food, so every airport, train station, bus station, etc has a hot water dispenser so you can fill up your cup of noodle.

Smoking

A huge percentage of the men here smoke and you can smoke pretty much anywhere, often even in restaurants. Not sharing is considered very impolite, so I get offered cigarettes quite often, especially when I am in taxis.

It happened to be the weekend when i was in Beijing, so i thought i would hit up some clubs while i was there. From what i had read, there is a pretty cool little underground scene there with 3 cool clubs that are not the typical cheesy megaclubs. I wanted to check out one on Friday and one on Saturday, but as has been the norm, things here are not that easy.

The first club, Dada, was not too far from my hotel. I wandered down there and when I got to the entrance, there were a lot of people standing around outside chatting. Some people were holding random stuff like lighting equipment or other stuff that you would expect in a club, so i assume they were there to help set up. Not sure what was going on, I stood around awkwardly. As some time passed, people started dispersing little by little. Hmmm… that’s not a good sign. Finally, i asked some guy what was happening and he said that there “is some big meeting with China and some other countries, so it cannot happen”. Um.. what does that even mean? Oh well.

The next night i headed out to try to find a club called Aurora. Unfortunately, there was no address for it on any of the sites i checked except that it was in the “Tongli” building in this one area of town. This area of town has a crazy street of bars, all lit up in crazy neon and every single one had a band playing. Seriously, like 20 buildings in a row. What is this? Are there really that many bands playing on one night here? Is there such a thing as karaoke but with a live band? No clue.

Anyways, I am wandering around and showing random people my phone with the Chinese characters for “Tongli”. A lot of people are perplexed and have no clue what i am asking. Others point me in some direction and then when i ask someone else, they point me back in the opposite direction. Then it starts raining. I am wandering the streets of Beijing, in the rain, totally lost, looking for a “Tongli” building that may or may not exist. As i start getting more drenched, i contemplate giving up…

But, just as I am about to quit… I stumble upon the building. Omg! The club is pretty small, and the turnout is even smaller. Maybe i was just there on an off night, but it was pretty empty. The vibe there was pretty fucking great though. People rocking out, having a blast, despite the emptiness. It seemed like a super fun place actually. Unfortunately, I had to get up at 6:30am the next day, so I had to call it a night after a few beers. Too bad i dont have any more weekend nights in Beijing!

If there is one single dish that Beijing is most known for around the world, it is Peking Duck. It’s supposed to be this amazing heavenly delicacy, and many restaurants in town fight over whose duck is the best in the land. I spent a bunch of time reading reviews, with people saying that this one restaurant is the best while others saying that a different restaurant is way better. I finally settled on a place called Duck de Chine. They serve their duck with a unique type of Hoisin sauce that is supposed to be incredible.

I took a cab across town (25 mins). The guy drops me off, and i start wandering around trying to find the place. Finally, I find a security guard and show him the name of the place on my phone. He starts shaking his head and does an “X” motion with his arms. Uh-oh. It turns out that the place has been closed for 6 months. Not only that, but the entire complex that it is in has been closed, and the bar i wanted to go to was in that complex too. I had planned my whole night around this, and now i was across town for nothing and it was getting late.

After frantically searching on my phone, I found another duck place that was also highly rated and not too far away. When i got there, it turned out that they were out of half ducks, so i had to get a whole duck breast which ran me $50+. Ouch… that’s a lot by China standards. Well, at least the duck was amazing right? Umm.. no. It was… ok, i guess? Just fine and tasted good, but nothing i would get excited about. They also brought out a broth that is made from the duck bones that literally tasted like hot water. Basically zero flavor.

So yeah… i got to try the world famous duck. Not sure what all the hype is about. I was also told later that the place i ate at is so fancy that it is known for being the place you would take an important business client from out of town to impress them. Hmm, not so impressed.

The most famous thing to see in Beijing is the Forbidden Palace. This palace is where Chinese emperors ruled from for 500 years, and is called that because people were forbidden from entering unless the emperor allowed it. This thing is *massive*. It’s over 1 *million* square meters (180 acres) and has 800 buildings in it surrounded by city walls and a moat.

It’s quite an impressive sight, even from the outside, but even more so once you get inside the city walls. You could wander around for ages, checking out all the incredible structures, each with very impressive sounding names like “Hall of Supreme Harmony” or “Palace of Heavenly Purity” or “Gate of Divine Prowess” or “Palace of Prolonging Happiness”. Also, the place is basically a gigantic maze, and a lot of the structures look kind of similar, so after some time, you have no clue where the hell you are and whether the gate you are looking at is for Purity or Harmony or whatnot, heh. I think i took a million photos of all the cool buildings. Also, Beijing is like a billion degrees currently, and extremely humid, so i was kind of dying after a while (ok, maybe it was just 87 degrees, but with the humidity and with me being from San Francisco, it felt like a billion).

There is a province in China in the Southwest (bordering Myanmar) called Yunnan. It is home to the most ethnic minority groups in all of China and its cuisine is fairly distinctive. The food is known for using lots of different kinds of mushrooms and for being quite spicy. There are a bunch of Yunnanese restaurants in Beijing so i tried one out.

I got one mushroom dish (that was hilariously described as “bag of wild bacteria”) and a minced pork dish that i was warned 5 or 6 times about it being super hot. The food ended up being amazing. It’s not often that i find that the dish w/ no meat in it was my favorite, but in this case, that mushroom dish was just so damn good! The pork dish was super good too. Filled with tons of chopped chilis and pretty damn spicy actually, but i was able to handle it 🙂.

The subway here in Beijing is pretty amazing and puts a lot of other subways to shame. First off, it’s *massive*. There are so many different stops and lines that you can get pretty much anywhere (and Beijing is a pretty big town) quickly. Secondly, it’s super easy to use. When you are figuring out which direction you need to take your line to, each side will have a little map with a helpful arrow so you know exactly what direction that line is going and what the next stop is. Inside the cars themselves, each doorway has a little map with lights for each stop. The stop that you are at (or the next one if you are between stops) flashes, so you *always* know exactly where you are. Not like back home where you have to frantically look out the window when you reach a bart stop to try to find signage telling you where the hell you are. Also, at each station there are dozens of volunteers that will help you buy tickets, figure out how to pay, etc. So helpful!

China is a huge country made up of many different regions, with each region having its own unique flavors and foods that they are famous for. Though dumplings are pretty popular all over China, Beijing specifically is pretty well know for them. So, I decided to have dumplings for my first meal here. I went to aplce called Xian Lao Man whose motto is apparently “Our dumplings are the fullest”.

Like it or hate it, English is the de facto common language around the world, and it really puts us Americans (and British etc) at a huge advantage while traveling. Any country you go to, you will find lots of English speakers. Especially when you are “on the tourist trail”, pretty much every hotel, restaurant, bar, etc will have at least someone with some English knowledge that can help you decipher what’s going on. In China though, fewer than 1% of the people speak English. That number is definitely different in the big cities, but even in Beijing i found very few people who understood English. To maker matters more difficult, the tourist infrastructure here is actually more geared towards Chinese tourists and so they dont need to know how to converse with foreigners.

So yeah, getting back to dumplings. Because of the language barrier, doing even the simplest of things here can be tricky. Like ordering in a restaurant. When i went in, they handed me a menu that had both English/Chinese on it, and it was one of those dim sum style menus where you just mark things off with a pencil yourself. Ok, everything should be easy, right? Just read the English, add some checkmarks and call it a day. Umm, not so much.

I check off 3 types of dumplings and one noodle dish (yeah , yeah, i know that’s a shit ton but i like variety, what can i say). I hand the menu to the waiter and he starts talking a bunch.. no clue what he is saying. Finally, after some gestures and pointing, i get that they are out of the noodle dish. Stupidly, i try to pantomime asking him for a recommendation. This leads to extreme confusion and lots of back and forth, before he grabs the pencil and starts scrawling on the menu, crossing random things off, changing checkmarks to squiggles etc. I just stare blankly, having no clue what the fuck just happened. He finally finishes scribbling and talking, and looks at me expectantly. Not knowing what to do, i just nod in agreement. He walks off with my paper and I have no clue what i just ordered.

He eventually comes out with two types of dumplings, but a lot of them. I guess for some reason, my order got changed to two double orders, and i’m still not sure which dumplings they were. But.. they were hella good! One was filled with some kind of ground meat and chopped peppers that tasted halfway between a bell pepper and a chili. The others were deep fried and had shrimp meat and i think egg inside. Yum!!

Beijing was my first stop in China, and it was a great introduction to the country. It was a really interesting mix of both really modern city and older Chinese culture. Beijing is famous for its Hutongs which are tiny alleyways. When you get off the main streets, it’s like a huge maze of narrow alleys filled with tiny shops, little cafes, etc. There are lots of interesting buildings with the traditional sloped Chinese roofs, ornate doors, and lanterns hanging outside. You could easily spend hours just kind of wandering around and taking it in.

On the other hand, there are parts of town that are so insanely different and modern. Huge gleaming skyscrapers, gigantic malls, Tiffany’s diamond stores, etc. Its hard to believe that these areas are even in the same city as the hutongs.

Connecting everything are roads that are filled with insane traffic. Beijing is a city big on bikes, and there are lots of bike share stations. So, on any street you have like hundreds of bikes, a ton of mopeds, and then hella cars and these tiny baby sized three wheel delivery trucks, all going in all different directions. Traffic “laws” here are more like a suggestion, and everyone just drives in every which way, making u-turns out of the blue, crossing lanes, stopping in the middle of traffic, etc. In the short time that i was in town, i saw *so* many near accidents.

Beijing is also a city under construction.. there is construction *everywhere*. Every street has new buildings coming up and there are construction crews *literally* on every block (and often times several per block). even in the hutongs you hear hammering and see welding all over the place. It’s crazy to imagine the frantic pace of change here.

Beijing can be relatively cheap compared to back home, but compared to other parts of China, it’s pretty expensive. My hotel room cost almost 50$ a night, which feels like a lot here, especially given that it is a super tiny room with a “bed” sitting on a platform. Of course, part of it is paying for location as i was in the awesome hutong part of town.

All in all, it’s a really awesome city. You have all the modern frills you need, like fancy pour over coffee, cocktail bars, nice restaurants, and entertainment while still getting to see that more traditional feel in other parts of town.

Holy shit. I am off to China. Having very little time to plan this trip, I scrambled to frantically read some bits of the guidebook and scan the thorntree forums. I still am not 100% sure where I will go, but I am thinking probably: 1) Beijing – you may have heard of it. 2) Sichuan – known for its spicy food, pandas, and some other things that I have not read about in the guidebook yet. 3) Hexi Cooridor – a slightly off the beaten track destination in North west China that is part of the old Silk Road.. An interesting convergence of China, Tibet, and Muslim cultures.

Excited!