Enter China
Hello all! Long time no speak (write/talk/whatever).
I have been pretty much without internet and as I didn’t have time to update anything in Ulan Bator and then I took a train to China and then I entered China, which basically means all my ways of social media are blocked, every internet cafe computer is totally in Chinese and I realized that this blog won’t let me upload any pictures to it unless they’re max. 1mb. So basically all my camera photos are over this 1mb limit. If anyone has any idea how to make them smaller easily, I’m all ears! But anyway, as my last post like a week ago left me in Mongolia after a vodka-filled night, I will continue from there!
So in general, I did a lot of walking around in Ulan Bator while all the other people (locals) used buses. It seems walking in UB is a rarity. What also struck me was that there are pretty much no tourists in UB. At least I didn’t encounter any foreigners besides myself and the people I already knew. Maybe in the summer it is more popular. On Monday I walked for 5.5km to a war memorial sitting on top of a 400m hill. It was called the Zaisan memorial and it was built to commemorate Russian and Mongolian soldiers during the WWII and their cooperation. It was really cool to look at UB from a bit high above. Even though it is not exactly a beautiful city but the views were nice nevertheless. After that I continued to walk to the Narantuul Market or “Black market” where people basically sell everything and anything. It is frequented by locals and safe to say, no Westerners other than me. I’m pretty much used to the fact already that people stare at me on the streets as I look so different (in addition to having a red winter jacket). In the evening it was time to hook up with Robert and Juan for some dinner. This British dude from their hostel joined as well. We went to Luna Blanca, which is a vegetarian restaurant, a place that is quite uncommon in a country where people eat meat in all kinds of forms and throw nothing away. Ordered some buuz and khuushur (as I pretty much always do) and some tea. We arrived at the restaurant like 7.30pm and didn’t realize it will close at 8pm as it is quite early. Luckily it was still alright to order and we were there for only 30min extra time. Then we went to a nearby pub to try some more Mongolian vodka. We had heard that Gengkhis Khan vodka is really good and it is quite expensive for Mongolian prices. So we tested some different versions of it. The most random thing happened in the pub; we were approached by this Mongolian dude who was really really drunk. He had apparently heard us talk English so he decided to come and say hello. I told him I’m from Finland and he started talking Swedish to me. You could’ve seen the WTF expression on my face. So he told me (like 10 times) that he had lived in Stockholm for three years and loves the place and he is going for a visit in a week. I think he also thought that Finland is in Sweden as he didn’t seem to realize that we speak Finnish where I’m from. Luckily he left quite soon since obviously he was too drunk to carry on a conversation. After I got back to the hostel I started chatting with a few people from Hong Kong and before I knew it it was already like 3am. But if possible, I might pay Hong Kong a visit if would have guides there!
Next morning I had to wake up at like 9am as I had booked a national park visit, which is like 2h away from UB and there I will stay with a local family in a ger. Right after we got out of UB, I saw glimpses of Mongolian countryside and it is REALLY beautiful. Just endless mountain ranges and fields filled with cows, horses and camels. Pretty much untouched nature. It was a quick car ride to the national park and we arrived at the family’s land which included lots of it plus like 4 different gers and four horses and a lot of cows. It was interesting to finally see inside of a ger and I have to say it pretty much looks like what I imagined it would. A fireplace in the center and beds around it. There’s even electricity! And a tv (though I’m not sure if it works). I am actually surprised that many people live in gers even in the capital. You can see them all around. UB is filled with Soviet style apartment blocks, modern office buildings and wooden shacks which basically surround UB. These “suburbs” are usually surrounded by tin fences. Just like in every capital, it has rich people and poor people. So anyway, I dropped my rucksack inside and immediately left for exploring the wilderness which was around me. Did a little rock climbing and hiking at first to get some better photos of the scenery. Don’t know if it worked but at least it was fun to do a little climbing! Another strang thing happened; I was coming down a high hill/small mountain when I saw two people climbing up and they started waving to me so I went up to them and they were also tourists. A guy from Macau and a girl from Thailand. We exchanged some pleasantries and it turns out the girl is also traveling to Beijing with the same train as me. So possibly we’ll meet again in the train, such a small world!
The rest of the day I continued hiking and climbing everywhere I was able to. When I got back to the ger the owner saddled up a horse for me and we went for a little stroll. So I rode a horse for the first time ever BOOM! It was interesting. I was freaked out about it since when/if I should fall from the horse I might break my collarbone again (or something else for that matter. It was also horribly uncomfortable when galloping. I don’t know how you horse people do it! On the other hand, I could already picture myself as a Mongol warrior traveling the vast steppes of the country, pillaging and plundering villages, which would have been cool. There was one particularly beautiful moment when we ran uphill and by the time we reached the top, saw the whole valley spreading before us and I thought to myself, this is kinda cool. I would have taken a picture but I didn’t have my camera with and wouldn’t have taken the picture anyway as I was too busy holding on to the horse hahahahah. The rest of the day went by quickly just chilling in the great outdoors enjoying the scenery. By the time it got dark the sky lit up with stars, and they were so many! Such a beautiful sight which you do not see in city. Also the air was amazingly fresh unlike in the UB. I lit up a fire in my ger and was enjoying the warmth inside! Until it got hot, like really hot! I had to strip unto my shorts and t-shirt and I was still sweating. Luckily it calmed down after a while and the temperature was bearable. Until like 4am when the fire had died down and it was freezing. I didn’t have the means to make a fire and I didn’t wanna wake the others up in another ger so I decided to suffer until the morning. I was sleeping with two pairs of socks, long johns, thermal pants, t-shirt and a fleece jacket and I was still cold hahahaha. The next morning all I did was eat breakfast, pack my stuff and wait for my driver to come and pick me up. The last day in UB was just chilling, packing, going to an internet and buying snacks for the train ride the next day. I also wanted to spend my last tugruks on a beer and had been wanting to go to the pub next to the hostel for days. Just for the fact that it was called Kevin’s. So I did and got myself a beer with the last money. Money well spent.
Next morning it was time to say goodbye to Mongolia, definitely would like to visit the countryside for longer and the Gobi Desert. I took a cab with two other people from the hostel to the train station as the train left at 7.15am. Again, morning train argh. Got into my cabin and I saw two people, Anna and Axel from Sweden. They were on a six month long trip pretty much going to some of the same places as me. Small world! There was also a Chinese guy in one of the upper berths and we introduced ourselves. There was also a cabin of Dutch people next to ours and two Swedish girls with whom we hung out with for the train ride. Riding the train was pretty much same old, same old. Chatting, eating (noodles), reading and resting. A bunch of us were also planning to go see the Great Wall of China as a group in a few days. I also met the girl from Thailand who I met at the countryside and she is actually studying in Beijing so she knows the city and we’ll probably hang out bit. She’s gonna stay in Beijing for a week and then go to Bangkok where she’s from for a holiday. Train ride was a bit boring as expected as it’s a lot of waiting around at the borders. On the Mongolian side things went fairly quickly, stopped at Zamun-Uud, they checked our passport and immigration papers and then we waited for an hour. Then we got to move like 30min before we were in China and that’s when the real waiting began. A first they checked our passport (and took them as well), which went again rather quickly. Then we were standing still and people weren’t let out for a long while. My Lonely Planet Trans-Siberian railway guidebook said that they let people out before they change the bogies. Guess again! They didn’t. So we had to wait for the whole operation to finish. Oh and just a sidenote; they use different width tracks in Russia and Mongolia from the Chinese ones. So they need to make adjustments before we can actually move farther into China. That takes like a few hours. And all the while they don’t let people use the toilet as it’s not allowed when the train is stationary. I needed to go to the toilet at 6.20pm already but it was locked. I wasn’t the only one either with the urge. So finally, after a lot of waiting and wondering, the train was finally ready with the bogies and it started to make way towards Erlian station. It was 0.30. So the whole process of border controls and locked toilets and waiting in the train not to be let out took over six hours. When to train stopped and people were finally let out they rushed to the station for toilets. My guidebook also said that it is supposed to be quite a lively station, even at night and you could change and withdraw Chinese money. Turns out you can’t. There was a supermarket in the second floor but as I had no Chinese currency I couldn’t buy anything. And I had been craving for a coke like the whole day. All in all the whole border crossing is not really passenger-friendly and this was the most frustrating of all. I actually heard from a Mongolian friend that a plane ticket from UB to Beijing would cost around the same amount as the train ticket. But then again, this whole trip is about traveling by train and you meet some awesome people despite the waiting and frustration and not being able to go to the toilet hahahahah. So despite the fact that I complain about things here I do like to travel by train, it is totally a different feeling comparing to a plane. It gives you a proper sense of traveling as you see the scenery change as you go. Especially long-distances. While taking a plane just flies you to your destination. As the awesome phrase goes; “if you’re all about the destination, then take a fucking flight”. I mean it’s boring and frustrating sometimes but all the while it’s really great.
The scenery on the way to Beijing was amazing. Just mountains and valleys after another and frozen rivers under bridges. Really beautiful! Almost makes it worth the while with the border crossings hahahah. So finally the train arrived to Beijing railway station and luckily I got help in finding an ATM and buying a subway ticket from the girl I met in the train. The next mission was to find my hostel. I knew the address and I had written directions on how to get there. I had also relied on my Apple maps as it had worked in Russia and Mongolia. I mean the maps showed my location with the GPS even without the internet. In China, doesn’t work. It took me ages to find the hostel. Fortunately Chinese people are friendly even if they don’t speak English. One girl even wrote the street name of my hostel in Chinese letters so I would be able to read the street sign. Bigger street names are written in Roman alphabet but most smaller ones aren’t. So I found my hostel after asking like three different people to guide me in the right direction. Got checked in and dropped my stuff off. Went online (of course) and realized my phone is useless here hahahaa. No facebook, gmail and not even couchsurfing! At least I haven’t been able to use it… The agenda for the first day was to accommodate myself to Beijing and the surroundings of my hostel. So I headed out to see what was where! And actually, for the first time during this trip I missed my friends. Or somebody to travel with. I guess being alone in one of the biggest cities in the world does that to you hahahah. Anyways, the day was a bit bad for me in general even though nothing bad actually happened. Beijing seemed like a great place though. A lot of people, traffic, scooters, bikes and everything. I went to an internet cafe and the whole visit was horrible. Nobody understood me and the computer was slow as a snail. And websites didn’t work and I couldn’t use google maps and everything was in Chinese etc. So as a search engine I used Baidu hahahhaha. Guess it’s the Chinese equivavalent of Google. Also had some street food, cheap and awesome and just bought some groceries and went to bed early. Then I was woken up by three loud Japanese guys at like midnight. They don’t speak english almost at all so no conversation there either.
The next day I woke up really early as I was going to the Great Wall with the Swedish couple and a few other people they met on the train. We were supposed to meet at the Dragon King hostel at 9am. Found it quite easily and I was there a bit before 9am. Nobody was there so I waited for a while. At 9.15 I tried calling the Swedish girl as I had her number but either the call failed or just didn’t go through (she didn’t have my number as I tried calling on the train but the reception was really bad so we just thought it was because of that). Fair enough, I’ll wait some more, could be hard to find the place, take a wrong subway or something. After repeated attemps to contact the girl and minutes of waiting I left at 9.45am and just said fuck it, I have better things to do than wait here. It could be some honest mistake on some part but it left a sour taste in my mouth nevertheless. It would’ve been nice to hang out with people. So I decided to go check out the Tiananmen Sq. and the Forbidden City by myself instead. My hostel is situated quite close to these sights so I was able to walk. So first things first, you can enter the square from four different entrances and they have one on each side. Every entrance has a security check. Meaning they scan your ID (or in a foreigner’s case, just look at the passport) and you have to put your rucksack or bag through a machine (by the way this happens in subway as well, and train station, basically everywhere). The Tiananmen square is filled with people, more in the summer I guess. It is quite big and quite empty except for a gate, the Mausoleum of Mao and an Obelisk. Didn’t feel like queueing for the mausoleum for a long time so just snapped a few photos of the building. as my main interest was the Forbidden City. However, on my way there a girl came up to me and said hello and started talking to me. I was skeptical of this as why would a stranger on the street just start talking to me in English. I have also read about scams in Beijing around touristic areas. One of these is “the tea house” scams, in which an attractive girl starts talking to you because she wants to learn more English (she also speaks English really well already) and at some point she suggests you go for a tea and she knows the place (naturally). Then at the tea house she orders plenty of different teas for you to taste and in the end the bill is hundreds or even thousands. Either the girl doesn’t have money or she pays her half but in reality she gets the money back from the owner afterwards. There are all kinds of variations to this but I guess this is the basic one. So all you single guys and guys who travel alone, beware of attractive Chinese ladies who initiate a conversation with you! But back to my story! As I said, I was skeptical and fully aware of these scams but first of all (no offence to anybody), there were two of the girls and they weren’t exactly really beautiful (in my opinion), they both had really big cameras (like a regular Chinese tourist) and their English wasn’t really good. So I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe in the good of a person and not automatically assume they want my money. So I asked them where they were going and they were going in the same direction so okay, we chatted for like 30min while walking. At one point one of then suggested we go somewhere inside as she is cold (here it is!) so I said fine but just for a cup of coffee. We got to a place and I asked for the price of the coffee before ordering and it was reasonably priced so okay. Drank the coffee/tea and paid the bill (everybody paid their own) and continued for a while. We reached the Forbidden city east gate which is where I was going and they were going to a park just north of the City. So we parted ways and they asked for my email if we could chat more through that. I had an okay time and didn’t lose any money (except by myself wouldn’t have gone for a coffee) soo I don’t think it was a scam, if it was I don’t know what their gain was. Sooo on to the Forbidden City. It was huge! And really pretty. Entrance was 40yuan (5,5e) and I took an audio guide with me as well. They even had a Finnish version! When I started listening to it, it was horrible hahahaha. It was basically a Chinese person just reading Finnish text I think. I mean you could understand everything but still it was awful. So go for the English one instead. You can change the language yourself. Spent a good two or three hours at the City and left through the North gate (which is the only way, you enter through South and exit through North). After that went straight to Jingshan park just north of the City. There is a hill which climbs up to 100m and you can see the Forbidden City ahead of you and some new, modern Beijing buildings right next to it. Really nice. The park itself was also really cool. BUT, on my way out of the park, a girl is walking from the opposite direction and says hello so I say hello back. Exchange some pleasantries and quite soon she suggests we go for a tea. I said no thanks as I’m on my way to Beihai park so she suggests we just grab a quick one at the Jingshan park. I turned this one down as well and wished her a good day and left. I think that might’ve been a scam! Beihai park was also really cool as there’s an island in the middle of a lake and you can also climb high up on the island. There was also some skating and winter games for the kids as the lake was frozen. It was located just a bit to the west of Jingshan park. Entrance fees to these two parks were like 2yuan (0,2e). After this I decided to walk to Wangfujing street as there’s a food market filled with stalls selling scorpions, sea horses, silk worms etc. Normal food on sale as well (or what is normal)! Sure enough, another girl stops me on the way! Tries to get me to have coffee with her and even after I say I’m meeting a friend at Wangfujing she insists on a quick coffee. She also asked if this (imaginary) friend was my girlfriend. She knew some Finnish words and told me she has a friend named Teppo in Finland as Teppo has supposedly studied in Beijing. What these two girls had in common was they both commented on my jacket as it’s red and red is the lucky colour for Chinese. They both also asked if I was Russian and look really young. Anyway, most likely both were scams. Luckily, this was the last girl to stop me on that day. I continued walking towards Wangfujing and when I got there I realized it is a huge walking street with no cars. A lot of flashy signs and brand clothing shops. I found my “food street” quite easily and entered through a colourful archway. As soon as the first stall was on the right I saw some live scorpions on a stick. Apparently you choose them and then they fry the scorpions for you. As I mentioned earlier, there were also sea horses, starfish, spiders, silk worms and plenty others. I honestly don’t even know what some of the food on sale was. I only bought dumplings (lame, I know). After I had bought the dumplings I noticed that I don’t have any small notes in my wallet anymore and I didn’t want to start paying with a 100yuan note. I promised myself I will come back to try something at least as I have had this in mind and on my bucket list. Upon leaving the food street I noticed a huge bookstore just in front of me. It had like six floors of books and almost one whole floor dedicated to literature in English. I went browsing for Russian and Chinese textbooks. Didn’t find any Russian ones…So I started checking if I’d buy like basics of Chinese but there were so many different books and I had no idea which would be the best so I ended up buying nothing…Maybe later! Rest of the night was spent walking back towards my hostel, grabbing some street food and going to bed. All in all a cool day despite missing the Great Wall thingy. I’ll do it on my own then.
I had no exact plans for this day, other than go see another park (I know right, how many can you see), this one was called the Temple of Heaven. Entrance was 10yuan (1,3e). I should get used to this already but the park was huge. My legs were really tired after previous days’ walking. I must’ve walked for like 20km. So I was moving along really slowly, just admiring the beauty of the park. There were also some temples and pavilions all around. What I really like about Beijing is that it is such a mixture of new and old. I even saw some kids training kung fu in the park with their instructor, how awesome is that. They were perfecting their forms. I also like the hutongs, which are like small alleyways where like the quarter of the population of Beijing lives. You can find anything there, restaurants, shops, tailors, hair salons etc. From my undestanding the hutongs were formed when Beijing was reduced to rubble after the Genghis Khaan’s Mongol army attacked it. Beijing was redesigned with hutongs but as time has passed, more and more hutongs have been destroyed to give way to modern buildings. They’re really cool though! I was going back to my hostel when I felt hunger striking me and decided to look for a cheap hutong restaurant. I found one and it was deeelicious. Had some thinly cut pork, veggies and rice complimented with a beer. This cost me 28yuan (3,8e). When I got back to my room I found it housing a new person. There was a guy from Wales just on a week trip to China (on a field trip) and now he is spending like five days in Beijing. Nice to have a person with whom I can have a conversation with! But now I’m off, got to do some shopping and get some dinner!
Ps. even dropbox is not working. What the hell is wrong with this country.
Pps. Hopefully you can follow my text, I’ve been writing it on my phone every now and then so it might not be all that easy to comprehend!
Until next possible time!
-Jani
