Eric's Beijing Diary

Scenes like this are becoming more and more rare in the Haidian district. When I first came to China, I was quite surprised so see how much "countryside" still existed in this part of the city. In one sense, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because for all its rapid development, China is still a developing country. But Tsinghua and Peking University are old and distinguished institutions, and both of them are located north of this area--further from the city center. It just seems that there is an "in between" area here on the upper west side that is dragging its feet about becoming a city, and has been for a hundred years. Sadly, I'm afraid the struggle is almost over. The "country town" feel to my neighborhood is slowly slipping away.

Elisha had a birthday today. Birthdays in China are pretty much the same as birthdays in America. The only difference I have seen is that if you go to a cake shop and buy a cake, they will make it according to your specification after you select it. So you have to go there in advance and order the one you want so you can pick it up later.

Chinese churches do not have singles groups. At least, I have never seen or heard of one. But Chinese churches do have lots of singles--mostly women. That does not mean that there are more women than men. But young men do not go to church. Not very many of them, anyway. Thank-fully, China does have some very faithful churchmen. But faith is definitely a struggle for men in China.

Mr. Crocodile. That's what he calls himself. He is a local biker, just as friendly as the day is long.

When I am traveling through small towns in Western China, I will often walk up to a motorcyclist and show him on a map where I want to go. This doesn't work very well if you are with a group, but traveling alone as a single person, it's pretty easy. The fee is almost always 3 yuan. Well, last year, I was in Beihai one day, and a motorcyclist approached me. That is not the norm. Usually, you see these guys sitting on their bikes watching the day go by. They don't say much unless you approach them. But Mr. Crocodile speaks pretty good English, and he offered to be my "wings." I kept his card, and it has come in handy, because I can give him a call on my cell phone, and he will take me pretty much anywhere in the area. His card says, "Jesus Loves You, and I love you, too." Really nice guy.

Got into Beihai at 5 this morning and hired a motorcycle to take me to McDonald's for breakfast, since the McDonald's in this town is a 24hr. restaurant. When we got there, the place was closed. Surprised me, because the place is literally plastered all over with signs advertising it as a 24 hour restaurant. I counted more than 40 signs. I finally found a small sign announcing to the public that while this is indeed a 24 hour restaurant, for 8 of those hours, the doors will be locked, and there will be no one there to serve them. Interesting variation on the theme.

Yangshuo. Left Beihai on the night bus Friday evening and got to Guilin early Saturday morning. It's about a seven hour run. The book says there are lots of busses running to Yangshuo from the train station, so I walked over there when I got to Guilin, but I was mobbed by hustlers, of every variety, so I walked back to the bus station and bought a ticket for the express bus at the window.

Guilin is the city everyone associates with China's extraordinary karst formations. But some of the best scenery is down the road at Yangshuo. Yanshuo used to be a small town off the beaten track--sort of a hide out for backpackers. For some time, it was the world's best kept secret. But the secret is out now. Guilin is definitely a bigger city, but for tourism, Yangshuo is the place everybody wants to see. It really is pretty, too. The problem is that the place is so thoroughly touristed, that it just isn't very peaceful. It isn't really the tourists themselves that create the problem in this case. It more the way tourism is managed (or mismanaged) by the community.

Yesterday I rented a bike and rode out to Moon hill. As I started climbing the hill, a lady with a basket of refreshments attached herself to me and started following me. I told her that I was not interested in buying anything, and showed her the stuff I had brought with me. She ignored me and kept following me. She followed me all the way to the top of the hill, fanning me as I was walking. When I got to the top, the view was quite impressive. I was hoping for a little solitude, which is not easy to find in China. No such luck. There was no one up there, but the lady just would not leave me alone. I finally gave up and headed down the hill. When I got on my bicycle to leave, she started yelling at me. If she had had a gun, I think she would have shot me. Boy she was angry!

This morning, I decided to go to the tourism bureau and file a complaint, because they have signs up around town warning tourists about just this sort of thing. But when I called the place, nobody spoke English. I decided to go there myself. It was tough to find, and there were no English signs. The whole system seems to be pretty disorganized. I finally found the office and tried to explain the problem as best I could. They gave me a piece of paper, and told me to write down my complaint. It's hard for me to believe that they don't know this stuff is going on. Somebody is obviously running a racket, because there are several women with baskets who are waiting at the bottom of Moon Hill to pounce on foreign tourists. If you look Chinese, they will leave you alone. Unfortunately, I don't.

China is still learning the ropes when it comes to private business. Inexperienced as businessmen, the Chinese sometimes appear to think that the way to do business is to offer something for sale, and then badger you into buying it, without regard for whether you have any interest at all in what they are trying to sell. The Taiwanese businessmen are distinctly different in this respect. They do their homework and find out what you want, and then offer to provide it for you. That is probably why there are over a million Taiwanese businessmen in China.

But I don't want to leave the subject without saying that there are some very nice places in China, where you can get out in nature and see very beautiful scenery without being pestered by con artists. Unfortunately, Yangshuo is not one of them. But I will say the Aussie Burger at Seventh Heaven is a pretty good sandwich.

Young lady out standing in her field.
I have been pestering Snow to take me to her farm. Today was the day. Snow and Fly met me at the bus stop by the Square. I asked them if they had eaten breakfast. Turns out they had both had their bags stolen, so they hadn't eaten. I took them to McDonald's and bought them each an order of pancakes and sausage. We took a motorcycle taxi to the bus station, and boarded a bus for the countryside. Snow's parents live about an hour from Beihai. Their home is situated in a small traditional courtyard, with the main living area on the front side of the courtyard, the "moonshine" (rice wine) still on one side, the family pig sty on the other, with additional living area on the back side of the courtyard.

Snow's family is not impoverished, but they are certainly not wealthy, either. In sharp contrast to China's "one chld" policy, there are five children in Snow's family. It is not too unusual to see families in the countryside with more than one child, because the the government makes exceptions for farmers. But five does seem to be a large number. There is a jackfruit tree in the couryard that is quite heavily laden with fruit. Snow calls this fruit "bo luo," but bo luo is the word for pineapple, and this stuff is definitely not pineapple.

China is still very much a peasant society, although you wouldn't know it from the cities. The style and level of life in the eastern cities is so different from what you see in the West. But even though farmers are not wealthy, they do benefit (albeit indirectly) from China's current prosperity. During the past few years, there have been many riots throughout the countryside of China. And there are still situations where farmers in a given community may suffer because of corrupt local leaders. The government in Beijing does not have absolute control over every situation in every corner of the country. But strong protests in recent years have brought about significant reforms in agricultural policy. Again, this is largely because China can afford it right now. It is uncertain what would happen if the economy took a downturn. In other words, the current move towards prosperity does not necessarily signify a fundamental change of life for folks in the countryside.

Snow and Fly met me at the bus stop this morning. Snow knows that I like to go to church on Sunday, so she told me that she was going to show me another church. I was curious, so I followed her. Turned out to be the Catholic church, but mass was over, so we went to the church I usually go to when I'm in town.

After church, we went to Tommy's so that I could introduce Snow and Fly to bacon and eggs. Snow really liked it, but Fly wasn't too sure. He ate it, though. After breakfast, we took a bus to the beach. There is lots of that around here. The beach area was very pretty, but the day was very hot, and the sun was very direct...much more so than in Beijing.

Back in Beihai. I flew in Monday night and landed in a tropical rainstorm. It's nice today, though. Blue sky, and a breeze coming in off the sea. I'm sitting here at Tommy's looking out over the Gulf. Tommy's is an Australian bar and grill that serves pretty good Western food for a moderate price. This is my first time here, so I can't give you a comprehensive recommendation, but the Cordon Blue is a pretty good meal for 20 kuai.

Last night, I went to the Japanese Corner in front of the library. the students began to talk to me in English, so I told them politely in Japanese that I didn't speak English. They laughed, but they got the point. The college here in Beihai is establishing a very strong Japanese software program, which is good, because Japan has a labour shortage that Chinese young people are in a good position to take advantage of right now. China's economy is growing rapidly, which, of course, produces many jobs, but also many, many young graduates competing for those jobs. I have been in China three years, and I have yet to see a student in the Japanese software program who couldn't get hired. After studying software and Japanese language here, they go to Japan and do an internship for a year. After that, they can either stay, or come back to China.