Jyoti and I made a 8 day trip to Shanghai, Xian and Beijing in April. In spite of all the research I had put into it, there were a lot of surprises in store for us.
1. The Chinese are big
Thanks to all the kung-fu movies, I expected the Chinese to be short and skinny yet well-toned: the kind of people who can fly through trees and do triple somersaults. But urbanization, sedentary lifestyles and the glut of American-style junk food has meant that the Chinese, especially the urban dwellers, are getting taller and heftier in a hurry. I just read that recently, the number of Chinese that are overweight surpassed the dwindling population of those suffering from malnutrition.
2. People in China are not reserved
Having lived in Singapore for 2 years, I had the impression that the Chinese were overall a relatively reserved race. This myth was summarily busted. People made a lot of eye contact, and smiled in acknowledgement. A couple of times someone who spoke English and asked us if we were lost and needed any help. On the train from Xian to Beijing, one middle aged gentleman kept asking me something in Chinese and I kept telling him in English that I didn’t understand him, and we had this exchange about five times before he gave up.
3. Vegetarians can not only survive but also (occasionally) enjoy the food
We were carrying processed food, but didn’t have to use it. In Shanghai, we found a make-your-own-burrito type of Mexican café a stone’s throw away from the hotel. In Beijing we were staying in a Hutong (old Chinese neighborhood) and there were a handful of trendy Western restaurants around (with names like Katchup and Waiting for Godot).
The real surprise though was the traditional Chinese lunch. At Hangzhou we had a pot of noodles with spinach and beans, and at the Great Wall, there was sticky rice, potato stew and a cabbage salad. I relished that stuff, and I don’t even like the Chinese food we get in India.
In Xian, using a card that said in Chinese “I am vegetarian, no meat, no chicken, no fish, no egg, no seafood” , we tried some street food. A curry that looked like beef sauce; on tasting it turned out to be peanut sauce. I had a bowl of bean curd stir fried in spices that I could have sworn tasted like paneer. It’s the best soy I have ever had in any form: given my recent resolutions of eating more low fat, high protein foods, I could have a bowl every day, if only I could get one in Singapore.
A word of caution is warranted here: we did have our fair share of boring Subway veggie delite sandwiches as well. But thankfully, we never had to go looking for one. There seemed to be one within stone’s throw the moment we were hungry.
4. The Pollution is much worse than one expects.
This was the only negative surprise. I knew China was polluted, but what I witnessed was beyond my imagination. I am still recovering from the cough I contracted in Beijing. I was at least expecting to enjoy the Chinese countryside from the comfort of the high speed trains, but the whole country seemed to be enveloped in a layer of smog. Perversely, the only time one could see the sun was when it rained a bit and the smog settled down. After my return, I read that Delhi has overtaken Beijing as the most polluted city in the world. What would be considered a national crisis in Singapore seems to be a regular day in these cities.
5. The Chinese drink hot water
Yes that’s right. Not room temperature, not lukewarm, but hot. The high speed train have both a cold and hot water dispenser, but the overnight sleeper trains only have a hot water dispenser. When Chinese families travel, the first thing they pack is a thermos flask. One flask for every individual. There is a mama flask, a papa flask, a big brother flask and a little sister flask. I found it very quirky.
6. The Chinese snack more than Gujjus
If ever there would be a world championship of “snake-ing”, the Gujjus would have to settle for silver. They would be comfortably trounced by the Chinese. Now I have no clue what the Chinese eat when they travel- perhaps dried meat, and dried fruit, and nuts, and prawn crackers and probably a ton of other stuff - but between boarding the train and alighting it, it seemed their bags lost at least half their weight.
7. There is a thriving Muslim population in China
If someone blindfolds you and plonks you straight into the Muslim quarter in Xian, you might get dizzy with confusion. You could just as well be at the Chinatown in Beirut. The restaurant names were displayed in Chinese, but the signs had an Arabic verse at the top as well. The faces were Chinese, the smells well Middle Eastern. The architecture was Chinese, while the women wore Hijabs. I navigated through the alleyways to find the Grand Mosque. The map had a picture of a classical style mosque, but what I found was no different stylistically from a Chinese Temple. In the innermost Chamber, the Koran was inscribed on the walls, half in Arabic and half in Chinese. The call for the evening namaaz started as I was about to leave: it was a surreal experience.
8. The railways in China are run by women.
Women check your tickets before you board. Women frisk you – and let me tell us, they frisk you all over except certain strategic parts. Women clean the trains. Women serve drinks and peanuts on board. There are female attendants on board whose job seemed to be is to desist passengers from leaning their heads on the seat in front of them, and tucking any loose straps of bags stored overhead neatly into place. Unlike in India, where the ticket checker wears suits and the pantry boy wears the Kejriwal cap, the uniforms of all the employees, were – pardon the silly repetition – quite uniform.
9. China can be explored independently
Exploring the cities by bus, metro and foot, with a map and some power snacks in hand, was the most rewarding part of the trip. Experiences ranged from asking directions to someone who doesn’t understand the words “train”, “metro” or “subway” and so you finally have to show him a picture of a train, to someone speaking English approaching us lost souls and showing directions. A couple of times, we tried to match the Chinese symbols on the printed address with those at junctions to figure out which way to go. In Beijing, the exits at train stations were named according to the direction (NE, NW, SE or SW) and using the map you could walk straight to your destination.
One particular incident was memorable. We were looking for a particular Buddhist Vegetarian restaurant in Beijing called Still Thoughts. I put the address I found on a website onto Google Maps, then walked half an hour only to realize that the place had reopened at a different address. It was about closing time for the restaurant in any case so we aborted the search. The next day, we called again. Someone in the staff handed over the phone to a German visitor who spoke English. She gave us the directions and said she would be waiting outside the restaurant on the main road – as the place was in a narrow alley and the display was only in Chinese – and we could spot her by her orange top.
There is a certain comfort in taking a guided tour, but the pleasure in figuring things out, with help from a good Samaritan, is matchless!
10. Chinese Architecture is about size and quantity
The Taj is all about perfect symmetry and exquisite carving. Macchu Picchu is about location and design. In China, the sheer size and scale overwhelm you. Take the Great Wall for instance. Forts and castles around the world have high, impenetrable, imposing walls, but this one is a mind boggling 21,000 kilometer snake! Or the Forbidden City, whose large hall after an even larger hall followed by many courtyards followed by numerous pavilions followed by big gardens makes the Palace of Versailles look like a poor man’s cramped quarters. The most mind boggling site though was the Terracota Warriors in Xian. Its one thing to build a long wall to defend your country or have a huge palace to manage your queens and concubines, but to bury life-size terracotta figurines in the thousands beside your grave is just something else! Hope to write a separate blog about the must-see-places in China!
1. The Chinese are big
Thanks to all the kung-fu movies, I expected the Chinese to be short and skinny yet well-toned: the kind of people who can fly through trees and do triple somersaults. But urbanization, sedentary lifestyles and the glut of American-style junk food has meant that the Chinese, especially the urban dwellers, are getting taller and heftier in a hurry. I just read that recently, the number of Chinese that are overweight surpassed the dwindling population of those suffering from malnutrition.
2. People in China are not reserved
Having lived in Singapore for 2 years, I had the impression that the Chinese were overall a relatively reserved race. This myth was summarily busted. People made a lot of eye contact, and smiled in acknowledgement. A couple of times someone who spoke English and asked us if we were lost and needed any help. On the train from Xian to Beijing, one middle aged gentleman kept asking me something in Chinese and I kept telling him in English that I didn’t understand him, and we had this exchange about five times before he gave up.
3. Vegetarians can not only survive but also (occasionally) enjoy the food
We were carrying processed food, but didn’t have to use it. In Shanghai, we found a make-your-own-burrito type of Mexican café a stone’s throw away from the hotel. In Beijing we were staying in a Hutong (old Chinese neighborhood) and there were a handful of trendy Western restaurants around (with names like Katchup and Waiting for Godot).
The real surprise though was the traditional Chinese lunch. At Hangzhou we had a pot of noodles with spinach and beans, and at the Great Wall, there was sticky rice, potato stew and a cabbage salad. I relished that stuff, and I don’t even like the Chinese food we get in India.
In Xian, using a card that said in Chinese “I am vegetarian, no meat, no chicken, no fish, no egg, no seafood” , we tried some street food. A curry that looked like beef sauce; on tasting it turned out to be peanut sauce. I had a bowl of bean curd stir fried in spices that I could have sworn tasted like paneer. It’s the best soy I have ever had in any form: given my recent resolutions of eating more low fat, high protein foods, I could have a bowl every day, if only I could get one in Singapore.
A word of caution is warranted here: we did have our fair share of boring Subway veggie delite sandwiches as well. But thankfully, we never had to go looking for one. There seemed to be one within stone’s throw the moment we were hungry.
4. The Pollution is much worse than one expects.
This was the only negative surprise. I knew China was polluted, but what I witnessed was beyond my imagination. I am still recovering from the cough I contracted in Beijing. I was at least expecting to enjoy the Chinese countryside from the comfort of the high speed trains, but the whole country seemed to be enveloped in a layer of smog. Perversely, the only time one could see the sun was when it rained a bit and the smog settled down. After my return, I read that Delhi has overtaken Beijing as the most polluted city in the world. What would be considered a national crisis in Singapore seems to be a regular day in these cities.
5. The Chinese drink hot water
Yes that’s right. Not room temperature, not lukewarm, but hot. The high speed train have both a cold and hot water dispenser, but the overnight sleeper trains only have a hot water dispenser. When Chinese families travel, the first thing they pack is a thermos flask. One flask for every individual. There is a mama flask, a papa flask, a big brother flask and a little sister flask. I found it very quirky.
6. The Chinese snack more than Gujjus
If ever there would be a world championship of “snake-ing”, the Gujjus would have to settle for silver. They would be comfortably trounced by the Chinese. Now I have no clue what the Chinese eat when they travel- perhaps dried meat, and dried fruit, and nuts, and prawn crackers and probably a ton of other stuff - but between boarding the train and alighting it, it seemed their bags lost at least half their weight.
7. There is a thriving Muslim population in China
If someone blindfolds you and plonks you straight into the Muslim quarter in Xian, you might get dizzy with confusion. You could just as well be at the Chinatown in Beirut. The restaurant names were displayed in Chinese, but the signs had an Arabic verse at the top as well. The faces were Chinese, the smells well Middle Eastern. The architecture was Chinese, while the women wore Hijabs. I navigated through the alleyways to find the Grand Mosque. The map had a picture of a classical style mosque, but what I found was no different stylistically from a Chinese Temple. In the innermost Chamber, the Koran was inscribed on the walls, half in Arabic and half in Chinese. The call for the evening namaaz started as I was about to leave: it was a surreal experience.
8. The railways in China are run by women.
Women check your tickets before you board. Women frisk you – and let me tell us, they frisk you all over except certain strategic parts. Women clean the trains. Women serve drinks and peanuts on board. There are female attendants on board whose job seemed to be is to desist passengers from leaning their heads on the seat in front of them, and tucking any loose straps of bags stored overhead neatly into place. Unlike in India, where the ticket checker wears suits and the pantry boy wears the Kejriwal cap, the uniforms of all the employees, were – pardon the silly repetition – quite uniform.
9. China can be explored independently
Exploring the cities by bus, metro and foot, with a map and some power snacks in hand, was the most rewarding part of the trip. Experiences ranged from asking directions to someone who doesn’t understand the words “train”, “metro” or “subway” and so you finally have to show him a picture of a train, to someone speaking English approaching us lost souls and showing directions. A couple of times, we tried to match the Chinese symbols on the printed address with those at junctions to figure out which way to go. In Beijing, the exits at train stations were named according to the direction (NE, NW, SE or SW) and using the map you could walk straight to your destination.
One particular incident was memorable. We were looking for a particular Buddhist Vegetarian restaurant in Beijing called Still Thoughts. I put the address I found on a website onto Google Maps, then walked half an hour only to realize that the place had reopened at a different address. It was about closing time for the restaurant in any case so we aborted the search. The next day, we called again. Someone in the staff handed over the phone to a German visitor who spoke English. She gave us the directions and said she would be waiting outside the restaurant on the main road – as the place was in a narrow alley and the display was only in Chinese – and we could spot her by her orange top.
There is a certain comfort in taking a guided tour, but the pleasure in figuring things out, with help from a good Samaritan, is matchless!
The Taj is all about perfect symmetry and exquisite carving. Macchu Picchu is about location and design. In China, the sheer size and scale overwhelm you. Take the Great Wall for instance. Forts and castles around the world have high, impenetrable, imposing walls, but this one is a mind boggling 21,000 kilometer snake! Or the Forbidden City, whose large hall after an even larger hall followed by many courtyards followed by numerous pavilions followed by big gardens makes the Palace of Versailles look like a poor man’s cramped quarters. The most mind boggling site though was the Terracota Warriors in Xian. Its one thing to build a long wall to defend your country or have a huge palace to manage your queens and concubines, but to bury life-size terracotta figurines in the thousands beside your grave is just something else! Hope to write a separate blog about the must-see-places in China!
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