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| I <3 BJ |
The first thing to say is this isn't my first experience of the place, although it was my first time in Beijing. I'm by no means an "expert", but I lived in Hong Kong for 2 years as a child, visited Shanghai more recently, have been involved with a work venture with China (my business partner owns a consultancy business in Beijing), I wrote a 200 page study on Chinese educational travel AND my boyfriend Ste is doing a degree in Chinese. He's therefore taught me loads about the place. Oh, I also had a panda teddy when I was 3. Therefore this post is not entirely ill-informed bollocks. Just mostly.
What was I doing there?
It was Ste's 21st birthday. So let's get the cutesy stuff out of the way. It was so ridiculously, amazingly lovely to see him. My last blog post, written whilst somewhat tipsy the night before I went, gives some indication of how much I was looking forward to going after a 2 month gap of not being together. It was every bit as wonderful as I'd hoped.
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| Katie, Andrew, Ste, Momma Ste, Rocky on our way to the Wall |
I was there for 2 days that overlapped with his Mum, brother, brother's girlfriend and his best friend Rocky. On his actual birthday, when we drove an hour out of Beijing to visit the Great Wall at a place where Chinese, rather than Westerners, tend to go. In the evening we went for a boat ride on a lake in a traditional part of town called Houhai.
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| Official 21st birthday photo |
Chinese Politics
The way matters are reported in the West is a little bit like a scratched record. No story misses the opportunity to portray China in some way as a systematic abuser of human rights: a force of sinister oppression. We love doing it: there's also some subtle little reminder, just in case we'd forgotten how evil they are, for example in recent BBC reporting on the Third Plenum.
I remember the killings of students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 vividly as they happened. My constitutional law supervisor at university had a poster on his wall of the tanks and the words "we will never forget you". I swore never to visit the country until the Communist Party had relinquished its reign of terror. Let's be clear, the government of the People's Republic of China has done some terrible things in its time. There's no denying that, and I don't intend to. If we just take a small example: the 11th reincarnation of the Pashen Laama was named by the Dalai Lama in May 1995: a little 6 year old Tibetan boy. The Chinese government wanted their own stooge instead, so they appointed him and kidnapped the original boy 3 days after his naming. He hasn't been seen since and is the "youngest political prisoner in the world". This is outrageous shit and goes way beyond run of the mill human rights abuses: it's highly inventive if nothing else.
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| Missing now for 18 years, and 6 months |
I do think the situation is a little more nuanced than we like to make out, though. That deserves some reflection - but if you'd rather just feel all smug, superior and revel in how much better "we" are than them, just skip the next three sections!
Food for Thought
China's recent history (the last 150 years) includes the most brutal experiences of hunger, civil war, foreign invasion, gross political instability and mass famine. Even in the past few decades tens of millions have starved to death in the country, leading to repeated outbreaks of cannibalism. The Communist government's Great Leap Forward (1958) led to up to 43 million deaths. As many as 70 million may have died in total under Chairman Mao's leadership, placing him ahead of both Hitler and Stalin combined, and securing his place as the foremost practitioner of democide in world history. From our comfy Western perspectives, we can literally have no comprehension of the effect of all this on the contemporary Chinese psyche. The traditional Chinese greeting (from before Mao's time) is actually "Did you eat yet?" - which speaks volumes.
There is therefore a desperate twin desire for stability and for economic growth. This the government has achieved with amazing success since Mao's death. In 1981, some 85% of the vast Chinese population lived in absolute poverty. This doesn't mean the inability to buy consumer goods: it means the ability to provide a sustenance level of 1000 calories per day to avoid starving to death. By 2008 this had fallen to just 13%. Well over 600 million people have been brought out of starvation level poverty during this time as a direct result of the Chinese government's policies. This quote is taken from a report based on World Bank data that makes very interesting reading:
Look at that second bullet point: "China accounts for nearly all the world's reduction in poverty" and think about it for a moment. China executes around 4000 people a year (followed in global rankings for state murder directly by the US). It censors its press. Political dissenters are clamped down on and often held without trial. The government thinks it okay to kidnap an innocent 6 year old Tibetan boy. The internet is monitored and you can't access Twitter. But not starving painfully to death is also the most basic of human rights. It is incredibly rare in the West to hear the success of the government in this area even being even mentioned.
Parts of China (particularly in the west) are still pitifully poor by our standards, and apparently resemble parts of Africa in terms of deprivation and development. There is the most enormous gulf in wealth between them and the bright lights of rich, developed Shanghai or Beijing. It is like two separate countries in one: one in the first world, and one in the third world.
However, hundreds of millions of people are no longer at risk of famine and death in the poor part, and the economy is ever growing. So much so, in fact, China has overtaken both Germany and Japan in the size of its economic output, and by some estimates it will have overtaken the US by as soon as 2016.
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| Modern Day China: a typical view in prosperous Beijing |
Oppressive or Popular Government?
We somehow assume that no one could support a regime that does what the Chinese one does in terms of human rights and that everyone must live in fear of the oppressive government. I expected Police everywhere, and miserable faces. This could not have been further from the truth. It was actually a breath of fresh air after London not to be monitored on CCTV constantly. The Chinese immigration officers were lovely, in total contrast to the horrendous officious and aggressive UK Border Force. I wasn't even asked for return tickets: there were just smiles and pleasantness. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting.
Indeed, I barely saw any Police during my visit. I felt safe everywhere and wasn't on my guard constantly for petty crime as I sometimes am, even in places like Paris. After my trip I found out some fascinating statistics on rates of incarceration in various countries. China locks up 121 people per 100,000 of population. In Sweden it's 67, in Germany it's 80 and in the UK it's 147 (i.e. more than China, in our case). That beacon of global democracy, the USA tops the table at a staggering 716 people per 100,000.
I'm reminded of the fascinating diary, A Woman in Berlin, which was written by a German journalist on her experiences at the end of the War. There's a reflection in there on her visits to the Soviet Union in the 30s, her stays in Britain, and life under the Nazis. She herself was a liberal and believer in democracy. Under which system were the bulk of people happier, she asked herself? They were equally happy, or miserable, wherever they were: they just had different concerns, was her conclusion.
I'm of course well aware that had I been handing out political leaflets, my experience of China would have been very different to that of a person visiting his boyfriend for a holiday. If you're someone who wants to introduce democracy in China, you're in for a rough ride and your life will probably be not be pleasant. If you want a job, food, money and to get on with your life, with a genuine belief that the government has your best interests in mind, things will occur very differently. It was my experience that people on the street in prosperous Beijing seem happy, with many smiling faces. A miserable, fearful society, it really didn't come across as.
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| People dancing in public near our hotel: a common sight |
Delving into this a bit further, like it or not, surveys do indeed suggest that there is great trust and support for the communist central government, the system, and its way of doing things. Repeated surveys have shown that the Chinese system is actually equally, or more popular, amongst the population than governments in Western democracies, with support ratings in excess of 80%. This article provides some good analysis on that point. Don't write it off as being people being scared to say what they really think or censorship and a lack of understanding or discussion of the issues, as the piece explains. It should also be said that there is much wider dissatisfaction with local government, and riots regularly occur across the country, which are then hushed up.
The massive success in providing stability, food, jobs, and the new found wealth of the urban centres in the eastern part of the country, are key to support for and the popularity of the central government and system. The government is incredibly sensitive to political opinion and knows that its existence relies on continuing to "provide the goods". It is incredibly fearful of dissent and for that reason clamps down so disproportionally on those who agitate against it and who are regarded as a threat. It does however listen, and when pollution becomes a source of political unhappiness and comment, actions are taken to quell the problem.
Our Right to Lecture
All this being the case... again, who are we to wade in and lecture, with our insistence on our values, system and standards being imposed? If the Chinese people want change, this will happen in time. They are not stupid people, with no voice. Political comment does occur widely on the internet, but on the whole the bulk of the population is happy with where things currently are. China has come rapidly from nowhere. It has been through a process of industrialisation that took us 160 years, in a space of 30 years. Political change will inevitably follow, but it really isn't for us to dictate how and when that happens.
I therefore honestly don't think we need the snide little comments such as the BBC throwing in the fact that "political reform was not on the agenda" at the Third Plenum: it was never going to be. It shows, in my view, a possibly deliberate lack of understanding and an inbuilt arrogance that our system is the superior and the only way of running a country. As I said before, it's a scratched record whose only purpose is, I imagine, to make us feel superior in some way.
Look out for smiling faces next time you're commuting into London, and then consider our satisfaction with our democratically elected government. China's record on broader human rights is without question at times horrendously poor, but it has not been involved in invading Afghanistan and Iraq, or indeed any country since Vietnam. Our democratically elected government has, and the human rights of hundreds of thousands were savaged in those places as a result. The right to live is the most basic right of all. It's no wonder the Chinese get a bit fed up of Western judgement and feel people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
In summary, China is dealing with 1.3 billion people, many of whom were quite recently on the edge of death through hunger. It's hard not to come to the conclusion that despite some the government does a remarkable job of holding this massive country and society together. The levels of support for the system are again something so rarely touched on over here: I feel to give the whole picture they should be. So there. I'll stop lecturing you now if you stop lecturing them :p
What is Beijing Like?
Right, back to some actual holiday reflections. Beijing is big. It isn't high and intense like Hong Kong, Shanghai: it's more like a collection of towns that spread over a huge area. It's more London than New York, I'd say. It is also prosperous as I've touched on: the cars you see driving round are on the whole more "high end" than here. There are lots of stretched chauffeur driven cars, and plenty of absurdly expensive models. There are designer stores all over the place. It looks as wealthy and developed as plenty of European cities.
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| That well known American fast food chain |
It's weird to see chains you know so well literally all over the place: Costa Coffee, KFC, McDonald's (who deliver on motorbike to your home) and Pizza Hut. It's a real reminder of how small a place the world is today. 150 years ago you go from one valley to another in Central Europe and there would be a distinct form of local dress. Nowadays you go to the other side of the world and it's the exact same stuff as here. However, the places I've mentioned don't just do Western food: pizzas are only about 1/5 of the Pizza Hut menu, for example. The rest is noodles, rice and other dishes that cater to local tastes. Sometimes places try to be Western and trendy... and erm, it doesn't quite hit the mark. See the pic above!
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| Ste in an open air food market. All very clean indeed. |
It's also clean: quite surprisingly so (I remember absolutely filthy parts of HK as a kid). It's not all modern by any means. In fact there are loads of Hutong areas with traditional low-rise, old buildings. People hang out doing things like the woman below. She randomly turned up outside an old temple, put her music on and started dancing with ribbons. It was absolutely beautiful to watch. She was probably about 60.
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| Dancing with Ribbons |
Both Shanghai and Beijing occurred to me as incredibly capitalist, which might be a strange thing to say given the fact that the country is still ruled by a communist government. They have long opened the door to private enterprise (at least in the cities) and scrapped basic elements of socialism such as universal healthcare. The level of individual economic activity can get a bit much: the serenity of beautiful Buddhist temples is ruined by people flogging tacky tourist shit all over the place. It kinda undermines the "do not photograph the statue" signs when there's a stand actually inside the temple selling plastic junk.
Some Comment on the Big Sites
The "big sites" that Ste took me to were the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the New Summer Palace, the Lama temple and Beijing Zoo to see the Pandas. At times the amount of people visiting, even off-season in November, was oppressive to say the least. Some Chinese are pretty "self-expressed" (aka loud and bloody annoying) and there aren't too many cultural restrictions on barging your way through, or indeed hawking (making a disgusting gobbing sound and then spitting right in front of you). I've long realised that's part and parcel of travel though: if you don't like it and want things to be just as at home, stay there.
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| Doing the Touristy Thing |
Some comments on the places we went to follow. The Great Wall really can't be seen from space. It's around 5 metres wide, so stop being silly. It width from the Moon is the same as a human hair viewed from 2 miles away. Still, it's amazing and one of those places that just takes your breath away to see it real life, it's so familiar from pictures. It's up there with a very view places in the world, such as the Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, Great Pyramids, Sydney Opera House and the Statue of Liberty in terms of iconic value.
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| The Great Wall stretching out behind us |
Tiananmen Square was enormous. Apparently it can hold 1 million people. This was the only place I noticed Police, because of the recent attack. Still they didn't threaten or intimidate: they were just there. Right next to it was the Forbidden City, which is enormous and unfolded square after square. It was really impressive, though full and quite tiring to get through. Most parts are beautifully kept and restored: others need a bit of care.
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| Ste and I being culturally sensitive as ever >.< |
Beijing Zoo should probably better be called "Beijing Animal Prison". It does great work in terms of Panda conservation, but it's a horrible, ageing, nasty place. I really didn't like it or the way many of the animals were kept. The Pandas had the best amount of space and there 5 of them. They're mega cute and have 5 digits plus an extra bone that works like a thumb, so they can munch on their bamboo. Bonus fact: they crap 40 times a day.
The New Summer Palace is an interesting one. It isn't actually a palace: it's a set of buildings in an enormous park beside a massive man-made lake. The huge hill next to the lake is a result of digging out the lake. I bet you're thinking: hold on, didn't we burn the place down? Well yes: it's a reconstruction, but in fact the original buildings were only around 100 years old when 3500 British and French soldiers torched them in 1860. The fact that we did so is emblazoned on literally every information sign on every building that you visit. You get a bit tired of it the 29th time you read it, and start perceiving it as a bit unnecessarily aggressive. Apparently it still deeply hurts the Chinese that this happened.
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| At the most beautiful garden in the Summer Palace |
You then do a bit more research and find out why the "Anglo-French forces" did so. It wasn't purely a case of out of context cultural vandalism. 20 Western hostages including diplomats and the Times correspondent had been kidnapped on the orders of the Empress Cixi. She was a vicious despotic piece of work, who had a habit of having her son's concubines thrown wells and killed. The kidnap victims were then ritually executed by "slow-slicing". That's carefully chopping portions of their limbs off bit by bit, and applying ligatures so they didn't bleed to death, but experienced death over a space of hours. When their bodies were returned, they were unrecognisable. Empress Cixi's favourite hang-out was the Summer Palace (which of course was out of bounds to any normal Chinese). Lord Elgin (the marble thief's son) therefore ordered the place torched as retaliation and to warn her not to do this trick again. He could have rounded up 2000 Chinese and killed them: it wouldn't have bothered her, but this really did. She spent the following decades rebuilding the place exactly as it was. Oddly this background isn't ever explained in Beijing. It throws a slightly different light on matters to know the context, even if it doesn't justify the actions.
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| Time for a pose: all this thinking about history is a bit *deep* |
Pollution, Veggie Food, and Getting Around
Every photo you see of Beijing in the Western media seems to show it in some dreadful state of smog. I know from friends who live there that is true for large parts of the year. But in autumn the air clears and it's beautiful and sunny. It's very dry air and at this time of year the temperature is dropping rapidly. It was 17C by day when I was there, 0C by night. Already a week later it's 9C by day and -4C by night. I visited at just the right time. You can expect -20C in winter.
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| Mutant Ninja Turtle Ste |
Veggie food is a bit of a nightmare in Beijing. So much for them having a long Buddhist influence. I saw one menu with Grilled Lamb Ribs, Grilled Lamb Kidneys, Grilled Treasure (?!?), Grilled Bovine Plate Gluten, Grilled Chicken Gristle, Grilled Chicken Heart and Knee Cartilage on it. Oh yum. We saw live scorpions on sticks on sale in a food market and this poor thing. I think it was a turtle, I'm not sure.
It seems the Chinese will eat almost anything. Given we throw away huge parts of the animal and it's wasted, if you have to eat animals, I guess that's a good thing. As a vegetarian it's a bit stomach turning though. So are the few veggie restaurants I found: they were weird buffet things and looked completely unappealing.
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| At Pure Lotus. Complete bliss. |
The one exception was the incredible PURE LOTUS restaurant that my best pal Dominic told us to go to. It's run by Buddhist monks and is one of the top places in the city to eat, even for omnivores. We each had an 11 course vegan meal. I've no idea what most of it was, but it was beyond delicious (and heinously expensive too, at £150 with no booze). Fortunately amazingly generous Dominic said he'd pay as a gift for Ste's 21st. Thanks, Dom x
Alas the list of things that get eaten in China does include dogs and cats. There are posters out from animal charities though, such as the below, with a caption that apparently says "do you really want to eat this?". Note the chopsticks.
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| Don't eat cats. [Or any animal, Ed.] |
Getting round on the metro is incredibly easy, and cheap. All the signs are in English, the network covers a vast area, it's incredibly clean, modern, and tickets are 20p a ride. Take note, Boris, you thieving bastard. Trains come every 2 minutes during rush hour, which is just as well, because that's the only time it's no so much fun. The concept of a queue really is a bit of a foreign one, and it's every person and their elbows for themselves.
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| Enjoying the Rush Hour Scramble |
Taxis won't generally stop for Westerners, because the drivers can't speak English. This is annoying when your boyfriend is doing a degree in Chinese and already completely fluent in the language, including the local accent. They don't know that though, so we had to rely on the metro most times. The taxis also don't have seat belts and they drive like they've taken rather a lot of hallucinogenic drugs, so I was quite happy with this, all in all.
Well there we go with my MEGA-BLOG on China. I loved it, all in all. I'm back out in Beijing in April for another extended visit, and am hoping to get out of the capital and do some day trips next time. Ste and I have a tradition now of dressing up for stupid photographs and making complete arses of ourselves. I'll therefore end on our attempt at being dual Emperors - yellow is the Imperial colour and it was reserved just for them. Many thanks for reading!
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| Don't we have silly hats on? |
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