China - Autumn 1994

16 Sept

I left for Arlanda at 11 am, only five and a half hours before the China Airlines flight, which left on time at 16.20. Those of us from Sweden and Norway knew each other slightly having met at the seminarium in Stockholm a few weeks earlier, and we were joined by the three Finnish ladies. We refuelled in Copenhagen where I met some colleagues on their way to a Guide Conference in Reykjavik. The night flight was uneventful and we landed at Beijing Capital Airport at about 11 am. on Saturday morning.

17 Sept

It was 23°C in Beijing and when we had all passed through the passport control and got our luggage back, we minibussed into the city and immediately left our bags again in a (private) left-luggage office near the station. Our guide is called Li Bo and is a tall 30 year old Chinese from ?????. We ate lunch in a (again private, China has changed since I was last here) restaurant and were served several very good dishes but everyone was too tired and jet-lagged to appreciate the food.

Following lunch, we had a hot and dusty walk around Tian'an'men Square, but we were probably still unappreciative, poor Mr Li is wondering what kind of group he has got this time. As dusk fell it became a little cooler and we perked up, and brought fruit and tea for the train journey, we will be travelling on train no. 161 leaving at 20.58. We had a light supper in an alleyway west of Qian men. Now there are plenty of restaurants, the service is good, the prices reasonable, and the decor noticeable, quite different from 1983 and even 1987. Unfortunately, they were not very full.

The station, Beijing zhan was as I remembered, crowded, noisy, packed with passengers waiting for trains to all corners of the country. We found a square metre or two of floor-space, but didn't need to wait very long before boarding the Suzhou train.

18 Sept	The hard sleeper was comfortable, and after jet-lag, I at least slept very well. The train was running 20 minutes late when I awoke, and then all day we were unable to make up those minutes. The dining car was very well-equipped, although we didn't see anyone else eating there. There were only a handfull of other foreign travellers in the twenty carriage long train, we chatted to students from Xuzhou who spoke a little English, and were appreciative of my attempts to speak Chinese. We crossed the Great Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge at about 7 pm, pulling in to Suzhou at about 8 pm. I managed to buy a city map at the station, buying maps is one of my weaknesses, and then it was only a short minibus ride to the Xinhua hotel, the university lodging where we had planned to stay was full. Dinner in a noodle shop in the vicinity where we enjoyed the typical small restaurant atmosphere, plenty of dishes, beer and spirits (baijiu) flowed, and everyone in the place tried to find out why a bunch of foreigners was eating just in their local restaurant.
19 Sept	Suzhou is one of the most popular tourist destinations for the Chinese themselves, and is famous not only for its canals, but for its gardens; these are not green parks as we are used to, but exquisitely laid out stone creations with a single tree or shrub, and pavilions and bridges to add to and to admire the beauty from. Suzhou is first mentioned in the fifth century BC, and was for a time the Wu capital in the Warring States period. It flourished as a silk and trading centre, and in the sixth century AD, the Grand Canal was built linking the city to Beijing the capital. The wealth tyhis generated was largely invested in the magnificent gardens. The first sightseeing day started early, as I got up at 6 am to start wandering around the markets. I enjoyed dumplings for breakfast at this little shop, several varieties were on sale for just a few yuan per portion. After breakfast we went to buy our bicycles. I was hoping to get a big, black, heavy but well-made Flying Pigeon, the kind I had in 1983, but product development had come to the Chinese bicycle industry too, and I had to make do with a blue "Forever" which was lighter and apppeared more fragile than I needed, but it was the best available (at 365Y). We threw ourselves into the Chinese traffic maelstroms and rode to the Garden of the Blue Wave Pavilion (Canglangting), a relatively small garden built by the poet Su Shenqing in 1041. The Blue Wave Pavilion itself is in the middle on an artificially created hill. Next was the classic Garden of the Master of the Nets (Wangshi yuan), tiny, but one of the most beautiful, it was laid out in the twelfth century as part of the residence of a retired official. . Then we lunched in the karaoke room of a noodle shop, newly decorated, presumably karaoke is starting to come to China, and go-ahead young men can see where the profits are to be made. The meal was good, duck, chicken, bean-curd, vegetables, sweet and sour pork, and to finish a huge bowl of noodles. We spent the afternoon at Pan men, the last surviving city gate from 1351, although a gate is thought to have stood here since the fifth century BC. We saw and cycled beside many of the canals, that give Suzhou its nickname, "The Venice of the East". Many of the larger canals, including the Grand Canal were very busy with freight, but I didn't see any passenger vessels at all. In the evening we cycled to the Bazaar and ate Suzhou style noodles, nothing special however.
20 Sept	I didn't want to go to Tiger Hill so I went sightseeing by myself on my bike in Suzhou. First I went to the Monastery of the Cold Mountain (Hanshan si) named after the seventh century monk Han Shan, an eccentric poet and Zen Buddhist who enjoyed his drink. Most buildings now standing are rebuilt after the Taiping revolt, although the monastery was founded in the sixth century. Then I visited the North Temple Pagoda (Beisita) which dates from the Southern Song period, although restored in the seventeenth century. At 76 metres and nine storeys, it dominates Renmin Lu and gives a good view of the city. I biked through markets, and aimlessly throughout the city. Lunch in a small private restaurant, where I ordered five dishes (for 38Y), and despite stuffing myself couldn't finish half. Met the others for dinner and after an enjoyable meal, continued to share a bottle of local wine (white grape wine, sweet and sickly) with Raija and Irma, and this developed into a party and photo-taking session with the entire staff.

21Sept	We left Suzhou at 8 am and after a long time cycling through suburbs, we eventually came out into some countryside, although new factories and joint enterprise buildings continued to appear along the road. Cycle repairmen had set up shop every few hundred metres, which was lucky, because our newly bought bicycles shed vital parts like water, pedals, brake-blocks, nuts and bolts. After a while things settled down, or rather became tightened up and we could cycle towards Luzhi in time for a late lunch. We were even later, because most of the places in town seemed to be closed. Our hotel in Luzhi was a brand new concrete-box in the middle of the fast-growing and incredibly ugly new-town, home to a conference of the local party bosses, who had their air-conditioned limousines outside. However an attractive old city was not very far away and the afternoon was spent admiring the old canal-side houses.
22Sept	We began the day cycling along very narrow paths between irrigation channels - into one of which I fell while leading my bike, no great problem I thought apart from my camera which was in my pocket, and stopped working. Not surprising since it got covered with mud. Then perfect cycling for about 10 kilometres on narrow roads bordered by mulberry trees, and finally 30 kilometres on slightly larger, but not heavily traffiked roads to Zhouhzhuang. This is a town popular with Chinese tourists, it is a beautifully preserved canal town, and the Zhou family are famous for ????, we visited their traditional family mansion, courtyard after courtyard in a line, and then went to a famous tea-house with a view of the canal. Finally we finished an eventful day with two bottles of red wine at dinner at the gates of the old town.
23Sept	We left Zhouzhuang at 6.30 am and cycled jut 10 km today to the town of Luqu where we rented a couple of boats to take us the 60 kilometres to Wuzhan, where we were to overnight. The trip took about six hours and it was a typical Grand Canal freight boat, passing Jiaxing, the largest town in the area. Unfortunately the boat was without toilet or food, so perhaps three hours had beeen enough ..... On arrival at Wuzhan the police wouldn't let us stay at the hotel, so we continued by bus to Tongxiang where we found a hotel. Tongxiang is a very large commercial centre, with several international hotels, and an imposing street market which continued long into the evening. We sat down and ordered dinner at an open-air reataurant in the market, and were immediately surrounded by a 6-deep crowd who watched our every movent. But the food was good and spicy.
24Sept	We went back to Wuzhou by minibus for breakfast at a famous tea-house. The clientele appeared genuine Chinese peasantry and regarded a dozen foreigners with great suspicion. We continued in the town to see the birthplace of Mao Dun the novelist (Miidnight in Shanghai etc). And then back to Tongxiang to collect the bikes - we cycled about 15 kilometres to Shimen, a small and pleasant village where we had a very good lunch of local dishes, smoked chicken, sweet and sour fish, a delicate bean curd dish etc etc. We continued after lunch to cycle another 30 kilometres, through rice-fields, along more narrow canal-side paths, crossing canals on steep arched bridges, making for Xinshi which we reached at about 5 pm with numerous stops towards the end for bicycle repairs. We had time then to see the main sight of Xinshi, a Buddhist temple, before dining out in the street, like yesterday surrounded by a watchful crowd, and again like yesterday with a parade of delicious dishes, frogs, chicken gizzards, tripe. After dinner we celebrated Gullbritts vernissage with Chinee champagne (at 23Y a bottle) and Black Rice Wine, a new favourite, at only 6Y a bottle, Monica and I concluded the evening by dancing at the local disco.
25Sept	Yet another fine, sunny day, the weather has been perfect for cycling, and we left Xinshi by 9 am and cycled via Gouli to Tangxi which we reached at about 1 pm. After lunch (which included the local special Black Fish) we had the afternoon free to explore by ourselves, but Tangxi didn't appear to have very much to offer. Yet again we dined in the open-air, and afterwards explored the night-life and found video-parlours and billiard halls, and drank a bottle of white and a bottle of red wine, while tyrying to explain the exotica of Swedish and Finnish life to the local inhabitants.

26Sept	This morning after breakfast we took the 7.40 boat to Hangzhou; it was more like a floating fish-market. Arriving in the centre of Hangzhou we cycled carefully, the traffic was horrendous, directly to the Agricultural College where we were to spend four nights. We ate lunch just outside the college and then continued down to the famous West Lake. "In heaven above there is paradise, on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou" is an often quoted stanza from a poem by Yang Chaoying, active in the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). Well I have seen Suzhou, now it is time for Hangzhou. Hangzhou has as much history as Suzhou, it was the subject of many Tang Dynasty poems (from the seventh century AD), became a city of one million people in the eleventh century, and in the twelfth century became a"temporary residence" for the rulers of the Song Dynasty. We visited the most famous spots, the Bai Causeway, named after the poet Bai Juyi who became governor in 822 and had a dam built in the West Lake. explored the largest island in the lake, Solitary Hill (Gu Shan), drank tea in a tea-house, and returned home via the Su Causeway, also named after a poet who became governor, Su Dongpo, in the eleventh century. Dinner was at a newly opened restaurant opposite the college guests, they prepared special dishes to inaugurate the restaurant and were delighted to have foreign guests, it was especially auspicious. They served us ducks tongues, small molluscs, West Lake fish, black-boned chicken, and other dishes, and we drank beer, tea and liquor. Total price for a banquet was 230Y for eight people. We continued drinking till late, cognac, beer (the Hangzhou beer was very good) and spirits.
27 Sept	After breakfast we cycled directly to the YueFei mausoleum on the north-western shore of the lake, which celebrates General Yue Fei executed in 1142, and then continued to the Monastery of the Hidden Souls (Lingyin si) founded in 326 AD by the Indian Buddhist Hui Li, where there is the famous mountain, The Peak that Flew from Afar (Feilaifeng). The rock walls of this mountain are covered with about 300 sculptures and inscriptions, from the last thousand years. The fat-bellied Buddha is the most popular, often touched for luck. We concluded our visit here with lunch at the monks vegetarian restaurant. We cycled to the Silk Museum, not very interesting, and then home, Mr Li calculated our petty cash expenses for the past 11 days, for food, entrance fees, extra transport and so on, it was 430Y per person. I bought a new camera, a Chinese made Fujica camera, so I will have some pictures, even if there is a gap between Suzhou and Hangzhou.
28 Sept	Today we woke at 5.30 am for an early morning climb to Wushan, famous for dawn activities and we saw the usual taiqiquan, ballroom dancing, fencing, and caged birds. But most fascinating was the temple area filled with (mostly) old black-clad women busy making small yellow paper-bags which were later burnt at a celebration. Incense filled the air and people were gaily chattering and shouting and chanting. After breakfast we drove to Longjing (Dragon Well) village, the tea capital of China where everybody sold tea in quality and price from 10Y per kilo up to thousands of yuan per kilo. But unfortunately the tea museum was closed, because of a lack of electricity ! When we had eaten lunch, Mr Li left us at the Su Causeway and Raija, Maija and I spent a couple of hours biking northwards along the causeway, ending up at the Shangri La Hotel, where we luxuriated in coffee and ice-cream, and then biked through the rush-hour back to the Agricultural College. We dined excellently at our newly-opened resaturant for a pittance, and continued the evening with cognac and whisky, discussing politics with Raija and Irma.
29 Sept	A late start today and we spent the day in Central Hangzhou, touring the markets and commercial centre, without seeing any special sights. But the street life is always interesting, we had a last look at the West Lake and returning at dusk the alleys and lanes near the lake were filled with the magical smell and sound that is so Chinese.

China (15 September 1994 - 10 November 1994)