Slow Boat to China

O.K. Some months ago, our friends Abe and Roz asked us if we wanted to join them on a nine-day tour of China. We signed up on the tour - run by Club ABC Tours - and became the third couple in our little group. The others were Abe and Roz and their friends Alex and Monica. Time to blog about the trip.

The first thing is that it's a 13-hour flight to Beijing China. We flew Air China which still uses Boeing 747's (haven't been on one of those in a while!). Now, if you've been, say, to Hawaii, you know that that's about a 10-hour flight. So how come China's only 13? They fly the shortest route possible - straight north over the Pole. It turns out that Beijing is at about the same latitude as New York and almost directly on the opposite side of the earth. So the quickest way to get there... (And I thought that Fairbanks Alaska was the furthest north I was ever going to get...)

Nevertheless, it was still about three hours longer than I ever want to be on a plane.

We left around 5 P.M. on a Monday and got to Beijing at 6 P.M. on Tuesday, their time. The time difference is exactly 12 hours so at least we didn't have to reset our analog watches. Oh well.

I will say that Club ABC did a decent job of running the tour. Their guide, Mr. Chen, met us at the airport as we cleared customs, led us to a nice modern tour bus, and saw to our luggage and hotel check-in. The tour group consisted of about 30 people, all Americans. Over the next few days we were happy to find that on the whole, our fellow tourists were fairly nice and easygoing people. This is always a plus. In an interesting reminder of China's non-democratic status, on our way to our hotel, our tour guide very politely requested that we not discuss or ask questions about political matters on the tour. Of course he was referring to the unrest currently ongoing in Tibet and the connection to the upcoming Beijing Olympics. The 2008 Olympics are really huge in Beijing - they are practically rebuilding the city for them.

Well, totally exhausted since we had had no sleep for some 24 hours, we arrived at our hotel. It was called the "Capital Hotel" and, like the other two hotels we were to stay at on our tour, it has a 5-star rating. The only problem we found was that the beds were extremely hard. Unfortunately, this is the custom in China. Chinese people prefer very hard beds, so the best hotels have hard mattresses. Otherwise, the place was great.

The Capital Hotel, Beijing

After a quick bite to eat, we collapsed onto our hard bed and passed out til' morning.

The tour included a free buffet breakfast every morning. So the next morning, before boarding our tour bus for the day's adventures, we charged downstairs to stuff our faces. The breakfast spread in the Capital Hotel (and indeed in the other two hotels they put us up in) was excellent. It included among a vast array of things, the makings of a reasonably decent American-style breakfast and always some fresh fruit. It was interesting looking at the Chinese breakfast selections - apparently the Chinese people eat soup for breakfast. After being sufficiently fortified with food and caffeine, we boarded our bus and off we went.

The first stop was Tianimen Square of fame and infamy. They walked us along the edge of the square and pointed out various sights to us. The public was not allowed to actually walk in the square, ostensibly because there was a Communist Party congress going on at the time, but I rather suspect it had more to do with government paranoia about the Tibet situation.

The Great Hall of the People in Tianimen Square - where the Party congresses are held

A little further along the same sidewalk from the view above, we came to an electronic countdown sign to the 2008 Olympics:

Olympic Countdown Clock

The 2008 Olympics are the biggest thing to hit Beijing since Ghengis Khan. They are literally rebuilding the city, including major skyscrapers and other projects. People are being moved out of surrounding villages to make way for Olympic construction work. Although, in fairness, the government's not just dumping people on the street - they're being given apartments and reimbursement. We were shown two massive constructs for the Olympic venues: a stadium nicknamed "the bird's nest" for its innovative design and a huge aquatic swimming pool building for the water sport competitions.

The "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium - the picture was taken through the bus window causing the streakiness in the fore ground. However, note the general haziness in the distance. Beijing has a serious air pollution problem.

The Olympic water sports venue - note the exterior is painted to look like water

Apparently, the Chinese government is counting on the 2008 Summer Olympics to signal to the world that they "have arrived" as a serious and civilized member of the world community. Needless to say, anything which could tarnish this impression makes them very paranoid. Thus the concern over image issues with the Tibet crisis.

Personally, I think they have an issue closer to home which will not make them look very appealing to their Olympic visitors. China, and especially Beijing, has a severe air pollution problem. Our tour guide (being beholden to the government for his job - I don't blame him) gave us a song and dance about the haziness being due to "all the construction for the Olympics". The truth is more problematic. China has very little oil but lots of coal - so their basic industry runs on coal (they even still use steam railway locomotives in some areas). Homes are heated with coal. In addition, the number of automobiles and trucks in China has grown massively and added a mix of hydrocarbons to the coal smoke. Finally, in a peculiarity of Beijing, just over the mountains to the northwest (maybe 200 miles or less) lies the constantly encroaching Gobi desert. So, on top of everything else, Beijing is subject to sandstorms.

Now, I'm not an athlete, but if, after three days in the city, the air quality was beginning to bother me, what will it do to somebody, say, running a marathon?

The Chinese government are supposedly working like crazy to improve the air quality for the games, but I have my doubts.

Next: The Forbidden City and the Summer Palace