DAAWGS!!!

Here are photos from the first half of our trip.

Now here are the photos for the second half of the trip. (updated URL)

The Chinese guides were the highlight of the trip.  Without their openness and access to ordinary Chinese folks our trip would have been very different.

The Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, food markets, dinners, and the Tibetan plateau were highlights for me.  As well as getting a personal exposure to the explosive change happening in China.  The population density, pollution and the attitude of the people have to be experienced to be appreciated.

Normally our vacations are focused on active trips in beautiful natural settings.  This trip had little activity and minimal natural beauty… so it shouldn’t be surprising that we found it a bit jarring.  But the exposure to Chinese culture and society was exceptional.  I have no desire to repeat this trip, but I’m also glad that I took it.  With China’s enormous presence on the world stage, I’m glad to have had a firsthand look at the country.

As has happened on our other foreign trips… I come away disgusted that the USA has not switched to the metric system.  No wonder our education system is in tatters and health care is falling like a stone… when we can’t muster the political will to endure the several years of pain needed to adjust to the superior weights and measures system used by the rest of the world.  (Note to Obama: missed a stimulus opportunity here to rework lots of signage.)  We’ll never have the guts to admit to serious problems in these other areas if we don’t step up to the metric system… maybe our long slow slide to irrelevance is already underway.

China, a country of contrasts & contradictions… tradition vs change; communist vs capitalist; first world power vs third world sanitation; etc.  Our Chinese guides were the highlight of the trip, being open about their private lives and sharing their connections with us which lead to many valuable insights and understandings.

The Communist Party leading a thoroughly capitalistic economy.  Statue of Mao & a replica of the Wall Street Bull less than 100 meters apart on the Shanghai river front walk.  The central government setting all kinds of rules, but many are just ignored.  Mao is certainly a beloved founder of the country, but people acknowledge the Cultural Revolution was a disaster.  People know the government limits information flow, but they feel that their lives are much improved and they are in no hurry for change in government.  I guess I was expecting a Soviet style iron fisted rule… that was most definitely not what we saw.  The central government is clearly running the show, but life on the street is free flowing and capitalistic.

Traffic was utter chaos with few people following the rules; however there was no road rage.  I see more road rage in a single outing in Portland than I saw in the whole month in China.  The people are very accepting of their lot in life… traffic, housing, work, government, etc.

Central government actively working to limit citizen mobility in the middle of the largest rural to urban migration in human history.  They are certainly not slowing the migration, but they are making life more expensive and complicated for migrants.

5,000 years of tradition grating against rapid change in society (higher education, mobility, western ideas).  The son must care for the parents, even if that means sharing a cramped Beijing apt already full with a wife & son.  Independent college educated young woman lives with her parents because that is their wish.

“May you have a son soon” … a common wedding toast because traditionally the eldest son takes care of the parents in old age.  This strong bias has resulted in a much higher birth rate for boys than girls (I can’t remember the stats but the gap was huge).  So girls, especially city girls, are in short supply with the predictable result that city girls control relationships now.

Tradition of family care for elderly vs “one child” policy.  What happens to parents of girls?  Huge question mark for people in their 50s now.  Urban migration and the rapidly shifting demographics as a result of the one child policy will be a huge test for the country over the next few decades.  But at least they’ve taken action to check their population growth, necessary to have a chance at serious reduction in poverty rates.

Government has decreed one time zone for the entire country, when there should really be 3 or 4 time zones.  This works because all the major cities are on China’s east coast and the farmers and Yak herders in the west don’t really care about clock time.  But I was struck by this central government dictate that is so out of sync with reality… trying to control something that is outside their control.

Presentation is everything in cooking… ranking far above taste in importance; fashion seemed important, even guys had very stylish haircuts; while cities remain drab and shabby (even building interiors don’t seem to get any attention).  The Chinese just don’t seem to feel it’s worth the money to make buildings look nice.

Beautiful freeways full of late model cars, but water and sanitation are 3^rd world.

Low cancer rates but chain smokers are everywhere.

Today’s 20 somethings worked their tails off in school from a very young age because education was the best route to a better life.  Now they are saving half their paychecks to save for an apartment or start a family.  But they are all worried about “spoiled brats” or “little emperors” being created by one child policy and newly rich parents.  Will the famous ambition and work ethic of the Chinese shrink over the next 20 years?

Manual labor everywhere with looming labor shortage on the horizon.  Farming, markets, business all seems to be dominated by the single person entrepreneur with minimal tools.  Given the growing size of the elderly population and the shrinking size of the working age population… something has to give.  We saw no indication of any effort to improve labor efficiency.

Mobile phones: virtually universal coverage, even in the most remote areas; but minimal 3G coverage so very few smart phones.

Today is another beautiful sunny day in Shanghai.  Today we are breaking off from the group and doing a private tour on “Jews of Shanghai”.  This tour starts just a few blocks from our hotel, so we walk over at 9:30.  There are about 12 people in the group.  The tour is really about the knowledge in the tour guide’s head, not the places he takes you to.

We start just sitting on a bench in the bund park.  He breaks the Shanghai story into stages.  First are the opium wars in the 1840s which open Shanghai to the western world and that brought the Bagdad Jews.  Then in the 1920s the pogroms in Russia led to an influx of Russian Jews.  Then in 1937-9 there was an influx of Jews escaping Nazi Germany.  Finally the communist revolution in 1949, which forced all foreigners out.

The opium wars were about balance of trade.  China for years had been supplying the western world with silk, spices, tea, etc; but the Chinese did not buy things from the west and that was a problem for England.  England decided they could sell opium grown in India to the Chinese to fix this problem.  Eventually the Chinese emperor realized this was a bad thing for the Chinese people and tried to stop it, causing the opium wars, which the British won.

The Jews from Bagdad actually came to china from India.  They had been high officials in Iraq, but then left when there was a regime change moving on to India which was a flourishing British colony.  They became great traders using their middle east contacts, so when the brits opened up Shanghai, these folks were perfectly positioned for success in China.  Several families saw the future in china and came, their primary business being selling opium.  Then they branched out into real estate and other trading businesses and as they grew they brought in other people from their network of contacts, often Jews with links back to Bagdad.  This group became leading citizens in the international settlement of Shanghai.

In the 1920s a very different group of Jews arrived from Russia.  These people were fleeing persecution and they had been local shop keepers, etc in Russia and they arrived in china penniless.  They joined poor Chinese peasants in a poor section of town and then as they gained some wealth, they tended to move into the French concession.  When the Jews fleeing the Nazis arrived they were also arriving penniless, but usually came from professional jobs.  Shanghai was about their only option because the complex multinational presence in Shanghai meant that no paperwork was needed to enter the country, while other countries refused to grant visas to the refuges.  These immigrants filled the neighborhoods as the Russians moved out.  At this point china was occupied by Japan which had decimated china.  The Japanese viewed the Chinese as the enemy, not the Europeans in shanghai.  But as the connection with Germany became stronger, they put pressure on Japan to come down on the Jews.  In the end the Japanese required the recent arrivals, but not the longer term Jewish residents, to live in a specific area of town.  It wasn’t physically isolated, but there were checkpoints to move in and out.  Support from the Bagdad Jews helped support these poor immigrants because the restrictions made it tough to earn money.

We spent time in the neighborhood where this Jewish ghetto existed.  Some of the area has been redeveloped, but some is just as it was.  An old synagogue has been converted into a museum and we also went into a very small apt that used to be one of the apts lived in by the Jews.  This apt is now housing Chinese families.  The apt is shared by three families, but they each have their own electric and water meters and so they share space, but not stoves, faucets, etc.

We finished the tour around 2:30pm, found some lunch on the bund and then returned to our hotel.

Dinner tonight was terrible.  A vegetarian “health food” place that won’t use ginger, garlic, and a host of other things. They don’t serve caffeine or alcohol.  But they fried everything, so that didn’t seem so healthy.  Jiji went out and purchased sodas for us when the corn tea also tasted terrible.

After returning to the hotel we walked along the Bund… All the buildings are lit on both sides of the river, it was quite spectacular.  Also the river cruise ships are going up and down the river with all kinds of neon lights, which added to the light show.  The bund was packed with people on a Friday night.  A number of wedding photo shoots going on (Chinese take the wedding photos far in advance of the wedding; it’s almost like getting engaged).  Then we went up to the terrace bar on the roof of the hotel which also provided an amazing view of the river and the city’s skyline.

We spend a day flying from Shangri La to Shanghai… What a change, a big and very modern, western city.  Much different from Beijing.  The apts here look nicer, newer, still not as much flash as the commercial buildings.  Every patio has an illegal satellite TV dish hanging out the side.  Traffic also seems more sane… But lots of congestion and many fancy cars on the drive in from the airport.  In Shanghai they limit the number of new license plates sold each month (to try and control traffic congestion) and they are auctioned off, last month a plate cost $10,000 US.  City population is 22 million, a bit bigger than Beijing in about one third the space.

One day ago we had lunch cooked in a Tibetan home over an open fire with animals below us and smoked meat hanging from the rafters.  Today I’m standing on the skywalk in the 3^rd tallest building in the world (taller than any building in the USA) looking out over a sea of innovative steel and glass skyscrapers mostly built in the last 10 years.  I think that is symbolic of the rapid change China is undergoing… hard to imagine what would be going through a farmer’s head the first day after he migrated to the city for work.  The river through town was full of a constant stream of barges carrying construction materials.

We toured the YU garden (Yu means obey your parents), 600 years old.  This was originally a private residence and garden, beautiful and similar to Portland’s Chinese garden.  We walked along the Bund, a beautiful river front walk.  Funny to see a replica of the “Wall Street Bull” less than 100 meters away from a statue of Mao.  We went into an old bank building that had a beautiful mosaic tile dome as well as 4 large columns, each from a single block of marble.  This all survived the cultural revolution because it was painted over and became a government building with a large red star in the dome.  The buildings are all from early 1920s, built by colonial powers and look very western.

Beautiful sunny day with nice temps.  City seems less polluted than Beijing, but still hazy skies.  Seems to have lots more parks, trees, etc.  it may benefit by being further south and better climate.  All clothes hang outside windows even from nicer buildings, some on poles that stuck far out from the side, we saw clothes on hangers from power lines.  This city could definitely be in USA, where as Beijing isn’t even close.

This evening we went to a Chinese acrobatic show, ERA, that was simply amazing.  Very fun.

On the drive to Shangri La we make a couple stops along the Yangzi River.  One stop is at Tiger Leaping gorge, where the river narrows to 30 meters and the water flow averages 18,000 cfs… after many deaths, they no longer allow rafting in this section.  As we reach the Tibetan plateau at over 11,000 ft elevation it becomes a different world.  Totally different house style; two story rammed earth buildings, beautifully painted.  Animals live on first floor, people upstairs.  We are on a high arid plateau, with the snow covered Himalayas in the distance.

We visit a Buddhist shrine (called a “stewpa”) up on a hilltop and then help spin the world’s largest prayer wheel… Karen’s covering her bases since she didn’t observe Passover this year .  Prayer flags are used to spread prayers on the wind while the individual is too busy to pray.  You must go around religious sites in a clockwise direction; no photos, hats or sunglasses allowed in shrines.  It is getting cold fast as evening approaches.

Walking around the village lanes on cobble stones worn smooth by centuries of use…  Feels much less busy and touristy than most other places we’ve been.  Not many white people, but lots of store signs include English.  Chinese dining furniture is not made with comfort in mind.  Most Chinese eat from a single bowl sitting on a small stool.  Restaurants often have tables at a near coffee table level (where your legs can’t go under the table) and the chairs are far too deep for the back to provide any support.  Given my limited chop stick skills; this furniture arrangement leads to some sloppy moments getting food from my plate to my mouth.

Beautiful view out our window the next morning looking at the monastery and the snow covered Himalayas Mountains in the distance.   It is cold this morning; Karen even saw a few snowflakes going to breakfast.

We spend the morning at the monastery.  700 monks live here, the whole place looks like a walled town, with small houses where the monks live, a school for training younger monks and then eleven temples where most of the worship happens.  We see some teenage monks horsing around like any kid.  We even saw one playing basketball with town kids, fun watching him play in his robe.

Because the road up to the hotel is blocked by a van, we walk to the monastery and go in a much less used entrance.  The whole experience was very special, learning about Buddhist traditions and how Tibetan Buddhists are different.  For instances they can eat meat because life is tough up on the plateau and veggies are scarce.  Our local guide knew one of the monks and so we even got a private audience with him.  There is an amazing universality in the general practices and beliefs… But interesting twists on the common themes, always something new to learn.

For lunch we eat at a family home in the village.   All the food came from the family’s own land except they went to the market to get a little more yak for our large group.  They raise the veggies in a greenhouse in their backyard.  Animals are on the first level, people live on the second level, and the attic space is used as storage space.  Hanging from the rafters of the porch are many pieces of smoked meat.  The main living space has a large open wood fire that they use for cooking and heat, the smoke doesn’t have a formal chimney but general open shape that channels the smoke up and then out the loose shingles above.  Still we all smell like campfire when we are done.  Having an open fire in a basically wood building requires care.  We eat around a very low table with small chairs and couches.  They had a stereo system, a TV, minimal electric lights, and an electric space heater.  Several small bedrooms.  In the winter they all sleep around the stove.   The house also has a room for a family shrine, which is the case in every Buddhist home I guess.  Four generations live in the house: grandma, 80; son, 50; granddaughter and husband and their two teenage kids… 6 people total.

Next we drive to  Lijiang, a town of 200,000 at an elevation of 8,000 ft where we’ll spend the next 3 days.  On the way we stop in the small village of Shaxi.  It is market day and full of people from the surrounding areas.  We are the only white people around.  Nobody is trying to sell us anything because it is a market for locals, not tourists.  Very interesting to see everything that is being sold and to see people buying and selling, and just getting together for conversation.

We have lunch in a dive restaurant that is terrific, one of the top meals on the trip so far.  We cross a pedestrian bridge that is 650 years old.  We spend two fun hours just walking around.  Amazing sights, sounds, and smells.  Also learning more about how the cultural revolution really destroyed many of the towns in this area by shutting down all private businesses because these were trading towns doing business with Arabs and people in SE Asia.  Sounds like the peasants had been badly treated, but the draconian response really hurt trade.

We tour the Lijiang food market – another trip high point.  This is a huge, comprehensive market that is open every day and includes an amazing meat section; live animals, including dogs, which will be killed and butchered for you on the spot.  We saw the whole process of preparing pig’s feet… You first buy the pig leg, then take it to some guys with blow tourches that burn off all the hair, then a third guy chops the leg into cubes so the meat is ready for use in making a stew.  Each of these people is a standalone vendor.  Other vendors would grind up meat for you or convert fat into jelly.  Salad bar vendors were there for both veggie and meat salads.  Seafood was all live and swimming when purchased, then they whack the fish on the head to kill it and then will filet it if you want.  You certainly know where your food comes from when you shop this way… I might eat less meat if I had to see this every week.

In another small village we look at a 650 year old mural commissioned by an enlighten leader to quell fighting.  Because this was a trading area there were many conflicts because of the diverse religions and cultures.   The ruler’s solution was to bring in artists from all the different regions and commission murals that celebrated the diversity of each area and made everyone feel welcome by having each region’s customs clearly represented in the mural… This approach worked and the area was free of strife for many years.  We stop by an embroidery school… they produce exquisite fine art quality work; I’ve never seen anything like it.

Then we drove out to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, an impressive 18,000 ft peak.  You can’t hike in this park anymore because of butterfly smugglers.   We take a shuttle bus to the gondola base, and then ride the gondola cars up to a viewing platform; Chris, Karen, and I walk up another 250 meters… We’re over 15,000 feet… New high point for Karen; we’re definitely feeling the altitude.

DIY trucks are everywhere.  They seem to start with the front end & motor from a tractor and then add a cab & hauling space (even with dump capability).  The one or two cylinder engines are grossly underpowered and the trucks slowly creep up hills.  The motors are totally exposed, just like old style tractors.  I doubt these things are street legal, but they were everywhere in this rural province.  The putt-putt of the big one cylinder engines reminded me of tractors on my grandfather’s farm.  I love the “just get it done” attitude these DIY trucks represent… though I’m not sure its any more efficient than Mao’s disastrous effort to turn every house into a steel mill.

We spend almost a week in this province in Southwest China.  This is a glimpse of the China of 20 years ago.  A largely rural expanse that has yet to be hit by the frenzied growth occurring along the east coast of China.

Our Yunnan adventure starts in Dali.  Dali seems to be a nice town of 400,000.  It has some very new buildings as well as the old stuff.  Still largely a farming community.  Elevation is around 6,000 feet.  Our local guide’s name is Huan.  (No English name for him.)  We have a couple great meals here and these local restaurants have a new twist… no menu.    They just spread all their veggies out at the entrance to the restaurant and the meats in a visible cooler, then you just look things over and tell them what you would like… I’m glad we have some local folks to select these places as well as choosing the selections we will be eating.  It seems like every meal is different even though there are only so many veggies to choose from.

Then we check out a couple of small minority villages with bai people.  These people have much more attractive houses.  All four exterior walls are white washed and then have nice decorations painted on them.  The corners have very realistic bricks painted, then there will be natural life murals painted about 2/3 of the way up the side, not huge in size but visible from 100′ away.  And often some flowery decorations near each corner of the wall.  The work is done by farmers that are good at painting during their down time; apparently no one does this as a full time occupation.

Lots of farming going on in what looks like a very fertile broad valley.  They get in three crop cyles a year.  I don’t get a good answer when I ask why the farmers don’t move to a larger scale and more mechanization.  Everything here, not just farming, seems to be done at a very small scale, individuals each doing everything for themselves.  We go into a home where some ladies are making batik fabrics… Very interesting process.  We have fun strolling “Old Dali” after dinner… narrow shop lined streets full of people, minimal vehicle traffic.  Lots of people, but still very comfortable.

Also we see our first Chinese traffic accidents… Two of them a few blocks apart and both involving buses.

I’m as dumb as they come when talking about language acquisition.  So here is how I got by for a month in China… that is besides standing back and letting our Chinese guide take care of everything

“Knee How”:  hello.  Universal greeting upon meeting a person.

“Shi(t) Shi(t)”: Thank you.

“Boo Shi(t)”: No Thank you.

“Boo Yaw”: No I don’t want what you are selling (to street vendor).

“Coke, Sprite, Beer”:  Universal, no translation needed.  Beer served in large, Australian sized bottles.  Coke Zero sometimes available in restaurants serving western guests.

For anything else, smile & pantomime.

Spoken Chinese dialectics are tonal and very difficult for westerners to pick up.  Our Chinese guide said an entire sentence using only the sound “ma” but each time with different tones and inflections making it a different word in each case.  Our American guide had spent a lot of time in China, but most times he tried to speak Chinese, the person he was talking to either left laughing or confused.

We stay one night in this capital of Yunnan province in SW China because of airline schedules.

On the drive into town, this city seems unlike any other city we’ve been in, almost European.  The buildings look attractive from the outside, and not just the brand new ones.  There are still some shabby apt buildings, but nothing like the other cities.  Kunming has a population of around 7 million.  Flowers are a major export, so maybe they have a little more artistic flair.

Good dinner as usual.  Then a 10 min drive to our hotel which is beautiful.  After checking in Don and Jan join us to tour green lake park across from our hotel… a beautiful spot in the middle of the city.  It is a clear, warm night with stars visible.  Lots of people out walking with islands in the middle of the lake being the primary destination.  There are several groups doing line dances in the park.  Karen and Jan join in, quickly picking up the steps of what we learn are Tibetan folk dances.  This is a great coming together of community as well as some good exercise.  These community gatherings for Tai Chi or dancing in the early morning and evening seem to be a standard component of Chinese life.  Apparently there isn’t much for tourists to see in Kunming, but it seems like a great place to live.

We return to the hotel and learn that Peter had left his wallet in his checked bag and apparently it was stolen, so now they are canceling credit cards.  Also learn that our guides felt the airline agent was cheating on the baggage weight at check in… maybe the agent just got his money via another route.

Turns out Chris has boxes of granola bars shipped to meet us at various hotels because the USA brands are only available in Beijing… that explains his endless supply while we are running around the country side.  They really go the extra mile to keep us guests happy!