Lina in China

We decided to spend the weekend camping in a bamboo wood near Chongqing. But in order to camp in a bamboo wood we have to get to the bamboo wood of course.

Chongqing is built on many hills and the area around Chongqing is as well full of hills and mountains. So in order to get to the bamboo wood for camping we had to drive through Chinese country and mountain roads.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!

The Chinese traffic and the Chinese roads are safe – unless there is an accident. And there are many accidents. Still all over again my Chinese friends are telling me that the Chinese roads are safe (unless there is an accident – I add usually).

We are driving to in the mountains

We started by fighting the usual Chongqing rush hour that seems to last from 6 am to 10 pm… Driving in a Chinese city seems to be more dangerous than it really is as everyone is driving quite slowly. The cars are being driven by a chaotic system that still seems to work on Chinese Roads.

Basically no one obeys the rules but no one expects that the other obey the rules, either. Until today I did not find out why China has traffic signs and traffic lights at all since they seem to make no difference to anyone.

My Chinese host – being a lawyer – likes to keep to rules. But when he stops at a zebra crossing the pedestrians will give him a sceptic look. No one stops for pedestrians at a zebra crossing in China unless he fears he would kill one. My host is an exception.

Chongqing city road

From the Chongqing city roads we drove a short distance on the highway. Driving on Chinese highways is easy. There are usually neither pigs running free nor farmers drying rice nor many holes in the ground. Still you have to watch out for slow trucks overtaking even slower trucks and for road work – just like in Germany.

But when there is an accident on the highway it usually ends with death as the allowed speed is 120 km/h but many people are much faster and basically no one wears a seatbelt.

Chongqing Mountains

Also the Chinese toll system is very complicated. On the Chinese Highways there are many toll stations and they give you a piece of paper or a plastic card. After some driving in China you are swimming in cards, papers and receipts. When you are unable to show the right card to the right toll station in the right moment on Chinese highways and Chinese country roads you have to pay a lot of money. I could never figure out why we had to show witch paper at what moment to whom and why we sometimes paid nothing, sometimes 5 Yuan and sometimes 160 Yuan. Even my host had trouble at times finding the right papers or cards.

On the Chongqing Country road we saw the first accident on this trip. A truck and a Taxi were involved. We did not see corpses. The truck driver appeared to be fine, trying to collect his load of water. In the taxi there was much blood. Probably the taxi driver was insured and send to hospital. Police was standing around, no idea what they did.

Street repair of chinese mountain road

Then we started out on the mountain roads. We were often driving inches from deep valleys and in my mind I saw us falling oh so many times. In some areas there was a fence fixed. But that these fences are more for nice view then for actually preventing accidents I saw when we came across a Truck that had fallen about 5 meters right into a fish pond. The driver probally drowned unless someone had pulled him out on an instant.

Even on the tiniest Chinese mountain road dangerous as it people are overtaking, using the opposite traffic line at frightening speed. The road is sometimes used to dry rice. And if you drive on drying rice you are deemed as you can neither steer nor brake.

The street has many holes, unsecured road repair, pedestrians, bikes, self-build wagons, men in wheelchairs. We almost drove into a herd of pigs.

Chinese Mountain Traffic Jam

The further we got into the mountain the worse the Chinese mountain roads got. But the view was terrific.

One time we had to stay in one place for 10 minutes or more because a truck loading some charcoal was blocking the whole road causing a long traffic jam in this lonely area.

The Chinese take this with the same patience as everything else. If there is no way around we wait.

I had the opportunity going for a little walk. I watched Chinese charcoal workers and wondered what kind of life they must have. I saw some Chinese houses in this lonely mountain area. They had electricity and running water!

I watched some goose in a bamboo cage; some children were playing and the men were black from the charcoal dust.

I was told that we might have to leave the car and walk but luckily we were able to get past the trucks.

The road got even worse after the charcoal mine. We were jumping up and down in the car. Then finally we arrived on the parking of the bamboo wood. It felt like returning into civilization. Yet there was no other road so each nice rich-men’s car on this beautiful parking space must have come the way we were.

So in the morning we were leaving the nice small city of Mianyang (only 6 Million people ) for Chongqing. I must confess I had never heard the name of this city before only to find out now that it is the largest city in whole China and even the world!

I thought he was taking me to yet another nice small town near Chengdu. Well not quite… !

When my friend told me that we will be driving for 5-6 hours in order to get to Chongqing I started to wonder.

When I saw the first thing I saw of Chongqing was the traffic. Chongqing is unbelievable chaotic. If the traffic in other Chinese scared me, the traffic in Chongqing terrified me.

Then the Skyscrapers came into my view. Chongqing is unbelievable gigantic and chaotic. It is (at least in summer) hot, humid, loud and chaotic.

My friend took me immediately to some Chinese party in some Chinese hot pot restaurant in the middle of Chongqing. It all just got too much for me. 100 strangers were introducing themselves murmuring names that I would forget the same instant.

All faces looked the same, everyone was a lawyer (must have been a lawyers party) and the Chongqing food did not look very tasty to put it nice.

Indian Food in Chongqing, Foreigener Street

Luckily the Chinese tend to be very good and caring hosts. He saw that I was totally overwhelmed by the city, by meeting 15 loud, celebrating Chinese lawyers around one pot (Chongqing hot pot, “Huguo”).

So we sneaked out and my Chongqingnese friend took me to the foreigner street. This street is a mixture of foreign restaurants and a fair with carousel and such on one of Chongqing’s many hills.

We had some very delicious Indian food: Bananas wrapped in special bread. The Indian Cook was so happy that I greeted him with “Namaste” and spoke English to him, that he gave me my portion for free.

European Coffee, finally!

Then we went to the Café de Paris and had some excellent French Coffee. We were sitting on the a second floor balcony with a beautiful view on Chongqing by night. The coffee in Chongqing’s foreigner street tasted just like at home. And the Chinese girl working in the Café de Paris at Foreigner Street in Chongqing even spoke some French! Unfortunately her French boss was not home.

So Chongqing greeted me with some foreign specialities that I had been longing for for a long time.

This morning I was to be taken at 8 am to a city called Zitong. I did not really understand what it was about all I understood is that my friends in Mianyang have to work during the day. So as it is I just followed someone with broken English because the friend of a friend had said in broken English that I should do that.

By German standards it was a long drive to Zitong, Sichuan. We where driving for maybe 1 ½ hours through Sichuan. Due to the earthquacke parts of the street are still destroyed. Whenever the driver crosses these it can really give you a startle.

I did not sleep much since the Karaoke in Mianyang the night before had taken us so long. So I kept falling asleep, and was awakened by cracks in the road and sudden stops.

After we arrived in Zitong I got the feeling that we are hurrying somewhere. Just I did not find out where. We ate a hurried noodle soup and I finally achieved to get some hot water for my morning coffee. Then we hurried on.

Suddenly the 3 men I was travelling with brought me to a preschool / kindergarten that had been partly destroyed by the earthquake in Sichuan and was rebuilt.

They brought me in the office and communicated that we would play some with the children and take pictures. None of the employees of the Chinese kindergarten, not even the director of this preschool had ever seen a foreigner. So the excitement about my visit was great.

Playing with the Sichuan children

I was lead on the court for playing and singing and picture taking on the kindergarten courtyard. I soon got the impression that this is probably one of the best preschools in Sichuan. It was clean, colourful, the classes not to great and everything done and planed with a heart. Even they toilets were very clean for Sichuan standards where even luxury restaurants usually have unbelievable dirty toilets.

I was given a wolf mask and should catch children and there teachers. I was asked to sing an English song (I believe none in this Chinese kindergarten understood that I am no native English speaker). Happily I knew “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands!” And this was very good since the clapping, stamping of feeds, shouting and so on the children could take place in.

The school even had an English teacher even though her own English was hardly sufficient for communication.

Then I was brought to a preschool class of children about 6 years old I guess. I was asked to play a game with them and was really at loss as I had not expected such a thing. So I tried to play “Montagsmaler” the Chinese kindergarten children. In this game the Chinese children should guess what I am drawing. Then they asked me to teach “some English sentences to the children” I tried: “The dog is on the house” which proved to be too hard.

Sichuan Preschool Class

Then came the picture taking. They tried to place crying children in my arms and I did not know how to hold them. Chinese preschool children are carried in front of the breast one hand under head or shoulder the other under the legs and never on the hip like German children. Trying to carry a Chinese child in the German way does scare them as they do not know it.

After this class I was sweating and tired and it was opened to me that 5 more classes were to come…

So they decided to make it shorter. In the second class I taught some English words and pictures were taken, in classes 3 and 4 just a general greeting and picture taking, classes 5 was just greeted, in class 6 I volunteered to sing the “If you’re happy” song once more. Then came class 7…

Rebuilded Sichuan Preschool

After we were done they lead me back to the kindergarten office and offered me some bottled green tea. So I took my chance trying to communicate weather I may see the school. They showed me the dining room and the kitchen, a sleeping room and the dance room. Of course they selected to show me the best. But I also peeked through some windows and in the whole school the hygiene standard was high enough that I would have sent my child to this school with no worries.

All was prepared with love. They showed me one sleeping room (Seems like they are also a boarding school. I asked if the children have parents, they said: “of course” so it is no foster home). Children where sleeping on two stories in the room. There was something build like a giant two stories bed for the Chinese preschool children of the boarding school. Everything was need and tidy, the same for every child though. The children sleeping upstairs had a slide to leave the bed in the morning. They had paper stars and moon hanging from the ceiling and everything smelled like fresh wood.

Lunch in the Preschool

The dancing room had a projector, every class room a computer (I don’t know if they have internet) and a TV. Most rooms had air conditioning. All together a very need school.

Back on the school yard there was some more greeting and some more singing. In almost all classes except with the little ones the children where able to say “good morning teacher”, “hello”, “thank you”, “we love you” and “good bye” so I guess these Sichuan children are prepared for the international world or at least for a good school.

After walking around some in the city we returned to the Chinese kindergarten once more in order to have lunch there. The food was good, clean, and diverse.

Introducing young Chinese to „spin-the-bottle“

The Chinese play a very complicated dice game: Each person has 5 dices, there is some lying about what you have and in the end the winner gets to ask the looser a question. As I did not get the game I suggested to play spin-the-bottle”. In spin-the-bottle you spin a bottle and the one it points on is either asked a question or must do something.

Young Chinese are drinking a lot of beer but concerning everything around men and women they are pretty shy. They found the game very interesting. We asked things like “when did you get your first kiss”, “about witch girl in the room you have fantasies” and let the looser act like a monkey, let the guys wear lipstick and first hand kisses where exchanged, then kisses on the cheek and the highest was that I (female) had to kiss another girl on the corner of the mouth. I hit back by letting the guy who had given me that core by letting him kiss another guy.

Crossing a Street during Rush-Hour in China

Crossing a street as a pedestrian in China is not easy for a German. We Germans are pretty used to everything being in order. In Germany cars stop at red traffic-lights and a green walking light means that you really have the first right to go. Not so in China’s Traffic. That you as a pedestrian have a green traffic-light in China does not mean much.

Zebra crossings seem to have no meaning at all. Neither at a zebra crossing nor at a green pedestrian light a car will stop to let you pass.

The traffic police standing with a flag and a whistle at every important crossing in Beijing whistles and shakes its flag – I could detect no influence a present traffic policeman had on the traffic in China.

When you are in the middle of the street and a car is coming you can either boldly jump in front of that car with a stopping hand movement or you decide to stay where you are. In the later case you will be caught in the middle of a Chinese street with cars coming from all sides. This is not a nice feeling.

When I finally thought I got the hang of crossing streets today this situation happened that proved me once more that I as a German women am simply not prepared for Beijing’s Traffic:

I wanted to cross the street standing behind a parking car. Looking for traffics coming from whatever direction I did not watch for the parking car and he just drove backwards and bumped into me.

I slapped on the car real hart so he knows I am there. I was not hurt but in total shock standing on the street crying. And he just drove away. This behaviour I have been told about and could never believe. But it seems to be common in China. You are trying not to get noticed for any price. And no one wants to be the one who hit an Olympic Visitor with his car of course.

I was in complete shock and just sad down at the edge of the street crying and crying. After only a few minutes or so a very nice Chinese man with surprisingly good English came towards me and asked me what the matter was.

First thing was of course he wanted to call an ambulance. But I refused. Then he wanted to bring me to a coffee. I had just been on my way to a bank. And it was short before 6pm. So he led me to a bank in order to have me my money exchanged.

Then – I was still in shock – he brought me to a coffee and bought me a drink. We had some most interesting conversations.

And even though the moon festival had not begun yet he let me try the first mooncake of my life.

Then he brought me to a nice restaurant, helped me order something and had a quick drink. While I was eating he ran to the pharmacy for me where I had tried to buy medicine for my inflamed toe without success.

I feared that he would also want to pay for my food (it is very hard to obtain the right to pay the bill in china) I paid while he was gone. Earlier we had discussed about that Europeans are in China often allowed to go against certain rules. For example because the Chinese fear the language problems etc.

So I told him, “I can just leave the restaurant without paying” and walked away. Of course he tried to go and pay then and we had a big laugh when the food was already paid for by me.

He did not leave me until he was sure I knew the way home. As merciless and uncaring Chinese can sometimes seem in certain situations like the traffic or rushing to get a taxi as nice they are when you meet a Chinese face to face.

Going in the disco is also very interesting in China. Being European you are almost like a star. I was invited by several people to their table just to cheer them with my glass once.

Also many people, especially girls, were dancing with me. Other then that disco is very much the same like in germany.

The bear costs 35 Yuan (3.50 €) and is very expensive for Chinese average people. Just as in Germany there are VIP tables Sponsored by a rich person for his friends. These often drink a mixture of Icetea, Ice cubes and some alcohol whose name I don’t remember. On each VIP table in my favourite Chinese disco there was a beautiful basket of watermelon, grapes and some other fruits.

I was invited to such a table by a total stranger who does not speak a word in English but found it cool to drink with an European. Drinking on such a table can be quite dangerous as you don’t really know how much alcohol the Ice tea contains and your glass is constantly refilled. So I just decided to drink no alcohol at all.

Another time I was invited to the table of 3 young Chinese men and 2 Chinese women. Suddenly at 3 am they decided they are hungry and to introduce me to some Chinese breakfast. Still inside the Beijing-Disco I did not realize how drunken they are or I would not have followed them.

Once in the taxi I realized how drunken they were. Oh how good that hardly anyone in China owns a car. When I arrived with the Chinese disco-kids in the restaurant one guy suddenly started to throw up while the others ordered. A service woman came, cleaned up the mess at an instant, gave him a plastic bag to puke in next time and smiled friendly when he ordered more beer.

So the young men drank more beer, and through up again: Once more on the floor. The service woman came, cleaned up the floor, gave him a plastic bag, friendly suggested he should use it, kept smiling and served more beer. I suggested he use the plastic bag next time and tried to coax him to drink tea and eat something. He kept to my advise for about 5 minutes then returned to the beer.

All the while I was coaxed by the others, also very drunken, to try some Chinese specialities. I just could not. So I murmured something about an appointment (at 4 am!). Drunken as They where the Chinese hospitality never stops. They not only invited me for the food, they also lead me to a taxi and insisted on paying for the taxi.

The patience or service, or I don’t know how to call it of the Chinese service women in that restaurant really astonished me. I have watched similar situations since then. Weather you are drunken or your child that pees on the floor. A customer is a customer in China. And the patience of the service personnel is unbelievable.

When I returned from my morning trip in search for breakfast the Jet Lag caught me and I feel aslepp until waking up at 2 pm. By oversleeping I even missed my trip to the Forbidden City! In the afternoon I made my way back to the internet café. It is some kind of Chinese Starbug called rbt. They offer free internet access. My cappuccino in rbt costed more then 5 times what my morning meal had costed (25 Yuan = 2.50€). Even the cold green tea was still very expensive (15 Yuan = 1.50€) compared to what a normal meal costs you.

Even in rbt itself some of the food they offer is cheaper than a cup of coffee! A salad for 23 Yuan, Spaghetti Bolognaise for 28 Yuan… But the atmosphere is very nice, the music is a nice mix of western and Chinese hits and the internet access is as fast as at home.

The Teachino I did not try yet but cold sweetened jasmine tea can be recommended.

Getting back from rbt I tried to grab a cab. The first taxi just shook his head before I even told him where I am going. The second Beijing cab driver stoped, 3 cabs behind him honking. After he had a look of where I am going he shook his head and returned the card to me. I managed to stop one more Taxi in Beijing rush hour. But before I even could react 3 Chinese girls jumped in my cab.

Back to the hotel I got the next nice surprise: My card did not open the hotel door anymore. Some employee I complained to (Good thing about china: always an employee available or two or three…) said some things in Chinese to me I did not understand. Then she opened my door and ran away. Now I had the door open but in my hotel they have a funny system: When you are in the room you put the card in the slot and have electricity. No card no lights. So I was in the dark room preassured to take a shower and be ready for dinner. Just that I had no lights. Luckily the employee returned with my card. Turned out I was supposed to make another deposit for the next night. So they just turned my key of.

RBT 东单店
北京市东城区东单北大街69号
010-65277896