<A) Discovering the Mysterious and Exotic China

<A> DISCOVERING THE MYSTERIOUS AND EXOTIC CHINA

Brij Kapoor

China means many things to different persons; a 5000 years old culture, a Communist regime with people in Mao jackets and ill-fitting pajama dresses, hordes of cycle-riding people, the Land of Confucius and Zen, the Sleeping Dragon, and so on. But visiting China today dispels many such notions. You find a country that is still largely rural and poor, but pulsating with a newfound vigour. The city streets are full of people in a hurry. Clad in jeans and mod T-shirts, the young Chinese are tuned to jazzy gizmos and mobile phones. American food giants like McDonalds's, KFC, PizzaHut are chockablock with young families enjoying themselves. The excellent roads and expressways with modern cars whizzing past cause traffic jams like any other modern city. The economy is surging and the country has become the favoured manufacturing capital of the whole world. With its population at 1.28 billion, China today is altogether a different world.

A Tryst with Beijing
We landed in Beijing one afternoon as a group of tourists from India, with our jaded paradigms about China and the Chinese people. Our perceptions were soon altered when we saw the ultramodern Beijing airport, all steel, granite and glass. We were told that another airport three times the size of the present one is being built ahead of the Olympics in 2008. The first signboard that we saw on exiting the airport was a Starbucks Café! The people were very friendly and the efficiency of systems strikingly good. The staff was very caring; one usher of the airport bus made a young man get up to give his seat to a senior citizen.

Enroute to the hotel, we saw an ultra modern city. With the Olympics in mind, many old buildings have been demolished and replaced by brand new modern blocks and skyscrapers. Big or bigger is the keyword. And speed is the key. Beijing has an orderly design with long and straight roads and a network of lanes. There are five ring roads around the city; four of these are multi-lane freeways.

The tourist bus was very comfortable and the hotel most modern with excellent facilities. We found the tea/coffee makers in the rooms a great asset. But the joy was short-lived as they only provide Chinese tea sachets with out any milk or coffee materials. We also found it difficult to get soda for our whisky as the Chinese are mainly beer drinkers.

The images of Tiananmen Square's inglorious past of 1989 were easily erased when we saw the crowds flocking there; enjoying the sights, flying kites, and hordes of tourists getting their pictures clicked. This vast square with important majestic monuments around it; Mao's Mausoleum, People's Great Hall, and the Forbidden City, make it a special place to be savoured. The Forbidden City earlier closed to the public for 500 years, is now a great tourist attraction. It is a huge complex of 800 buildings and 9000 rooms, courtyards, pavilions, gardens, and halls. These are constantly being restored, each restoration cycle taking ten years.

Another exciting place to visit was the Summer Palace with its Kunming Lake, pavilions, gardens and hills. We found it teeming with tour groups from within China and from abroad. We were just one of the many such groups lapping up the beauty and the culture of this palace. The Long Corridor, over 700m long, with its paintings and scenes was particularly interesting.

Moving around in China, one has to be extra sharp to avoid being pickpocketed. As someone advised, you better chain your purse to your body. We found the food to be quite cheap and there was enough variety to satisfy all tastes, even the vegetarians that comprised 70% of our group. There is plenty to shop and it is cheap, though you have to bargain hard for it. They have a 'tourist price' for everything and if you can, you have to strike it down by as much as 50-70%. In this country where you can get fake watches, clothes or household goods, you may also get fake currency. We had been advised to be careful. We bought some sun caps form a wayside vendor on Tiananmen Square and got the change for our 100 Yuan note. Only later we discovered that instead of a 50 Yuan (275 rupees) note, we had been given a Thai 50 Baht (60 rupees) note by the smart vendor. Interestingly, tipping is not only expected but also mandatory for hotel staff, drivers, guides and the like.

To visit a 'Wonder of the World', The Great Wall of China, is an unforgettable experience. One knows the hard facts; built 2000 years ago by the Qin Dynasty, 1500 km long, classic and well-preserved example of defence with high ramparts, intact parapets and sturdy towers. But to step on it and walk along its 10 metre width is something of a unique experience. We visited it at Badaling outside Beijing, and many of us climbed 1000 steps to the crest of the hill at this point. It is difficult to imagine the construction of such a marvel so many years ago.

The Terracotta Warriors of Xian
We flew to Xian to see China's national treasure, nay the 'Eighth Wonder of the world', the Terracotta Warriors. Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province, was a non-descript village till 1974 when this underground Terracotta Army around the burial tomb of Emperor Qin was discovered. Emperor Qin believed in life after death and thus had a whole palace made underground near his tomb. The 8000 odd Terracotta Warriors, consisting of infantry soldiers, archers, and chariots, are the army guarding his palace. It is indeed an amazing sight. Tourists from all over the world make a beeline to this place to marvel at the now uncovered but beautifully restored site. Xian is now a bustling city with a modern airport, expressways and huge capacity hotels, greatly improving the economy and the quality of life of the people here.

We found every Local Guide with our group to be very well-informed and articulate in English language. What intrigued us was the fact that invariably they had Western sounding names like Christine, Nancy and the like. In addition to their Chinese names, they also have Western names, perhaps to make it easier for us foreigners.

The Natural beauty of Guilin
We had earlier not planned to visit Guilin. We realize now that doing so we would have missed seeing its stunning landscape, considered the area central to the tourism industry in China. The natural beauty, the peculiarly shaped hill formations, and the pleasing vegetation make it a lovely place indeed. A cruise down the Li river with dozens of other cruise boats full of tourists was exhilarating. A fascinating sight was the sudden appearance of vendors on our boatside, hawking very good souvenirs. Their method of getting alongside on a canoe and climbing on board was indeed very innovative. We would haggle furiously to clinch a deal and then suddenly the vendor would disappear, only to be replaced by another one. It seems they had their territories chalked out.

A historic treasure in Guilin is the Reed Flute Cave. The calcium deposits by way of stalactites and stalagmites inside the caves are stunning. Formed over a period of nine million years, the deposits, many shaped and called by fascinating names, are a sheer joy to behold. Preserved, maintained, and lighted very creatively, the cave is a natural marvel, which attracts people from all over the world. This was indeed a major highlight of our tour.
On to Modern Shanghai
Shanghai, like Hong Kong, has been well known to the rest of the world, due to the influence of the British, French, and Japanese. Shanghai today, with its tradition and sophistication is fully in sync with big developed cities. With its population of 13.4 million, it has all the trappings of development like the skyscrapers, malls, and fine infrastructure. It is particularly noticeable for business and finance. Shanghai port is the gateway to the mighty Yangzi River.

The area of Puxi (west of the Huangpu River) has always been the hub of the city. The Bund (named by the British from the Indian language), reminds you of Bombay's Marine Drive, and is the tourists' favourite. Viewed from here, the Shanghai skyline closely resembles that of Manhattan in New York. This area has many hotels, shopping streets and nightclubs. Closeby is Shanghai's main shopping street, Nanjing Lu, commonly known as Nanjing Road. Till five years ago, the Pudong area East of River Huangpu was empty and barren. Now it is a city by itself, a special economic zone of banks, skyscrapers and new residential complexes. Today it has 289 skyscrapers all occupied by MNCs and foreign companies.

The Shanghai metro is perhaps one of the finest in the world; fast, cheap and comfortable. We travelled in it and found no problem in moving about as the signposting at the stations and on the trains is extensive and in English as well as in Chinese. Shanghai also boasts of the fastest train, beating the Japanese Bullet; this is the Mag Lev (for Magnetic Levitation) Train. We travelled the 30 km distance from the airport to city centre in just 8 minutes, touching the highest speed of 431 km per hour. This was an exhilarating experience.

We returned home with very happy and multi-facetted memories of our visit to China.

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