Our Sign Off

In the course of our short stay in China we encountered various curiosities, customs and attitudes to life that intrigued us. This blog sets out a few random observations, which may interest you. Of course you may find them superficial, dull, irrelevant or self indulgent but we will never know!

1. There appear to be absolutely no OH&S standards. We saw workers on roofs with no scaffolding or harnessing and rarely wearing a safety helmet

2. The 6th annual rose festival has been on while we were in Beijing

3. The Chinese army numbers 2.3 million

4. There are no seat belts in the buses

5. No one wears a helmet on a scooter or a motor bike or when pedalling any other curious transportation device

6. Pedestrians have to give way to cars even on a green man light and at a pedestrian crossing

7. The Chinese do not like the Japanese and no longer eat sushi or buy Japanese made cars

8. Symbols for the female (we can do anything) goddess gender include: Ying, black and the Phoenix. At the moment Chinese parents prefer to have girls rather than boys and there are currently 40 million more men than available wives. This is a problem if you are a boy as the issue of what you bring to the table to make you competitive is onerous. Girls can now afford to be choosy and expect a car, a credit card, cash and an apartment. Sadly the parents of the boy are expected to not only pay off their own apartment over 30 years but also to buy the car and first apartment for their son so they can get a wife and if in that bun fight he manages to find one, the boy's parents then have to pay for the wedding. Increasingly this gender based competition starts at pre-school with 4 year old boys engaging in numerous extra curricular activities so they can get ahead and have the best opportunities in school and at university and then in the employment market and ultimately in the spouse market. Must make for interesting speed dating conversations....

9. Wifi would have been helpful in Beijing airport. But fortunately Kylie found it was available at the entrances to major tourist attractions

10. Due to their history of pervasive famines the Chinese eat every part of every form of protein: the only exceptions appear to be the heads of venomous snakes, pandas and their own pet dogs. Incidentally we saw no cockroaches........

11. The air pollution in Shanghai is frequently worse than in Beijing. Pollution is worse in winter as historically the Chinese have burnt coal to stay warm and are still transitioning to electric heating. There is currently a blitz on environmental compliance and recently several foreign owned polluting businesses have had their manufacturing licences cancelled and been forced to close. The Chinese owned and run polluting factories around Beijing are still operating as they provide important employment

12. We saw no litter anywhere. We saw no fallen leaves and all gardens are immaculate

Thousands of Chinese are employed to sweep the streets. In fact the main roads are washed morning and at night to ensure no dust or pollution is stirred up. There are a huge number of smokers. Here's a gardener on smoko....

13. The Chinese,  like Sydney siders,  are obsessed with property prices - they refer to the cost of apartments as "x thousand Yuan per square metre". The price varies by suburb and proximity to the centre of the city or landmark. Prices vary by building age but seemingly not by individual apartment. You and any future owners can only own an apartment for a total of 70 years after which time title returns to the Government. The curious thing is that apartment blocks are developed in a group so there is no variation to the buildings. There might be clusters of 10 buildings which look identical from the outside. The Chinese refer to their apartment buildings as Concrete bamboo. Historically apartment buildings were 5 stories high. These are being torn down in Beijing and Shanghai to make way for much higher blocks, some even sky scrapers

14. The balcony is not a prominent feature of Chinese  architecture 

15. There are 3,800 members of the Parliament and we thought we had a lot of politicians

16. Chinese fashion is bright and colourful often with frills. Some of our group thought it was tacky bordering on gaudy. Other members of the group with a more refined sense of taste felt that it was gorgeous and vibrant. (Refer to our previous post for possible candidate(s) of this select group with superior taste)

17. Chinese pride themselves on their strong liquor. This local drop being promoted  by our tour guide Li (the character in the background) is 68% proof and is not for the faint hearted and certainly was too strong for our guinea pig

18. The Chinese form of socialism makes it very difficult for the poor to escape their class. Income tax rates are every low,  5-7% but then everything is user pays: schools, hospitals, road tolls

19. Twenty years ago the population of Beijing was 7 million. It is now an uncertain number above 20 million. Shanghai's population is 24 million and growing at the rate of 1 million per year. There are three main problems of such huge populations: traffic congestion, lack of land space to live and the complete lack of personal space and consequent inability to queue. In order to reduce traffic congestion in Beijing (which we know first hand is an issue) residents of Beijing can only drive their cars within the city designated area 6 days per week. For example on Mondays car licence numbers ending in 0 and 5 are not permitted to drive. Also the Beijing government runs a lottery for new car car permits: 10,000 names per month are approved for the purchase of cars. The Beijing government has also decided to dramatically increase the underground subway system by extending it by 100s of kilometres within 5 years. They are doing all the extensions simultaneously. Puts the 20 year lead time for our Chatswood - Macquarie park - Epping line into perspective

20. It's a shame the Chinese do not know how to cook Peking Duck properly: it seems they leave all the fat in plus they don't like the skin crispy - we assume this goes back to the famine to make sure everyone feels full on as little meat as possible

21. The Chinese really, really do not like the Japanese. In fact China seems to have troubled relations with many of its neighbours at the moment including various territorial disputes concerning islands, airspace and oil rigs etc. Seems China is only really getting on well with Pakistan these days. We think this is a curious choice for a BFF

Touring Etiquette: 2 observations from Louise and Kylie on being roomies: note to Louise - empty the race bag and the uneaten smashed hard boiled egg into the bin on the day of the race, rather than on the hotel room floor 36 hours later; note to Kylie - reflect on why Rob may not enjoy you smothering yourself in double strength Tiger Balm immediately before you get into bed

22. The Chinese are very proud of their investment in technology and see it as their ticket out of dependence on manufacturing. For example they consider themselves world leaders in railway technology and are currently negotiating to supply their train technology to Africa. Our enthusiastic local guides frequently expressed the government fed view to us that China's reliance on polluting industries was temporary and would be replaced. Not sure where they are thinking of sending these industries. The technology we captured in this photo  was remarkable - it's an automated noodle slicer that slices the perfect sized noodle and projects it into the hot water for the cook. Every home should have one

23. The Chinese are very superstitious. The number 4 is an unlucky number so no apartment buildings have a 4th floor! We don't get how this works as there is in fact a 4th floor - it's just called the fifth floor! Also parents plan to have their babies if possible in the year of the pig or the dragon as the characteristics of these Chinese star signs are said to be favourable. Apparently it creates havoc for schools as the enrolment numbers swell greatly in those years and drop off dramatically in the years either side

24. During various dynasties for thousands of years BC, becoming a concubine was considered a good career option for women. The supply and demand ratio was reasonable as Emperors had up to 3,000 of them at a time and the work load for each one wasn't too onerous. Emperor Qing's dynasty was considered a significant one, as he unified many of the warring States in China and standardised currency and measurements. His favourite Concubine, Lady Yum is pictured here. It is actually harder than it looks to be a fetching concubine......

25. The Chinese choose their own English name. Many adopt an aspirational name such as Jade or even Leo. Some choose a name that sounds Chinese like Li or a name that can be traced back to a character in their Chinese name such as a flower which be might be May or a bird which might be Swallow. We do not understand how our lovely tea connoisseur Keith chose his name

26. There are so many trees everywhere. There are trees and rose bushes planted alongside and under highways, all tended by thousands of gardeners

27. Because the Chinese have no back yard and as we saw above no balcony after the washing is hung out and the air conditioner is caged, the Chinese are forced onto the streets after work for group exercise in parks....

28. Beijing is very much a government town and the subtle influence and messaging is everywhere. Here is the Beijing city strap line which we felt would benefit with a PR once over...

Speaking of branding we would really like to give a huge thank you to Louise's brother Philip Benjamin for uploading all our posts and dealing with all our technology challenges. We had expected our dependents would be up for this task but they were busy with their school work and university loads (cross refer point number 30 below). Phil is available for consulting on all home technology issues with an Apple focus.......we are just following the Chinese tradition of using every opportunity to make money

29. In fact there is quite intense rivalry between Beijing and Shanghai - a bit like the rivalry we have between Sydney and Melbourne. Their are claims and counter claims about property growth, being the financial centre of Asia, who has the biggest subway system, the biggest airport or the tallest building or the biggest external TV screen (you might be able to see the IBM building in Beijing and it's huge tv screen in the photo below although we admit the pollution was not good that day) - or the number of hip and funky eateries etc. We wouldn't dream of buying into that chestnut here - that would be tacky in an internationally read blog. We did note in post 2 though that Sydney's topography was manifestly superior for race preparation and that Melbourne has no proper beaches which is why Kylie has to keep coming to Sydney for a surf. But we concede that the trams are lovely.....

30. University courses in China are 4 years plus 2 more for a masters. Students live in on campus with classes mon-fri often stating at 6.30 am. They are not allowed out until Friday nights and dating is frowned upon. We may now have a less empathetic response to moans about the pressure caused by the Australian uni full time load of 13 contact hours a week. 

31. This was one of the neater efforts by the Beijing electricity retailer to minimise visual pollution with their cabling. We are wondering why Optus Vision had such a hard time slinging up its one coax...

Tour etiquette tip: it's fine to be a couple of minutes late for the group meeting time. It's even fine to always be the last one on the bus . But it's really not fine to just have a quick look at one more ancient Tang Dynasty building, then turn the wrong way, miss the group and keep everyone waiting and waiting.....and waiting

And waiting.......

How did she miss seeing the flag anyway?

32. So it turned out to be true that establishments with a fish tank and a karaoke machine and chairs in a waiting room could be given a 4 star rating. Its just different to valuing cleanliness, the provision of toilet paper and maybe soap.....

33. Red is the colour of success and red is everywhere. Success to the Chinese means money and money means happiness. We heard so much about money, about the need for it, to work hard for it and the cost of everything. Apparently everyone discusses what they earn with each other and as everyone already knows what the apartments cost, they know the net worth of everyone else. The valuing of money and what it can buy is overt and pervasive 

We found that China is a country of contradictions. The Chinese have produced and continue to produce exquisite craftsmanship on a breathtaking scale with incredible detail as well as the greatest load of mass produced trash. They are the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet and also have the fastest, newest growing cities. The country contains incredible historic and cultural treasures such as the Great Wall and the Terra cotta warriors as well as the extraordinary futuristic skyline of Shanghai. The famous Chinese cultural landmarks represent some of the greatest acts of imperialist hubris built on the sacrifice of millions of people, whilst the Chinese people remain slavishly devoted to their immediate families. China will undoubtedly become the strongest economy on the planet but at the expense of individual expression. The main possibility for individual expression appears to be in the choice of ones clothes and in the choice of music one listens to. (Maybe that explains the Chinese sense of fashion). The divide between the wealth of the rich and poor is vast but all Chinese are devoted to their pursuit of wealth and longevity. The Chinese  are proudly secular and yet are highly superstitious. The Chinese, however, would see these apparent contradictions as the Ying and Yang and everything in balance

So can we recommend China? Yes we can (ok so this line has been used before). 

But more than that we can recommend travelling with 5 of the most fabulous phoenixes in the world with the total support of our beautiful families at home, having loads of laughs, learning from other great nations on the planet but treasuring the absolute blessings of our own country. Each of us is also grateful to our long suffering readership.

Remember life is better with ice cream and never take yourself too seriously.

Zai Jian (Chinese for "Thanks you listening our blog!")

We came, We Saw and We Conquered

We had a jammed pack day of sightseeing on our last day in Beijing.

We saw the Birds Nest Olympic stadium from a distance. This seems to be a similar experience to the locals as the Olympic facilities are virtually abandoned and unused. The Birds Nest is now only used in summer for some music concerts and in winter they occasionally build an indoor ski slope with man made snow. The elegant choice of mascots however is timeless.....

We had our koala equivalent moment at the Beijing zoo. Ahh how sweet...

However we were shocked to see that a Panda is not so friendly when he feels access to his bamboo is under threat......

Pandas have a very high fibre diet and have no need for prunes, Metamucil or slippery elm tablets- they consume 40-50 kilos of bamboo each day. They don't just nibble on the leaves, they are shredding the stalks with those teeth as well. Many local Chinese also visit the pandas as they are an important part of Chinese culture and a critical part of Chinese diplomacy. It seems the Chinese generously donated a pair of giant pandas to Russia just before the IOC vote for the 2008 summer Olympics. 

This local however was determined to be photographed with Kylie - eventually grabbing her arm- she was more taken with the rip-off panda on Kylie's head than the real thing!

Today's establishment photo came courtesy of the zoo's facilities:

(P.S. The Pool is referring to the traditional squat facility...... Haha)

Thank goodness we were able to attend a Chinese tea ceremony run by the engaging Keith who is 2 years into his tea training.

We sampled teas with incredible qualities: one variety of 10 year old fermented black tea (which had been buried in the ground on the South East side of a remote Southern mountain by a spring etc etc you get the picture although sadly resembling an above ground cow pat) promised improvement of wrinkles, blood pressure, diabetes, kidney function, sluggish functioning, heart health and even dramatic weight loss as well. Briony promptly sacked Liz and Zoe as her medical advisors, given their manifest inadequacy in the face of the benefits proffered from just this one product pictured here

Louise was shattered to discover that she knew absolutely nothing about how to make a cup of Jasmine tea and is very concerned about she will find the necessary 20 minutes of preparation time to do it properly when she returns home. We suggest she just uses the time she previously devoted to her race training.......

The Mongolian hot pot lunch was delicious and we really enjoyed the ingredients we recognised. 

Kylie didn't get a single rogue microbe after boiling the white ball for 20 minutes although we never confirmed the protein source. But she didn't care anyway what it was after sampling the local 68% proof alcohol.....

Note to Zoe: it's called Mongolian HOT pot for a reason so next time maybe don't lean over so far for the mushrooms.....

Beijing has done a great job of restoring part of its traditional area for tourists. The hutong area is now full of trendy cafés and sight seeing opportunities.

 We survived dodgem rickshaw riding 

and were entertained by stories from a local resident who carefully described the traditional allocation of bedrooms to members of the family in terms of their heirarchy. All this centred around the courtyard which is the focal point of family interaction.

Turns out upon incisive questioning by one FGM after the public messaging that this girl and her Mum and Dad lived in three rooms off a secret corridor with their own yard out the back. Ahh well as they say in China never let a business opportunity pass you by. We did verify though that the rooms were traditionally built around a central square courtyard from our run through the villages on Race day.....

Last night we frocked up (although really the humidity plays havoc with the hair here) and went to the Gala dinner at the convention centre next to the Birds Nest.

We felt awesome and basked in the glory of our achievements again, were entertained by the statutory Chinese dragons, 

drank local Chinese red wine and ate from the incredible banquet. 

Yep that's all chocolate.

We never did establish the culinary substance that this patriotic sculpture was made from!

However the scope of our heroics paled in comparison to the elaborate carved cucumber and dessert bar.

Note to Louise: this is getting awkward take the medal off now....... 

So that completes our Great Wall adventure. We are glad that you have enjoyed sharing our adventures with us and we have been delighted to receive those few congratulatory messages from some of our readers. Although frankly given the global reach of our blog, after Bee posted it on her face book, we are surprised the Oprah offer hasn't come through yet.....

So what can we possibly do next to top this adventure? Despite being photographed in front of the Birds Nest there is no suggestion of masters or representative sport being planned. 

Zoe actually suggested that she wants to attempt the full marathon on the Great Wall. This surprised us as we were all watching the same slide show as her of broken and spent bodies clinging to the top stairs being treated by handsome Danish doctors and none of the rest of us had a response anything like that. We can only attribute it to the Chinese wine. This is a truly magnificent ambition but not really a starter for a group adventure - we hope she has a great time.....

Liz who hardly had time to change her watch to Chinese time (incidentally it's the same time zone across the whole of China so the sun rises in Beijing at 4.30) was so taken by having a girls holiday that she suggested we reconvene for an adventure every 5 years. She is taken by the 50 km run across 5 days through 3 countries in Scandinavia - seems a lot of effort just to get the attention of a Danish doctor. We are surprised that Liz found it so relaxing and wants to do it all again so soon, given that she spent such a lot of time diagnosing each of us with life-threatening illnesses. Who knew that the constant imbibing of water and the failure to eat regular full meals and a slightly hyperactive tendency could be symptoms of such serious diseases.

Kylie totally taken by the "halfie" vigorously cross- examined our lovely tour organiser Felicity from Travelling Fit about which of the majors holds a concurrent half marathon. The cognoscenti among our readership will immediately recognise the reference to the 6 major annual marathons: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and NYC. Sadly it turns out that none of these events host the quickie at the same time so some extra planning is now involved, particularly given that she still maintains she doesn't like running that much. (We are wondering if she realises how this makes us feel......) Kylie says she will be in any future adventure we can agree on so long as it doesn't involve too long sitting in a bus and isn't one she has ear-marked to do with Rob.

Louise just keeps pinching herself to make sure it hasn't all been some wonderful dream. She continues to wear the tortoise moniker proudly. Keen to influence the choice and avoid the need for a pedometer for any future event, she was going to suggest a nice girls week in Paris. Realising that this wouldn't qualify as any stretch to anyone's comfort zone and certainly not her own, she boldly suggested we walk part of Machu Picchu! This suggestion was short lived as Kylie instantly declared that it's on her list of adventures to do with Rob. (We are wondering if Rob is aware of this...) In any event Louise it seems to us you have other ways to practise your Spanish. For those of you who have been wondering since our first day in Beijing what it was that Louise actually bought at the Silk Factory (refer to previous silk worm post) - it turns out that it's 2.2metres of fabric to make a copy of this young acrobat's outfit which Louise apparently plans to wear out when she next goes dancing...... sigh - we wish we were joking.

Briony says she has had a ball and could never have done this without us. However none of us is surprised that she is leaving now for 5 weeks of solitary sabbatical in order to recover from such intense bonding! We also think that she might be ready to go again in five years but then we couldn't be sure as Briony doesn't like to give too much away and certainly not that far in advance.

Here's her reflection on the trip: "I remember reading once about 'the gift of the ordinary day' - about the preciousness of hanging with those you love, and not taking a moment of our lives together for granted. While nothing about this trip or the friendships we have fostered and developed, for some over our lifetime, could be considered 'ordinary', I love that we are of an age where we don't take each other, or the opportunities that life passes to us, for granted. This trip has been a reminder to live in the moment, to enjoy the gift of others in our world, and to stand in awe of humanity and it's capacity to build Great Walls to keep out the invading Monguls".

So we came as 4 of the Fairy Godmothers and we missed Bee. We were blessed to be joined by Zoe (who  happened to have been on Paddy's first exchange trip to Germany and knew her so well...) We leave as 5 friends, 4 of the Fairy Godmothers and one honorary fairy godmother. 

As one of our Mums emailed us the other day "....have a simply wonderful time with your friends. Having friends like this is how one gets through trials and tribulations with a sense of humour intact." To our beautiful god-children, Jess and Ben, may you be continually surrounded by dear friends as you travel through life, may you have many wild (but safe and responsible!) adventures, and remember, all your 'fairy god mothers' are always watching out for you! And to any of our own precious children who are bothering to read all the way to the end, we share these thoughts with you too....

Life is good.

Bai Bai (chinglish for see ya).

Just like in a Pixar movie buried deep in the credits here is a surprise. We have one more post coming to the blog which will include a random series of observations we have made about China and a few fabulous last pictures................watch this space.