ChangCheng, Hanyu, and HouHai

After a few days of being 'around the city', I felt like staying at the hostel for a while, to get to know the people who worked there (all conveniently near in age to myself). At first, there was a considerable language barrier between us, or at least, what we percieved to be a barrier. After a day or so of being around one another more often, people began to open up. Among the friends I made were Jane, Adieule (I think that's how you spell it), Nick (with whom I will stay in Beijing for a night when I return from Guangzhou and Xi'an), Stefan, Viyan, and several other chinese guys and girls. Jane was the friendliest of the bunch at first. She knew a fair amount of english, and was extremely helpful. One night, Nick and I went out with her and a friend, whereupon we discovered the restaurant I used for the rest of my stay. It was a muslim place: clean, visual menus, family-run, small, cheap, and had good food. Ironically, there was a dish there that did such a good job of looking like Italian pasta, I think I actually prefer it to anything I've ever had. And this is in the middle of a hutong, tucked away from the world. Talk about weird, huh?

Jane left after a couple of days, and then I made freinds with Adieule. She was the most fluent in english after Jane left, and had a decidedly large amount of fun attempting to teach me the names of everything. I exchanged some english tutoring, and we were learning pretty fast. As for Nick and Stefan they hailed from the west, specifically California and Germany, respectively. Nick was the first one to arrive, and was a return visitor. He wasn't a very good teacher, but he had been to Beijing for eight months previously, and knew enough Putonghua (Hanyu or Mandarin by another name) to converse fairly freely. He was my guide to a few of the most interesting parts of Beijing: the Silk Market, the local food market, and the subway. Stefan arrived later on, and left fairly early. He was from Germany, but had been travelling in Japan for a couple of months immediately before coming to China. He spoke fairly good english, and used that to talk to just about everyone. Viyan was from Shenzhen, along with Adieule. She offered to be my guide through Guangzhou, were I to need one. She showed up only for a couple of days, but was more fluent in english than anyone else (conversational, and we were able to swap favorite bands).

As for the many others, they had their moments. One of Adieule's friends ran an online magazine: 'Vagrancy', about the lives of travelling youth, including some of China's most beautiful scenery. She asked me some questions about China, and about my impression of it, and took several pictures for the interview. I was quite amused at the prospect. Two other local guys also enjoyed my company. Liu (whose last name is the only part I could remember) was boyfriend to the magazine editor, as well as being a self-made musician, whose band is called 'Thumb Girl'. The other guy was big, enthusiastic about western entertainment, and is the one who first told me that I should visit Xi'an (Western Peace is the literal translation). Xi'an is host to the terracotta warriors, as well as to a number of other impressive sights. It also possesses a nice hostel, for a rather cheap price. They both taught me some words in Putonghua; 'Chabuduo' - 'similar', is the one I remember being taught.

I had hung around for long enough. If there was one thing that I could not miss while in China, it was the Great Wall: otherwise known as Changcheng (long wall). I hiked it with Stefan: we decided to go from Jinshanling to Simatai, a long haul that brought us more than ten kilomenters from our starting point. You can be certain of two things when hiking the wall: almost the entire way (from Jinshanling to Simatai) is either insanely steep, or guarded by local vendors. These crazy people will walk with you the entire way, proffering everything from books and souvenirs to iced beer (not the best idea on the wall). We didn't buy anything until the very end of the hike (ice cream tasted sooo good). The wall itself was awesome, though one is stopped just before the exit to buy another ticket for Simatai, along with a 5 yuan footbridge toll. What are you going to do? Hike back? It was enjoyable though. Walking on the old wall through endlessly green mountains and terraces was very interesting. Compared to the Forbidden City, it was paradise for the less 'popularly' inclined. Transportation was a bit touch-and-go however. We took a minibus - aka: some guy has a car and wants to make money. From the Dongzhimen subway station and transport hub we took a regular bus to Miyun, then bargained for a 130 yuan passage to the wall itself (it's a long ride). On the way back, be paid 100 yuan to get to another minibus, that cost 10 yuan, and took us the rest of the way to Dongzhimen.

Needless to say, I wanted to stay at the hostel again the next day. I alternated travel and learning Putonghua at the hostel. Then, on nearly the last day I was there, I went to see Hou Hai to completion. Hou Hai is a rather picturesque little lake in the middle of Beijing, about 5 minutes walk from the hostel. It possesses innumerable bars (all very expensive of course), that prey on the tourist population. There are also rickshaws, and a pair of old towers, that are worth at least one visit. Ironically, after walking aroud the lake, it turned out that Adieule also planned to go through the hutong near it. After I got back, she took me through some very interesting hutong (she's not a local herself, so it was just as new), and to my first experience with 'real' chinese fast food. Steamed buns, congee, and cold tofu and greenbeans were all rather interesting, especially for a Canadian who hadn't fully experienced the other, less greasy side to authentic Chinese food - except at Dim Sum. Qing Feng steamed buns weren't bad (a lot better than the veggie buns in the market). For the traveling vegetarian, the phrase "Shenme shi meiyou rou?" is quite critical (what doesn't have meat?/what is without meat?).

After that, all that was left to do with my time there was to get my ticket. I purchased a 179 yuan seat on a 13-hour train that left at 8:20 pm on the 25th.