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Traveldiary chapter 15 [September 2006 - November 2006] as PDF (China incl. Hong Kong, back to Thailand and Singapore) |
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Photos: Singapore | More about Singapore: chapter 13 (Main Story), chapter 17 (Thaipusam), chapter 18 (Farewell), chapter 34 |
Singapore: Street Light Up Festivals in September
After we had left southern Africa, we arrived back in Singapore
on Sept. 16th, 2006. Now we appreciated the lively streets even more
than before, where nobody seemed to go home early and there was no worry about
security. We enjoyed being surrounded by locals of all walks of life when we
were eating in the food-stalls and restaurants. As common in Asian cities, most
of the people eat out three times a day. In
As the hotel we
had stayed at the last two times, was now undergoing renovations, we found good
lodging in the small Kerbau Hotel in Little India. Most days we were still busy
writing our African travel story, but at night we enjoyed the three “festivals
of light” that were all held just around this time.
The quarters of the different ethnic
groups were decorated and illuminated for around a month. The Muslims
celebrated "Hari Raya Puasa" mainly in the family. What was very
obvious however, were the thousands of additional shops and markets under huge
tents that sometimes covered entire streets. Many more food hawkers sold
delicacies, but as this festival is held during the fasting month Ramadan, the
Muslims took the food home to feast after prayers at sunset.
The streets of the Muslim quarter were
illuminated nicely, but moderately in comparison to Little India. Here they
celebrated the "Deepavali Festival" and the streets were decorated
with impressive illuminated arches covering several kilometers of road in
colourful animated lights. Here only a few small lanes were closed to traffic
for 6 weeks and covered with tents to convert them into more shops. "More
Shops" is anyway the most widely seen sign in this city!
The mid autumn festival, also called
Moon festival celebrated by the Chinese, offered yet another picture. They had
modelled big flowers and animals in iron frames covered in colourful satin cloths
and illuminated from inside. The most impressive models were pagodas
or temples or huge dragons. Some were up to 12m high and maybe twice
as long. Various animals or fairies did move their wings. Theses ornaments
decorated the flower beds in the middle of the road and pedestrian overpasses.
It was a wonderful sight by day and even more so at night. On the full moon
night of Oct. 6, the festival peaked in a lantern parade. More about Singapore: chapter 13 (Main Story), chapter 17 (Thaipusam), chapter 18 (Farewell)
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Photos: Hong Kong - China |
China; a transforming country
We left for Hong Kong
on October 10th 2006 on a
cheap Jet Star flight (€ 75). On the way from the modern airport into the
city center, we saw how much the once untouched
Surely; some more skyscrapers had
been added to the outskirts and some of them looked really posh. The old
apartments in the city center on the other hand, didn't seem to have been
maintained well and many looked really old and dirty - something we hadn't seen
anywhere in
In many small side lanes we found
cramped markets where fish and crabs were sold alive. The entire down-town area
was very cramped, which was probably due to the times when
We were delighted that Ivy, a
travel-crazy teacher we had met 1 ½ years ago in
We learned from Ivy that nowadays most
women choose to work and as we noticed also in
As Chinese embassies were closed for an
entire week due to the Chinese National day on Oct. 1st, we applied
for the visa to enter mainland
Now we were preparing to visit China.
We had bought a big Lonely Planet guide book, 5 cm thick. First we read about
the country's troubled history, which is hard to describe in short. Documented
from as early as 4000 BC, millennia of various dynasties fought and succeeded
each other, often changing social structures and philosophies of live
dramatically. As everywhere, the emperors put much suffering on the people in
their desire to remain in power and to enlarge their territories.
Well-established trading routes existed
along the Silk Road to
Therefore, the Chinese Qialong, ruler
from 1736-1795 banned trade with Opium. This resulted in two opium wars with
British troops defending their big source of income. As the Chinese lost,
they had to give away
Back to the 19th century: the increased
presence of missionaries fuelled further hatred against the "foreign
devils". At the same time, the leader of the “Taiping movement” believed
that he was the brother of Jesus Christ, after being in contact with
Missionaries. His supporters hoped therefore to install the Christian
ideology in
This was followed by the dark story of
the last two emperors and the proclamation of the provisional republican
government of
During Japanese occupation, hundred
thousands if not millions of Chinese civilians were gruesomely murdered and
massacred during their "burn all, loot all, kill all" campaign. Following
the Japanese defeat and the end of WWII, the Americans attempted unsuccessfully
to negotiate a settlement between CCP and KMT. Finally, on Oct. 1st,
1949 the CCP succeeded and Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of
The leaders of the KMT fled to the
island of Formosa (Taiwan) taking with them the entire gold reserves of the
country and what was left of Marine and Navy.
The PRC began its days as a bankrupt
nation, but there was great enthusiasm among the people. Within 4 years they
managed to turn around the legacy of economic mismanagement left by the KMT and
improved production back to post-war levels. In the cities the communists
eradicated the slums, rehabilitated millions of opium addicts and eliminated
child- and slave labour. Between 1958-60
After Mao's death 1976 the party's
official line soon surfaced that Mao was 70% right, 30% wrong in his
leadership.
After his death the totalitarian
practices of the communist government were significantly modified concentrating
on a "4 modernisation programme: agriculture/industry/science and defence.
Slowly they increased contact with the capitalist economies in the west. As the
party began to lose its ideological grip, by 1978 demands for a 5th modernisation
were heard: democracy. 1986 Hu Yaobang was sidelined for his support of these
demands. The mass memorial, following Hu's death in 1989 turned into a popular
peaceful rebellion as hundreds of thousands of students gathered on Tianamen
square in
In 1993 President Deng Xiaoping frankly
proclaimed that "to get rich is glorious" and began to trim down
state owned industries, leading to mass unemployment. The new doctrine is now
"the modern interpretation of
communism/Marxism/Leninism and Maoism" and we were wondering
what this means and how much the country had changed since our last visit in
1991.
On Oct. 15th 2006, we took a
speedboat from Hong Kong to Shenzhen where we boarded a plane to Guilin.
Here we got a first glimpse of modern
Endless shops lined the streets and the
people were dressed more modern than those of
Many buildings in town were brand new
and there were lots of construction sites modernizing the city even more. There
were still a few side alleys left, usually with older buildings, where small
workshops and food stalls served their customers on the pavement. In a way,
it's a pity that they are all disappearing, because that's where part of the
social life is, where people stop to chat. The new buildings, of course have a
clean and sterile shop front and nobody lingers in front of them. Also most of
the street-markets disappeared and are now replaced by air-conditioned
supermarkets.
Many of the remaining old buildings,
shops or apartments looked as if their time would come soon. They will
eventually disappear behind a wall that's put up around every construction
site.
Once the government decided that an old
building will be replaced or has to give way to a new road, the occupants get
notice and have to move out. As not everybody is delighted about the news and
the new dwelling offered (usually at the outskirts of town) some tenants take
their time moving out. As soon as a party does so, workers make the flat
uninhabitable immediately for fear that somebody else will occupy that
apartment and as a visible sign to those that still live in the neighbouring flats.
In front of such a half inhabited building, the towns stinky waste-trucks all
parked overnight. We wonder whether this aimed at chasing the last die-hard’s
out or whether they’ve been there for long…
When we decided to visit "7 star
park" as recommended by the tourist brochures, we didn't quite know what
its main attraction was. Brigitte hoped to see some of the karst hills for
which
Well, we were more fascinated walking
around the ordinary streets and parks of
Within 20 minutes only, market-stalls
were brought in, seemingly out of nowhere and hawkers were ready to sell. Now
there was a stretch of 1 km of souvenir and food stalls, all properly
illuminated with neon lights. They didn't need to wait long for shoppers
browsing the souvenirs and also more useful items.
After two days filled with new
impressions, we headed for the countryside. We took a bus that drove us through
a scenic landscape with many small karst hills. For an hour we clutched to the
window, trying to penetrate the mist that was hiding many rows of those narrow
high rock hills that have inspired painters for centuries.
During this ride we realized how big
the differences are between city and country side in
65 km down the road, Yangshuo, on a river between karst
hills,that once started as a legendary Backpacker's hangout, has changed a lot
in recent years. This was the only place in
Once more LP travel guide got the point
when stating: "
If you look beyond the endless shops
and souvenir stalls, Yangshuo is not ugly. It still is a big village with real
Chinese life - traditional as well as modern. Big battery driven
golf-caddy-like vehicles were used as a means of local transport and to herd
around up to 20 tourists in the same vehicle. Even the police used such an
environmentally friendly car. The touristiest streets are for pedestrians only
and they still get extended as new buildings are added. Most are constructed in
a modern style but most reflect traditional architecture.
We rented bicycles and after passing
construction sites for dozens of big hotels and apartment blocks for several
kilometers, we finally reached the unspoilt countryside. Out there we found
rice paddies, where farmers harvested rice still the same way we had seen 15
years ago. Old women led their water-buffaloes to the river and fishermen used
their bamboo rafts to catch dinner. All this was framed by idyllic karst
formations all around us. It's so terribly beautiful, we really can't blame all
these others wanting to see it too!
On this first trip out to the fields,
the farmers were greeting us very friendly with "Ni Hau" (Hello
(G’day Mate)). The second time, when we pedalled more along the river,
most locals were greeting us with an enthusiastic "Hello Bamboo"
(raft for rent) on the way out and with "Hello water"(water for sale)
on the way back. We met many of their relatives also in town, calling out
"Hello Banana", "Hello postcard", "Hello Tour" or
"Hello flute" - the latter one followed by a perfectly played melody
of "Frère Chaque"...
We barely managed to learn a few words
of Chinese, but couldn’t remember any of their approx. 47’000 characters.
Most restaurants catering for overseas
tourists are located along what was now named "West(ern) Street" and
that's where also most young Chinese go to get a taste of western food and
western life. Today, there are certainly more Chinese than western tourists
ordering typical backpacker's breakfast consisting of 'Banana Pancake' or
'Yoghurt and Müesli'. As traditional Chinese fare is freshly prepared but
served real quickly, some restaurant owners got complaints from Chinese
customers, because the ordered western style meal was not served quick enough.
One owner explains to them that the preparation of western food does take
more time and if they want to get a quick western feed, they shall go to KfC
and so his customers usually get suddenly more patient.
Western food is "in" but they
haven't heard of our habit of eating one course after another. In many
restaurants everything is served at the same time and from the soup to the
ice-cream onwards to the salad, to the Spaghetti and back to ice-cream,
it's eaten all across the courses.
We were amused by the Chinese tourists
who loved to mingle with westerners. Some liked to secretly picture us, others
asked straight forward (with or without English words), whether we would pose
with them. In some cases they wanted to be arm in arm - Brigitte with the man,
Heinz with the woman. This happened quite a few times also in other places
later and we must be in several photo albums now. Well; 95% of the cameras
used were digital cameras!
With the opening of
Therefore, flying is now often possible
at the same price or even cheaper than taking the train and a 20 hour train
journey can be reduced to about one hour by plane.
So, we took a taxi back through
the karst hills to
After a couple of kilometers,
about 30 junior high school students came cycling towards us. There would have
been a special cycling path for each direction but as the entrance (anyway to
the wrong direction for them), was blocked by a parked car, they simply entered
the freeway head on.
The check-in for the flight with one of
the state owned airlines was very speedy. Our destination was Xiamen
on the east coast facing
Especially along the water, there were
many modern high rise buildings with plenty of space for pavement and separate
lanes for bicycles and scooters, cars and buses. Also this town had very wide
streets. This is probably the advantage of a one party system that
coordinates and builds the necessary infrastructure projects without too many
unnecessary compromises and delays.
It seemed the long pedestrian zone had
only recently been introduced, as that road was closed to traffic with
temporary barriers only and road marks were still in place.
At night many apartment- or office
buildings had their edges illuminated with animated changing colours.
Entire skyscrapers had their façades projected with changing geometrical
forms or pictures, similar to a giant PC screen saver. We wonder how they were
generated.
There were many large parks around the
city, one even had some canoe's on an artificial lake. Another night, we
passed a park with a giant fountain "dancing" as a “water ballet” to
classical music and illuminated by changing mellow light.
With the help of the word
"ditu" and five very nice employees that didn't speak any English, we
managed to buy a map and locate ourselves. Even though this map was of 2006 and
all streets were nicely marked in Latin characters as well, it was not always
easy to find the way. As the entire town is being newly built at lightening
speed, maps seem to be out of date by the time they leave the print shop.
Sometimes a road was blocked or didn't exist anymore due to a construction site
and sometimes we found brand new roads that weren't in the map yet. Such was
the one built on pillars standing in the shore water with several exits built
on a concrete platform. The lanes were bending out over the sea and back
inland. This way it connected the "fly-over" with the road on the
ground level like a freeway exit. They had a smart system of leading roads
above each other to create more space for the ever growing traffic. We had seen
junctions with up to five levels criss-crossing each other.
As in the rest of
For us it was time to go on. Contrary
to earlier times, city- and intercity buses leave on schedule even if half
empty. They don't wait until they have loaded about twice their capacity until
leaving as they did in earlier times. In a pleasant air conditioned bus,
we drove north for three hours on a freeway. We passed many smaller and bigger
towns that all offered the same picture: lots of construction sites. Between
them were many rice paddies and vegetable fields. Only very few houses were
made of adobe bricks with old type saddle roofs of stone tiles, all the others
looked modern.
Now we arrived in Fuzhou (say Foo-zow), a 6 million. city
that was not on the tourist trail at all. Maybe because of this, we encountered
neither beggars nor touts.
In most big Chinese cities, there was
no real budget accommodation available anymore. However, quite often 2-5 star
hotels offered discounts of up to 70% for last minute bookings through tourist
offices and on top of that cheap rate, the 15% service charge that applied to
the full rate, was also waived. This time we ended up in a 4 star hotel, paying
318 Yuan (€ 32) per night including breakfast; instead of 820+15% (=€ 95). In
comparison; Youth Hostels charged sometimes € 45 in a plain double room and
they never gave discounts, because they always filled up, as people think they
must be cheap. In the
Of course we enjoyed the posh room
with a view from the 18th floor, but we admit we felt a bit out of place
when the porter handled our backpacks with white gloves on the golden trolley
and the waitress in uniform pampered us on the breakfast buffet. As soon as the
slightest sign of a question mark appeared on our faces, some English speaking
staff member immediately appeared on our side, ready to help (and sneak in our
a..). In future we made sure we stuck to 2 star places that still cost between
180-300 Yuan (€ 18-30), even if that meant we had to come by with staff
that spoke Chinese only. To overcome this obstacle gave us much more
satisfaction and was fun anyway.
The very same that we've said about the
process of re-building the entire city in the previous places, also applies to
A few things were special about
this place though:
- Around the pedestrian area was an
intact quarter of 16th century Ming Dynasty style wooden buildings. These
looked still beautiful with bended roofs and painted woodwork along a bustling
street with many hawkers complimented by the almost compulsory Mc
Donalds. Just behind this old quarter, big and modern apartment buildings
appeared.
- Here was the only statue of Mao we
have seen on this trip. 15 years ago, every village and every town was adorned
with at least one Mao statue but not anymore! They all seem to have silently
vanished, just as the huge propaganda paroles for the communist party.
Nowadays, each square meter of party propaganda has been replaced with 100
square meters of commercial advertisements, promoting electronics, credit
cards, fast-food chains, designer ware etc. Everything a consumer oriented
society (should) desire.
- There were many
Christian churches in
- The conversion from ordinary roads
into wide alleys was not yet completed and therefore, traffic was more chaotic
and hectic here.
We continued our trip to Shanghai on a very efficient
flight with the state owned carrier "China Eastern". They managed to
serve two rounds of drinks and a full meal on a flight that took 70 minutes
only and cost 500 Yuan (€ 50).
Surely, the very same that we've said
about the process of re-building the entire city in the previous places, also
applies to
The main pedestrian street
"Nanjing Lu" is more than one kilometer long and lined with (real)
designer ware stores, those expensive ones. As everywhere in the country, shops
were open 7 days a week until 10pm.
It was very pleasant to stroll along by
day and also by night, when many neonlights illuminated the buildings. The only
annoyance were a few beggars near tourist attractions that were
insistently doing their job, plus the many touts that constantly approached us,
trying to lure everyone into their overpriced shops. But the west has
introduced its own revenge: the poor Chinese are now also being bothered with
Amway and Tupperware parties.
All the other people were extremely
friendly and extremely helpful, even though it was often hard to communicate.
They went out of their way to assist us if we tried to ask for something and
with sign-language, pen and paper we usually managed together. Some would even
accompany us to some shops or offices, once they understood what we wanted,
explaining the personnel our wish.
You have probably seen pictures of
Facing this skyline from the opposite
side of the river is a front row of what they call "old buildings"
consisting of an assortment of neoclassical 1930's European style buildings,
formerly used as courts, banks and hotels. That area is called the Bund and
stands in stark contrast to the neon lit skyscrapers that start to spread out
just behind them. Everything was of course well lit at night which ever
direction you looked.
Many boats offered harbour cruises but
some only drove up and down the river showing advertisements on an oversized TV
screen of about 10x25m. In
Only in 1990 modernisation of
As all over
During the 6 days we stayed, we could
witness how quick things change. Every work that was not hidden behind these
big advertisement clad walls that usually enfenced construction sites, was
normally carried out at night. During the day, we hardly ever saw any
trucks on the road because construction material was delivered at night. That’s
when they also dug open the road to lay cables and canalisation. By the time we
passed the site again in the morning, it was usually sealed again with tar or
cobble stones. One shop, where we bought some water before going back to the
hotel after dinner, didn't exist anymore two days later. By then, the entire
50m long building was flattened.
In the beginning, we didn't find many
restaurants in
Somewhat it was unbelievable: we got
the impression the more western and the more expensive a restaurant was, the
more it was favoured by young folks. In "normal" places, drinks
were being served for around 3-15 Yuan (€ 0.30-1.50). Coffee lounges with cosy
sofas and mellow music were very widespread and popular, but they were really
overpriced with drinks costing around 25-80 Yuan. At least they usually served
(western) food at moderate prices. These coffee lounges were always bustling
with young Chinese and even if there were 150 guests, it was an exception to
see a westerner in there.
As a stark contrast, the traditional
teahouses where old men used to gather, seemed to have disappeared at least in
the cities. A few upmarket "boutique tea houses" were now available
for those who could afford it. Their main business was to sell luxury tea mix
presented in noble tins and most also had one or two beautiful tables, usually
made of carved tree trunks. Those who decided to sit down, paid 80 Yuan or more
for a pot of tea!
That's one of the contradictions in the
Communist People's Republic, where many farmers in the countryside still live
on subsistence farming and some earn hardly more than one Yuan an hour.
In a country with such an economic
growth that is mainly home-made, even those on the lower end of the salary
scale are doing much better than before and most Chinese are excited about the
rapid modernisation taking place. Old people less and young people much
more, that's normal we guess. The few people we could talk to were all quite
happy with the central government, but rather unhappy with the local government
because they feel there is much corruption and mismanagement.
We were quite surprised how open and
critical the English language newspapers of the central government: "China
Daily" and even more the
As we continued our trip, we reached
our next destination after one hour by train. Suzhou (say Soo chow) who's population exploded from 50'000 to over 6
million within only 20 years. Never the less, it was a very pleasant city and
became Brigitte's favorite - Heinz's favorite remained
There was a lot of water in the area
around
Almost all Chinese dressed modern and
especially young ones loved to dress hip and style their hair that was often
coloured. The blue Mao-dress is almost extinct and even school-uniforms, if
worn at all, represent the spirit of today’s modern
Apparently, there are close to 20
gardens that can be visited for an entrance fee. Their hallmark was not
flowers, but usually big old trees, rocks, water, bridges and
pagodas. A few were even listed as 'world cultural heritage’ with Unesco. A
replica of the "Garden of the net's" the first one we visited, shall
be built by a Chinese company in Dunedin/New Zealand shortly. It consisted
mainly of buildings and covered walk ways around a pond, whereas the
second we visited, called "humble Administrator’s garden" appealed more
to us. It was much bigger with many big ponds, more what we imagine a park to
be.
Another thing that was different to
what we imagined, was the internet; going ‘on-line’ in
On the other hand, the government's
iron grip that held tight control over the people is loosening. Whereas 15
years ago, common Chinese citizens needed a permit to travel from one city to
another, today’s government motivates its people to travel and see their
country - quite successfully, as we noticed.
Not only bus- and train-stations, also
the airports were bustling with locals. One hundred and fifty airports had just
been upgraded or newly built and already they decided to extend another 150,
including some that only had been upgraded in the last few years.
Already now,
By now, the government agreed with 85
countries to grant Chinese citizens visa for group tourism. Officially they are
also allowed to travel independently but as
After 3 days, we left
As we approached Hangzhou, we noticed that they had an architectural spleen of erecting
little turrets on new apartment blocks. The rivers and canals were heavily used
for cargo transportation. The city of
Lots more was mentioned: the causeway
and small islets plus the wide boulevards that were all reserved
for pedestrians and electric 'golf-caddy-buses' only. In one part of the
shore park, mellow (western) music was played from hundreds of loudspeakers. In
one area, a big fountain played "water ballet" after classical music
and at night everything was joyfully illuminated. Busloads of tourists were
brought in for every fountain-performance and on the weekend, the park was
crowded with people. That's how it looked like in the middle of November. This
was off-season and we wouldn't want to know how many people show up here during
the summer holiday.
We didn't mention yet, that we were not
very impressed by this lake at all, of which the other shore (3km away) was
hardly visible through fog or smoke most days. For our taste even the smallest
lake in
We've been very lucky with the weather.
When we were in the southern part four weeks ago, it's been almost tropical
warm still, whereas here, almost 1'000km further north, we could enjoy an
exceptionally warm and dry autumn with day temperatures ranging between
17-25°C. Strangely, some stores switched from cooling to heating on November 1,
maybe as a principle rather than by common sense.
So here, our trip through modern
This "modern
interpretation of communism/../../.." resulted in the fact that
people who live in a town earn several times more than those living in the
countryside. That only those living in a city get social security and free
health care. Although
The "modern
interpretation of communism/../../.." has helped China's economy to rise its GDP
by an average of 10% annually for the last 25 years. That GDP was at abt. 6'000
USD for the year 2005.
According to Chinese media, the average
pay increase is currently around 11% annually and this with an inflation rate
that is negligible. The World Bank stated that
On the top end of the salary scale,
We have never seen a country with that
much advertising. Big bill boards and oversized LCD screens covered buildings
and big walls of construction sites or as road side ads. Also above shelves in
supermarkets, in places where people had to wait i.e. on bus stops and in front
of elevators, flat screens were throwing advertisements at people trying to
stimulate their taste for consumer goods.
The "modern
interpretation of communism/../../.." means also, that
new luxurious housing developments advertise these dwellings with slogans like
“the new world of wealth & worship” or “life style for the
Even people that can afford to live in
such expensive apartments do not necessarily own a car. Unlike in other
developing countries, we hadn’t seen anybody living in a shack with a brand new
Mercedes parked in front of it. Never the less, almost half a million cars are
currently being sold and registered every month. As Chinese are very
undisciplined in traffic, be it as pedestrians, cyclists or with motorised
vehicles, we had seen minor accidents almost daily throughout the country.
On one hand, the government expects
every new facility to be built according to the newest safety- and environment
standards. More and more is being recycled and more environment friendly
technologies are being introduced. The population is being bombarded with
‘green paroles’ on TV.
On the other hand the local governments
are constantly haggling with the central government to get more time to upgrade
or replace old polluting or unsafe industries to today’s standard. In the
meantime the media reports weekly about fatal mining accidents, poisonous
pollution of water, topsoil or air and of violations of ethnic practices,
copyright and lots of corruption.
From a distance it looks like
The different cities and provinces seem
to compete who creates the most extravagant city.
Despite all these impressive numbers,
even in comparison to other developing countries like
As long as no recession hits the
country, the “communists” have a good chance to remain in power. If the
astronomic growth continues for another 10-20 years, we all better start
learning Chinese now. 1, 2, 3 means: yi, er, san…
Singapore | China |
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More about Thailand: chapter 8 (Main Story), chapter 13, chapter 17, chapter 34 |
Thailand: after the military coup 2006
On November 12, 2006 we left
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