Forbidden No More

Tiananmen Gate

For all the time I’ve been in China, Beijing has not just contained the Forbidden City, but been the Forbidden City. No city was harder to get into. Early on, colleagues in Beijing and I discussed how we’d for sure visit each other. Hah! For the next 15 months there was always something (Olympics, CCP National Congress) preventing visitors from getting in. And those who lived there, if they traveled out, couldn’t get back in.

Although most of the people I know have left Beijing by now, I still wanted to visit. So I tacked a day onto Memorial Day weekend for my final trip within China.

It was not all smooth sailing.

Figuring a guide would make buying tickets and navigating top sights easier, I got a recommendation from a colleague and arranged a full day of blockbuster sightseeing. Top priorities: the Forbidden City (aka former Royal Palace), Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square. Time allowing, the Summer Palace. I told the guide that Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were all possible. She suggested Monday. A small part of my brain thought I should maybe double check that the sights I wanted to see were actually open on Monday, but a larger part thought, she’s the tour guide, obviously she knows!

I gave her my passport info so she could book tickets. On THURSDAY (!) she messaged me that oops! The Forbidden City is closed on Mondays. Also, tickets were sold out for Saturday and Sunday and Tuesday (my last day). There was still a chance I’d be able to get tickets on Saturday though, if went to the ticket office first thing in the morning. When I panic-contacted a random tour company they confirmed that tickets were sold out and let me know that getting to the ticket office required going through Tiananmen Square, for which I would need a (free) reservation. They kindly, and at no charge, made a reservation for me.

A BUSY FIRST DAY

After a much-delayed flight that saw me checking into my hotel in the wee hours of Saturday morning (Them: “We’ve upgraded you to a room with a Forbidden City view” Me: “Great, that may be as much as I see of it”), instead of having a lie-in and enjoying a generous hotel breakfast buffet before starting my Saturday, I slept three hours, slammed down an in-room cup of Nespresso, and made my way to Tiananmen Square. I then passed through security, waited in line to pass through the Tiananmen Gate to the Meridian gate, and waited in line again for tickets, mentally planning my “The Forbidden City Remains Largely Forbidden” blog post.

Ticket buying line

But…I got in!

True, it was crazy-crowded and pouring down rain and all I had was a much out of date Lonely Planet to provide context for what I was seeing. But I was there.

The Meridian Gate from inside the Forbidden City

And despite the crowds, and the fact that most of the cool artifacts from the palace were long ago spirited away to Taiwan along with Chiang Kai-shek, it was worth going. Only by visiting can you really get a sense of the vastness of the palace complex with its grand ceremonial spaces and warren of living quarters and administrative offices.

Large water basins are found throughout the Forbidden City. These were the fire hydrants of their day.

The wooden buildings are often fronted with marble terraces

These roof decorations can be found throughout the Forbidden City

Red and gold/yellow are the imperial colors

The clock museum inside the Forbidden City holds many wild and wonderous clocks

This seriously looks like a cassowary, the killer bird I became obsessed with after seeing it in Australia.

The moat surrounding much of the Forbidden City

Old-timey costumes available for picture-taking

Having expected my morning to be leisurely, I had signed up for an afternoon historical walking tour focused on the Boxer Rebellion, and an evening hutong food tour.

Fortunately, the weather cleared up and the walking tour was both pleasant and informative.

French post office building of the former legation quarter

The original Austro-Hungarian Legation

The former French Post Office is now a popular place to take wedding photos, judging by the line of couples waiting their turn.

This small bit of wall is all that remains of what once surrounded the entire legation quarter

Robert Hart, British Inspector General of the Chinese customs service, was well integrated into Chinese life. This is the only street sign left from the original Legation Quarter.

The Boxer Rebellion started around 1900, with the goal to drive all foreigners from China. The walled-off diplomatic quarter of Beijing came under attack and was defended by the eight nation alliance of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States

No railways came to Beijing until after the rebellion.

The Qianmen gate, damaged during the rebellion, was remade with designs by German architect Curt Rothkegel

Independent news journals, often headquartered on this street, became more common after the Boxer Rebellion

After the Boxer Rebellion, more European Influence started to be seen in greater Beijing.

Also fortunately, because my feet were by now SPENT, the food tour was by tuk-tuk through Beijing’s maze of hutongs (alleyways). The dishes were all excellent and my co-tourists, from Taiwan, flattered me with praise for my chopsticks skills. A satisfying end to the day.

Behind these buildings is a whole world of hutongs (alleyways)

Zhajiangmian, Beijing’s most famous noodle dish

Men Ding Rou Bing (Doornail Meat Pie)

 

THE GREAT WALL

The Long Wall, as it translates to in Chinese, is, you know, very long. So there are many sections to choose from. Mutianyu and Badaling are the most popular and most conveniently located to Beijing. Some parts are wheelchair accessible and can be reached via cable cars or chairlift; at Mutianyu you can even take a toboggan down from the top.

I wanted fewer crowds and a more in-depth experience than it sounded like cable cars and toboggans would provide so I arranged a full day hike.

The weather was glorious and we began with a steep walk up to the East-Five-Eye watchtower.

There, a left turn brings you to the unrestored wall and a right turn takes you to the restored section.

We walked one watchtower over to the left, just to get a taste of the unrestored experience, and then doubled back and continued for several hours on the restored (but still challenging) Great Wall. Despite all the photos I’d seen, I didn’t realize how hard walking on the wall itself would be. So many ups and downs and stairs that were too tall for my short little legs and downhill sections that were so steep I had to take tiny baby steps the whole way down.

Some of the bricks are engraved with original writing, usually stating who made the bricks. Also, the mortar? Sticky rice + limestone!

Different layers of brick and paving stone

But how many times do you get to visit the Great Wall? For most of us, not many. I’m glad I spent the money and energy to make it count.

On the way back to Beijing, my pre-arranged city sightseeing guide contacted me to tell me that she had successfully reserved tickets for Tiananmen square (of which I’d had a fleeting glance on my first day) and the Summer Palace. Also, she said, the Temple of Heaven was closed on Mondays but the park was open so I could see the top of the Temple from behind the wall.

From behind a wall? I mean…are you fucking kidding me? I told her we’d discuss it the next day, then returned to the hotel and gorged myself on complimentary Executive Lounge food and beverage before soaking my muscles in a hot tub and falling into bed.

WITH MY TOUR GUIDE 

In the morning, my guide and I finally met in person for a seriously abridged sightseeing plan starting with the Summer Palace.

Scene from Monkey King: Journey to the West

The Long Corridor is a covered walkway along Kunming Lake, decorated with many paintinings

A pretend riverfront village was set up so that the emperor and other royals living at the Summer Palace could go shopping for trinkets.

The Summer Palace is a whole complex of Classical Chinese Gardens, temples, and living quarters

One of the many boats tourists can ride

Kunming Lake is the focal point of the Summer Palace. Dowager Empress Cixi angered people when she used money earmarked for the navy to fund some of the more lavish projects here, like a marble “boat” which officially belonged to the navy but was just a fancy place for royalty to enjoy good views.

After lunch, it was off to Tiananmen. I wasn’t expecting much and it lived up to my low expectations. Tiananmen Square a lot of things (historic, meaningful to many Chinese people) but one thing it is not, is beautiful.

It’s a giant concrete square with a heavy security presence where Very Important Things have happened. Westerners immediately think of 1989, but there were also student protests in 1919, the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China by Mao Zedong in 1949, and more protests in 1976 mostly against the so-called Gang of Four.

The Monument to the People’s Heroes is in the center and many important PRC buildings surround the square, like the Mao Zedong Mausoleum, the National Museum, and the Great Hall of the People. Seeing Lenin’s waxen visage in Moscow was enough embalmed hero of communism for me so I wasn’t planning on visiting any of the buildings in Tiananmen which was a good thing because guess what else is closed on Mondays? Every building here except the public toilet and the gift shop. We learned this when my guide exclaimed she’d never seen Tiananmen so uncrowded and she asked a local guard why. Sure, you learn something new every day, but one of the things you don’t expect your supposedly experienced Beijing tour guide to learn is what Beijing sights are closed on Mondays.

Monument to the People’s Heroes

Tiananmen square, facing the Tiananmen (Gate of Heaven), where Mao’s portrait hangs

ANYWHO…she was a very nice person and she did offer to take me (no charge!) to the Temple of Heaven the next morning but I knew I’d be pressed for time as I also had a lunch appointment with a friend at the embassy. It was time to cut my losses with this guide. She had mostly made my trip more stressful—the opposite of why I hired her. She did however, join the Taiwanese food tourists in complimenting my chopsticks skills!

FINAL STOPS

It was again pouring down rain as, on my final day, I made my way to the second high-priority sightseeing stop I had expected to visit with a guide but was instead visiting solo. I will concede that there was a decent view from behind the walls. But would I have been 100% satisfied with only that view? I would not.

The path taken by the emperor’s entourage from The Forbidden City to the Temple

This fancy building was basically just a storage shed

Crowds at the temple

My final stop, the American Embassy, was the most intimidating. Security all over Beijing is pretty high. Lots of mafan, with multiple requests to see my passport or even my Diplomatic ID (which no one else has ever cared about, ever) and special rules for foreigners who want to buy a simple subway ticket. Oh and let’s not talk about the airport pat-down/groping I was treated to. The security situation around our Embassy though…that is next level. There’s our own guards of course, but several additional layers of security are provided by the Chinese who just, you know, want to keep an eye on things.

After lunch with my colleague and her husband, I headed back to Guangzhou for the last time. The last time!

My overall impression of Beijing was excellent. The food was tasty, the historic sights were interesting, and, for all you hear of Beijing’s new construction and how they’ve bulldozed their historic hutong neighborhoods into oblivion, there were way more authentic traditional (and now pricey and highly sought after) hutong homes and neighborhoods than there are in Guangzhou or Shanghai.

From my 17th floor hotel room you can get a bird’s eye view of a tightly packed hutong neighborhood.

Where the hutong ends and the wider streets begin.

This seemed to be some kind of streetside bike repair shop within the hutong neighborhood.

Some of the streets can accommodate regular sized vehicles while the narrower alleyways are off limits to everything but scooters and tuktuks

I definitely wouldn’t mind visiting again, but if that ever happens, it won’t be for a while.

Not a bad way to wrap up my China travels, all things considered.

Vino and Vegas

Since China’s zero-Covid policy essentially ended January 6, I’ve been seriously knocking things off the “I’ll never go there because of Covid” list. Now I can add two more spots…

NINGXIA

If you’ve heard of it, you either read my long complaint about a cancelled trip last fall, know a lot about wine, or are a Chinese millionaire looking for a vanity project.

Ostriches, motorcycles, and replicas of the Louvre pyramid aren’t strictly required for winemaking, but if money’s no object, why not?

Grapes have been grown here since the ’80s but only recently has the region popped up on the radar of oenophiles interested in exploring new horizons. Tourist infrastructure, however, isn’t quite there and westerners are rarely seen. I was stared at and photographed more here than anywhere else in China.

Ningxia probably wouldn’t even have occurred to me except that my go-to tour company launched a trip. 

So off I went to Yinchuan, a small-by-Chinese-standards city along the Yellow River in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The name recognizes it as home to one of China’s non-Han ethnicities, the Hui. Hui are Muslim descendants of Silk Road travelers coming from as far away as Persia and the Arabian peninsula, but mostly from Central Asia. Indeed, Yinchuan felt more like a Central Asian city than anything I’ve visited since leaving Kazakhstan.

Our trip began with a whole lamb BBQ feast, accompanied by entertainment.

I’ll be honest, there’s not a ton to do there besides drink wine. Still, we did hit a few attractions in between drinking tasting sessions.

From 1038 to 1227 the region was home to the Xixia dynasty. Alas, Ningxia borders Inner Mongolia and if you followed me though Uzbekistan you know this is not the first time I’ve visited a city formerly obliterated by Genghis Khan and company. Although in this case “and company” had to finish the job alone as the great Khan died in this very city, before final conquest was complete.

One of the few traces left of the Xixia people are their imperial tombs, resembling giant termite mounds.

Even older than the Xixia are those who, ten thousand years ago, drew petroglyphs on the rocks in the mountains.

Sun God carving

Old watchtower built into the mountainside

Look closely you see an alien head plus a couple of creepy handprints.

The rest of our activities were mostly drinking wine and eating. In this desert climate with rocky soil and harsh winters, populated by Muslims, that meant lamb BBQ, lamb kebabs, and lamb hotpot, with a sprinkling of beef, rabbit, and camel dishes, wheat noodles, foraged desert greens, and a sweet tea made with the highly-prized Ningxia goji berry.

The wine ranged from dry to sweet, and the specialty of the region is Marselan, a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. The wineries varied from massive estates, to “mom-and-pop” affairs, to spots willing to set up a tasting for us despite not being technically open to the public.

Delicious noodle soup (served alongside mouths agape stares from local kids not used to seeing foreigners)

Silver Heights helped put Ningxia on the wine-lovers’ map

The soil here is full of rocks, which need to be cleared from the vineyards and are sometimes upcycled into the surrounding architecture

To protect them from the brutal winter weather, vines are hand buried each fall and then unburied in the spring

Chilean winemaker contending with Ningxia’s wind and cold snaps

Chateau Yuanshi tasting room

Tracking weather and soil conditions at the massive Xige winery

Xige’s fermentation workshop

Some of the oldest vines in the region, grown within the park that holds the Xi Xia tombs

Cranking out kebabs

Hot pot

Exclusive access was a blessing because we traveled during a Chinese holiday and, despite Ningxia’s far-flung locale and lack of blockbuster attractions, the full force and power of Chinese domestic tourism was on display. Even at museums partially filled with replicas, crowds seriously rivaled those I’ve encountered at the Louvre and the Uffizi. Had me almost missing those Covid restrictions!

MACAU

Speaking of crowds, Macau is already one of the most densely populated cities in the world, to which it adds an economy dependent upon welcoming in millions of visitors.

People call it “the Las Vegas of China” but pre-pandemic it actually far outpaced its American cousin in parting fools from their money.

The Grand Lisboa, with it’s shape resembling the top of a pineapple, is one of Macau’s most iconic sights.

I feel like Macau is less well known than Hong Kong, but this “Special Administrative Region” offers many of the same delights: visa-free entry, access to the actual world wide web instead of the CCP approved internet, a more international vibe than the mainland, an east meets west colonial history, and proximity to Guangzhou. For most of my time in China it’s also been similarly “so close yet so far away.”

Macau is also only a 50-80 minute train ride from Guangzhou, although instead of going through immigration and customs at the train station as in Hong Kong, you arrive in Zhuhai and then walk over the border to Macau. Perhaps it will get better as we get further away from zero-Covid days, but my border crossing experience was pure chaos, with a constant stream of people coming and going, and the occasional foreign passport holder (me) messing up a system mostly set up to process people crossing with Chinese ID cards.

Despite the chaos, Macau has been high on my priority list for some time. I would love to say it was all because of my deep interest in the (important!) work of a relative of mine who assisted domestic violence victims there for many years.

Sisters of the Good Shepherd – Mutual Assistance Centre for Women

But I will confess an even stronger draw was my addiction to the Korean soap opera, Boys Over Flowers, which filmed some key episodes in Macau.

Do I wish I had more high minded taste? Sometimes. 

I did try to get in touch with the center that Sister Juliana Devoy founded. Alas, they never responded to my request to visit. So I had to focus on eating and sightseeing. Since Macau was under Portuguese control for over 400 years, it’s got an intriguing mix of Portuguese and Cantonese history, food, and architecture.

 

Side view of the façade of St. Paul’s

The Ruins of St. Paul is one of Macau’s most famous sights: The Jesuit church dating from the early 1600s was destroyed by a fire during a typhoon in 1835 and now only the façade remains standing.

These streets of Macau stood in for Shanghai in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”

The most famous of Macanese foods is probably the egg tart—it looks much like an egg tart you’d find on a dim sum cart in any US Chinatown but was inspired by the Portuguese pastel de nata and is a sweeter, less eggy-tasting version than Hong Kong’s.

Less hype than some other egg tart spots but these Pastéis de Chaves offerings were heavenly

The best Macanese egg tart recipe was the secret of a husband-wife team but when the couple divorced, the wife (Margaret, of Margaret’s Café e Nata) sold the recipe to KFC and now every KFC in Asia serves them. The original Margaret’s doesn’t seem to be suffering. I haven’t seen lines like this since daily Covid testing ended.

Other popular dishes include beef offal, pork jerky, and pork chop sandwiches, none of which I tried (with varying degrees of regret). I find that high heat and humidity can really dampen my appetite and Canton weather has turned into a full steam sauna these past few weeks. I had to interrupt sightseeing a few times to return to my hotel and use the hair dryer on my bra. I did still treat myself to milk tea and a yummy Portuguese dinner, which included vinho verde and serradura (sawdust pudding), a delicious Portuguese dessert.

While casinos are not my thing, the mock European cities were fun to wander about. The Venetian was the most surreally over the top while I felt like the Parisian kind of rested on its outside Eiffel Tower replica and didn’t try as hard inside. The Londoner was sorely lacking a decent pub but I saw that one is under construction.

Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Campanile di San Marco all within walking distance of one another!

Who needs a chunnel to get from London to Paris?

Pretend London Underground

Big Ben and Campanile San Marco

The Doge’s Palace

I haven’t been to Venice in a while but I don’t recall a Victoria’s Secret under the clock.

Macau’s history as a European colony is way more architecturally visible than Hong Kong’s, but the city itself felt less truly international. Also maybe a bit less easy to get around since English isn’t quite as ubiquitous and there’s no Uber or metro system. Fortunately I found the buses were super easy to navigate and knowing a smidgeon of Spanish makes reading Portuguese street signs easy.

As with Hong Kong, a person like me who lives in China comes here to escape the “Chinese-ness” of the mainland. So what drew me to Macau and Hong Kong probably wouldn’t be what would draw most U,S. tourists. Still, for anyone looking to dip a toe into China, without the mafan of China’s visa process, internet firewall, and language barrier, Macau+Hong Kong offers enough to keep you busy for a week and to give you a real taste of China, or at least of Cantonese China. Would recommend!

#YourTaxpayerDollarsAtWork (Finally!)

Is there any subject I’ve exhausted more than obtaining a mythical R&R?

One of the top benefits of my job is that at posts with some level of hardship, we get one or more R&Rs where #YourTaxpayerDollarsAtWork pay the ‘to and from’ expenses to a spot you find restful and recuperative. Sky’s the limit on the ticket price if you go economy class to the U.S. or to the officially designated foreign R&R city (China’s is Sydney). If you choose elsewhere, Uncle Sam sets a price cap.

I planned a dreamy 2020 price-capped R&R, but Covid scuttled those plans. During my time in China, zero-Covid policies meant flights were rare, fares were $10k+, and quarantine hotels mandatory. A price cap wouldn’t cut it no matter where I wanted to go.

Australia hadn’t previously been high on my list but with nonstop flights from Guangzhou, a mere two hour time difference, airfare and quarantine covered no matter the price, it seemed like the best option.

Alas, in an effort to avoid getting on the wrong side of zero-Covid policies, the embassy created a process to bring people into China only via charter flights, following a week long quarantine and testing process in Washington D.C. This basically meant U.S. R&Rs only.

I could seek special dispensation to skirt the process, but I planned and cancelled two different trips as I sought, but failed to attain, said dispensation.

Higher-ups eventually issued official guidance conceding that, yes, we could go to Sydney, but only if we returned via the charter flight. Factoring in quarantine and two extra trips over the Pacific would stretch a two week vacation into a five week absence.

Crazy? I still considered it.

But then, psych! China abandoned zero-Covid and our embassy eliminated the mandatory charter flights.

Whereto leads all this prelude? So you can understand how, over the course of 12 months, Australia went from “not very high on my list” to “the holy grail of vacations.” That’s my excuse for loading up on experiences that were a bit over the top for my usual frugal travel style.

Here’s a massive photo dump of my favorite moments, including the majesty of Uluru, the serenity of snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, and the wonder of the cassowary, which I somehow lived my whole life without ever knowing about before now.

Sydney

Maybe the most international city I’ve visited other than London? I heard conversations in English, Chinese, Spanish, unidentifiable (to me) Slavic languages, accents ranging from European to South Asian to South American.

I stayed in The Rocks, Sydney’s most historic neighborhood. As an American, I am used to visiting places where everything is much older than anything my own country has to offer. But Sydney is so (comparatively) new! And with historic architecture dating mostly from the Victorian era, I was half expecting to see the artful dodger scampering around the next corner.

A highlight of my time in Sydney was the Harbour Bridge Climb.

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While I mostly hung around the city, I did venture out to check out some beaches…

…and take a day trip to the Blue Mountains and rainforest.

The Three Sisters rock formation

Prior to tourism, the industry in this area was coal mining

The three sisters peeking out behind the trees

Another view of the three sisters

transport from one side of the valley to another

Katoomba cascades

Of course I had snap pics of the opera house from many different angles.

Sydney Opera House from Circular Quay

View of the opera house from the harbor bridge

View from across the Harbour Bridge

The cuisines available throughout my trip, but especially in Sydney, were myriad. Chinatown had a diversity of food I’ve not seen outside of China. If I ever need a nostalgia tour of my own food tours in China I know where to go!

While this beef pie was delicious, Sydney fortunately offers much more than traditional British cuisine.

Crocodile Pizza

Kangaroo Kebabs

Offering in the local grocery store

Best named restaurant of the trip!

Ayers Rock/Uluru

As fans of Midnight Oil know, Uluru was sacred to the aboriginal people long before it was appropriated by the colonizers who renamed it Ayers Rock and made it a tourist destination. Aboriginal people again control the land, and while there are still lots of tourists, their access is controlled by the locals, in partnership with the national parks. Climbs to the top of the rock are no longer allowed and certain areas are off limits to tourists and/or their cameras. But there’s still so much to see and do.

I started with a helicopter ride over the two most iconic sights: Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Uluru (Ayers Rock).

 

I also did a sunset dinner at the Field of Light art installation and sunrise hikes at Kata Tjuta and Uluru. Every change of light brings a new perspective. My brief stop in the “red center” was well worth it and definitely offered the best opportunities to learn about indigenous culture.

First glimpse of Uluru and Kata Tjuta from the airplane

Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) from helicopter

Uluru (Ayers Rock) from Helicopter

Sunset at Uluru

Sunset Kata Tjuta

Field of Light

I was a big fan of the aboriginal painting style which involves lots of dots as well as lots of paintings of “bush medicine leaves.” I bought this painting from the artist.

Sunrise Uluru

Sunrise Kata Tjuta

Hike around Uluru

 

Port Douglas/Great Barrier Reef

It’s hard to beat Uluru. But for single best day of the trip, I think I give the edge to the day spent snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef.

GIANT CLAM!

The tour company focuses on snorkeling but on every tour they also have marine biologists/divers doing coral planting

I think this is a flutemouth?

another flutemouth?

I think these are damselfish

I believe that’s a Striped Surgeonfish in the top left

You can see the surface of the water at the top, which gives you an idea of how close to the surface some of the best coral is.

Serene and blissful.

But Port Douglas is where “the rainforest meets the reef,” so I visited there as well.

Basket Ferns

Termite mound

Lizard

Daintree rainforest is the world’s oldest. Which I guess it would have to be if it is harboring dinosaurs, which it 100% is, in the form of the world’s third largest bird, the cassowary. On my trip we encountered a papa cassowary and two chicks walking across the road.

The males rear the young so we knew this was a father with his chicks

The way this thing walks…straight out of Jurassic Park.

I was lucky to see them in the wild but felt I needed a closer encounter than from the rear window of a car so I headed to a wildlife park.

The set-up there allowed most animals to roam freely while humans were confined to specific paths. Basically you were not to bother them, but if they wanted to bother you…

But what if the bird touches you?

 

$2 buys you a bag of emu and kangaroo food.

Teddy the koala

Koala photo shoots allowed during limited times

Cassowaries are the exception to this roaming policy. They, and their velociraptor-style claws, are kept very a safe distance from people.

Check out those claws!

My takeaway after two weeks? Australian nature is pretty cool but basically never runs out of ways to kill you.

Apparently Australia is home to 21 of the world’s 25 deadliest snakes!

Despite the dangers, I survived and had a marvelous time.

My sincere thanks to all of the US taxpayers who contributed to purchasing that airplane ticket. I promise to put your taxpayer dollars to work at every opportunity!

In the Neighborhood

It’s winding down. With only a few short months left in China, the end of zero-Covid makes it easier for me to travel, while also making work busier so it’s harder for me to get away. The solution to my travel itch has been some weekend-able jaunts, letting me catch things that have been close but inaccessible until recently.

Daling Village and Yuyinshanfang

This consulate-organized day-trip was planned in the before times when it was, of course, postponed due to Covid. Daling is a cute little village, technically I think contained within the outer city limits of Guangzhou, and built around some canals.

A feature of older Guangdong architecture: oyster shells used to provide insulation on the houses.

Menshen are “door gods” used to protect against evil. I never get tired of seeing the various iterations of these.

Our guide says this is where old maids traditionally went to live. In a small, windowless hut.

A shop in Daling carries on with the traditional art of fabric dying and shoe making

The Dragon Boat Festival is one of China’s most important holidays. The boat on the right is purely decorative. The boat on the left looks like a sunken ruin but actually this is how they store dragon boats: submerged in the mud. They are taken out and cleaned up come festival time.

Yuyin Shan Fang (Yuyin Hill House) is one of the most famous Chinese gardens in Guangdong. The authentic part of the garden and house is pretty, although probably best appreciated by those who already know something about Chinese architecture and landscape architecture.

Foshan

Foshan (translates to Buddha Mountain) is a suburb of Guangzhou, reachable by metro but not easy to visit since they used a different health code system than Guangzhou, one that was less friendly towards foreigners. A co-worker who has lived there her whole life told me I must visit (now that I can). She even drafted a day-trip itinerary for me:

Eva’s Foshan Itinerary:

• Morning: Zumiao （祖庙）and Lingnan Tiandi （岭南天地）: Take line 3 from Zhujiang New Town and transfer to Guangfo line （广佛线） in （Lijiao）沥滘 station. Get off at the Zumiao （祖庙） station. It will take about an hour. Zumiao Temple has lion dancing performance three times a day: 10:00, 14:15, 15:30. The lion dancing is the high standard one, don’t miss it! It has Cantonese Opera performance during weekend too.
• Lunch: Lingnan Tiandi. It’s right next to Zumiao, a really lovely place to walk around.
• Afternoon: 南风古灶 the ancient kiln. Take a taxi or metro, about 20 mins by Taxi. That area has the kiln obviously, haha. and it has shops selling ceramics products. The kiln is located in Shiwan (石湾) where I was born 😊. The town is famous for ceramics. Then take a taxi back to Zumiao metro station and come back to Guangzhou.

The lion dancing was indeed high standard— a lion dancing school is associated with the temple.

Zumiao is also a popular stop for those interested in Kung Fu: Wong Fei-hung, famous folk hero and martial artist, was born in Foshan.

After the temple, I wandered the adjacent “lingnan xintiandi” neighborhood with its adorable lanes, shops, and restaurants, all decorated for Year of the Rabbit.

There’s also a xintiandi (“new heaven and earth”) in Shanghai. Both are basically car free areas renovated or re-built in a traditional architectural styles (Shikumen in Shanghai, Lingnan in Foshan). China tore down so many of its older buildings in the name of progress, only to discover that people yearned for them; now it’s not uncommon to have newer developments rebuilt or restored in the old style.

I had my doubts about the ancientness of the Nanfeng “ancient kiln.” Sometimes in China what they translate as “ancient” is just “sort of old.” Which is funny because if any country has truly ancient history, it’s China! Yet many an advertised “ancient village” turns out to be from the late 1800s. However, they’ve been making pottery here since the stone age and this particular kiln is a legit 500 years old.

There were tons of shops selling ceramics, practical and decorative, beautiful and…less so.

Foshan was very laid back and deserves to be visited by anyone making a stop in Guangzhou. I can’t believe this whole time it was only an hour away by metro!

Hong Kong

Also “only one hour away” (by fast train, not metro), Hong Kong has been taunting me with its proximity since day one. First it was rules set by the Chinese government (quarantine-related) that kept me on the mainland and then it was rules set by my own government (which passport—diplomatic or tourist). But finally, wrinkles were ironed out and I arrived in Hong Kong, two passports in hand (the black diplomatic passport to exit mainland China; the blue tourist passport to enter Hong Kong).

“I hope I hate it,” I said to my co-worker/co-traveler, “because if I love it I’m going to be mad that it’s been so close but so inaccessible for the past 20 months.”

Reader, I did not hate it. Did I love it more than any other city I’ve ever been to? Maybe not. But was it interesting and vibrant and did it feel very different than (and a welcome respite from) mainland China? Totally.

Obviously many people come to Hong Kong, usually from the west, to see something of China. For those people, there are temples and markets and buddhas and dim sum restaurants.

Others visit from the mainland, to see less of China. And for them there are non-Chinese restaurants and craft beers and the ability to use google maps without being blocked by the mainland’s internet controls.

We only went for one night but that gave us time to eat French fusion dim sum and Hong Kong egg waffles.

fois gras dumplings

truffle brie dumplings

Passionfruit coconut milk panna cotta

Little Bao serves sandwiches in baozi buns

“French fusion dim sum?” laughed my boss when I told him what I ate in Hong Kong, “What do they do? Inject foie gras into a dumpling?” Actually, that IS what they do and it IS one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

We went to the top of Victoria Peak via Asia’s oldest funicular and rode an old school ferry across the harbor. We wanted to take the cable car to visit the world’s largest sitting buddha statue but alas, the cable car was closed for renovation and we had to take the bus.

Star Ferry

View from Victoria Peak

So tempting!

Hong Kong lacks both the instantly recognizable modern skyline and the well-preserved colonial architecture of Shanghai, but completely bests that city in the category of truly international city. Languages, ethnicities, and food traditions are far more varied than anywhere I’ve been on the mainland. Mao isn’t on every single bill in your wallet (they use the Hong Kong Dollar instead of the Renminbi) and instead of Wechat and Didi you can use Amex and Uber.

I understand the concerns about the direction Hong Kong is headed as Beijing leadership exerts more heavy-handed control but to me, it still seemed a world away. I hope I can squeeze in at least one more visit before I depart in June. But first…I’m headed to another British island colony!

The Western Hinterlands

Guangdong Province, where I live, translates to something like “eastern expanse” while the neighboring province, Guangxi, translates to “western expanse.”

In the long ago times, a more honest translation might have been the western and eastern hinterlands. Being sent this far away from the centers of power in the north exiled Han Chinese from both “civilization” and…noodles.

Northerners desperately missed the wheat noodles they couldn’t make in a hot southern climate where wheat doesn’t grow well. Which is how the rice noodle was invented and spread throughout southeast Asia. The exile’s substitute.

And boy did I ever eat a lot of rice noodles when my long-planned but oft-thwarted attempts to visit Guangxi, home of the rice noodle and a landscape so famous it’s on the 20 yuan note, finally became unthwarted.

The limestone karst peaks along the Li River in Guilin and Yangshuo have made this a popular stop for tourists since the 1980s and from Guangzhou it’s probably the closest major tourist site in mainland China, about three hours on a fast train. Yet one thing (Covid policies) and another (more Covid policies) kept preventing me from getting there.

Until now!

Besides rice noodles, Guangxi people eat river fish, snails, and pickled everything. They also love to stuff things…stuffed tofu, stuffed snails, and youtiao (fried dough) stuffed with sweetened sticky rice and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

stuffed tofu

Snails are removed from the shell, chopped and mixed with seasoned pork, and then restuffed into the shells

We started with a dinner walking tour (yes, another food tour with my favorite company. I’m trying to collect the full set before I leave China and I am so close!).

Besides the aforementioned youtiao, we snacked on pickled vegetables and tried two kinds of rice noodles, one of which translates as intestine noodles, not because they are made with intestines, but because they are more like noodle packets, stuffed with meat like my intestines were stuffed after so much delicious food! For dessert I tried guilinggao, a refreshing dessert soup of coconut milk and cubes of jelly that used to be made with a specific tortoise shell and now may or may not involve turtles but not the endangered kind that used to be used.

Guilinggao dessert soup

Noodles aren’t just for dinner. Throughout China they are served for breakfast in different variations. In Guangxi, you can trade in your eggs and bacon or your kale smoothie for a bowl of dry (no broth) noodles topped with meat and your choice from a table full of sour and spicy condiments. This side of the road breakfast noodle stop en route from Guilin to Yangshuo has been around for 30 years and is the product of a government project to help women become restaurant owners.

At a local market, our guide promised to steer us away from dog meat (he said it was rare, but occasionally still found here) and towards a snack stand serving various rice cakes as well as “oil tea,” a unique-to-Guilin soup/drink made by frying tea leaves with spices in peanut oil, and then adding hot water, peanuts, and puffed rice. It was quite mild in taste and somewhere between a drink and a soup.

No matter how many pictures you’ve seen or how many 20 yuan notes are in your wallet (not many, everyone uses wechat pay), it’s hard to comprehend the overwhelmingness of this landscape until you are actually in it. I had imagined one or two pretty bends along the river; instead there is karst everywhere, looming over and adding a picturesque touch to train stations and gas stations and the multitude of hotels supporting all these tourists.

Elephant Trunk Hill

Forget the Great Wall. This is the OG tourist site of modern China. Even Nixon made a stop! So while there’s no complete escape from the crowds, our tour organizers minimized the headache, planning activities that took us away from worst of it. For example, instead of taking us to the popular Assembling Dragon Cave, with concrete paths and a light show, we went to Moon Water Cave, where we were the only spelunkers in sight. (We were told we’d have to walk through some water that might go knee deep. The person who measured that must have been taller than me because that water went way above my knees!)

The times we encountered the tourist throngs were when we took the obligatory raft ride on the river…

…and when we attended the optional but recommended light show.

They love a nighttime light show here, usually accompanied by singing and dancing inspired by local customs. Yangshuo’s is is purported to be the first, started in 2004 as the brain child of the film director also responsible for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the movie “Raise the Red Lantern.”

“Impressions of Sister Liu” (Sister Liu is a legendary folk hero of the Zhuang, a local minority group) has a seating capacity of three thousand and runs every night — three or four times a night during the busiest Chinese holidays. This is not generally my kind of thing but as this is the original lightshow that spawned the craze and I did love “Raise the Red Lantern,” I went with it. The Yangshuo backdrop made it special, but I don’t think I’d bother with any other iterations.

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We rounded out the weekend with a ride through the countryside on old school motorcycles (I rode in the sidecar), a cooking class where we made the popular local dish, beer fish, and a final hike for some amazing views.

Said to be good for rheumatism

Stuffed mushrooms with a radish garnish. All made by ME!

On the train ride home I felt a bit melancholy. Guangxi had been right next door all this time and yet it took me over a year and a half to get there. Things have changed so much in China in the last few months and now I only have a few months left to enjoy our new freedom. Could it be that I will miss China when I have to leave? I think I might.  I better make the most of my remaining time.

Return of the Blue Passport

China’s zero-Covid policy for international arrivals ended January 8th. Also, we had several days off for Lunar New Year January 22nd.

“Siri, what countries don’t celebrate Lunar New Year (i.e. sights are open) and have nonstop flights from Guangzhou?”

Time to take that blue passport out for a spin in Cambodia.

Confusingly, I have two passports. My black dip(lomatic) passport is for official business. As it contains my Chinese visa and grants me some diplomatic privileges within the country, I carry it throughout China even when I am on personal travel. My blue tourist passport…has been sitting unused in a drawer since 2019.

I was apprehensive about venturing into blue passport world. While the threat of involuntary detention in a fever hospital may be over, one still needs a negative test to return to China. Fortunately a colleague of mine also wanted to travel, guaranteeing me company if we both got caught out, or a buddy to send along extra clothes and my Nintendo Switch if only I tested positive.

Siem Reap

We started in Siem Reap, near the Angkor Archeological Park. The park is simply massive, full of temples and sundry remains from the 9th to the 15th century Khmer Empire. Temples were built either as Buddhist or Hindu, many then “retrofitted” (Buddhas chiseled off the walls; Vishnu bas-reliefs obliterated) to accommodate the other faith.

In early days of tourism, when people transited by elephants instead of tuk-tuks, a petite and a grand circuit of the park were established. We did both over two days.

Pre Rup Hindu Temple

Pre Rup Hindu Temple and Neak Pean Island Buddhist Temple

 

The entrance to Preah Khan Temple, where now headless figures hold the body of a large snake

The seven-headed serpent or naga, seen in the foreground, is a popular image throughout Cambodia

Preah Khan, originally a Buddhist site with Hindu elements added later

 

The small but exquisite 10th century Banteay Srei, dedicated to Shiva, was a personal favorite.

 

At Bayon Temple, piles of stones reveal themselves, on closer examination, to be dozens of faces.

 

Also at Bayon temple…Monkeys!

 

A must see for any young Earth creationists, this carving appears to show a stegosaurus,

Ta Prohm, now known as the “Tomb Raider” Temple.

 

Of course, the star of the show is Angkor Wat, where we arrived for sunrise.

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I confess I wouldn’t call the sunrise visit a must-do. Maybe because I’ve experienced Tikal and the Inca Trail.

Seeing inside Angkor Wat, however, was nothing short of extraordinary. The size, intricacy, and beauty was awe-inspiring.

 

Templed out, it was time for Phnom Penh where, sadly, the ugliness of modern history is awe-inspiring in a very different way.

We did not visit the Killing Fields, but did spend several hours at S-21, aka the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Originally a school, the complex was converted to “Security Prison 21” during the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975-1979. I have been to museums in Budapest and Kazakhstan focused on Nazi and Soviet detention systems. Visiting S-21 is a darker experience even than those. Of between 14,000 and 17,000 prisoners detained, only twelve are thought to have survived.

 

Still, Cambodia is not defined by its past tragedy. Phnom Penh today is a cheerful, if chaotic, city that offers many markets, an interesting museum, and a royal palace.

Central Market Interior

This egg and motorbike situation is slapstick comedy waiting to happen

Preparing pineapples

Art Deco Central Market and Other Local Markets

 

Royal Palace Complex

Oh, and food.

Roadside Snack

 

A Surprising Array of Beer Options

Lost Plate, the tour company that has facilitated most of my China travel, currently has food tours in only three places: China, Oregon, and Cambodia. It turns out my travelling companion is as much of a fan as I am so she suggested we do all three of their Cambodia offerings. As I am what dog trainers call “food motivated,” I was happy to comply.

Into the countryside

Headed home at sunset

Our first food tour included a stop in this private home in a small village outside Siem Reap

This man’s wife cooked us the meal and he served it

Village volleyball game

If you want fancy restaurants, these food tours are not for you.

I can’t even with these beef skewers. Some of the best things I’ve eaten in my life.

Fish amok, Cambodia’s National Dish

Night market dessert stop

Cambodian coffee with condensed milk

Soon to be deep-fried sesame snack cakes

Cambodian Breakfast: noodles and coffee

Yellow breakfast pancake (filled with ground pork)

Love the hyper-local focus of these food tours. In Siem Reap they even took us out to a small village to eat in someone’s home.

Unsurprisingly, we met others on our tours who were a) familiar with Lost Plate from living in China, and b) also testing the waters of travel outside the Middle Kingdom. Plenty of stories to swap as we filled our bellies.

Because the guides they hire are the best, our Phnom Penh breakfast tour guide went above and beyond to help us find the clinic where we could get a Covid test before our return flight. This was the one stress of the trip (made less stressful by our helpful guide). Fortunately, we both tested negative and, “fit to fly” certificates in hand, boarded the plane back to China. After landing we just walked off the plane and out into the open. No quarantines. No health codes to check before leaving the airport. A whole new world!

Long live my blue passport! May it have many more adventures.

Final meal of the trip, gifted to me by my seatmate on the flight back. More or less frightening than the spider?

Christmas in Quarantine

London, Florence, Malta, Shanghai…and now a Chinese quarantine hotel. Quite the varied settings for Christmas. 

Why the quarantine?

Sadly, my uncle Dave, my dad’s brother, died unexpectedly in late November. While I couldn’t use official bereavement leave (uncle doesn’t count as a close enough relative) to attend his memorial, in normal times and places I could just use my own annual leave and buy my own ticket. Would that I lived in a normal time or place.

Travel in and out of China is prohibitively expensive. As in $5-10k for flights, plus the expense of quarantine on return. The only realistic way for me to go was via an official R&R, where expenses are covered by Uncle Sam.

However, the policy of my employer has been that we can only travel out of China if we return via one of the monthly charter flights.

I understand the reasoning. If you test positive on arrival you get medevaced out. Medevacs are expensive AF so routing a person to D.C. for some pre-departure self-isolation and thorough Covid testing does make financial sense.

However, the charter flight schedule would have had me absent an entire month. That seemed like a lot of Minnesota winter for someone used to life in a sub-tropical zone.

Pretty but deadly

I requested permission to return via a regular commercial flight instead.

It was a nail biter waiting for approval. I finally got the go-ahead to buy tickets on Tuesday, for a flight that left Saturday.

And then China just…decided to end its zero-Covid policy. Overnight, or at least over the course of the few days between Tuesday and Saturday, neighborhoods on lockdown opened up, announcements were made that we no longer needed to do daily testing, and testing sites disappeared. Chaos swirled. 

The problem is that I did still need a negative test to leave the country. I spent the day before my flight struggling to find an open testing site. The three in my neighborhood had closed, two foreigner-friendly clinics told me they were directed by local authorities to stop testing, and the one public clinic closed right as I reached the front of the line.

The arrow points to the front of the line

Tears may have been shed before a hot tip from a coworker sent me to a secret site in a nearby office building. Of course later, on my walk home, my usual neighborhood testing booth was back up and running. What the hell? No one seemed to know what was going on. 

Back in the US I visited family and friends in Minnesota and California, helped my cousin with the eulogy at the memorial service, ate my weight in Hawaiian poke bowls, met some new family members, and attended three likely super spreader events.

Meeting my new cousin, Lillian

Yet I still tested negative for Covid! Off on the 15 hour flight back to Guangzhou I went.

Despite changes in domestic policy, international flight protocol remained as it had been. Flight attendants wore full PPE and food service was, for safety reasons, limited to what one person called “a garbage bag full of snacks.”

Good thing I ate before I got on the plane.

On arrival, my own personal da bai 大白 escorted me off the plane and helped me with testing, customs, and baggage claim before putting me on a bus to the quarantine hotel.

The ubiquitous da bai (big white)

Current quarantine requirements are 5+3: five days in a hotel, followed by three in my own apartment. On the one hand, this is down significantly from my 2021 arrival, which required 14 days in quarantine. On the other hand, my first quarantine was part of a serious effort to maintain zero-Covid. This quarantine struck me as mostly performative.

During the two weeks I was gone, almost all remnants of zero-Covid evaporated and the virus spread extensively in cities throughout China, including Guangzhou. Even if I had returned with raging Covid, would it really make any difference to the case count in a city of 17 million? Why not let me self-isolate and take home tests in my own apartment? Which was, after all, what locals were now instructed to do!

I guess mine is not to reason why. Mine is but to sit in a quarantine hotel room for five days eating…not the most appetizing food. 

But in a bittersweet twist, my uncle Dave came through for me. Before he died he had purchased, but not yet sent, a gift for me. I hauled it back in my suitcase and on days when rice was the only part of meal service I found edible, I could at least spice it up.

On Christmas Day I exited Stage One of quarantine and returned to my apartment for Stage Two. I’m still locked in, but in my own space and, importantly, with access to alcohol.

Assuming I continue to test negative, I can return to work later this week. Then begins my final six months in China. I have no idea what they will bring. Will I finally get to go to Hong Kong? Will my “trips taken” ultimately outnumber my “trips cancelled”?

Anyone who hasn’t lived in China during zero-Covid probably can’t comprehend how completely whiplash-inducing this has been. The health code that ruled my life for the past 18 months, deciding if I could go into shopping malls, get on a plane, or take the metro? Now meaningless. Requirement for negative covid test to purchase cold and fever meds? Lifted! Quarantine on arrival from international destinations? Rumored to be eliminated January 8th.

It’s bonkers. But bring on 2023!

Excess Baggage

Do you have a purse, briefcase, suitcase, backpack, or even a laptop sleeve? There’s a 70-80% chance that all or part of it comes from Shiling town, in the Huadu district of Guangzhou city in Guangdong Province, China. Five square kilometers with a worldwide impact.

Join me on a journey into the global supply chain…

I recently read a novel centered around Guangzhou’s counterfeit bag trade called, appropriately enough, Counterfeit. Inspired by the novel, I visited the real life Guangzhou market that sells the final products, some counterfeit, some not.

Then, when a local tour company offered a day-trip called Made in China – An Insider’s Tour into the World’s Bag Factory, I had an opportunity to learn even more about the world of bag making. Is it weird that I jumped at the chance?

Our first stop was indeed a factory, albeit not one making counterfeits. We were welcomed in, given a presentation about the company, and encouraged to take pics and video despite signs saying otherwise.

No photos policies are actually often part of an effort to stop counterfeiting

However, as workers are paid not by the hour but by the finished product, we were warned they probably wouldn’t want to stop and chat with us.

Here is where I stop to acknowledge the many valid concerns about forced or sweatshop labor in China. And yet, an interesting development in the bag industry: China’s labor is already a bit too expensive for some western retailers. To compete, our guide/factory owner has opened factories in neighboring Myanmar, where labor is cheaper. Much of what they do here in China is now limited to purchasing materials, creating samples, and then shipping those across the border for mass production.

During our pre-tour Q&A, we talked about the human rights concerns in China and Myanmar and how to balance that with the fact that if you shut down a factory a thousand people are out of a job. And how the factory owners are beholden to the often fickle demands of big western retailers. When said retailers noticed the exchange rate between the Myanmar Kyat and pretty much every other currency was more favorable than it had been, they tried to negotiate a new, lower, price per bag. Which then required the factory owner to show the receipts for a) the extra cost of electricity when you are running your own generator because an unstable government can’t keep a stable power grid running, and b) the mid-month payment of rice and cooking oil to workers whose monthly paycheck was no longer quite cutting it.

Other than the laborers themselves, I don’t think there are any heroes in this story. That being said, I didn’t see any truly inhumane working conditions during my tour.

Conditions in the market and especially the subcontractor shops (see below), while not as good as the factory, were also not terrible. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t see working conditions that I would enjoy, I just didn’t see anything that made me feel committed to human extinction as the best possible course of action. Although I know those conditions could well exist somewhere. After all, this district is chock full of factories I didn’t see inside of.

Burned-out factory, a testament to unsafe conditions. While this fire was two years ago, I am sure the potential for others still exists.

Why so many bag factories in one place? Proximity to the wholesale market.

Imagine everything you can think of to make a bag and several things you haven’t. Thread? Fabric? Zippers? Foam? Paint? It’s all a couple of kilometers away.

You can go from factory to wholesale market to subcontractor district, all on foot. Although delivery bikes and tuk-tuks abound, to help speed things up.

Our last stop of the day was the aforementioned subcontractor area. While in the factory we saw machines that cut patterns and tested the durability of wheelie suitcases, and sewing machines that are set to semi-automatically stich a specific pattern, there’s still lots of work that needs to be done by hand. Plus work that needs to be done by specialized machines that not every factory wants to purchase. They farm this work out to small subcontractor shops lining the storefronts in nearby streets.

This machine stiches quilted bags and embroidery designs

This district was certainly the grittiest part of our tour, with the least desirable working conditions. The neighborhood was also the epitome of dense urban living. Residential, working, shopping, and restaurant spaces are all stacked up on top of each other. Even I, a lover of mixed-use urban development, found this particular atmosphere a tad claustrophobic. You simply cannot understand the density of a Chinese city until you’ve visited one.

Final reflections

I suspect anyone who has any bag purchased at any price point at any major store (from the fanciest at Nordstrom to the cheapest at TJ Maxx), likely has a piece of Shiling village in their possession.

But it goes beyond the big retailers. Before this tour I would have told you that my bags were in that 20-30% that did not come from China. Because while I do love a bag, my favorites are unique items mostly picked up on my travels.

Now? I think I was naïve. Yes my bags come from the leather market of Fes, an Indie designer from Olympia, and a fair trade shop in Kazakhstan. But the buckles, snaps, zippers, and straps…where do those come from? I have my suspicions.

Also, this is exactly what I love about living in a foreign country. If I visited China on the standard two week trip, would I sacrifice a day of my precious vacation to visit a dingy Guangdong manufacturing district? Probably not.

Instead I live here, and while I have yet to make it to the Great Wall or Mao’s mausoleum, I have seen the birthplace of your handbag. Which is kinda cool.

Not Ningxia

In August, high off the success of my fantastic two weeks in Yunnan, I immediately reserved another trip, this one to take place over the super long weekend known as Golden Week, celebrating the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Anxious to make use of the free time, I chose a tour of China’s wine country, Ningxia. Yes, there’s wine country in China, although it doesn’t attract the tourists of Napa Valley. Or even Prosser.

Yeah, yeah, there were the usual PRC government proclamations discouraging travel, but I figured as wine appreciation is still relatively new in China, and Ningxia’s other tourist attractions are slim (the whole province gets all of ten pages in the 1,000+ Lonely Planet guidebook), this would be one of the safest bets for a vacation during a very popular travel time.

“If this trip comes off,” I said aloud, “I might have to stop complaining about how hard it is to travel in China.”

And the good news is…no need to censor my complaints.

Fifty nine cases of Covid showed up in Ningxia a week before my flight. Meaning the only wine tasting I’d be doing was in my own apartment.

Fortunately, the Julie McCoy cruise directors of embassy/consulate life (the Community Liaison Office) had, last time stay-cations were the order of the day, prepared a 36-page booklet on things to do in Guangzhou. I skipped the family activities involving water parks and laser tag and focused on sights I’ve been meaning to get to and haven’t because it’s easy to get lulled into believing you have plenty of time. But I have less than a year left here in Guangzhou!

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s (Father of the Nation) Memorial Hall decked out for National Day

My first stop was Huangpu Ancient Port, one of the earliest Chinese ports to welcome western ships. From what I could gather, this area began seeing trade as far back as the 1100s but really flourished from the mid-1700s. Huangpu Village includes many older buildings in the Lingnan (Cantonese) style.

When you use the canva template but forget an important step.

After Huangpu I headed to one of Guangzhou’s most well known temples, Liurong Temple or Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. There has been a temple on this site since 537 and the Flower Pagoda dates from 1097, with periodic rebuilding and restoration.

But you know, by now I’ve seen a lot of pagodas.

I was more excited by the Museum of the Western Han Dynasty Mausoleum of the Nanyue King. (Doesn’t exactly roll off your tongue but they can’t all be “The Uffizi” or “The Orsay.”)

Guangzhou generally loves nothing more than to demolish and build over historic sites, but back in the early 1980s, during construction for a hotel in the elephant hill area, they discovered the royal tomb of Zhao Mo, who ruled from 137 to 122 BCE. I guess it was too significant of a find for even Guangzhou to bulldoze. They quickly brought in archeologists and created a museum around the site.

Above the tomb

Down to the original tomb

In the tomb, looking up

Museum in which most of the tomb’s contents are housed

and to dust you shall return…

Among the finds: the silk and jade burial suit of the king and several pieces from Persia, the earliest known imported goods into China.

armor: original as found in the tomb and the recreation of what it would have looked like

Bronze and gold tiger

Incense Burner

Close up of decorations on bronze vessel

Nan Yue king’s funeral suit of red silk and jade panels

The king was buried on top of jade discs

Jade drinking vessel

Jade Box

Somewhat randomly, the museum also houses a collection of ceramic pillows from comparatively more recent times. People used these super NOT comfortable looking “pillows” to help keep their heads cool. They also maybe believed they were health aids which…I mean, I’ve seen people advocate crazier things. (Look for Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop branded ceramic pillows any day now).

While I don’t think I’d enjoy sleeping on these, they are very pretty.

My final stop, before I turned into a pumpkin (Chinese version: when your health code ticks over from indicating a negative Covid test within the last 48 hours to within the last 72), was the Chen Clan Academy Hall. This dates from 1894 and was built by members of the Chen family who had returned from America. It’s basically a multi-use community gathering spot/ancestor worshiping temple/academic institution, focused on preparing members of the Chen family for imperial civil service examinations. It also features traditional Lingnan architecture, but with decorations that are really over the top gorgeous.

Back at work, I learned the fate of some of my coworkers’ Golden Week plans. There were the other cancelled trips. There was the tour to nearby Kaiping, where a planned hike was cancelled because “authorities had not finished disinfecting.” (Disinfecting what? The hiking trail?) There were those who traveled to a province that seemed safe but then their health code turned and they were prohibited from returning to Guangzhou.

I mourn every one of my trips that gets buried in China’s zero-covid policy graveyard but I concede that a) mine was not the only ruined vacation and b) it’s probably best I didn’t travel outside of the province.

I should also mention that while I bellyache constantly about the policies and attitudes of the Chinese government, the actual Chinese people I encountered on my weekend wanderings were unfailingly helpful. It’s easy to get in a rut where I rarely interact with locals other than my doormen and coworkers. But my wanderings had me out of my usual zone and I would be remiss not to report all the pleasant people I encountered, helping me reload my metro card, checking in to make sure I wasn’t lost, making sure I knew there was both room temp and iced sugar cane juice available, helping me buy tickets to attractions with a foreign passport…just because I complain about certain things in the land called China, doesn’t mean I don’t like the people who inhabit it.

Delicious at any temperature but I’m an American, OF COURSE I want it iced.

 

Final Adventures in Yunnan: Backroads to Shangri-La

Was there any way for week two of Yunnan match the glory of the first? Well, you could add wine!

Week two’s itinerary was designed to be more off the beaten path, bringing us to wineries and villages you’d be hard pressed to locate on a map, before finally landing in (non-mythical) Shangri-La.

Wide-eyed at seeing foreigners, these gas station attendants requested selfies with us

 

Hada Village winery.

We did drink more than wine. There was also yak butter tea, a salty (yep) brew favored by the Tibetans.

And in Hada village we helped make soy milk and tofu at a local family’s house, followed by a meal of said tofu, plus pork from their ham shed.

Tired of cured pork? Too bad! In Tongle, after our guide’s passionate presentation about his Lisu minority culture, we feasted on ham leg stew, cooked for four hours.

Road to Tongle

The village has been perched on this mountainside for some 300 years

Mountainside farming

Traditional Lisu home

Traditional Lisu headgear

Tongle was our lunch stop en route to Cizhong, along the Mekong River. People here are ethnically Tibetan and some 80% are practicing Catholics. Well, Catholic with heavy influences from Buddhism and significant oversight from the Chinese Communist Party.

The priest surveys his domain

Interior of the church with ceiling décor reminiscent of Buddhist mandalas

Immediately after exiting the church is a wall of helpful communist party reminders on how to be a good citizen.

We stopped by this church before dinner at the local winemaker’s house. When the priest invited us to return later that evening for a service, one of my tour group members solemnly said, “I don’t think it would be appropriate for us to attend service after we’ve been drinking.” The sound that came from me can best be described as a snort-laugh-bark. I mean, I get that the Catholic Church is different in China but I doubt it’s that different.

Underlining the cozy relationship between booze and “the one true faith” is the village’s history. They make wine for the same reason they have Catholics: French missionaries, bringing grapes and religion in the mid-1800s.

In the late 19th century this particular variety (of grapes, not religion) was wiped out in France by phylloxera, leaving a far-flung Chinese vineyard as the only place in the world still making wine from “Rose Honey” grapes. A drinkable, jammy red.

Our winemaker, originally taught his craft by nuns

Thankfully, despite wildly generous pours at the winemaker’s house, I survived the next day’s activity: a stomach-churning dirt road jeep ride to the remote village of Yubeng.

Hotel views even better than Tiger Leaping Gorge’s?

Yubeng is the base for a hike to a sacred Tibetan waterfall/pilgrimage site and while the village is only accessible via dirt roads, the hiking path to the waterfall is paved to make it easier for the faithful.

When you hear “paved hiking path” you maybe think, “how hard can that be?” But when the trek starts at 9,840 feet (3,000 meters), plunges straight down into a valley and then back up to nearly 12,000 feet (3,657 meters), the answer is, “pretty fucking hard.”

We had two nights here and some eager beavers opted to hike the afternoon of day one. I prefer early mornings and solitude and no pressure to return in time for dinner, so I awoke early on day two and, fortified with coffee and energy bars (ok, they were Snickers) and the audiobook of Lost Horizon, began my long march.

Only other hiker on the trail

I really couldn’t have asked for a pleasanter time. It was cool and peaceful, with few others on the path that early. I only encountered crowds on my return, when I was basking in the glow of already having reached the goal they were still striving towards. There must be a German word for that feeling.

Lower Yubeng, seen from upper Yubeng

Monk descends from the sacred waterfall

At the base of the waterfall

Sadly, not everything survived the trek.

After hikes on five continents…

Good thing our last few activities, like tasting the offerings at a Tibetan family owned winery, required no rugged gear.

Winemaker’s home

The elevation of the vineyard is included on the label.

Owner explains how he grows grapes at different elevations

Having finished Lost Horizon and driven through prayer flag-festooned landscapes for days, I was ready to hit our final stop of Shangri-La.

Shangri-La is capital of the “Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan.” Formerly called Zhongdian (Chinese) or Gyalthang (Tibetan), it became “Shangri-La” in 2001, in a bid to take advantage of the notoriety of the mythical city.

Some people told me this region is even more “Tibetan” than Tibet, where Han colonization has been more deliberate. Measured solely by yak manifestations, the Tibetan culture is indeed strong!

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A beautiful monastery and ginormous prayer wheel are perched above old town.

The number of Chinese flags in Shangri-La is…not subtle.

Guishan Si Monastery overlooking Shangri-La old town

 

A surprisingly popular activity among many Han tourists is to dress up as Tibetans or other minorities and take photos. Look, glass houses and stones when it comes to countries’ creepy relationship to people they’ve colonized. I am 100% sure you could find an American photo studio where random white folks snap pics while sporting a full Navajo headdress. Would I take such a photo myself? I would not. Can I hope that the minority community members in Shangri-La are price-gouging the hell out of their clients? I can.

Dress up photo shoot at the lamasery

Just outside of town is Ganden Sumtseling, the largest Tibetan Buddhist lamasery in Yunnan, dating from 1679. Our final sight and, other than Tiger Leaping Gorge, probably our only blockbuster must-see.

No pictures allowed inside the temples but the outside is spectacular

As enjoyable as blockbusters are, for me Yunnan wasn’t a place with a long checklist of must-sees. Yunnan was more about the overall atmosphere, with all of the history, minority cultures, nature…and the food and drink, natch.

I returned home relaxed and with a renewed love of China. Highly recommended! (Just skip ethnicity dress up hour).