[China Trip] Exploring my Heritage
(Written back around summer 2002)
I grew up in a small town, with a population of under 100,000 (depending on whose statistics you looked at).During my elementary and high school years, there were literally only a handful of Asian people attending the school.Normally it would be my sibling, and possibly 1 or 2 other people plus their brother or sister. I felt different, I didn’t feellike I really fit in, and in some cases, was treated differently by my peers. I tried my best to fit in with the rest of the group.But deep down, I was different, and there’s no denying that.
So throughout elementary and high school it was about the same - although it got better over time. Then, I moved to a larger city, with a population of about2 million (give or take). And suddenly, I found myself surrounded by people of the same ethnic background. Once again, I felt uncomfortable. I still remember, it was Grade 12, new city, new school, first day of classes. My mouth just dropped. There were so many people of different nationalities, especially of Asian descent. I didn’t know what to do. I tried to talk to some of the people next to me, the people that I started to feel comfortable with back home, and they looked at me funny.
Fortunately, in one of my classes later that day, I believe it was a Calculus class, someone started talking to me. It was great. My first friend, and stillfriends to this day. Throughout the day and week, I met other people - Math class; Chemistry class; etc… Pretty soon I was feeling very comfortable in my new home. What (in my opinion) made this so special was that people of all different ethnic backgrounds were getting on so well. This was quitethe contrast from the small town that I grew up (although times/circumstances may be different for other people).
I started thinking of myself as being of Chinese origin - not quite. It was clear that some of my other peers didn’t think of me as being pure Chinese.(They would, and still do, make fun of my Chinese linguistic abilities - but I can sometimes work this to my advantage; I also still don’t really know the traditionalChinese holidays or customs.) So I was given the term ‘banana’ (white on the inside, yellow on the outside) or ‘CBC’ (Canadian Born Chinese). A search on Google for the terms ‘chinese banana’ will bring up a plethora of links. There is even a magazine published in Vancouver, called ‘Banana Magazine’.
Anyways, the point here is that I found that I was more easily able to fit in and associate with my peers. I found myself accepting the fact that I was somewhat different from others - and being happy that I was not purely Chinese or purely non-Chinese - but a mixture of both.
I moved to Tokyo (population of between 8 and 26 million depending on which statistics you look at; time of day; and what your definition of Tokyo is). I found myself to be in the minority again. But by this time, I had a much better idea of who I was and I am happy to be in the minority. There’s actually alot that we can get away with… But that’s another story.
It was early on in my Tokyo experience (actually, even before I landed here) that I wanted to travel around Asia as much as possible. Travel to such places as:China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, etc… Might as well take advantage of the geographic/time zone/travel distance of being in Japan before heading back home. (Of course, most people say that they plan to stay in a foreign country for 1-2 years). Apart from Vietnam/Thailan, I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to all the places previously mentioned, with my final stop being China.
For the past couple years I’ve been thinking about going to China - although I wasn’t too sure about the timing or logistics of it. With all the tales of people getting mugged, being thrown in jail (it happened to my cousins), getting executed - it wasn’t a trip that I wanted to jump haphazzardly into. Instead I took the safer route of visiting Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. Fortunately, a good opportunitypresented itself. My mother’s brother and his family were planning to join a tour group to go to China in the summer. One of my cousins actually lives and worksin Saitama, and we planned it so that we left Narita on the same flight and met the rest of the tour group in Shanghai. Before the trip, I didn’t have nary a clue about China -so I took out my Lonely Planet China book and started reading about the cities that I would be visiting - Shanghai, Hanzhou, Suzhou, Beijing. I got a better sense ofwhere the cities were actually located. (The book itself is rather boring to read and I didn’t get very far with it; it was more or less dead weight/space in my backpack while I was travelling-I think next time I’ll get one of those Japanese guides with all the colour pictures and such, and practice my Japanese while I’m at.
Trip Highlights(In no particular order)
1. Climbing the Great Wall at Badaling - after a grueling 60 minute climb only 3 people from our tour group made it to the top. According to one source, the \”Great Wall at Badaling stretches out 4770 metres along the rolling mountains, averages 7.5 meters high, 4 meters thick, 6.5m wide on the base and 5.8m at the top.\”I don’t really think we climbed 4770 metres, as there are two different entrances, but we did reach a point that we couldn’t get past. We then had about 30 minutes to practically run back down to rejoin our tour group and avoid the ensuing downpour - and we did, just as we reached the bottom it started raining cats and dogs.
2. Tiger Hill in Suzhou - I thought it was quite interesting with all the stone Budha’s surrounding the ‘hill’ as well as the leaning Pagoda.
3. Shanghai Circus - during this 90 minute show, I saw some of the most amazing death/gravity-defying performances. I think the entire audience was both ooed, and awed. I’m not sure whether many of the things were optical illusions or not, but it sure impressed the heck out of me.
4. Night Markets / Open markets - this is something that I enjoy no matter where I go - Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, even in Japan (shopping streets). Nightmarkets offer a good place to see all sorts of knick knacks, souvenirs etc. In most of these countries (except for maybe Japan) you are allowed (expected is probably the better term as most store keepers will say that you can offer a lower price) to bargain with the vendors. It’s like a game to try and get as much as possible for as little as possible. Generally, some tactics I’ve used include:
Tactic 1: Not really knowing how much something is worth (blind bargaining)
Me: look somewhat interested in an item [object a]
Storekeeper: you like? 200 Yuan.
Me: What is your best price?
Storekeeper: 175 Yuan. Best price.
Me: How about 80 Yuan.
Storekeeper (looking disgusted): No
Me: 80 Yuan
Storekeeper: Ok. 150 Yuan. Best price.
Me: 90 Yuan
Storekeeper (looking even more disgusted): 125 Yuan
Me: 95 Yuan. Last price.
Storekeeper: 120 Yuan. Best price.
Me: start walking away
Storekeeper: Ok. Ok. 110 Yuan - best price. Good quality.
Me: 100 Yuan, if you thrown in this other item [object b].
Storekeeper: Ok.
Me: Just a second. How much for this thing? [Object c]
Storekeeper (slightly perturbed look): 100 Yuan.
Me: How about this? [Object d]
Storekeeper: 25 Yuan
Me: Okay, how about 10 of [object d] plus [object a] plus [object b] for 200 Yuan?
Storekeeper: Ok fine.
Tactic 2: Bargaining with a friend
You bargain with the storekeeper for about 10 minutes getting to as low a price as possible. Then you ask your friend, or your friend says ‘too expensive’.The storekeeper will probably lower the price some more.
Tactic 3: My tour group is leaving!
Basically you bargain with the storekeeper for about 10 minutes or so. You keep looking at your watch saying that you don’t have much time.You still aren’t close to coming to an agreement. Finally, someone from the tour group says it’s time to leave (or you say my tour group is leaving) and you start dashing away.The storekeeper will usually come after you and offer you your last price.
Tactic 4: Using lots of math
I did this with one of the shopkeepers as I wanted to buy a set of keychains. He wasn’t too quick on the math, so I was able to use this to my advantage.
Me: How much for one keychain?
Man: 20 Yuan.
Me: Can you go lower?
Man: 15 Yuan.
Me: How about 12 keychains for 100 Yuan.
Man: brings out his calculator. punches in 12 X 15 = 180 Yuan.
Me: How about 3 keychains for 30 Yuan.
Man: Hmm. Okay.
Me: bring out 30 Yuan. then make another offer - 6 keychains for 50 Yuan.
Man: Hmm… No. 60 Yuan.
Me: Okay fine. 3 keychains 30 Yuan.
Man: Okay. Okay. 6 keychains 50 Yuan.
(this exchange actually went on for about 20 minutes)
Tactic 5: Outright lying
Woman: 20 US
Me: What! I bought this book from another salesperson for 15 Yuan.
Woman: No.
Me: Yes. It’s true.
Woman: Okay. 25 Yuan. Best price.
Me: 15 Yuan.
Woman: 20 Yuan
Me: Okay, tell you what, sell me the book plus 2 sets of postcards for 20 Yuan.
Woman: Fine. Practically throwing the stuff at me.
(I actually paid 20 Yuan for similar books elsewhere, but I really wanted this book to complete the set. My tour group was also leaving and I didn’twant to waste time so I made the offer straight away.)
Tactic 6: Pretending you don’t have much money
This is something someone on the tour did. They told the shopkeeper that they only had 8 RMB. Finally the shopkeeper agreed. However, the funny part of this is that the person pulled out a 10 RMB bill to pay for the item - the shopkeeper still honoured the price though!
Tactic 7: Using small bills/coins
This is good if you are able to bargain the vendor to some odd amount - for example, 63 Yuan. What you would do is pay the 3 Yuan in small bills/coins called fen and the shopkeeper upon seeing this will probably tell you to keep the extra 3 fen.
Reverse Tactic
The locals can spot you a mile away. Especially if you are going to get off a tour bus, a group of vendors will be there waiting for you. Like a welcoming party for a rock star. So a couple of ways to get them off your back:
a.) Let the others on the tour group out first.
b.) Try to sell them some of the stuff that you got. This seems to get a chuckle and they tend to leave you alone.
c.) Walk away and ignore them completely.
As you visit more and more markets, you will realize that they all sell the same things. So after awhile you will have a good sense of how much things really cost andit gives you even more bargaining power. It’s actually kind of silly when you stop to think that you are spending 10-15-30 minutes bargaining over 1 or 2 dollars. But it’sall part of the game. I sometimes wonder how much shopkeepers make using the bargaining system rather than a fixed price system. I’m sure I got ripped offthree times over on every transaction - but I felt like I got a good deal, so that’s the main thing i guess.
The following are some general observations of what it’s like to travel in China. After reading this, I invite you to take a look at the photos that I’ve taken and posted on theWeb site.
++The People++
To be somewhat stereotypical, I’d say everybody seems to be quite enterprising, they are all trying to make money in some way. Of course, this is the case everywhere, but it’s muchmore evident in China. As soon as you step off that tour bus, you are swarmed with half a dozen locals trying to push their wares on you. These people will follow youdown the entire block. In most countries/cities, when you visit a tourist attraction, you can at least pick up a one page leaflet for free. Not in China. You have to pay for these. There are even people that would’recycle’ those plastic water bottle containers, fill it up with tap water, and try to resell it to you.
One funny thing was that on the highway, there was a lady trying to sell sunglasses to passerby. She definitely could take a course in marketing. I mean oneof the main things we learn about is ‘location location location’. She was sitting under a tree, with a very small sign. Most people driving on the highway would not notice what she was doing, and there weren’t exactly that many people walking along the highway.
That aside (the fact that people are trying to rip you off), the people we met were quite friendly. We visited a couple of the local bars - one in Hangzhou and one inBeijing come particularly to mind. In Hangzhou, we started talking with the table next to us. It turns out that one of the guys performed in the Circus! And he spokeEnglish and Japanese. The bartender even gave us a platter of food for free - watermelon slices, peanuts, etc. It was great. The drinks were cheap, 4 Tsing Tao’s for 20Yuan. However, the Tequilas were a bit more costly… In Beijing, we learned how to play some sort of dice game from the locals. Soon we joined about 3 tables togetherall playing this dice game.
While there are alot of people, I actually didn’t think it was all that crowded! I actually find it more crowded in some parts of Tokyo - Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro.
++Economy++
You could see that the cities we visited are just exploding with potential. The tourist cities are doing especially well, as are the bigger cities of Beijing/Shanghai.Everywhere you look you can see construction - there are cranes, cranes, everywhere. Many buildings had multiple cranes attached to them, something that myuncle said was quite amazing as they are quite expensive. According to our tour leader, things change so fast that if you haven’t been in the neighbourhood during thepast week, you may lose your way. This actually happened to our tour bus driver, he got a bit confused trying to find the entrance to a market because the roadshad changed recently! Just imagine if everyone in the most populous country in the world bought 1 of what you are selling; or if even just 10% of these people bought what you are selling. I’ve read that many companies are shifting offices/factories from elsewhere (like Hong Kong) to places like Shanghai.This is definitely a market that I hope to live/work in, in the future.
++Living Standards++
China is a great place to visit/travel, but not as enticing a place to work. The average monthly salary for a local (Beijing) is about 750 RMB. This works out to about 11250 Yen / 95 USD a month. However, most things are cheap (and that partially explains the quality of many of the products/services you get here).
Example prices include:
McDonald’s Ice Cream Cone: 3 RMB (45 Yen)
4 bottles of Tsing Tao Beer: 20 RMB (300 Yen)
Souvenirs: 5 RMB and up (75 Yen +)
Bottle of Water: 3-7 RMB (45 - 105 Yen)
Street Food: from about 5 RMB (75 Yen)
‘Reebok’ Running Shoes: 200 RMB
‘Nike’ Shorts/T-Shirts: 50 RMB
Audio CDs: 10 RMB
(Check out this one place that I was brought to - it was hidden behind a painting in an art store! I didn’t buy anything there of course.)
It is not recommended that you make expensive purchases unless you know your product well. Forgeries are abundant.
Generally, I thought that the places that I visited were cleaner than I had expected. Of course there is garbage on the ground, and the water is filled with garbage. But the streets were relatively spotless and the subway was spotless. However, one thing that was not very clean was watching / listening to both men and women spitting on the ground - of course this is common in Japan, so it’s not as big a shock to me.
Finally, as with most cities/countries, there will always be people begging for money. China is no exception, however, what really struck me was the fact that in the places we saw, beggars can be choosers! One person on our tour group gave a beggar some small coins and the person threw it back at her. In one case, after much pestering, I gave someone a bit of money, and he gave me a really bad scowl. I admit that the amounts we gave weren’t too much, but still, a little bit of money is better than nothing.
++Quality of products++
As an illustrative example of the type of quality you can expect to find in China, lemme tell you about the suitcase that I bought. I went to a shop near Tianamen Square - the shop has about 4 floors made of up hundreds of individual stalls. I went to one of the suitcase specialty stalls and started bargaining on the suitcases. My cousin bought one the day before for 150 RMB, so I knew that I wasn’t going to pay more than that amount. I finally managed to bargain the lady down to slightly under 150 RMB. To make things easier to carry, I put some of the stuff that I bought (some t-shirts etc…) into the suitcase to carry back to the hotel. It was about a 30 minute walk, and about 15 minutes or so into the walk, one of the handles became detached from the suitcase! I didn’t want to risk the wheels on the suitcase as I really wanted the ability to roll my suitcase in the airport or back home. A couple days later, I was in the hotel room and I wanted to move the suitcase about 5 metres to a different location - there was a fair bit of stuff in it, but wasn’t all that heavy - and I used the other handle - and that one broke as well! So the only thing that was intact were the wheels - mainly because I didn’t use them yet. To make a long story short, I was able to wheel the suitcase back to my apartment in Tokyo, however, it’s quite useless as the handles are broken. I also found out later that I got ripped off as there were suitcases in the department store going for about 50 RMB (750 Yen!)
++Westernization++
As with other parts of the world, you see evidence of American / European companies making inroads into another country.China is no exception as you will have no trouble finding a familiar McDonalds, Starbucks, Subway, KFC, Hard Rock Cafe. In fact, during the last few days of our stay in Beijing (after we had finished our tour) we just ended up eating at McDonalds or KFC almost every meal - partially because we are accustomed to this food, partially because we were getting sick of eating Chinese food, and partially because we felt safe eating this food (these franchises need to keep quality in check worldwide, so we figured).
++Safety/Theft++
I have to admit, I was overly paranoid about the trip. Some family members/relatives had told me horror stories of their trip to China and I was expecting the worst. As a result, I had locked down all of my suitcases and backpacks (even going so far as chaining my suitcase to the hotel room furniture); I kept my passport and flight tickets on me at all times (except when I went to the night market) in a hidden money belt; I kept my wallet in one pocket, and used safety pins to keep my pocket shut; and in the other pocket I put small bills/coins - this was the pocket I used to get money to buy things. I also wore clothes that were fairly worn out and ready to be thrown out - of course this didn’t go so well in photo shoots, but…
When I went to the night market, I constantly scanned the people around me, held my arms to my side to cover my pockets, brought only small bills etc… At one point, I wanted to go into my money belt and get some more money, but I didn’t want to do it in the public, so I actually bought a popsicle, sat in the restaurant and got some money out.
NOBODY on our tour group was pickpocketed or anything. Of course, we got ripped off each time we bought something, but at least in these cases it was partially our fault.
OF COURSE, it is still important to err on the side of caution. But perhaps not to such extremes / borderline paranoia
++Traffic Safety++
I must say that the people in China, as a group, are probably some of the worse drivers I’ve ever seen. Throw out the standard driver’s rule book as there are NO RULES!!! It’s every man, woman, child, animal for themselves. On the highway, you see cars weaving in and out (into the other lane, or onto the sidewalk) - even coming to near misses with head on traffic. Pedestrians are just another target for the cars - even if the light says that it’s okay to walk, you still have cars turning into the block - forget what you know about Right of Way as it’s non existent.
I can see that if a local visits Singapore*, they would be in for a whack. There might be an 8 lane roadway, and people are trying to cross the street away from the sidewalk - one lane at a time. Unfortunately as there are not always very many crosswalks, you may find yourself doing this as well - it’s not too bad, as long as your timing is okay. Remember that game, Frogger?
One kind of funny incident that I saw was an overturned truck the size of a semi-trailer filled with watermelon. I guess it wouldn’t be so funny if that same truck was filled with chemicals of some sort.
*Actually, when I was in Singapore, I saw people jay-walking as well. It’s not quite all it’s cracked up to be.
If you decide to take a taxi (make sure you get a price quote before the trip or have them turn on the meter as they WILL try to rip you off), you should be warned that the drivers are super aggressive. At one point in our group we had to take two taxis, and one of the taxis didn’t know where the final destination was - while the leader did. So I happened to be in the second taxi - I admit the driver was doing his best to keep up, but a couple times other cars cut in front and we lost site of the other taxi. So for just the sake of it, I tried to get our taxi to speed up and cut in front of others in order to catch up - I actually felt relatively safe in his taxi, invincible. Plus, I hate to say it, but it’s sometimes the type of driving you may experience in Vancouver!
My final taxi ride was to the airport. I double confirmed the taxi fare and somehow the driver communicated to me that he would use the meter, but there was an additional charge for the poll booth - both going and returning - a bit of a rip off, but who was I to argue? (The entire trip was actually cheaper than the hotel told me, so that was good). Anyways, it was morning, so the taxi driver was able to go about 140 km/h the entire trip (even though much of the time was in residential 40 km/h zones). He got to the airport in about 20-30 minutes which meant I had alot of time to kill. (I had budgetted 2 hours thinking that it would take an hour, plus traffic jam etc…). Anyways, I think he was expecting a larger tip than the 10 Yuan or so that I left him as he didn’t help me with my luggage.
++What Did I Bring++
At the beginning of this trip, I brought one small suitcase (the type that can fit in the airplane’s overhead compartment). Inside it I had a 2 extra changes of clothes, a small backpack, a fanny pack, a couple rolls of toilet paper, about 30 packages of kleenex (each pack contains maybe 20 sheets, and are readily given out at the train stations in Tokyo), a bagful of medicine, toiletries, a box of granola bars, and some Japanese snacks. I also brought along the Lonely Planet China book as well as some other reading material in case I got bored. Finally, I brought a digital camera with about 196 MB of storage space and a battery charger.
I’d say everything was useful. Unfortunately, I ended up bringing the toilet paper back home as I didn’t use it (although on the way home, I used it to add additional cushioning to some of the glass/pottery that I bought) as well as most of the medicine - however, in some respects it’s good that I didn’t have to use it. I brought about the right amount of clothes - during the tour we were in a location for either 1 or 2 nights. Each day you might go through two changes of clothes, with the third change being washed (you can wash it in the bathtub with shampoo) and hang dried. There are laundromat services (costing maybe 200 Yen at the most) and in a worse case scenario, you can always use a hair dryer to dry your clothes - at one hotel, I had mine going for about an hour (it overheated twice). Be careful with the laundromat as one hotel spent about 20 minutes tracking down my jeans. The other nice thing is that you can always buy clothing if you need to - it’s quite cheap - from about $2.00 USD and up.
If I was to do this trip again, I think the only other thing I would bring would be an extra battery for my camera. By the evening of each day, I was running out of power, and had to wait until I got to the hotel to charge it up. So I missed several nice shots.
++Language++
Most of the people do not speak or understand English. Or at least it’s very limited to things such as: ‘cheap’, ‘best price’, ‘bargain’, ‘one dollar’, ‘good quality’, ‘how much’, ‘you tell me’ etc. However, some people do speak Japanese - so it was good way to practice. However, if you go to the bar, then the people there seem to be more internationally minded and they speak different languages - some people we met spoke chinese, english, and japanese! Generally, if it wasn’t for the tour group, I would have been quite lost.
++Changing Money++
It seems that the hotels offer the best rate. The rate for traveller’s cheques were higher than that for cash. Most hotels that I saw were able to change all sorts of currencies - US dollars, Japanese Yen, Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, Euro, Korean Won, probably about a dozen currencies in all. When I first arrived in Shanghai, I changed some money at the money changer in the airport. It took forever - at least an hour - and the rates weren’t that good. However it’s better to change a little bit of money in case you need to take the bus / taxi / get some food etc. Also try to request small bills (ie. 20 RMB) if possible - it’s sometimes difficult to spend the larger bills (ie. 100 RMB). You are also at risk if you purchase something with a large bill because some storekeepers may give you counterfeit money for change. Basically when you make a purchase outside, try and give them a bill that is as close as possible to the amount.
++Tour Groups++
I’d say that there are both advantages and disadvantages to joining a tour group.The advantages are that the tour will take care of your entire itinerary, will lead you around, act as interpreter and translator, offer bits of advice, and provide you with background information about various places you visit. As you are part of a group, you more or less have to keep up everybody else. Generally you have to follow a strict schedule - 1 hour here, 1 hour there, etc… Our group was considered small (about 15 people) and there was a bit of scheduling leeway. However, at certain times, the entire group had to wait for a few people, and it got a bit annoying after awhile. Some other disadvantages are that you have to stay with the group for the duration of the package - so after awhile you may get annoyed with other tour members. Well tough luck. You also have very little free time on your own. Things happen so fast, the days are so packed, that it’s difficult to remember what you actually did - I actually found myself forgetting what I did a day before simply because we did too many things! Generally speaking, the cost of the tour is less than what it would cost you to do all the activities on your own - however this was an except in my cousin and my case. Because we were flying in from Tokyo, we had to purchase our plane ticket ourselves. A small token amount was deducted from the tour cost, but it was no way comparable to the cost of flying from Canada to China.
On the flip side of this, during the last few days that we were in China, we didn’t have a tour guide to help us out. So about a third of the time was spent trying to get ourselves organized. We also ran into language barriers which were quite interesting. At one point we met a Chinese guy who was living in Paris. He spoke both Mandarin as well as Cantonese and French. So we spoke to him in Cantonese, he in turn translated it into Mandarin and then the reply in Cantonese.
One other interesting thing about our particular tour group was that probably about three quarters of the people knew how to play chess (western style); but nobody brought a chess board! So for several days we looked all over for a chess board, tried asking the bar owners if they had one, looked for it in stores, we even made our own chess board using a piece of paper and a mix of coins (Japanese, Chinese, Canadian). Finally when we got to Beijing, a couple of us bought some chess boards and we were in business…
Exploring my Heritage Part 2.In the near future I definitely would like to make another trip to China, but probably to visit my grandparent’s home town. If this trip happens, you can be certain that I will be posting Part 2 of this article. I’m also considering the possibility of going to China for a year to study Mandarin and possibly work part-time / travel. There’s just so much to see, and I’m certain in a few years time, there will be plenty of work opportunities - given the right skill set.
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