data detour from China

Hi, this is Conny, Nathan's wife. He sent me an email from Beijing, where has arrived last Wednesday, letting me know that access to both facebook and blogger has been blocked. So we decided that he would send me updates from his trip and I would post them, including some pictures. So, from now on, the posts you will find here are the result of that co-operation.

Denmark story published

Tooting my own horn here a little bit: Stars & Stripes recently published a wrap-up of my trip to Bornholm and the Ertholmenes last winter. There you read about the logistics of getting there, and if you're really into my pictures, order a print. Thinking about it all made me a bit nostalgic, and I uploaded the accompanying video above from the trip.

As you probably noticed, I didn't stray to far from home for the last half of 2007. I have a baby daughter to thank for that -- and I'm sure anyone with children can agree that parenting is a journey in itself. Still, I'm hoping to make a few jaunts further afield this year, and will write about them here when they occur.

Home again

Well, it was a great two weeks in China, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. It was an eye opening journey, and I'm already thinking about when I'll get a chance to go back to explore again. Hopefully soon.

A lesson in Taoism on Tai Shan

A chain barrier sags under the weight of hundreds of locks outside a Taoist temple on the trail to Tai Shan in Shandong province.

With our successful climbing of Tai Shan, our adventure in China has more or less come to a close -- albeit a highly fitting one. While I started the day feeling a bit sick to my stomach from some spicy chicken the night before, a few breakfast dumplings and the energy of several thousand of my fellow climbers made me feel a lot better.

It took about five or six hours of climbing interspersed by water and snack breaks -- 6600 steps to 1545 meters above sea level, a vertical climb of over a kilometer. I'm not sure whether climbing Tai Shan is like truly experiencing a microcosm of Chinese culture, as a passage in one of our guidebooks suggests, but it certainly is a phenomenal and fitting adventure for the last day of our trip; from this point forward all of our travel is focused on getting home again.

You're rarely on your own in China, and climbing mountains is certainly no exception. Accompanying us on our ascent were countless pilgrims, several groups of police providing security, hawkers and small businessmen selling all sorts of pilgrimage related items (sticks for walking, incense for burning, water for drinking) and sadly, a few disfigured beggars looking for charity.

The religious significances of the path itself were unfortunately lost on me to a good degree. The entire length of the path to the top there are inscriptions written on the stones and boulders, some of which certain pilgrims would choose to pose next to for photographs. (We also saw this on Huang Shan.) Also red ribbons are sold (two of which Thomas and I bought for 2 Yuan each), and many of these ribbons are tied, along with an offering of money, to a tree or another edifice near one of the various temples that one comes across during the ascent. There was also a custom of engraving a lock with one's name and affixing it to a chain outside one of the temples along the way. You could buy such locks all along the path to the top, the most expensive of which that I saw costing 60 Yuan (About eight dollars.) And then of course there were the massive amounts of incense being offered, some in very large packages costing up to 200 Yuan. Sometimes a pilgrim would light such a large package upon reaching the altar at a specific temple, only to have it removed seconds later to be burned more quickly out of sight.

Inside the temples themselves, the pilgrims would kneel in front of statues of their selected deity, offer more money or sometimes a food item, and then bow, usually several times. It took some time before I realized the seriousness with which some of the pilgrims were making these journeys. While certainly there were a number of climbers who were more interested in the hiking aspect of climbing Tai Shan, I would say a majority of the pilgrims were dedicated Taoists. As one who doesn't take religion all that seriously, it was really something interesting for me to see, and I was happy to have the opportunity to see this aspect of Chinese culture up close.

Holidays in Tai'an

Tai Shan mountain rises over the city of Tai'an in Shandong province.

It took us a little less than seven hours or so to get here to Tai'an from Xuzhou -- sometimes it seems like it takes seven hours to get anywhere in China, regardless of distance. The bus ride provided a unique insight into bus travel in China. While our coach was nearly full upon leaving the station, our driver pulled over seemingly every 15 minutes or so to let on an extra passenger or two, thereby sweetening the deal for himself and the attendant. We also picked up several pieces of large cargo, which I assume we shipped at less than the going postal rate.

As we left Xuzhou and headed into Shandong province, the surroundings slowly changed from swampy to more arid and mountainous. Early in the journey we crossed the Grand Canal, once a highly valuable transportation waterway but today a silted over historical footnote. As our driver specifically avoided the freeways in order to save on tolls, we also got a good look at rural traffic conditions; in other words, donkey-drawn carts, pedicabs, pedestrians, bicyclists, buses and cargo vans all sharing the same roads.

Fortunately, here in Tai'an we've found a quieter and smaller town with numerous views of the city's main attraction: the sacred mountain Tai Shan. Which is not to say that it is all that quiet or all that small. We wandered the streets today with what seemed to be many Chinese on holiday -- people were busy shopping, eating and making travel plans. Some of the larger shops had set up small stages for live performances or demonstrations, and the streets were packed with vendors and salespeople selling everything from city maps to jumper cables to fresh pineapple. I bought some kind of high-density cake that was being sold all over town, although I'm not sure if it's a speciality to this region or is something that gets brought out for the May holidays -- kind of like our Christmas fruitcake. It weighs much more than I thought it would (and regrettably was being sold per unit of weight, so I also shelled out a lot more than I expected) so we'll probably save it for the trip back to Beijing on Friday. I don't think it'll make for good backpacking food on the way up the mountain, which should take up about eight hours of our day tomorrow.

May Day in Xuzhou

Part of the less famous -- but still interesting -- Han dynasty terracotta army at Xuzhou.

My friend Thomas and I have been in Xuzhou since yesterday afternoon, and despite it being a major transit hub, home to a lake, a spacious mountain park, a terracotta army, and an amusement park, it's decidedly off the beaten tourist path.

Perhaps part of the problem is that the train transit connections are inconvenient. And then the lake is polluted and has a busy road built across it -- although I did see a couple of people happily swimming in it yesterday evening. The mountains, while pretty, offered only compromised views due to the massive amounts of smog. The terracotta army (while still a AAAA-rated cultural attraction according to the Chinese tourism bureau) was built at a fourth of the scale of its more famous counterpart in Xi'an, which makes it look kind of like a set of toys in comparison. And the amusement park looks like it hasn't been maintained since the 60s or 70s -- probably around when it was built.

It's a bit sad, because with such natural and cultural assets, I feel like this city should really be a beautiful place to visit and live. But still, it's China -- perhaps in a more pure form than the mountain resorts or the more famous cities -- and that has it's own charm. For example, the people here don't seem to be as accustomed to seeing foreigners. We've been greeted warmly almost everywhere we've been -- but here people are especially quick to say "hello," ask for our names (as a young girl did yesterday), or offer us rice wine and take pictures (as a large group did today). We also ate some incredible food last night -- a kind of meat, shellfish and dumpling stew -- that was served to us once we made it clear we had no idea what was good to eat here. While landscape and natural beauty are important, it's also those sorts of things -- hospitality and cuisine -- that can make a place memorable and enjoyable.

As I think I mentioned yesterday, May Day is a major holiday in China; the schools are out of session and many Chinese having the entire week off for shopping, travel or other leisure activities. Tonight we'll be sniffing around a little bit for a parade, demonstration, or another celebration of sorts, but other than seeing more pedestrians and shoppers on the streets than yesterday, it's been more or less business as usual as far as we can tell.

Anyway, tomorrow morning it's on to Tai'an in Shandong province, home of Tai Shan, another of China's five sacred mountains. We're planning to ascend it on Thursday.

Waiting for Xuzhou

School children play in the streets of Hefei. Tomorrow is the first day of the May holidays in China.

I'm asked now and then -- by the Chinese people we encounter here and by my friends and family back home -- how we manage to get around China without a tour guide and without a real comprehension of the written or spoken language. Well, it's not always that easy; we spend a good bit of time just figuring out how to get from place to place. While I can imagine that a lot of people would find that aggrivating, I actually find it rather interesting and enjoyable. Still, from time to time there are considerable misunderstandings, which generally result in a lot of puzzled looks -- but on some occasions great heaves of laughter. For example:

We're in Hefei today, but tomorrow we want to take the bus to Xuzhou, where supposedly the second largest terracota army in China exists. I say supposedly because the city is not listed in my Lonely Planet guide at all, although it has fairly prominent mention in my friend Thomas' German-language book. Anyway, because it's always difficult to secure tickets, we try to get a friend or acquiantance to write on a slip of paper where we're going, which we hand to the booking office clerk.

So anyway, trying to get bus tickets to Xuzhou, I handed such a slip of paper to a couple of clerks at our hotel, who gave me some very strange looks and repeated "Xi'an." Only then did my friend Thomas suggest that perhaps what was written on our slip was actually a bit more specific than I'd thought. It seems our friend wrote "I'd like to see the terracota army in Xuzhou," which makes sense to us, but not to most people we've encountered, who assume that if we want to see the terracota army, we ought to be heading to Xi'an, which is 800 kilometers west of here. We might as well have asked to see the Forbidden City in Hong Kong.

Fortunately, it looks like we've managed it... the hotel staff is working on our request right now and told us to check back with them this afternoon. So hopefully tomorrow or the day after I'll be able to tell you about the second most famous terracotta army in China -- unless we end up on the wrong bus, in which case I might be able to tell you about the real thing.

The mountains of Anhui provence

A foggy mountainside at Huang Shan in Anhui provence.

My friend Thomas and I put dusty and dry Beijing behind us, flying two hours south to Tunxi. (I know I said in a previous entry that I didn't think Beijing was as polluted as I feared it would be, but after seeing the traffic getting to the airport during rush hour, I think I've changed my mind.) At any rate, somehow we didn't expect to see any rain when we landed, but indeed, it was coming down at a steady place, forcing us to dig our rain jackets from deep within our backpacks.

Fortunately the weather today was much better -- Not sunny, but cool and rather foggy -- which was a good thing because we had some climbing to do. You may, as I did, have a picture in your mind of cloud obscured mountains dotted with wind-blown pines sprouting out of crags in the rock. These sorts of motifs are commonly seen on scrolls hanging in Chinese restaurants. And this is exactly the sort of scenery that the mountains of Anhui province have on offer -- it really does exist, and it's absolutely beautiful and breathtaking.

It's also quite exhausting getting to the peaks. It took Thomas and I -- along with three friendly students from Hefei that invited us to join them -- about three hours to climb almost a kilometer vertically to an elevation of approximately 1800 meters. Concrete and stone staircases led us all the way to the top, and about when I started to think I was getting tired of all those stairs we would come across a guy carrying food or water or souvenirs to the shops and hotels located further up that mountain -- some backbreaking work. But when the wind blew off some of the fog, the views were magnificent, and made our efforts worthwhile without a doubt.

There's so much more to tell, but I can't let myself spend my last evening here in Tunxi sitting in front of a computer screen. More tomorrow or the day after from Hefei!

Visit to the Summer Palace

A the view north across Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace.

Today we headed to the Summer Palace, the former seasonal stomping grounds of the last few Chinese emperors, as well as the favorite hangout of the former Empress Dowager, Cixi. It was another beautiful day here with almost perfectly clear skies, a light wind at times, and warm temperatures.

For people who might be thinking about heading to Beijing for next summer's Olympic Games, I highly recommend the Summer Palace. It seems to be the consensus number three destination for visitors to Beijing after the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, so there's perhaps a light drop off in tourists there. Furthermore, there's plenty of room to roam there, with a tower, a huge lake, and a small island containing that temple at which Cixi used to pray for rain and a lookout point at which the emperor Guangxi watched the Chinese navy practice maneuvers on an artificial lake.

Aside from the sights, I'm continuously shocked at the friendliness of the Beijing people here. While some people are clearly just asking about your visit to the city for the purpose of attracting you to their store or souvenir stand, I've run into a few genuinely friendly people on the street who just want to practice their English and get to know a foreigner. I've had to rehearse the details of my visit here several times, but I've had a couple of interesting conversations. You certainly don't get that too often back in the big cities of America.

A few people have asked me about the state of the pollution here. While I certainly wouldn't say that Beijing is the cleanest city I've ever visited, it's really not as bad as I'd feared it might be, especially at the big tourist areas, which are generally spacious. We rode around in buses for awhile today, and at times the air quality bothered me then. But on the whole I've found Beijing to be a fairly modern city; because they have such a high population density, the people here have found a way to deal with all the traffic and other problems. Sometimes it's not pretty, but somehow this city of millions manages to get by. It's fast-paced and fascinating.

Well, tomorrow it's back to the airport to fly south to Huang Shan, also known as the Yellow Mountains. Hopefully I'll be able to check in again, perhaps with a couple more photos.

The Best of Beijing

I've been in Beijing now since Sunday, and while it wasn't so difficult to find a computer with Internet access... there's one in my hotel and seemingly on just about every street corner... I've been completely absorbed by this place, and just didn't have much desire to sit down and write about it. From the moment we left the airport, there have been a steady stream of impressions and experiences.

My first moment of sheer wonder came when the bus taking us downtown drove by the Gate of Heavenly Peace, where Mao's tasteful and somehow very handsome portrait stared down on me and the thousands of other tourists jocking for the best photographic position. The words I uttered were not particularly profound, but I was far more impressed than I could at that moment articulate. My friend Thomas and I were pretty exhausted from our trip, which included a grueling 8-hour layover in Moscow, so after a good walk around Tienanmen Square, we chowed on some dumplings, drank some beer and called it an evening.

Yesterday it was the Forbidden City, home to several hundred years worth of Chinese emperors. Perhaps I had taken the "City" part of that name a little too lightly, because the place is really enormous-- quite city like. People often say that in China you won't find any of your own space -- especially not in the tourist areas. But we found the Forbidden City spacious enough once we wondered around it's side passages (some of which housed former imperial concubines) to be find our own bit of space and tranquility. The city is built entirely according to the principles of Feng Shui, meaning that it's more or less perfectly symmetrical. As it's so expansive, you can quickly lose your sense of direction -- which is actually kind of nice because you can find your own little place, as I mentioned above. Later that afternoon as we visited some of the parks surrounding the Forbidden City, Thomas and I put our basic Chinese skills to use, warding off souvenir hawkers and rickshaw drivers, a few of whom were extremely persistent.

Today we joined a tour group made up of people from Argentina, Spain, New Zealand and China to take in the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs, two major tourist attractions north of town. On the way there we got to see some of the most intensive areas of construction for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It seems as though the entire town is being renovated to one degree or another, but the area near the Olympic Stadium and what will be the Olympic Village is probably the world's biggest construction site right now. In addition to work on the stadium and a swimming arena, I saw what must have been 40 huge skyscrapers being either renovated or built from the ground-up in the surrounding neighborhood. We enjoyed the rest of the tour as well of course -- I think the Great Wall is as much of a physical experience as it is an aesthetic. Working up and down the steps of the wall definitely requires some physical exertion, but it was easily the best and most unique workout I've had in months.

There's plenty more to write about, but those are of course the most exciting things I experienced in the last couple of days. More later...