It's A Big World After All

The Forbidden City 

Beijing Western skyline

There are so many things that I want to share right now.  My head is exploding with new information and I can hardly keep up.  I want to say thank you for all of your kind words.  I feel like sometimes I am seeing China for many eyes.  I am aware of it, and I look deep.

I was going to start this post with the following title: "When in China..."  You can fill in the rest.  I've started to do things the way I think the Chinese do things and it is fantastic!  I bought a bike.  I thought I was going to die, but I didn't.  The funny thing is that with all the 16 million people riding and driving the streets of Beijing, I feel safer riding a bike in down-town Beijing than I do riding down HWY 89 from Paulden to Chino.  I really do!  There are a thousand other bikes and scooters all around all the time.  There are unspoken rules about who can go and who can't.  There is no established "right of way" -- Everyone just knows.

rickshaw lady

One rule is that you can't second guess yourself.  You communicate telepathically with the other drivers and then make your move.  Ok that is not true, but it is the closest thing to telepathy that I have ever seen.  The problem comes when you get nervous about the double length bus a few inches from your left hand and the three scooters with 4 people each on your right--oh and the rickshaw driver dead ahead coming your way.  If you second guess then everything starts getting a little nutty and I start thinking about selling my bike to the next Chinese man I see for a 100% discount.  I've only done that a couple of times.  I don't do it any more.

Beijing countryside

A couple of days ago I walked from Tian'anmen Square back to GaoBeiDain.  I thought it was a good idea.  I wanted to see Beijing.  I've been to New York after all--surely I could walk across Beijing.  Remind me not to do that again!  Beijing is not New York and my feet were painfully sore the next morning.  I was only elicited once for..."50 cents" one time.  Well...that's what I thought she said.  She didn't say that.  I forgot they don't say "cents" in China.  When I realized what was really going on I said, "NONONONONONONo" and ran.  lol.

 China is an illusion.  Public transportation in Beijing is like an overcrowded portal...yeah stick with me. You never go on the streets so you only get glimpses of the areas around a Subway station.  Its like being transported to a new city each stop.  In your mind it isn't very far; it might be a 30 min Subway ride.  That is why I wanted to walk through the city: I wanted to see Beijing as one fluid and connected city.  Now, Tian'anmen is in the center of Beijing while Gaobeijing is on the east side.  It took me 3  and 1/2 hours to walk across half the southern city.  I was walking quite fast--maybe 4 miles an hour.  The skyscrapers never stopped.  Yes, as I said before, my feet hurt.

What I loved was walking down the alleys and in between the apartment complexes. At the bottom of each complex is a small city on its own with stores and shops and workers. I found an old dirt path in the middle of Beijing about 8 feet wide lined with more than 50 little shops.  There were no foreigners--it was next to the train track and quite dirty.  The smell of raw fish and fresh chicken parts roasting on open fires was think in the air.  There were more than a few strange glances my way.  I am used to it.

Then came Friday.  My feet, by the end of the day, were crying for Beijing's long flat roadways. First, however, I need to tell you about the train. We got on the train at 4:30 PM in Beijing headed for Xian.  The train stop was literally the largest most crowded place I have ever been in my life.  We were standing in a GIANT room, bigger I think than any airport terminal I've been too, and there were around 5-10 thousand people trying to get tickets.  There were literally thousands and thousands and thousands of people in a hundred lines.  Every walkway, every corner, every small bench, was occupied with a hundred people here and a thousand there.  The bridge over the road that led to the station was body to body packed with hundreds of families and their luggage lining the sides.  Some people slept on the ground or on their luggage.  Others pushed on through to the lines and tried to buy tickets.  We almost didn't make the train.  It must have been a funny sight to see 20 Americans literally running through all that mess with 3 months worth of luggage trying to catch the last train to Xian.  We made it.  

train hallway

Our little room in box car 10 had four beds.  the room was about 6 by 6.  I shared a room with Dr. Beede, Dr. Chen, and Sai Rui. Although the room was tiny, I promptly fell asleep and woke up the next morning as the train pulled into the station in ShanXi province.  I'd been transported once again.  This time it was a 13 hour ride.

We got off the train, ate 1st dinner (that's what I call Chinese breakfast), and rode a bus for two hours to Hua Shan.  It is the highest mountain peak in all of ShanXi and it is actually quite tall.  Xian is not far about sea level and the South Peak is over 8,000 feet high.  What really threw me off is that the mountain range looked somewhat similar to the Wasatch Front except that it ran from east to west.  Being a rocky mountain boy myself, I felt very disoriented.  It was like someone turned the world sideways.

like the rockies 

beautiful mountains

cool pic

house on the mountain

There are 8 major peaks at Hua Shan.  You can take the mountain tram to the north peak, the lowest peak, or the "Heavenly Ladder."  I took the ladder.  I still haven't figured out why I did that.  The only thing I can figure on is that people do stupid things---and I'm a person too!  You'll see from the pictures that this isn't like your nearest Saddle Horn.  The south peak, only four of us made it up that far, is like standing on top of China.  I made it to the top.  I always will.  My hips and knees hurt and I'm wondering if that means I'm getting old.

The beginning of Hua Shan

A video of Hua Shan

The top of China

Me and a waterfall I found

Some stairs

Me on the South Peak

The meaning of Shan

China is a wild place.  I don't know how I feel about it.  There are days I feel at home on my bike riding along Chao Yang Ave dodging the buses and venders, then stoping by the street shop to buy a spicy bread roll for dinner. Other days I feel like I am on Mars and that Chinese people and culture are so strange that I will never understand.  Either way, for those of you who have ever wondered about China and worry that its a small world after all, fear not: Walt Disney had it wrong all along.

Love to All, especially today to my little kiddos and my beautiful, perfect wife.