World Reviewer blog

Arriving in Tokyo I was already so used to seeing and hearing Chinese that Japanese looked and sounded strangely familiar - could it be that I am less lost in translation here than there?  My hotel has a heated toilet seat, the skyline is a mass of neon shining off the wet ground that would make the Cinematographer of Bladerunner call for additional film, and young girls are queuing around the block to shop in a H&M store in Ginza, but after a Japanese pancake, some sake and a walk around the mad colourful shopping district I have my arigato nod just so.  Tokyo starts properly tomorrow.

I had seen photos of the cable car leading up to sections of the Great Wall of China but I hadn’t seen any photos of the tobogganing slide going down.  From that opening sentence you may think that I visited Great Wall: Tour Group Central, but I didn’t; Mutianyu is one of the best preserved sections of the wall but it’s not the most heavily touristed.  Fair play about the cable car, it’s a very steep trip up to the wall in this section, the mountains rise straight up, stepping out of the flat plain Beijing sits on, and a lot of people would have been unable to walk on the wall if they hadn’t been able to get up in the cable car, but when I got up to the first landing there was a television production crew filming some kind of song and dance spectacular, a stage had been set up and there were red lanterns everywhere as well as kids singing and dancing and men flying kites.  I have no idea what the occasion was but it can’t happen every day – neither can the wave after wave of kids playing chasings around the first few guard towers and families sat on the wall having picnics, but then the views of the surrounding hills are impossible for me to put into words – you’ll have to look at the photos and watch the video when I finish it, so it is a great spot for a picnic.
A few hundred meters on as the arrow flies the people start to thin out and the going gets a little steeper, the final open section to the left has really steep stairs to climb and there was a nice sense of international comaraderie as people gee’d each other on to get to the top section, where, as well as an even more indescribable view there was a fellow wall walker singing songs from the Peking Opera?  Strange and probably an impossibly unlikely one off but I’m sure it will be one of my enduring memories of this trip to Beijing.  Also enjoying the entertainment were a group of people working on repairing the next section of wall, with a horse who was looking precarioulsy over the edge at us.
Older people had stalls along the wall selling cold drinks, including beer which they kept offering all the men speaking English, they bring their wares up every day on mules, you can see the mules on the tracks beside the wall.
The toboggan slide was a long stretch in the other direction.  And it was a regular toboggan track, like a big slide.  Yep, it is a logical way to get down the mountain, but it kinda jars with the kinds of things I was thinking about while I was walking along the wall, namely how brilliant it is that such a huge undertaking could actually exist, but it brings in the money which supports the local economy, and it looked really fun, so I went on it.  Another example of things being not quite as I had expected.
On the hundred minute drive out from Beijing not only did we fail to hit anyone on the roads, we also saw more examples of China’s extremities.  Women picked and peeled corn cobs next to posh golf courses and people rode rickshaws while talking on their mobile phones.
Walking though the hutongs its clear that some people don’t have very much, but while in Kensington you can expect to have your bike stolen even if you have it locked up, in Beijing it seems like no one has a bike lock.  Storm seemed to think that if people found their bike missing they just took the next bike along, or that people didn’t have the kind of bikes worth stealing.
It’s a cliché but people were warm and friendly and the food was cheap and fantastic…my tip - definitely try the tiny apples on sticks covered in toffee, I left it too long.

Watching the film ‘The Last Emperor’ and a brisk semesters jaunt through Chinese history – where I’ll admit I began to lose track of the names and can only really remember Empress Cixi, like an evil step mother salivating for power, Jin Pin, the shockingly unattractive (sorry Jin), concubine and poor Pu’yi and Guangxu, the last and next to last Emperors – was enough to tug my heartstrings towards the prison of perfect luxury that was the fabled Forbidden City.  But even if I knew nothing about it the name would be enough to make me want to visit.  The photos of it all show it shining in opulent, detailed majesty, empty and spacious but it’s quite a bit different when you’re there with the hoards of tourists who daily invade what was once one of the most exclusive places on earth.

What I’m saying is that it wasn’t as I expected it to be.  I thought it was going to be a life sized museum to the life and times of several ancient ruling dynasties, but I failed to consider what the People’s revolution might have done to the place, which is basically gut a whole lot of it to use for other purposes and let some sections deteriorate from misuse.  The audio guide, which I HIGHLY recommend if you want to do anything other than admire the beautiful buildings, tells some of the story, but it’s pretty much the sole source of information in English – which is fine – but there isn’t much more in Chinese and crowds of people swarm through its photogenic central axis like it’s a zoo, stopping only to have their photos taken rather than gasp quietly and reverently like you’re expected to do at Versailles or Windsor Castle.  It wasn’t what I was expecting but then a lot of China so far has been different to my rather romantic expectations.

The Forbidden City was still wonderful, but I didn’t get to sit in the gardens and read over poems written by the emperors as I had hoped to do, there were just too many people -  and gift shops -  and I when I carefully ordered my jasmine tea it was served in a paper cup.  Off the main scenic route along the way of harmoniously named and themed temples are the West and East palaces which turned out to be the place for people like me wanting to hear from some of the ghosts of the place.  Here, where it is too time consuming and labyrinthine for the sheperded tour groups to dwell, the soap opera of intrigue that was the court life of the people who lived here began to unfold.  Thanks to the audio guide I was able to linger in awe over small details, like the places where grieving concubines were blinded by their floods of tears and the like.  It’s surprisingly quiet, and the walls are like the ones in the film ‘The Labyrinth’, that go on and on in all directions. So I left – kicked out at 5PM! - with my head filled with romantic stories and still wanting to go and live there, albeit, in what role I’m not sure, despite the glamour a lot of people seemed to be pretty unhappy.
A beeline to Beihai Park (open ’til 9), rewarded us with all the things the guide books say it will, including a vista of lotus leaves and flowers and a man using a huge water brush to write calligraphy.  Another active local senior inspired me about my own retirement, she comes in every day and feeds the park cats, which are lovely silky things, not at all manky strays – could be because she’s keeping them well fed.  I got the impression she just takes it on herself to do it, and what a relaxing way to spend an evening - the park is really lovely, all graceful willows and a smattering of temples.  I love the way this city has such perfectly beautified areas.  The narrow hutongs with all their colour, life and market trade community atmosphere are charming to me but may not be the easiest setting to live your life in but these parks and public spaces are purely lovely for lovely’s sake – like the lotus flowers and the orange fish – purely for ornamental purposes.

I like to think of myself as a traveller rather than a tourist - I think a lot of us do, but it can be hard not to fall into the tourist traps - especially when you’re lured in by people who speak the same language as you do in a city where the language sounds lovely but like it’s totally devoid of punctuation.  But there are certain sights that both the visitor looking to ‘find’ a place and the tourist looking to ’see’ it will meet up at, and Beijing’s Temple of Heaven is one of those places on everyone’s ‘must do’ list, so there I was standing in awe at the construction of something so entirely original that each piece of its roof fits perfectly together without the need for nails, and around me Chinese senior citizens in red hats are asking to have their photo taken with me.  But it’s all fun and I’m quite honoured to have my photo taken with them in front of something so beautiful and strongly tied to their culture.  After all this is quite a cool experience for me in itself, as are the rogue temple cats who prowl the grounds, the many security people who seem so relaxed in their roles that one of them was actually hiding behind a stone prayer pillar in the Hall of Echos, and the fantastic woman who began an impromptu set of tai chi moves in the Temple of Heaven courtyard.  Without seeing these things I would still have seen a beautifully constructed, in the round on three tiers, carefully decorated, in blues, greens and golds, set on a raised marble three tiered dais, all hand carved about two hundred and fifty years ago, temple, but this was real life.  And one of the Red Seniors pointed out to me that each of the many, many gold dragons on the roof had had its eyes delicately painted in to look like the googly eyes on a toy, which was a brilliant discovery and one only available to people with enough zoom on their cameras, or those who have the knowledge passed on to them.  Suffice to say that I did check a lot of dragons after that and they all had painted eyes as I was promised.

It’s an auspicious spot, the point where heaven and earth are supposed to meet up and I thought everyone was surprisingly relaxed for something with such a grand cultural story, but despite the people loitering all over the marble stairs and pretty girls having their photos taken by their men - not to mention people having their photo taken with me - there was an attitude of relaxed interest but none of the quiet shushing I heard in my head when I looked at it - it is really very beautiful - so I was touched to see fantastic tai chi woman start up her moves and I’m sure she was at least as impressed as I was with the significance of the things this spot and building represent. All the temples line up perfectly and if you enter from the North Gate like I did you may find that you’ve done the highlight first and only get to see the grand approach to the temple when you’re walking away from it.

Early in the day we’d been exploring the hutongs, the narrow alleyways that used to be the main buildings in Beijing.  Think an unplanned city of shanties and one storey houses around courtyards where shops and houses are all mashed in together and the private and public spaces grow all over each other.  I was expecting more of Beijing to look like this - it does in the movies - but a lot of it is now wide roads and tall apartment blocks.  We started at the art shop end - I have a thing about beautiful stationery and the Chinese do it to perfection - and walked through to the more tourist friendly alleys of ancient tea houses, silk warehouses and Chinese medicine stores.  In the best ones no one could really speak any English and though I wanted to buy things from the most authentic stores it was difficult to explain the tea I wanted when there are a choice of over 100 and I don’t know the Chinese word for flower.  The street off Tiananmen Square has been flattened and rebuilt in a way that makes it look like European architects trying to copy Chinese design - or else that it’s going to be a China Disney or permanent film set - but that’s probably because it’s empty, it’s another Olympic development that will probably come into it’s own in a few months - or else will be filled with Starbucks and Gaps…which would be awful.

My policy when walking around the city has expanded from crossing the road with the oldest person I can find to choosing to walk up the prettiest street I can see.  This means I haven’t always taken the most direct route but it’s been scenic and I’ve seen such delights as a service station called ‘Easy Joy’, a scorpion writhing on a stick in a row of scorpions on sticks ready for cooking in the night market, and been through about five additional security checks - they’re in all subway stations and the guards are cute and pretending to be serious.  I also saw the the headquarters of CCTV - China Central TV - and wondered at the brilliant choice of name and why comedians every where haven’t fallen all over it!  Most interestingly I’ve seen a lot of people.  You hear that China’s strength is in its population but the proof is in the massive workforce.  All the people employed cleaning the streets with brooms and guarding random buildings seem like they’re just waiting until they can retire and take their chairs out onto the street and play chess, cards, sing or just people-watch.  This nation and civilisation is responsible for some truly wondrous monuments and brilliantly designed buildings and now it seems the older generation is free to relax on the streets watching the world go by or entertain themselves talking to western girls who return their smiles and agree to having their photo taken.

That thing about Chinese people changing their names to make them easier for us Westerners to say is well known but I’m proud to say that the man, who on a cruise ship would be called an ‘Entertainments Officer’, in this hotel is called Storm.  I’m assuming that’s not his job title, but he is fab and deserves it if it is.  He recommended that instead of just going to the Summer Palace on the Subway we go via the Beijing Zoo and go on a pleasure boat cruise.  The price of the zoo was included in the ticket so I got to see some Pandas, which I wasn’t expecting.  One of them was asleep - apparently another cultural difference is that in China is that it’s totally acceptable to tap the glass to get zoo animals attention – but the result is still the same louche ambivalence from these ever smiling faces.  Pandas are lovely, and far more people were crowding around them than the kangaroos, so I gave those fellow ex-pats a bit of attention to tide them over on the way to the pleasure boat.  The canal ride probably wasn’t quite what it was when the royal family used to travel along it to get to their summer home away from home, but it was still entertaining if only for the fantastic tour group which joined us and sat engrossed in the loud commentary which was delivered almost without pauses for breath and definitely without punctuation.

As an aside, it appears that when Chinese people go into retirement they’re taken around the sights in matching hats like school children. First we saw the red caps, then the navy caps then the red cap and vests then the yellow hats then my favourites, the Burberry Sailors.  Obviously this is not true but a large percentage of visitors to the Summer Palace today were older Chinese nationals.  I was surprised that quite a few people wanted to have their photo taken with me.  I think they must have thought I was an Olympian hanging back to take in the sights and I began to consider which event it was I may have competed in and whether I may possibly have won a medal…  But that is definitely an aside…

…From the Summer Palace, where all my attention really lay.  What a beautiful thing to create, a whole, lovely landscape, attractive views and ornate buildings as far as the eye can see in all directions.  If I had an endless supply of labour I would love to create something even half as beautiful.  I hope all the matching hats were proud; it was really magical.  Not all of it has been repainted and kept perfectly but that only made it seem more precious and real, for example on the Seventeen Arched Bridge each lion has been carved with some kind of lizard climbing on it, some had a few on their heads which looked annoying while others had crushed the invaders under their feet – my favourite ones looked like they were about to shake them off playfully – but the fact that each one was original and imperfect in their differences made everything seem like so much more of an achievement.  The paintings in the Long Corridor gave me the same feeling of quiet achievement, the patterned roof of individual gold dragons on blue was so much more fantastic because if the slight differences in the dragons. Labour intensive, expensive and wonderful, each dragon I’m sure was painted with its own story playing out in the mind of the artist.

I went the scenic route around the lake which meant that for a long time we walked alone beside lotus thick waters and narrow pathways lined with willows.  It was silent and misty, the hills around us dotted with pagodas which I knew to be miniatures because I’d done the research but they still impressed me – who would think to build scaled down pagodas to improve the view, geniuses that’s who!  I carefully considered the intentions behind the Temple of Collecting Moisture, and The Hall of Happiness and Longevity and the Gate whose Eaves Capture the Clouds, but my favourite was the Temple of Heartfelt Contentment.  I sat on a beautiful stone carefully selected to be positioned in that spot purely for my enjoyment and I enjoyed the beauty of beauty and ornateness for the sake of pure pleasure, watching the boats sail across the lake, their yellow dragon heads only improving on the view.

Later as we were the last to leave the Lama Temple and had to rush down the steep stairs – the Lama Temple is the one you see rising, round on the hill in all the photos – because the staff were hosing off the beautiful goldfish-orange rooves to keep them in pristine condition, I thought about China’s labour-intensive traditions and about how many people it must always have taken to keep the Summer Palace wonderful, and I wondered if they enjoyed the part they played in creating all that beauty or if it was just a job.

It only took me a few hours in China to realise that the drivers here border on the predatory.  The little green man may be welcoming me onto the road but the cars and bikes are on their own missions.  I wonder if that’s why all the horns seem to sound so tinny - if they weren’t toned down everyone would be deaf.  So my over whelming first thoughts after leaving Beijing Airport were all along the lines of ‘oh my god I’m going to die and miss out on seeing all the things I want to see in Beijing’.  Lucky I catch on pretty quick and after a few frightening crossings I adopted the policy of choosing the oldest looking local and walking out with them - I figure they’ve survived on the roads this long they must know what they’re doing… So far, still here to tell the tale.  The other thing that was different to how I imagine the city to be was the lack of smog - that’s right - maybe I’m benefiting from all the effort over the Olympic period, but the sky was clear as in London town.

My first outing after the train and foot journey to the hotel - during which I was offered assistance by several friendly souls, though one of them seemed to know less about reading maps than I do and suggested I go in what I was sure was the wrong direction -  was to Tiananmen Square - walking distance from our hotel (well about 55 minutes walk anyway.).  I’ve wanted to stand in this space for years, but when I really was I felt much the same as I do standing in Trafalgar Square - I realise that it is a historic place but I didn’t get the feeling of awe I’d hoped to get - but that was only until the sun began to show from behind a cloud creating a striking image of the place looking as large, serious and foreboding as it is.  Before the sun showed it to its most dramatic it was just a mess of pot plants being moved around after the Olympics and people waiting for the guards to change.  I waited in the crowd for a while not sure what we were all waiting for but caught up in the crowd mentality - so many people gathered looking in the same direction I couldn’t help wondering what they knew about that I didn’t.  And there are many guards, and men in official looking dress.  I wandered into a rather pretty looking garden and was quickly shooed out by some of them on my way to Tiananmen Square, and though one of them was wearing Converse trainers I have to say that I did feel a bit nervous doing wrong by them, they just seem to have such an unsmiling - I’m sure it’s regulation - presence.  I took a photo of one of the Tiananmen Square guards with his head lined up with Chairman Mao - whose effigy has been made into the hands of a clock on cheap wrist watches ever tenth person in the square wants to sell you.

Returning to the hotel we went for a meal in a restaurant.  In trying to gauge the right kind of place for us - not too expensive but safe - we decided it had to have table cloths and not have strip lighting.  We we’re also looking for a menu with pictures…  I will not be eating dog - especially seeing the street population seems to include lots of tiny cutsey ones - I did say that maybe those are the ones no good for meat, but I won’t say that again…  Our restaurant parameters seem to have been about right - the food was fantastic - though apparently I was the entertainment - the chef was taking surreptitious photos of me with his camera phone all though the meal - I checked to see if I had food on my face and didn’t so I can only hope I wasn’t committing some kind of sin of table manners.  The tea was fantastic.

If you enjoyed my mini films of London you may be pleased to hear that I’m about to set off for Beijing and Japan where I’ll be collecting lots of footage and raving about the things I’m seeing every day….  We’ll you didn’t expect me to work for a travel website and not travel and then rave about it did you?

Next stop - Beijing….

People want to know where they can go to get some decent sun and warmth next month, we know because they keep asking us, so ever the people to give the other people what they want here it is: Where’s Hot in October

I couldn’t fail to notice that China and Japan (where I’ll be in October aren’t on that list.)…

As well as the Magellan Awards we’re also in the running for A UK Association of Online Publishers Award for best new launch of 2008.  It’s particularly nice to appear on a list with Channel 4 and The Guardian.  So my flippant remarks about a trophy cabinet may not have been so presumptive…

There are sooo many potential places you can sail or cruise that it’s even harder than usual to get someone to commit to a list of the best routes on the high seas…but here is the beginning of our list of Top Cruise Routes and more than ever I welcome you to give us some suggestions of routes or port you may have been lucky enough to cruise by.

If you’re more hands on and you like to steer your vessel yourself then a sailing journey may be more your kettle of fish in which case our increasing list of Great Places to Sail might be more useful.  Either way H2O is the way to go with new World Reviewer content at the moment - even if some of our latest reviews do involve the frozen kind…  Maybe it’s all that rain last week?