China

Last month I made my first visit to China. I traveled there to attend an astrophysics conference. The meeting was held in Huangshan, Anhui province, located about 200 miles west of Shanghai. It is famous for Huangshan mountain, which has been important in Chinese culture for more than a thousand years. The trip began auspiciously, as I found myself holding an economy ticket, but sitting in business class! I had simply asked if I could get an aisle seat when I checked in, and when my seat was assigned at the gate the counter agent made a cryptic remark like, "we've got a nice seat for you," which at the time did not really tip me off. But, upon boarding I realized my seat number was rather low, and quickly I was walking in business class looking for my seat. I still wasn't sure it wasn't some mistake, and kept expecting to be sent to the back, but after they buttoned up the doors I realized they must have had an extra space or two in business class, and I had gotten one. It's much roomier than coach, and one can almost recline fully and get some real sleep, which is a good thing, since my itinerary had me flying from Washington, DC to Beijing, almost a 14 hr flight. It is rather an amazing flight, the great circle between DC and Beijing goes almost over the north pole. It is one of the most remote air-routes I have ever flown, perhaps only rivaled by long hauls over the trackless Pacific Ocean, like LA to Sydney. For most of the flight you are flying over the arctic ocean, or the vast wildernesses of northern Canada and Siberia. If the plane should have some mechanical problem and be forced down, you are in deep yogurt! Take your pick, a forced ditching on the pack ice, or the frozen tundra of Siberia; either way, not a pleasant prospect. But, air travel really is remarkably safe, and my flight had no problems.

I then had a 4-5 hour layover, waiting to catch my AirChina flight to Huangshan. Huangshan is not a large city by Chinese standards, so there is only one connecting flight per day, and it arrives in Huangshan rather late (almost 10pm local time). The airport at Huangshan is really an "airstrip," one runway, and interestingly, after landing, the pilot has to make a full U-turn and come back down the runway to access the taxi-way and get to the gate. At any rate, by the time I had arrived in Huangshan I was really looking forward to a good 8 hours of unconsciousness. However, lots of the conference attendees were arriving at about the same time, so there was a sizable queue to get checked in. Also, we were asked to make a deposit in cash (Yuan) for the length of the stay, and most of us had not yet gotten much local cash, but they were good about it and let us pay some of what we had, and submit the remainder the following day. The other thing that became starkly clear at check-in is the immensity of the language barrier. It's almost impossible to communicate unless you have someone who can translate at least a little bit. Fortunately, there were several colleagues from the local organizing committee, and they could help with the hotel staff, who generally did not speak any English, just as I do not speak any Chinese!

The meeting was quite enjoyable, and I had a chance to catch up with some friends and colleagues. Meals were quite interesting. All the meals were provided for, each being a sizable buffet-like affair, except the food was really authentic. It was a little difficult to get used to seeing whole chicken's feet, fish, crawdads, squid, you name it. Most everything is cooked "au natural," that is, whole; fish, chicken, all have the heads still on, for example. Probably the most difficult adjustment was breakfast; whereas in the West we have typically different foods for breakfast, the Chinese seem to eat more or less the same kind of things at every meal. So, a few mornings it was a little difficult to "choke" down more rice. I definitely was having "bagel" withdrawal symptoms on a few occasions. Also, if you are a serious coffee addict you may want to consider bringing your own stash! If not for the Nestle instant that was hastily provided to us, we would have been nursing caffeine withdrawal headaches for a few days. Tea is definitely "in."

From what I could see it's true that China is just booming from an economic standpoint. It's quite amazing, like a high speed collision between the modern and the old; rich and poor. In general I found the people to be remarkably friendly, and with quite an interest in some of us obvious westerners. For example, on a few occasions while walking in the old district in Huangshan we would be approached by families wanting to get a picture of themselves with us! Many people would pass in the streets and try out the few words in English they knew, like "hi", or "hello." While in the city almost any modern convenience could be found, once out in the countryside things are a lot different. Almost all the land is under cultivation, and one can pass farmers working alongside their water-buffaloes! The city is modern, but its streets are swept by old women using "brooms" of a kind which they have probably used for hundreds of years, they look more like tree branches than brooms.

Huangshan mountain was very interesting. It's a big tourist site, but mostly for the Chinese themselves. It's a huge national park, and access to the mountain is via trails and stone steps cut and/or built along the trails. It's really a remarkable engineering feat, because there must be hundreds of miles of trails. Several cable cars provide access to the upper trails, but one can also walk. It was rather strenuous walking, with many, many steep sections of steps (see photos above). Amazingly, everything is carried up the mountain on the backs of porters. One of the photos above captures part of the journey of a porter. A single trip up the mountain can take upwards of 5 hrs. We passed porters carrying modern construction materials, such as long strings of re-bar, up the steps! As I said, everything is carried up by hand.

There are hotels up on the mountains, and one can find rest-stops and foods-stands, serving everything from Tsing-tao beer to green tea. Beer was rather interesting, or to be frank, somewhat disappointing! It is very weak stuff indeed, 2-3 % alcohol content typically. Perhaps one can get more stout beer in the major cities?

I also visited the Hung-Cun village in the countryside about 40 miles from Huangshan. The photo here shows some of the beautiful Chinese farmlands along the way. Hung Cun is a traditional Chinese village, and has been continuously inhabitated for more than a 1,000 years! It is also famous as a location for shooting of portions of the film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." In particular, as you enter the village there is a walkway and small, ornate bridge across the pond in front. There are lotus blossoms in the pond, one of which I photographed.