China has to be the most fascinating and exciting place in the world. From the 3 gorges and the Yangtse to vast deserts and overpopulated cities to 2 million years of history to space programmes. It's a place of extremes and contradictions. And it's glorious.
I've loved China for as long as I can remember. I was completely enchanted by imperial art, enthralled by its landscape and hypnotised by its history. A country that was one of the most advanced civilisations in history, abused by the British and went on to make Communism a success, becoming the world's second biggest economy.
Visiting was both thrilling and terrifying. It wasn't the first time I'd been to the east and I was alone, completely alone. Hardly anyone could speak English, but they have to be the most thoughtful and helpful people I've ever encountered.
I got to my hostel in Beijing - pronounced Bey-Jing, not Beyzsing - that was so clean you could eat your dinner off the toilet floor. I stayed in an area not far from Tiananmen Square. I was in a hutong, little crowded backroads, packed with oil drums cooking dumplings and I presume dog. Exposed wires lining all the walls, linking tiny shops. Little tinkles of passing bikes... Can you picture it? The thing you won't be picturing is the constant hacking and spitting of phlegm in the streets. Every street is like a slalom of saliva. I'm pretty sure I missed a lot of Beijing due to my eyes being fixed to the floor.
Once you left the grey, rabbit warren roads of antiquated China, you were greeted with its modern majesty. A newly developed, pedestrianised road full of shops and traditional Chinese decor was an ode to China through the ages. It was like Oxford Street but much, much bigger.
And that's what strikes you most about China. Everything is huge. Not just the land mass, but everything. The roads take about 2 days to cross as they're so wide and their town halls are the size of 10 Oracle Centres. There might be 10 million bicycles in Beijing, but you barely notice them on the main roads because they're so huge.
This love of all things vast (I'm not going to relate this to small man syndrome) is reflected in China's most famous landmark. The only man made structure that can be seen in space. Built in the 7th Century BC and spanning 250 miles, it's gobsmacking. And we're told workers who died on the construction site were buried in the walls. Nothing can prepare you for how big and steep it actually it. The uneven terrain and sheer size of it is daunting, but breathtaking.
In its more recently history, Beijing hosted the Olympics provoking a flurry of construction that beggars belief. One of the three 7 star hotels overlooks the Bird Nest Stadium. They both look like they're painted onto the horizon. The hotel actually has a bit at the top that overhangs the rest of the skyscraper. This messes with my mind.
The Chinese youths were a lot trendier than I imagined. I know it's a Communist state that has embraced capitalism, but I still expected everyone to be wearing regulation clothing. The kids all dressed like emo or skater kids.
One of my favourite adventures was when I was looking for an internet cafe. I walked into the most weird and wonderful places that you just don't find in the Lonely Planet. And met some lovely people along the way. Even the ones that didn't understand me, wouldn't let me leave until they had found someone to help and if they couldn't help me, neither of them would let me leave until they found someone else. I ended up making my understood by badly miming computer and internet. No wonder they couldn't understand me!
There's nothing traditionally beautiful about Beijing. The areas that we know like the Forbidden City, Mao's tomb and the underground city Mao was building are incredibly impressive, but outside of that the city is functional. I believe that only Europe and the West really values interior design, everywhere else is ruled by function and no where is that more apparent than in China. When everything is built to such a standard and then be filled with plastic garden chairs and plastic Hello Kitty bowls.
Xi'An City
It's a two hour flight from Beijing to Xi'An. I planned an on-land route that would take me down part of Silk Road and a UNESCO protected village that still used gas lights. The journey was long and I was so freaked out that hardly anyone spoke English and nothing was written in English in the capital that going to a remote village was unnerving. Especially for an inexperienced lone traveller like me.
I landed in Xi'An, pronounced Shian - like dog in French - and it was all the more familiar. It look like any other modern European or American city. It was all lights and traffic, McDonald's and Starbucks, Irish pubs and skyscrapers. Everyone spoke English and there were foreign travellers. You have to go off the beaten track, I mean severely off the beaten track to even get a taster of its ancient past.
The only thing in Xi'An is the terracotta army. To stick with the theme of China, the thing that strikes you is the sheer size. And they've only excavated 30% of the site. The thing is massive! To think that thousands of Chinese spent years building an army so exact and detailed for it just to be buried under tonnes of earth.
What a place imperial China must've been. No wonder so much of our modern lives have been affected by it, from fireworks and silk to herbal medicine and acupuncture. It's so modern, yet so backwards. It's so European and yet so Chinese. It's so caring, yet so brutal.
My Chinese wanderlust has in no way been satisfied. A journey down the Silk Road and a South Chinese odyssey is still in the plan. Now on a backburner, but still on the list.
First published January 2009.
