By Tony Ryan

You have to see it! I spent three weeks there in April 2002 and I can't wait to go back!

As an introduction to China, Beijing is an exotic world that is developing like a controlled explosion. In a year it will have changed… after the 2008 Olympic Games it may well be unrecogniseable. And forget what you have heard about authorities shooting first and asking questions later. Unless you do something incredibly stupid there is nothing to fear

I know it must seem pretty arrogant to pontificate about a country after a single visit but when you go there for the first time this is exactly the situation you will be in. I know nothing about Chinese politics. Religion is tolerated as long as it stays out of politics:

"Chinese own philosophies accept freedom of religions. Chinese also believes that any religion should promote universal harmony, not hatreds. Religion should not be used for politics in any sense but for spiritual richness of mankind. Any religion body, which has very tie and effective control in organization, is not purely for promoting their religion but for solidify their power and influences in the society. These organizations are not religion in nature but political or commercial bodies. Falen Dala is one of them, which has been developed very rapidly in North America and China. We believe that this organization has political agenda and will do a lot of damages to other religion groups and the promotion of Taoism."
(From an official website http://www.index-china.com/index-english/people-religions-s.html )

 

There can be little doubt that the Falun Gong organisation is vigorously and vocally opposed to the Chinese Government but are they a front for the CIA? After being told the US armed and funded the Taliban in Afghanistan to fight the Russians and their current bête noire Saddam Hussein to attack Iran... I'l buy anything.

It is generally agreed that there is no organised dissent within China at the moment - maybe they locked everybody up or maybe there just is no dissent (everyone is busy getting richer). On the 13th anniversary of the Tien Anmen massacre, June 4th 2002, most urban Chinese would have been more likely to concentrate upon China's first (unsuccessful) appearance in the Soccer World Cup that day.

On Tibet you will simply be told that China contains 56 ethnic minorities of which Tibetans are one. Tibet is certainly the most frequently mentioned region on Central China Television (CCTV). And actually there are over 100 languages spoken in China but Mandarin is the official language and almost exclusively the language of Beijing (the capital).

I was only slightly nervous about my safety during one incident. My closest friend in Beijing is a classic Chinese Tiger Lady: tall, elegant, beautiful and made of pure steel. We were taking a taxi to a department store to buy clothes because they are cheap in China and my friend thinks I dress like a beggar. Suddenly an argument broke out between her and the driver over the route we were taking.

In no time we were stopped, out of the cab and the two of them were having a blazing row over the fare. The tough, nuggety little driver looked like he could pull her head off if he could reach that high... but Tiger Lady was not backing off one millimetre nor (as far as I could tell) was she pausing for breath.

Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye I noticed that several members of the Peoples Liberation Army had become curious about the fuss and were slowly approaching to investigate. Fortunately Tiger Lady soon got the better of the Beijing de Niro, he roared off without being paid and we got another cab. It was then she told me we had stopped in the district where all the foreign embassies were located and they were the embassy guards - the same dudes that two months later were to break into the South Korean Embassy and with considerable violence dragged out numerous would-be asylum-seekers.

LIFE ON THE GROUND
I was in Beijing two weeks before I realised what was odd about the traffic in the streets (apart from the near anarchy): there are no old cars. The average Australian car is twelve years old. In Beijing there don't appear to be any over six years apart from the rare imported American classic.

Six years ago the Chinese Government made a deal with VW to build cars in the People's Republic of China (PRC), the VW Santana became the most popular car and in 2002 the contract was renewed for a further six years. Suddenly there is more traffic than Beijing streets OR traffic police can cope with… including thousands of buses and bicycles (horses and carts are banned from major roads). That's how fast things are moving there.

Though many in that traffic must be official cars, most belong to China’s rapidly emerging wealthy middleclass. Will they continue to be content with just making money or will they start to demand some political power? My friend in China missed out on the 1989 Tien Anmen Square tragedy because she had the flu that day. Both her parents had been denounced during the Cultural Revolution of the 60's. I tend to think that given a choice between political freedom and economic security she would choose the latter.

Banking is another evolving phenomena. I needed an ATM to get money out of my savings account. The local branch of the Bank of China told me this was only possible for foreign devils like me at the main office of the bank. After a long and comparatively expensive taxi ride (is there a country in the world where taxi drivers don't try to rip off tourists?) I spoke to three different people in Head Office and got three different answers, but the last one was right - there were two ATMs for foreign accounts on the wall outside the building.

Two foreign-access ATMs for a city of 12 million (some say 15 million)… and they weren't that busy. Many residents have since assured me there are many more and indeed credit card use is set to increase in China as many restrictions on them were lifted while I was there. Soon it will be possible to use cards issued in one city in another. However China is still some distance away from the US situation where every corner shop and café has an ATM accepting international cards and this will have to change by 2008 at least in major cities.

The people of Beijing are warm, open and friendly. There is an innocence about them - like a country town (notwithstanding their ancient culture). They may stare at you because Europeans are so rare in the back streets of the city but the instant you smile or wave, their wonderful faces beam back at you. Sometimes "hello" just means "hello".

Very few citizens of the city really speak English, although most learn it in high school but lack a chance to practise it. This IS changing, yet they are so eager to help poor dumb Bignose spend his money, find the Temple of Heaven or understand the restaurant menu (which is usually in English anyway) language is not a problem.

My Lonely Planet Guide to China correctly warned me that candid street photography is unknown in China and people are very suspicious of strangers taking their photos. In Asia the correct way to photograph is to line everyone up in front of some point of interest and ask them to smile. You don't sneak up on people unless you are up to no good. I soon learned to ask permission by pointing at the camera lens and looking appealing.

I was politely asked to stop photographing in a kindergarten playground, a market and in a Buddhist temple. I politely complied. I snapped a man sweeping the pavement inside the Forbidden City and he promptly went into a rage, making it clear that I was supposed to be photographing the bloody historic buildings and not harassing a decent working man going about his business.

My friends in Beijing had organised me a cheap but very comfortable hotel in the centre of a busy and intense area (rather like the Mission District of San Francisco) that seemed to have everything I wanted within four blocks of the hotel - including shopping centres, cheap food and cheap Internet access.

 

The same friends drove me to a section of the Great Wall at Badaling, just over 100km from the city, on the second day of my visit. I got thoroughly exhausted trying to climb a small section of it. It was very steep, very high, and hot, and jammed-packed with people. This was my first experience of tourism here, which is booming - but entirely Chinese.

There is barely a handful of western faces at any of the great tourist traps (who all seem to avoid each other anyway). It is almost as though we in the west have forgotten that this huge country, with 1.3 billion people and a growth rate of over seven percent per quarter, is still where it has been for thousands of years.

Instead of the American-style 'Great Wall' souvenir baseball cap I opted for a joke copy of the Red Guard green cap with the red star. Immediately I met two Chinese students with the same caps who promptly saluted me. I spent the rest of the day saluting or being saluted, posing for photos and videos - I even got to pose with a real soldier... and his mother. I was to grow very fond of the Chinese sense of humour (See here for more fraternising on the Wall).

The Great Wall is incredible… and beautiful. Here I was, struggling along one of the wonders of the World, sweating like a pig and trying not to get trampled by the huge crowd. It was almost too simple, like the time in a history lecture I held a Roman gold coin from the time of Nero in the palm of my hand.

There was a museum with lots of exhibits and explanations in English, a cable car and a 360 degree movie theatre - a complete circle of screens alternating between a complete panorama or breaking into separate scenes, all with surround sound. The movie was a history of the Wall and you had to turn around to watch the troops on horseback come charging over the barren hills then turn back to see what the 15^th Century dudes on the wall were doing about it. I was impressed and it did help to put the Wall in context, to start to grasp the extent and age of it.

Beijing may be amazing but it is not Heaven: there is still real poverty there - but without squalor or despair. The city suffers from periodic smog and dust storms (that apparently blow in from the Gobi Desert), most people work long hours for little pay, yet there is an all-pervasive sense of excitement and change happening before your eyes. There is such a mixture of old and new, wealth and poverty, tradition and innovation practically side by side.. it was hard not to photograph compulsively in case I missed something.

Capitalism is a new toy in China. The Wall was the first, but not the last place I encountered a squillion souvenir sellers yelling "Hello! hello!" (which in this case means "Come here Bignose and give me your money").

Right: Downtown Beijing - a pedestrian overpass over a six-lane highway (plus bicycle lanes) before the glass towers of modern commerce. The first question I was asked was did I consider Beijing a modern city? Of course it is; it is huge, has pollution, traffic jams, skyscrapers, overcrowding and American junk food - whoopee! It is the the elements that make it distinctly Chinese that give it charm.

"Hello" in Mandarin is ni hao (or wei if you are answering the phone) but until recently it was common to greet someone by asking if they had eaten - because even in recent memory many people hadn’t for some time. Nowadays this is considered old-fashioned and not used in educated circles.

In response to increasingly troublesome dust storms blowing into the streets of Beijing the government, aided by some large business sponsors, is planting millions of trees everywhere and being Spring when I arrived many were already in blossom. I was photographing in one of the many parks between towering apartment blocks where retired Chinese take their exercise, when an official pointed helpfully towards the flowering trees.Apparently in 1947 a well-meaning official had planted thousands of a particular variety of poplar tree whose airborne seeds annually join the dust and pollution of Springtime Beijing.

I was unable to form any opinion on the state of the arts apart from what I saw on CCTV (traditional drama, opera and classical or traditional music). I'd have to say that for me traditional Chinese opera is more visually stimulating than aural… and even when I heard the two-string fiddle in live performance it made me think of someone torturing a cat. I have since learned that Beijing has a healthy underground and alternative live music scene.

Incidentally CCTV takes advertising on it's more popular channels, in amongst the soaps and cop shows. Many Government entities blur the line between state and corporate and it will be interesting to see how China resolves inevitable conflict with membership of the WTO. I cannot see the Chinese Government surrendering any significant control to a committee in Geneva... or Washington.

I visited the Australian-run Red Gate Gallery which is situated in an historic and beautifully restored watchtower (it's worth a visit for the building alone). The art on display is pretty much what you'd expect the wealthy middleclass to buy for the mantelpiece in any Australian city, and not a zillion miles from the art exhibited online by Chinese art academies to lure overseas enrolments.

Apparently the Red Gate organisation makes its bread hiring studio space to visiting artists. I didn't need a studio and my request for help to meet a Chinese artist, especially a photographer or someone working with photography-based images, seemed to strike them as quite bizarre. Suddenly every artist in Beijing either didn't speak English or was out of the country. Given my past experience with arts bureaucrats I guess I should have known.

I did visit the Museum of Chinese History on the edge of the immense Tien Anmen Square to see the totally wonderful Tang Dynasty Exhibition. It was largely ceramics; wonderfully animated figures full of character and humour, as well as beautifully coloured. Bosch would have loved them - and they were created between 618-907 AD!

The down side was that as soon as I hit the square I was chased by incredibly persistent souvenir sellers. Once clear of them and about to enter the Museum I was pounced on by two young ladies claiming to be art students who invited me in English to see an exhibition of "their work". It was competent but fairly conventionally traditional wall hangings depicting the usual four seasons, various deities and the inevitable tiger.

They wanted me to buy them of course, for about 900 yuan, but had to ask another young man about the exact price. They complimented me on my "vast" knowledge of Chinese culture and hinted at possible sexual favours if I made a purchase. I was getting dizzy from the hard sell and said I really wanted to see the Tang. They agreed I needed time to consider my purchase and one lady took me to the ticket office - but for some reason she didn't have to pay and she stuck with me for nearly an hour while I looked at the exhibits. Finally I broke the bad news and she left me alone.

Ready to have a rest I decided to give Mao's tomb a miss (entry is free so the queues are very long) and showed a taxi driver my piece of paper with the address of my hotel on it. He promptly quoted me 80 yuan. All taxis have meters and the correct fare is around 24 yuan. I think some Chinese in the tourist industry need to learn the parable about the golden goose.

The image on the right was scanned from the cover of a catalogue for the exhibition of recent Chinese archeological finds that toured Australia in 1977.

ABOVE: A classic 45cm Tang Dynasty ceramic figurine from the 8th Century complete with rouged lips, powdered face and a false mole at the corner of her mouth.