Vicky Collins Online

The Olympic Games are less than three weeks away and Beijing is spiffing up.  When you have a workforce of over a billion people you can get lots done in a short time.  Every day the city transforms itself more and more.  Signage has gone up from one end of town to the other.  You drive over logos in special Olympic lanes, see Fuwas and banners flapping in the wind and pass huge floral displays that have been planted at major intersections.  You can not turn around without being reminded the Olympics are coming.  There are so many people cleaning, planting flowers and scurrying about to get the city ready.  The air is even clearer and this coming week traffic will lighten up as odd/even license plate restrictions keep half the cars off the road. 

Days are busy indeed, but at night Beijing slows down and that is my favorite time.  I love to walk about in the evening.  In my neighborhood, women gather together on benches to visit and fan themselves.  Men with their shirts rolled up to show their exposed bellies sit around, smoke and play board games.  Stylish young couples fill restaurants and children hang out with their grandparents in the alleys around their homes.  Squat legged dogs putter about and now and then you come across a litter of puppies.  One of my favorite scenes is the many people who show up every night outside the Outback Steakhouse near Worker’s Stadium for ballroom dancing.  The whole world seems to come to the street.  It’s an Olympic city for sure but it is still very much Beijing and those who are coming to see it are in for a treat.

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There were two places on my must see list on this journey to China and this past weekend in an Olympic sightseeing marathon I visited both.  On Saturday friends and I flew to Xian for a whirlwind day trip to see the Terra Cotta Warriors and on Sunday three of us visited the Great Wall of China.  The Terra Cotta Warriors are amazing to ponder.  What compelled some Chinese royal to create such an army in the first place?  Did he really believe the soldiers, generals, archers and horses could help him rule in the afterlife?  And what would drive an invading army to pillage and burn such a spectacular treasure?  Were they not in awe like I was?  Archaeologists have done a brilliant job restoring the ancient warriors, and continue their work to this day, but answers to these questions still escape me.

As incredible as they are I’m not writing about the Terra Cotta Warriors.  I’m writing about the Great Wall.  We chose to visit a fairly remote section between Jingshanling and Sumatai after it was recommended by intrepid colleagues.  They said it was the most spectacular section and far less crowded than the areas at Badaling and Mutainyu that are packed with tourists and closer to Beijing.  They warned us though that it was a difficult hike with lots of steep sections going up and many areas where the wall is crumbling and difficult to descend.  It was an understatement.

It’s a two hour drive from Beijing to the spot in Inner Mongolia where we would embark on our ten kilometer hike.  As we entered Hebei province and the wall started to reveal itself in the distance a hush fell over the car.  The wall snaked its way up and down high green mountains and we all were quietly thinking this might be more than we could handle.  I suppose there are hundreds of reasons to talk yourself out of making this trip but if you muster the courage it will be one of the most memorable things you do in China.  Our driver left for Sumatai.  We had no choice but to proceed.

As we set off on the rugged wall in Jingshanling, a group of Mongolian farm women fell in step with us.  They had tsotchkes for sale and as we hiked they engaged us in conversation.  “Where are you from?  How long have you been in China?  Are you family?  Do you have children?” We really didn’t want them along.  It was an uneasy arrangement.  You don’t come to a place this remote to be hustled but as I struggled with one of the most challenging physical feats I’ve ever attempted, Ginger was by my side.  She coached me, told me to watch my step and walk slowly.  After 103 huge steps straight up, when I could hear my heart pound in my head and could barely breathe, she offered me a hand to help me up.  When she sensed I needed a break she would wait, and when she thought I could go on she would move again.  When I finally got up to the tower she would fan me in the shade.  “You are almost at the top,” Ginger would say.  “Keep going.”

Mr. Li gets the good Olympic citizen award.  I left my new Nike sweatshirt in his taxi following a ride to the Emperor Hotel.  After a couple days of searching my Chinese colleague tracked him down and learned he had delivered the item to the hotel thinking I was a guest there.  When she told him otherwise, he retrieved it and delivered it to me at work clear across town.  He refused to accept any compensation or even a tip for his trouble.  I fell over myself trying but he said no.  Mr. Li told me he wanted to do the right thing and treat foreign guests to the Olympics well.  Xie Xie, Mr. Li.

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Sunday in Beijing and I feel the city is mine.  The sky is a beautiful blue (yes, it does happen) and the sun is out.  In two and a half weeks I have found a French bakery for cappuccinos, a restaurant I love called Hutong Pizza and I rode the subway.  I’m making my way through the city with confidence.  Today I decide to visit the zoo.  Apparently so does the rest of China.  This is not something to do if you get claustrophobic. 

The Beijing Zoo is primitive with many animals in glass enclosures and cages.  Visitors throw food and there are no moats so the animals often come right up to the fences.   There are some very interesting antelope and a great collection of bugs and butterflies.  There is also something I have never seen in a zoo before.  Dogs!!  In the children’s zoo there are different breeds of dogs.  They are big and little and the kids can walk them.

I have come to the zoo to see the pandas.  They are smaller than I expected and adorable. Ever since I met Suzanne Braden in Denver I have been more interested in them.  Suzanne runs a non-profit organization called Pandas International (http://www.pandasinternational.org) and she is a force.  For years she has been raising money for the panda breeding facility in Wolong that is working to insure the survival of the species.  There are only 1600 left in the world and their habitat in Wolong took a terrible hit from the earthquake.

The pandas are a hugely popular attraction and people photograph them with cameras and cell phones even behind the glass.   My NBC colleague, Mark Mullen, had a chance to visit Wolong a couple of times.  The most recent experience was after the earthquake and his stories of hope and heartbreak appeared on Today and Nightly News with Brian Williams (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#25212574)  He did a great stand up.  He reported by a cute little bear and then he patted his head.  Sublime!!   

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Brenda and I went to a restaurant with red lanterns in front that serves hot pot.  A hot pot is like sukiyaki.  It is a mish mash of meat, vegetables and noodles cooked at the table.  There was no English spoken and the menu was completely in Chinese.  For westerners there are pictures of the dishes.  We had trouble ordering so a waitress recommended something that looked safe.  It was very tasty.  Today we went back with our Chinese speaking friend, Eir Zhou.  Turns out the dish was donkey, a very popular meat throughout the country.  Sometimes it is better not to know what you are eating.   

We have a new employee at work.  She hails from Guangzhou in the south of China and has been in Beijing for one and a half years.  She is a 30 something television producer and speaks excellent English.  During a lull in the action today we got to talking.  It was great to transcend the language barrier and have an in depth conversation with a local.  She said she thinks many people have misconceptions about China and asked me what I find surprising so far.  Wow!  There are so many things.

First of all, I feel much freer here than I expected to be.  I may be naïve but I doesn’t seem like anyone is looking over my shoulder or particularly cares what I say or write.  I also have access to almost all the things I want on the internet including newspapers from around the world.  Folks talk about the great firewall of China.  I haven’t really noticed it yet.      

There are many westerners living in Beijing.  Because of the explosive growth, people have come from all over the world to participate in the development.  There are parts of town like Shunyi and Gongti Beilu full of expatriates.  They live here with their families and send their kids to excellent schools.  They celebrate Canada Day and the 4^th of July.  A friend of mine who has lived here for two years doesn’t want to leave. 

Young people here are hip and trendy.  They go out.  They enjoy clubs and western music like people their age around the world.  They dress like American or European youth.  Women wear funky, sparkly outfits and colorful shoes.  Men have longish hair.  They have style, money, cell phones, even cars.  What a difference a generation makes.

The food is great here.  You can eat Chinese food forever or you can go to outstanding restaurants in an evolving culinary environment that caters to more cosmopolitan palettes.  In our neighborhood alone we have Italian, Mexican, Korean, pizza, Cuban food, an Irish pub, Muslim food, etc.  The list goes on and on.  There are gourmet grocery stores, excellent wines and French bakeries with croissants and cappuccinos. 

It is inexpensive here.  You can ride a cab across town for $5 and get an hour massage at a really nice spa for $25.  A first class meal with drinks and wine costs less than $50.  You can have a good time at very little expense and you can shop till you drop.  There are bargains galore. 

It is safe.  I can walk on the street and no one bothers me.  People smile and greet you.  They let you take photos of their children.  The biggest hazards are traffic accidents (I heard there were 18,000 deaths in a three month period in 2007) and drinking too much at dinner.  The guide books warn that liquor flows freely at banquets.  One must watch out.   

I had many misconceptions before coming to China but being immersed in the culture gives me a different perspective.  It is an adventure living in a foreign land.  There are growing pains for sure in China, and they are being carefully chronicled by the press, but in my experience the truth is somewhere in between.  I continue to be pleasantly surprised by the things I discover every day in Beijing.  I’m sure my colleague would be pleased. 

For more information on Vicky Collins visit http://teletrendstv.com