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Day
23 and Day 24 - Thursday 31st July & Friday 1st August On the way to the airport early this morning, it was quite a surreal experience to see Beijing completely deserted! I was used to a busy, hectic Beijing, but at 3:15am, it’s a completely different sight. While packing up at Kevin’s place, I had thought my suitcase had come up to 22kg. But when I got to check-in at the airport, it was supposedly 14.6kg! That was a complete shock, and I couldn’t understand why, but as I left check-in I eventually worked out that a bit of the suitcase was still on the trolley, which took away a bit of the weight! Ha! So, if you guys ever think you’re going to have a problem with overweight luggage, try to place a bit of the suitcase onto the trolley when check-in staff are measuring the weight! Obviously, I didn’t do this on purpose though!
But
for now, the music has stopped and the dance with the dragons
has come to a spectacular close. Of the BRICs economies, India
and now China have been conquered. I now go onwards to conquer
Brazil and Russia!
On
the train back, I met a group of Indian businessmen who were in
Shanghai carrying out a business deal. It was nice to meet them
because they come from Tamil Nadu in India, which is the state
just beside Kerala. My parents come from Kerala and I went there
last year on my trip to India. The fact that these Indian men
were doing business in China made me think about the extent to
which India and China were collaborating with each other to further
their own economic interests. We often talk about India and China
as the two big emerging market economies, but I have not really
thought about how they work together. That’s something I’m
going to look at when I get a bit of time! In
the evening we met up with Carel’s parents by the bank of
the river with the classic Pudong skyline in view. Because of
the traffic, Carel, Candy and I turned up 10 minutes too late
to see the Oriental Pearl lit up from the river side. But while
getting there we got an almost 360 degree view of it while driving
to meet their parents! It
has been said countless times before but you’re going to
hear it here again – there are a lot of skyscrapers! Shanghai
is a very commercial area and despite population figures that
say 20m people live there, I get the impression that a significant
portion of that is made up of people who live here only for work
and go back ‘home’ often. It
was my first time go-karting today! I went over to a circuit in
Beijing with Kevin and Carel. I can’t believe that I have
managed to live eighteen years without go-karting! I felt like
Lewis Hamilton negotiating all the corners while overtaking other
drivers! I got a bit more reading done today about the Chinese economy. There was an article in the FT a couple of days ago which highlighted a significant shift in world trade, where we are witnessing a rapid growth in import demand from the Chinese economy. It is expected that China will in 10 years time be the world’s biggest import market. China is often associated as a huge exporter (which it certainly is) where it rose by 18% from a year ago, but imports have increased by 31%, thus reducing its trade surplus for the month. “China’s role as top supplier, and now a leading buyer, is causing a new economic phenomenon that should be embraced rather than feared”. We can relate this back to James Kynge’s book (see 25th July below) where we see China affecting the outside world significantly. “For entrepreneurs from Europe and US, this is their best chance to sell more to China, create more jobs and boost their economies”. In
my time here so far, especially while cycling around Beijing,
I have been able to see this rising middle class which is giving
rise to this increase in import demand. As people become richer,
they naturally demand more (from abroad too) – this is the
new phenomenon that is developing in China. With the prospect
of another billion new consumers on the horizon, this should certainly
be an opportunity that the West can use to their advantage. For
this reason, world leaders should resist calls for protectionism,
which seem to be rising around the world due to the current uncertain
economic climate. I
got some time to get a bit of reading on China. At the moment,
I’m reading ‘China Shakes the World’ by James
Kynge, whose book aims to explore the ways in which trends and
events in China play out in the rest of the outside world. In
his first chapter, he points out how manhole covers started to
disappear from roads around the world in 2004 – because
of China! Due to Chinese demand, the price of scrap metal rose
to record levels, giving an incentive for thieves to cash in on
this change. This happened in places as far as Montreal, Gloucester
and Kuala Lumpur! I played a bit of pool in the afternoon – I wasn’t actually too bad! Hours and hours of practice in front of the TV watching Ronny O’Sullivan playing at The Crucible, against my brothers at home on one of those small £60 Argos snooker boards finally paid off! Rob
has now gone back home, but I’m here till Friday 1st August.
My plans over the next week should be finalised very soon. Watch
this space… We
went to the Silk Market, which has floors and floors of fake goods
ranging from Versace and Louis Vuitton to pirated DVDs. But I
had noticed at the time that were not as many fake goods as I
would have expected, from what I heard from others. In the evening,
I read an article from The Times titled “Beijing: will it
be ready for the Olympics?” and it explained how the Chinese
government was cracking down on pirated DVDs and fake branded
goods. But according to the article, if you asked around, shopkeepers
usually have hidden black binliners lying around somewhere with
those other fake goods. I think I might have to make another trip
there to see the black binliner in action!
Day
13 - Monday 21st July - Happy Valley Themepark and supper with
Duncan Sparkes Tomorrow,
I’m off to another part of the Great Wall (Simitai) –
one which is slightly off the beaten track and not a tourist hotspot
as the Badaling Great Wall is, which I visited last week. “The
most harrowing portion, steep and unrestored, is on the east side
of the Miyon Reservoir” (Frommer’s Beijing Guide).
That’s where I’m going! |
Today
(or rather yesterday!) was the final day in Beijing. I’m
now on the flight now to London via Dubai and thought I’d
use this opportunity to update my blog. I have thoroughly enjoyed
spending time in Beijing with Kevin and his family.
In
terms of exploring China, I have certainly ticked the box to do
with cities – Beijing and Shanghai; you can’t ask
for much more! But I really want to make another journey into
China to see the other side of it, where people live completely
different lives to what I saw in this trip.
It
was sad to leave Shanghai, as I had a lot of fun with Carel, Candy,
and their parents. But my night train was waiting and a 1080km
journey back to Beijing was waiting. (By the way, I knew it was
1080km because there were signs from the top of the Oriental Pearl
pointing out major locations in China and its distance from Shanghai!)
On
arrival in Shanghai at 7:12am, the first thing to strike immediately
as soon as I got off the train was the humidity. At 7:12am, it
was already getting hot outside – I just didn’t want
to imagine what it would be like at midday! For the first time
in China, I think I saw blue sky in Shanghai today – as
I said before, Beijing seems to be constantly under fog! But I’ve
heard that there is a typhoon off the coast of China, which is
likely to bring some rain over the next few days. It seems wherever
I go, the rain comes too!
It's now 10:32pm and I'm sitting down on my bed on the train as
I add this little extra bit onto today's entry. I met a guy called
Joram on the train just now, who lives in Croydon, not far from
where I live in London!! How small is the world?! Just like me,
he's travelling around China with a friend. He has an older brother
who currently studies at Cambridge! Because of our little encounter
today, I'll definitely get in touch with his brother, and stay
in touch with Joram too!
I
went with Kevin and his mum to see a great performance by Yale
University’s orchestra at the National Theatre for Performing
Arts. To the untrained ear, the performance would have led you
to believe that they were as good as any other major orchestra
– but maybe they were actually that good! The National Theatre
for Performing Arts is one of the modern constructions in Beijing
shaped as a dome and is completely surrounded by water, like a
moat from one of the old castles! We walked around more than half
of it after finally realising that you cannot get into it directly,
but had to go through an underpass which went below the water
to get into the building!
