Went to see the pandas!

As it turns out, I did go somewhere interesting. No classes today because of the sports day, and the weather was fine, so I decided to go out. I went to the Beijing Zoo.

It is a large, but ordinary zoo. There are a few good exhibits, the African animals are kept well and there were cockatiels (in the bird section, which was good since the Australian animals section was closed). There is a lot of open space and some lakes through the middle, which combined with the clear sky (thanks to the rain yesterday) resulted in a very un-Beijing experience.


Manchurian Brown Bear


There were real ones but you can't ride them.


I saw one in the wild on my first trip to China.


Chinese River Deer

I left the pandas to last. When I left Adelaide it was still in the grip of panda fever, with two new pandas in Adelaide zoo. I didn't see them, but I couldn't get away with going to China without seeing pandas. The panda area needs an extra ticket to get into and contains two panda buildings, some outdoor panda areas and a token set of other rare Chinese animals. The two buildings are named after (and were built to commemorate) sporting events - the Asian Games panda house, and the Olympic panda house. The Asian Games one is a bit older and has fewer pandas in it. The lighting wasn't good inside so all my good photos are from outdoors.


Panda!


Panda running!


Spider-Panda!


Red panda!

With all that pandamonium, I was done for the day. After this I really don't think I'll be doing anything more until a week from now. Really.

I'm Not Dead

I know it's been over a week since my last post, and some of you may be thinking I ended up in a gutter after a crazy German party. That didn't happen, fortunately, so I'm here now to go through what I did in the past week or so.

I didn't end up going to the German party. I couldn't find out where it was from anyone I knew, and there ended up being a huge Spanish party in the dorm anyway, which was cheaper and probably more fun. Another barbeque on the balcony lasting late into the night. Then, the next day, we got some more meat and did it again. Some Koreans joined us, so we had to use Chinese (a lot of the time Chinese is the only common language, often with Koreans and Japanese, and the Libyan on our floor). For those counting, this is three meals of meat in a row - pretty good!

After this, I had a relaxing/boring week. After spending a lot of money at the range I decided to be cheap for the week - which meant having every meal at the cafeteria. It is possible to have lunch for Y3.5 - this basically gets you a large bowl of instant noodles with bits of beef in it. Spending a little bit more opens up a few fried noodle possibilities as well.

But all this cheapness didn't last. Friday night I went out with most of the class, to a Korean restaurant, then to KTV. KTV is karaoke, with all your friends in a private room (Alfonso didn't know this). After that I was roped into going to a nightclub with a bouncy floor. The clubs here are huge, and not the cheapest form of entertainment here - but a lot cheaper than they would be back home I'm sure. Ended up going back to the campus via McDonald's (there was someone in there, at 3:30am, studying). Alfonso also had a big night out - when I got back he was checking his email.

We took it relatively easy for the rest of the weekend. We (Alfonso and I, and some Chinese friends) went to Houhai, which is Beijing's waterfront bar and tourist area. We went during the day, though, so it wasn't too exciting. There were the usual Rolex sellers (though not too many) and pedicabs looking for work, but there were also some quaint old Beijing trappings - old people playing Chinese chess (Xiangqi), disobeying the signs by fishing (and even swimming) in the lake, and selling interesting snacks. There are ducks living on the lake, and an island which was apparently built as a home for them (with a bamboo barrier surrounding it to protect it from the hundreds of boats on the lake). It is a very touristy place of course, but geared as much towards Chinese tourists as to foreigners, which usually results in a more pleasant experience (as opposed to Wangfujing, or most of Shanghai).


Chinese chess.


Houhai, which means "back sea".

I have exams coming up next week, so I'll probably not be going anywhere interesting until those are over. However, just after they finish, I'm going to Inner Mongolia for 4 days, over the May 1st long weekend. It will also be around the halfway point of my time here - I'll have been in Beijing for two months. I'm still enjoying myself here, I have lots of friends, I haven't gotten badly sick since my first week here, and I'm eating well (as long as I avoid the cheap noodle soup). My Chinese has improved dramatically and I can converse with the locals fairly easily. The way things work here is always inefficient and often nonsensical, but I'm getting used to it.

Boom Headshot

We organised a class trip today to the China North International Shooting Range. It was just a place I'd heard about on the Internet, but a few classmates were interested (and one teacher, who didn't come but helped us arrange the whole thing). It's out at Changping, one of the outer "suburbs" of Beijing a bit over an hour's drive from our campus. We hired 2 vans for our group of 12 people, which on the day shrunk to 10.

The shooting range is in a bit of a strange location. Changping, being on the outskirts, looks quite rural, but in the middle of it is a new housing development with European style villas being built. Inside this is the shooting range. We were stopped by a guard driving in (who looked like he could be a North Korean border guard) and found the drivers had to register before entering - this is not unusual with gated communities and university campuses here. Eventually, however, we made our way in, and were assigned a guide who, surprisingly, spoke very good English and French. We were then escorted into the weapons display hall, where you choose what you want to use.


Rifles, from WW2 Mosin-Nagant and Mauser models to AK47, M16 and HK G36 rifles. The big machine gun wasn't available today, and the even bigger one to the left of it was just too expensive.

Prices are anywhere from 4 to 10 RMB per shot, depending on the weapon, but you are restricted to full magazines. This quickly adds up - my choices (7.62mm sniper rifle, AK47, QBZ-95, one magazine of each, and 5 shots at clay pigeon) came to Y680. It could easily have been much more expensive - the heavy machine gun was Y8 per shot, with a minimum of 100 shots.


Nicolas (I think) with an AK47/Type 56.

Each weapon chosen gets set up in a separate booth at the range. Everything is clamped down in such a way that you can aim the gun well, but can't pick it up or point it off the range. The QBZ-95 (the main rifle currently used by the People's Liberation Army) was set up first, and I was the only one to choose it, so I went first. For my first time shooting an automatic rifle (or any rifle for that matter) I don't think I did too badly. Half my shots hit the paper, at least. Next was the big sniper rifle, which was surprisingly hard to use properly (though my training was pretty much "hold it here, point it at that"). Powerful recoil too.


Hit the paper every time!

Last was the AK47, or Type 56 to be more precise (the Chinese designation for their copies of the design). I had to wait for a while - everyone wanted a go and I was called up last. This was the most fun - higher rate of fire than the QBZ-95, but much less controllable. I ran out after 3 bursts, but definitely got my money's worth of fun.


Excellent marksmanship!

After this we went outside for some clay pigeon shooting. You can only buy shotgun shells in lots of 25, so we split it among 5 of us. Each of us shot 4 times, and gave the rest to our drivers, who we'd hired for the day. This was pretty fun, and I was the only one to hit one. We then posed with the shotgun before heading back.



We all went back into Beijing proper, some going back to uni, and the rest of us going for lunch (by now it was almost 3pm). We went to a place where you roast your own leg of lamb on a spit on the table.


We also ordered some lamb kidneys on skewers.

I'm not done for today yet - there's supposed to be a German party on tonight. I'm not entirely sure what that means but I'll go.

Heavenly Ford

Today's plan was to go to Tianjin. The reasoning behind this was that Tianjin is quite close and easy to get to. We had no real idea whether or not it was worth visiting, or what there was to do there. "We" was myself, my Swiss classmate and two of his Swiss friends, and his Chinese friend (who spoke perfect American English, by the sound of it, learned from watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy).

We all met at the subway station and went to the train station - for this trip, Beijing South. This is the nicest Chinese train station I've been to, integrated with its subway station and looking even more like an airport than the others (a nice airport too). The Beijing-Tianjin train runs every half hour, and tickets are available from machines at the station (Y58 for second class).

The train is fast, covering the 120km between Beijing and Tianjin in half an hour with a top speed af 330km/hr. On board it is similar to an airliner, with soft seats and attendants - more comfortable than the train I took between Shanghai and Hangzhou. We arrived in Tianjin far sooner than felt right, and made our way out of the station into the station plaza area, which was quite nice, except for the wind and fog.


The view just outside Tianjin station, near the Hai river which runs through the city.

We walked around for a little bit, crossing Jiefang (Liberation) bridge over the river to look at some of the old European buildings. There is a lot more of this than in Dalian and it is a nice area - but there isn't much interesting apart from looking at the architecture, and plaques explaining what the buildings where when they formed the foreign concession area in the early 20th century.


Unlike in Dalian, almost all of these buildings are both well-maintained and the real deal.


Intersection in this part of town, with the Bank of China building in the background. You can also see the cool traffic lights in this area - LED grids which entirely change colour rather than having 3 separate lights.

We decided to take a turn and find something to eat. We ended up going through some dodgy streets (Tianjin is not as clean as Dalian) and found a nice pedestrian mall, with a section full of street food.


Most of these places were selling squid on sticks.

The others wanted to sit down, and it was a big crowd, so we ended up looking for restaurants. We settled on a Muslim place, which ended up being quite expensive, but partly because far too much food was ordered. Dishes included cold strips of jellyfish, ox tails (quite nice) and roast duck (not Quanjude but still pretty good). We were then nearly at a loss of what to do, but decided to go to the Jade Emperor residence - where the last emperor of China, Pu Yi, lived in Tianjin after being kicked out of Beijing.


Jing Yuan - the Serene Garden.

We had to sit through a video introduction to the history of the place (which was not badly done, but not as good an introduction as the movie The Last Emperor) before being allowed to wander around. You can go through some of the buildings (with bags over your shoes to protect the carpet) and see things like Pu Yi's bedroom and reading room. The place is quite small though and doesn't take long to explore.

So we left and, for some reason, the Swiss wanted to find a bar. I have no idea why, but they settled on one listed in my Lonely Planet. The taxi took us to the address in the book, which was a bit of a drive, and turned out to be a bank. So we asked the driver where the bars are, and he told us Jiu ba jie (Bar street). We went there...


Tianjin's hip bar scene.

We walked all the way down this post-apocalyptic alley (which was definitely signposted as jiubajie) and eventually found signs of civilisation - a nightclub under construction, and a Japanese restaurant which we entered. No food mid-afternoon, but we got some drinks and an explanation that all the bars closed down months or years ago. Some were considering returning to Beijing, with the Lonely Planet not much help (there didn't seem to be much interesting to see anywhere near where we were). Tianjin is often thought of as a port city, but the coast is a long way from Tianjin proper, about an hour's drive (Tianjin is one of four cities in mainland China administered at the same level as provinces, and the Tianjin Municipality area is about a quarter the size of Switzerland). However one thing left to do was visible from the restaurant - the TV tower.


Every Chinese city must have one of these, each with its own claim to fame.

Tianjin's TV tower is fairly tall, and built on a lake, with bridges for access. We all went in, paid our money, went up and enjoyed the panoramic views of beautiful Tianjin.


Good weather for it too. You can see the lake around the base of the tower in the bottom of the picture.

We tried to get our money's worth, spending a while up there and visiting the revolving restaurant (where one of us had to at least have something - a milk tea for Y20, which would be available for Y3 at street level). We considered staying up there for nightfall, but that would be at least another hour, so after a while of relaxing up there, we went back down and headed back to the train station.

We took the soonest possible train back to Beijing. We didn't realise (have any way of knowing either) until after buying the tickets this train was standing room only, and we got seatless tickets. This wasn't too bad though - less crowded, and less time than the journey on the subway from the train station back to the campus.

So, in all, I can't really reccommend Tianjin for the average traveller - but on the other hand, I suspect there is a lot more to it we didn't see. Should've done more research before going. I've heard Tianjin used to be better, but since the fast train started, people go to Beijing to have their fun and just live in Tianjin (it makes commuting between the cities practical).

Great Exploits

I decided I should do something today. So I went to the Beijing Military Museum. I didn't know whether or not it would be open when I left, but as it turned out, it was (it is open Tuesday to Sunday, which is very difficult information to find on the internet). The museum is quite easy to find - there is a subway stop called Military Museum, and it's pretty hard to miss once you get there.


The Museum

Entry is free (unless you want to poke around the missile boat out the front, Y5), but being China, you still need to line up, take a ticket, and have that ticket taken off you at the door. There are a few things to see before going inside though, some typical Communist sculpture similar to that of Tiananmen Square, the aforementioned boat, some old cannons, and an early Chinese ballistic missile, a DF-2.


Dong Feng (East Wind) 2 MRBM. Sitting on what appeared to be a TEL trailer, with launch support and possibly a crane not visible in this picture.

Entering the museum, one is greeted by a large statue of Chairman Mao, in a hall with large, Cultural Revolution-era artwork, some field artillery pieces, Mao's car, and a MiG-15. This hall opens up into the main area of the museum, the Hall of Weapons.


The aptly-named Hall of Weapons.

The centrepiece of the hall is a DF-1, China's first ballistic missile (much larger than the DF-2). On one side are armoured vehicles (all MADE IN CHINA), and on the other are Chinese fighter aircraft, from the pig-snouted J-5 (based on MiG-17) to the more slender J-8 (not the J-8II still in active service, but the older version with MiG-21 style engine intake).


From left to right: J-8, J-7, J-6, J-5. Hard to get them all in the same shot from the front.

Along the side walls are collections of anti-aircraft guns and mortars. These are from a wide range of countries, mostly WW2 vintage - many captured Japanese weapons and loaned/bought American and European weapons. Either side of the hall are covered outdoor areas. The first I went to was densely packed with armoured vehicles. A lot of WW2-era US, Canadian and Soviet vehicles here. Unfortunately it looks like most of these have been sitting there since then and have collected 60-odd years of dust. However, in the centre is an area where you can climb in some antiaircraft guns and an old Chinese tank.


Resisting Japanese aggression.


American WW2 armour, one of these is a Sherman (second-closest I think).

Through the hall, and out the other side, was the other covered outdoor area - this one focusing on aircraft. Fewer people here, but I thought this was more interesting. There were a few MiG-15s (all described as "Exploit Fighters", which I eventually figured out means they did something exceptional), and a few WW2 and Korean War aircraft from other countries - of note, an F-80 Sabre with ROC markings, a P-51, and a Tu-2 bomber. However, without question the most interesting thing here (possibly the whole museum) was the remains of a ROC U-2 shot down over China.


Tail number 3512, probably shot down by a SAM (possibly a HQ-2, a few of which are on display as well) trying to take pictures of nuclear test facilities in Gansu or Xinjiang.

I went back into the main hall - still 3 more floors inside to check out. Upstairs is a collection of sculpture from the Mao era. Busts of the Chairman, along with many other important Communists and other figures from Chinese history are shown here. There are also some sculptures of Mao in heroic, and down-to-earth poses.


I didn't stay here long - it was quite eerie.

Leaving the sculptures, I found that there was still a large section of the Hall of Weapons upstairs - mostly small arms. There are walls of everything from heavy machine guns to disguised pistols. Again, lots of old equipment through here. Some interesting historical pieces, with rifles and pistols going back to the 19th century and earlier, and even a collection of swords. Further on, the munitions get larger, with air-to-air missiles, torpedoes, depth charges, and an interesting (at least for me) full ATGM kit.


Display dedicated to designer Fedor Tokarev. There are similar displays for Samuel Colt and Geoige (sic) Luger.

Unfortunately not long after this, my camera batteries gave out, so I have no more pictures after this. Further up, there are historical exhibits, of ancient wars and weapons (including rocket artillery from the 14th century). There is also a hall to wars of the modern era, from the 19th century onwards, telling the story of the inept Qing dynasty and the foreign powers carving up China (the language used to describe these events is what you would expect of China - but considering the events of the Opium wars, it fits). There is also a very large area dedicated to the "war against Japanese aggression" and the civil war. Very interesting, but many exhibits throughout the museum are poorly explained, even missing Chinese explanations in some parts.

The last thing to see was the Hall of Presents - where gifts given to officers of the PLA eventually end up. They are organised by continent of origin - unsurprisingly, pieces in the Europe section are mostly from Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany. This is a nice cultural display - those gifts which are not purely militaristic (like my favourite, the gold submachine gun from Jordan) are mostly local artworks. The Asia and Africa sections are interesting for this reason. Some are politically interesting - a few plaques from Somalia, traditional Korean gifts from North Korea, and the sheer number of Japanese gifts (and dearth of South Korean gifts) among these. Where else could you find a plaque with Hebrew and a Star of David above a Chinese flag?

I headed to the souvenir shop after this - the other Hall of Presents. They range from the expected (models of Chinese aircraft and tanks), to the expensive (full-size replica machine gun, Y3600), to the strange (belt buckles adorned with the red star of the PLA). Almost everything here was well out of my price range - nothing was both interesting and below Y120. The good side is, I didn't spend anything except on my subway ride there and back.

On returning to the campus, I was greeted by some of my Latin friends carrying groceries - there was to be a barbeque tonight on our floor with all the Spanish speakers (apparently "como estas" counts, so I was there). Of course, there was no barbeque until the others showed up with a tiny charcoal grill, which we set up on the balcony. After some effort getting the thing going (with a bag of coal possibly from the Muslim restaurant) we eventually had 10 or so people on the balcony (or more accurately, fire escape), feasting on slices of steak and talking (not that I could understand what they were saying).


Authentic Brazillian cuisine on the 13th floor.

I have plans for tomorrow now - going to Tianjin with some classmates. Tomorrow is a public holiday, for Qingming festival (not Easter), and Tianjin is a coastal city near Beijing, reachable by high-speed train in only half an hour (one of the fastest trains in China, hitting 330km/hr). Of course, I have fresh batteries in the camera and will post all about Tianjin when we get back - I hear Tianjin can be done in a day, and if not, it's easy to go there again.