Carrier Has Arrived

I found out a while ago there is a former Soviet aircraft carrier (the Kiev) permanently docked near Tianjin, serving as a theme park. So, it immediately went on my list of things to do, and now I've finally been there. One of my Korean classmates wanted to come too.

Tianjin is quite close, so it can be done in a day trip from Beijing. We took the train in the morning, and arrived in Tianjin in time for lunch. On the train, I found out that the train goes further out than Tianjin, which would have been good to know - the carrier is much closer to the last station on the line, Tanggu.


Tianjin again!

We had some lunch near the train station, and walked around for a bit, before moving on towards the carrier. We took a taxi to the light rail station, and then took the train out to Tanggu. From there, it was another long taxi ride to where the carrier is, near Binhai. It seems to be in a huge military-themed recreational area, with old fighter jets and armoured vehicles lining the streets, and paintball and laser fields.


China must have had a lot of MiG-19s to get rid of.

Eventually we made it to the carrier. It's not cheap to get in, but it wasn't too busy, and was pretty impressive walking in.



The park has a few static displays on the land, but most of the interesting stuff is inside the ship. The lower decks have been refitted as a museum, full of exhibits about naval history, technology, and the Chinese military, as well as the actual weapon systems of the ship, which have been left in place.


Torpedo Shooting Cabin

Some of the control areas and crew amenities have been kept as well, and are full of mostly-original equipment and creepy Russian mannequins.







While this is one of the best tourist attractions I've been to in China, it keeps plenty of the sort of oddities you can't avoid here. For example, one of the control rooms has a screen playing a loop of a tense scene from the Chinese dub of the Hunt for Red October. There are also a couple of things that have nothing to do with the aircraft carrier, like the Tube of Swirly Lights, but not too many. One particularly interesting (depending on your point of view, frightening) area is all about the situation of the Chinese military, from its development, its role in disaster relief, and the space program, to a display entitled "Fierce challenges" filled with pictures and models of American equipment, a world map showing deployments of US forces, and some maps of Taiwan showing where ROC forces are stationed, and the range of their cruise missiles.

Moving on, we made it to the flight deck, which was pretty cool. There was an Mi-8 helicopter, a number of Nanchang Q-5 attack planes (another type China seems to have made way too many of), and a Yak-38 (Russian answer to the Harrier), apparently brought in specially for a show where a man was to pull it along the deck with his head, judging by the posters.


Yak-38


Mi-8, or Harbin Z-6, the world's most-produced helicopter.


Looking along the flight deck. The Q-5s at the other end were never designed for carriers and would almost certainly not be able to use this runway.

The island, the tower on the side of the flight deck, is also mostly open and accessible. You can go up and pretend to be the captain.





The flight deck only takes up the rear 2/3 of the ship. The front is all weapons. Russian carriers were designed as cruisers as well, so they carry anti-air, anti-ship, and anti-submarine weapons.



On our way down to check this out first-hand, we found the officers' quarters. It's not really clear if they are still being used - they could be used as a hotel, like the cabins on the ship in Dalian.









We still hadn't seen everything there was to see inside the ship. We went through the ammunition storage for the cannons, and the crew quarters, complete with mannequins.







Finally, we went through the hangar, which is now home to an odd collection of mocked-up aircraft, a SuperCobra, an F-117 stealth fighter, and a Chengdu J-10, China's own modern fighter. The J-10 was well-done, the American planes looked a bit strange and had misspelled labelling.



We then left the ship, and went to look at the displays on the beach. It was, by the looks of it, a really odd life-size diorama of scenes from major wars of the 20th century.









There were also a couple more interesting displays of modern equipment - a Russian Ka-50 attack helicopter, and an Su-27 which looks like it was sent here after a particularly hard landing.





Having exhausted all the displays (the free ones, at least) we went home. We took a taxi to Tanggu and got the train from there. They sold us seatless tickets, so we had to stand for the 45 minutes from Tanggu to Beijing, then stand another 45 minutes on the crowded Beijing subway before getting back to the campus.


The train is fast, which is pretty cool.

It was also the birthday of our neighbour Lukas, and the party was just getting started when I got back at about 8:30. It was another barbeque on the balcony, with all the Chileans and Spaniards, so it was fun.

Action!

A few weeks ago, a man approached me in the food hall, and asked if I would be interested in going on television. I said yes, and he took some photos of me and left me his card. This is not unusual here, foreigners here are rare enough that they are actively sought out if a TV show needs someone foreign-looking. After a while, I met the director, who liked me, so it was to go ahead. The whole thing was delayed a while due to the weather, but this weekend was quite clear and sunny, so I was to be filmed on Sunday.

I was picked up from my campus at 4:30 (in the morning!) and first taken to the Beijing Film Tourism City. It is where they film a lot of dramas, and has old-style streets and buildings mocked up for shows set in imperial times. We were only there to wait for our crew though - we would film elsewhere. My agent bought me breakfast, and we waited for a while with a growing crowd of actors looking for work.

The show I'm on is called "The First Time" and follows local businesses getting started, at least, from what I can tell. We were to film the opening credits - not sure if this will be used once or for the whole series. Eventually the vans arrived, and they took us to the first location of the day. Not for me yet - the host was ready so we had to do his bit first. We took over a newspaper stand, and the host (Wang Kai, 王凯, who is a well-known face on Chinese TV apparently) was filmed picking up papers and talking to the owner over and over from different angles for an hour and a half. The crew got their breakfast, including some (more) for me, so I was happy.

When the director was happy, everyone packed up and the host disappeared before I could get a photo with him. We then drove to a park between some office buildings for my bit. They gave me a book, in Swedish (presumably, they just went to a shop looking for books with foreign on them), and had me sit on a bench to play my character of "Friendly Foreigner (外国友人)". After getting the lighting right and perfecting my posture, I was to wave and say hi to a Chinese businessman walking past. Quite simple. We did this about five times, until about 11:30, when the cameraman and assistant directors started shouting "break! (休息)".

All the equipment was packed up and we sat around for an hour and a half eating lunch (Chinese takeaway) and talking about politics. There was too much light, apparently, so it was decided to try again later. After filming some cars driving around, we all moved to Houhai, to film a postman delivering a package to an old woman in a hutong (the old, maze-like Beijing alleys). While they did this, I was able to wander around for a bit, walk around the lake and the hutongs. It was quite warm, and they bought ice cream a few times to keep us fussy actors happy. I had expected to be done with this in the morning, but I was being looked after pretty well, so I wasn't complaining.

We finally went back to film my bit at about 4. It took a while, and a few takes for them to get across what they wanted (partly from me not understanding what they were saying, mostly because they just didn't say what was important) but eventually we got a few good ones. Then they moved the camera and tried again. We kept filming until the man with the light meter decided to stop.

They gave me a lift back to my campus, finishing this whole escapade a good 14 hours after it started. It was fun though. I asked for a copy when it's ready for TV, and I might get one. Looks like I'll be on CCTV2 for a few seconds in a month.

Beijing Opera

As our second, and final (I think) class cultural activity, we went to the Hu Guang Guild Hall to learn about and enjoy some Beijing opera. They looked after us well, and gave us free tea and snacks while we watched.



First on stage was a girl explaining how tea is had the traditional way, while we got settled. This was a bit strange, as we didnt have the right equipment to do all the things she was doing, but I've had the experience before (and it's not something you really need to do more than once). After this the proper show started, with a man introducing the history of Beijing opera and what happens in a show.



He brought some students up on stage and tried to teach them basic movements of the four character types. You can tell the characters in Beijing opera by their costumes. Different colours represent tempraments - white characters are evil, yellow characters are quick to temper, and so on. Young male characters speak and sing in a high-pitched wail, and old male characters wear long, straight bears. The most important characters wear painted face masks, and female characters have painted faces (and are usually played by men). Everything is exaggerated, which is fun, and helps one figure out what is going on. Speaking and singing is done in a more classical way (like Chinese Shakespeare) so even a lot of Chinese people have a hard time understanding the plot.



After an entertaining explanation and demonstration of the basics, we got to see two shows. The first, Xiang Yu Says Farewell to His Concubine, was a story from the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history, Xiang Yu being the king of one of these kingdoms, with the other two advancing on his city. It took a very long time to get the story across, and the concubine seemed to be the main character (so unfortunately we had to put up with her wailing voice the whole time), but there was some good sword dancing and the show was entertaining.


Xiang Yu, with orange bobbly things on his head.

Then, the second show was part of Journey to the West - the legend of the Monkey King. This was about the Emperor's guards challenging the Monkey King, and the Monkey King showing off. There wasn't much speaking in this, and no singing, so it was pretty good. The acrobatics were great. Unfortunately I didn't get a video of this one.


The Emperor, with his guards, and the same bobbly things.

Each of these shows went for about an hour and a half. A full opera can last well over two hours - which I would happily sit through if it was like today's second one (I doubt I could put up with the singing that long though). Afterwards, we went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. So, in all, a good outing.

Beijinging

I thought I should update this, after over two weeks, and sum up what I've been up to. Nothing worth a post of its own, of course. I've been taking it easy, I have a few things to sort out for myself, and I want to get better scores in the final exams so I'm studying more. I've also been getting to know the people in the building better.

The first weekend after I got back from Inner Mongolia, I went out to a small place called D-22 for a punk show. 5 bands played, including what seems to be China's biggest punk band, Hell City. After the show, which was pretty good, I met them, and they complained about how unpopular punk is here. Apparently D-22 is the only place in Beijing (and, they think, all of mainland China) which will have them, and even then only on punk night. This will probably not be a surprise to a lot of people familiar with Chinese music - when I first got to Beijing, I saw posters everywhere advertising a Backstreet Boys concert.

The next day, there was another barbeque, a repeat of the one I missed when I was away. We took over the area outside the pub on campus (Bla Bla Bar) with a bigger barbeque, and more South Americans, than before. I'm gradually picking up Spanish thanks to these events - important phrases like "where is the meat", "where is the beer", and "what is that".

One of my classmates had been away for a while, taking his parents on a trip around China. It was his birthday the day after he got back, so we threw him a party, with cake and balloons. The teachers even helped us put up the balloons. We had a lot of class lunches together that week as well, from sushi to chicken wings on sticks, so it was a fun week.

Finally, this week, I got to attend a proper LAN party, with Alfonso and two Chileans. Some people in our building have their own rooms, thanks to former roommates disappearing, so we took advantage of one of these. We even got some good LAN food - not pizza, but pork and cheese, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was good.

Interesting trips are coming up. On Friday we have a class trip to see Beijing opera, which should be interesting. I'm also planning something for the weekend, but I'm not too sure about it at the moment. I only have another month and a half here, so I have to fit in a few more trips further out as well, to places like Xi'an. I'll see what I can manage.

On the Road Again

Early this morning we set off for Beijing. It's about a 700km drive, but we left early to try and ensure we got back by our planned arrival time of 6pm. Being China, bad traffic was guaranteed, but nobody knew just how bad.



Things seemed alright for a while, but then we found what the traffic was like. We stopped, surrounded by trucks in the middle of nowhere. The driver turned off the engine. Turned out there were 200km of trucks between us and the outskirts of Beijing. We would be here a while.



Most of us got off the bus to survey the situation. There were trucks in both directions as far as one could see. The truck drivers had also left their vehicles and were milling around. Estimates as to how long we would be stuck varied - our teacher told everyone we might not make it back tonight. One driver said he had been stuck in one of these for a week. With this news, some of us left in search of food.


Toilets

About half an hour in, some relief came in the form of old ladies walking through the traffic with baskets of snacks. It took a few of these to deliver enough noodles to keep us from resorting to cannibalism. The exploration party returned with bad news - no significant human settlement further down the road. Another party left to see if they could find the other bus - there was a rumour that it was only a few minutes walk up the road. The teacher was making plans - there was a possibility of getting a bus to pick us up on a side road and take us to Zhangjiakou, from where we could take a train to Beijing. This didn't happen though.


Trading with the natives was our key to survival.


They sold alcohol as well.

After almost two hours, good news - word was that trucks had started moving a few km down the road. We all had to drop our noodles and board the bus immediately. The bus started moving before we were all seated, and before we realised the party which left for the other bus hadn't returned. Fortunately we managed to get in contact with them and arrange for the other bus to pick them up (they still hadn't found it).

We managed to get quite some way before stopping again, in a pretty similar situation. Apparently in busy times they cycle through the many roads into Beijing, allowing 500 vehicles at a time to enter from each road. This time, we were by a tiny village, and there was a pedestrian bridge a little way up the road. Some of us went to it to get a better view of the situation. I didn't feel like climbing through barbed wire so I stayed behind. It took much less time for us to get going again on this occasion, so those who went to climb the bridge or explore the village had to run back.



We continued this way, making about 5 or 6 stops of up to an hour and a half each. Our teacher had booked a restaurant in Zhangjiakou, originally for an early lunch at about 11:30. We arrived eight hours late, after taking the exit before Zhangjiakou, and driving through a coal mine to get there. As it turns out, Zhangjiakou is a fairly significant city, with about the population of Melbourne.


Food!

Fortunately our meal was not cold. In fact, it was the best meal of the whole trip. Not just because we had been subsisting on noodles until then, but there was a lot of meat and potatoes, and they even got us some beer. Again, we shared the restaurant with the aftermath of a wedding.

As we were leaving, one teacher stayed behind. The other bus had still not made it to Zhangjiakou, and was at least two hours behind us. To applause he dismounted the bus and went back inside the restaurant. After leaving the restaurant we had a surprisingly clear run the rest of the way to Beijing, and managed to arrive at midnight. The other bus, I hear, arrived at 2am.

So, in all, it was a good trip. But I won't take the bus again.

Lachlan of Mongolia

The concept of punctuality is a bit strange here. We were supposed to leave at 8, but a couple of students were late, and the guides told us off because we left at quarter past. This in theory left us with only ten minutes at the temple, our first stop for the day, but the same guides walked around there for ages talking about the Ming dynasty. They do try to keep us all moving and on schedule, even though the schedule seems to be made up on the day. It doesn't seem very holiday-like, but this is the way the Chinese travel. We do have a lot crammed into each day here.


Temple entrance.

Anyway, the temple was nice. It was a Tibetan buddhist temple, like the Lama temple in Beijing (which I still haven't been to). I've been to a lot of temples in China before, but this one had one interesting, Tibetan-looking stone building. There were also some very old signs in Tibetan, Chinese, and two Mongolian-looking scripts. It was a functioning temple, but we didn't see anyone praying. We ended up spending close to half an hour there before getting back on the buses for our next destination - a small (3 million people) city called Baotou.



We had lunch at a big restaurant which also had a wedding happening today, so there was a lot of noise and music and nice food not for us. Halfway through our meal they started the fireworks. After lunch we got back on the buses and set off for the desert while listening to the guide talk about Baotou - former home of Attilla the Hun, and currently China's "rare earth valley", famous for its mining and steel production. So there wasn't much to look at.


The Yellow River.

The drive out to the desert from Baotou took a little while, and we had to cross the Yellow River, which supposedly gets its name from the colour of the water (and "brown river" didn't sound as good). Eventually the bus drove over a ridge and we were confronted with sand dunes, exactly like in Lawrence of Arabia. We parked at a big resorty place and had to take a cable car across a valley to get to the desert.



The place is very touristy, and pretty cool - it looks like Egypt, and wasn't as hot as everyone was saying (in fact I was fairly comfortable in my hoodie, but then again they are mostly British). There were a lot of Chinese families there, with kids running around and playing in the sand, much like Australian kids do at the beach.


The silly sock things are to stop sand getting in your shoes. According to the signs they are called "Sandy-socks".

There are a lot of cool attractions here, and first we all went "sand surfing", which is nothing like what it sounds like. 10 or so people get in a big open truck (one of which is decorated to look like a pirate ship) and the driver hoons it out on the dunes. We ended up in the middle of the desert, near an odd metal structure which from a distance looks like a radar station, but up close looks like a small Burj Dubai under construction. We got to stay there for a while and get some photos in the dunes, then we got back in the truck for another wild ride back.


Let's go surfin' now...





After this most went to ride camels, but a few of us stayed behind. Only two of us (one was me) was interested in the other apparent attraction, the quad bikes. These were great, faster and more fun than the trucks, but unfortunately you can't drive them yourself like I did in Harbin. The ride didn't last very long though, and we spent a while waiting for the camel train to return. We came across some other cool things, like paragliding and amphibious trucks in the valley, but unfortunately didn't have much time left (or so we thought - the camels did take a while). When we were all back together, I and a few others took the cable car back. The rest tobogganed down a near-vertical sand slope, then took the cable car from a stop at the bottom of the valley.





We then got on the bus back to Hohhot, which was a fairly long drive. So long that we ended up not going to a handicraft factory as planned, and instead went to a Hohhot supermarket to get souvenirs at about 8:30. This was quite strange and they didn't have many interesting things (except milk wine, and Mongolian hip-hop CDs). Then we went for dinner, which was already cold. We didn't get back to the hotel until about 11, then we had to set off early in the morning. All we are doing tomorrow is driving back to Beijing. They say if there is no traffic we should get there about 1pm. There is no chance of that of course.