A Mile In My Shoes

It doesn't seem like three years since my first and only (so far) trip to China. I spent a week in Beijing working sixteen hour days for the first half of the trip while the remaining three days were crammed with the mandatory sight-seeing -- the Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, Pearl Market, Silk Market, Tiananmen Square, and of course, the Great Wall.

The picture above was taken by my personal tour guide, Maggie, after walking a mile or so on the Badaling section. Our chauffeur for those few days was Maggie's father, Mr. Ma -- a retired general in the Communist Party. The company I was working for hired him on occasion to drive clients around Beijing.

You may notice that I'm dressed in the customary tourist garb -- shorts, T-shirt, sneakers -- while every other native is all but bundled up in long pants, long sleeve shirts, and jackets. It wouldn't be a stretch to convince you that my layer of winter fat was keeping me warm, but the day was a hazy 83 degrees. As it turns out, I was told that the Chinese are terrified of the sun and try to subject themselves to it as little as possible. Also, many of them retain the notion that anyone with a tan is a farmer or some other outdoor laborer.

For those who have never been or even considered a trip to Asia, my advice is to go. Admittedly, it wasn't on my bucket list and I may have never gone if not for the opportunity afforded by my job. I was dreading the long flight, the language barrier, and the enormous jet-lag.

But that changed soon after I arrived. I was met at the airport by Mr. Ma and shuttled to the Zhao Long (Great Dragon) Hotel. The people were friendly despite very few of them speaking a word of English. Some in the hospitality industry speak it out of necessity, but most everyone else speaks none at all and they have no intention of learning. For this reason it's good to have a liaison for the duration of your visit or getting around will prove quite a challenge.

The food is to die for. If you like Chinese food here in the States, rest assured you've probably never had real Chinese food. I don't blame the Chinese restaurants here. They're probably doing the best they can with local ingredients and have to adjust to suit Americans' tastes. For my part, I've been hopelessly spoiled and have a hard with what many pass off as Chinese cuisine over here.

So I hope to return someday. The food and shopping alone would be worth the trip to say nothing of the sightseeing and cultural treasures. My wife wasn't able to come with me, but that's only because we couldn't justify the $7000 for a seat with me up in Business Class. For one tenth of that price, a ticket back in steerage was no problem, but I couldn't have stood the guilt.

But the world is big, life is short, and there is a lot of this planet I have yet to see. Whether or not I get to cross off everything on my own bucket list unfortunately depends on two things that very few people have in excess -- money and time. But I'm working on it.