The train to Ulaanbaatar

I woke up at 5.30am to make sure that I would be in time to catch the 7.45am train, K23, to Ulaanbaatar.

This was to be an interesting trip for several reasons. The first was that I shared the cabin with two lovely ladies from Oregon. One was a retired nurse, Mary. And the other, Karen, was thinking of retiring. They had spent a week in Beijing and were on their way to Mongolia as volunteers for a charity called earthwatch. They did not know what exactly they would do for two weeks, but they said they could end up counting wild life. This was their fourth volunteering trip. I guess we all agreed that we had restless spirits. It was very interesting talking to them on all sorts of things like healthcare in America and stone carvings of the Native American Indians. I had the privilege of advising them on how to prepare their first bowl of instant noodles.

I also met a Singaporean couple on an overland journey from Hanoi to London. I had a blog post about them. It was surprising and delightful to meet other Singaporeans on the same path, more or less.

And although it was tiring, the border crossing from China into Mongolia turned out to be a technical treat. The train gauges in China and Mongolia are different. So the Chinese engineers had to unhitch all the carriages, lift them up using hydraulic lifts and change the wheels and put the whole train back together again.

They also changed the Chinese food carriage for a Mongolian food carriage. For the first time I was happy to not have a Chinese food carriage. I do not know why, but the food in the Chinese carriage was very very salty. On the Mongolian carriage, I had my first taste of Mongolian food for breakfast, rice and beef wrapped up in a thin pancake.

And all this was just inside the train. On the outside the landscape was turning into rolling planes and the vegetation was becoming sparse. We went through at least a couple of sandstorms and one in the evening, while we were sleeping, and brought in quite a lot of sand into the cabin. The carriage attendant, I suspect was allergic to dust. He wore a mask and kept on closing any open windows. The passengers the other hand, were feeling hot and kept trying to open the windows. The skies in Mongolia were blue as advertised, and the clouds looked like water colour paintings.

I was met at Ulaanbaatar station by the tour guide for my tour which starts tomorrow, Sunday. It was nice to be picked up and sent to the hotel for a change. Although I have a few pictures of Ulaanbaatar on the day I arrived, I will write a separate post on it.

Beijing Black and White

Binging in Beijing

This is my fourth visit to Beijing. And through my visits I have changed and so has Beijing. And this being the fourth visit, has also allowed me to be less of a 'tourist'. I started off by staying at the Houtong Inn, which is in the heart of historical Beijing. Finding my way to the hotel, I saw locals exercising, cluttered doorways with bicycles and charms pasted on the doors leading into narrow corridors. The hotel itself is basic, but I had a bed, a bathroom and internet access. I was happy.

I was also fortunate to have friends in Beijing. I met Stefen Chow before he left for some jobs in Singapore. Qin Pei, who once assisted me, is now a film maker in Beijing. She had some spare time to take me to the 798 art space and for really yummy Beijing duck. So it was nice to have some company for a change.

There are parts of Beijing, that like Shanghai, have become modern and consumerists. Big shiny buildings and spiritually hollow. It is like once we all have made some money, we instantly want to buy Louis Vuitton or Giorgio Armani. Or eat MacDonalds. All right, there are times that I do need a quick meal and eat at Macs. And if I really had to get a swish suit I may consider Armani, but as a traveler, I do not visit Asian countries for International brands. Near my hotel is Nanluoguxiang. An interesting street for tourist shopping, with a Chinese flavor that is authentic. It is more like how some European countries sell souvenirs, with more than a superficial gloss. In Thailand, some of the tourist souvenirs are simply rip offs of western humor. In Beijing, they make jibes with their old communist propaganda posters. And their humor is sharp.

I guess in this sense, on this particular journey, I enjoyed Beijing much more than I enjoyed Shanghai. This is because I felt that Beijing was comfortable being complex, in encompassing the ordinary citizens, the intellectuals, the internationally rich, all together. I felt Shanghai trying to deny its soul by putting up a shiny new front. It could have been because of the expo Shanghai is like this now. But all in all, the overall experience of Beijing is more gratifying.

The highlight of this visit to Beijing was going to 798 arts space. Just the space is interesting. Galleries and exhibition spaces in an old factory. And around the exhibition spaces are functional factories. Then there are so many exhibitions like that of Chinese photographer Xu Yong called 'See Again'. And in the see+ gallery, they had an exhibition of two neglected American photographers, Wynn bullock and Harold Feinstein. Sculptures everywhere you turn. Lots of different artwork, some 'commercial', some really avant-garde. It is nice to see so much concentrated creativity at the same time. There were nice cafes to rest and refresh between over indulging in art… Ok. I am hyperventilating. If you are interested in visual arts, you just need to visit this place.

Qin Pei and I also went to the Beijing Art Museum. The current exhibitions were ok. We wanted to see the Chinese paintings but they were doing a new hanging and we could not get in.

The most touristy thing I did was have a night tour of Beijing because it included the Bird's Nest Olympics stadium. I could not get in because of the timing, but I loved seeing the actual structure lit up. It is huge. The tour also took me to the new theatre, which locals call the egg. I did not think of watching any performances in Beijing, I think that I will have to the next time I visit Beijing. I want to see what the inside of the egg looks like. Qianmen was nice when lit up. But the shopping street with Starbucks and other international brands in new mock Chinese buildings made me want to puke. What can I say?

There is so much old and new stuff that I saw in Beijing I do not think that it has fully sunk in. But a part of me knows that I now want to return to Beijing after this trip than I ever did after my previous trips.

Mr and Mrs Koh Around the World

What a surprise, while having dinner in the crowded dining car to Mongolia a couple sits down next to me because of lack of space. And it turns out they are Singaporeans who are traveling from Hanoi to London! They had also wanted to travel from Singapore to London, but because they only have a month to travel, they started from Hanoi. Overland to London, compressed!

Here is their blog, http://www.mrandmrskoharoundtheworld.blogspot.com/

Shanghai in Black and White

Shanghaied

The reason I was interested in going to the world expo in Shanghai was because Picasso made a breakthrough in his painting after visiting the Paris Expo. The idea that an encounter with different cultures may somehow give me new directions in my work was just very enticing.

I had originally planned to go from Hong Kong to an area in China that I had never been before but I went back to Shanghai which I had been before with my parents because of the expo. The Shanghai that I visited, about seven years ago was in transition. and there was still a lot of visibly old buildings and dirt on the streets, right next to some of the world's tallest buildings. I remember seeing fish hanging out to dry on electrical poles. But the Shanghai I visited this time was a gleaming new city. It was very clean and it was only wandering around on the last day of my four days in Shanghai that I found some of the old streets that I remember. These old streets and buildings had been hidden behind hoarding that they use for hiding building sites. I did go to a place with 'old style' houses called Xingtiandi, but is was more or less an international shopping street with a little Shanghai accent. To me, Shanghai is what I would call 'Chinese Communist Capitalist'. Except for the language and a Chinese slant in aesthetics, Shanghai is not very different from any rich capitalist city.

I was fortunate to be offered lodging by a friend, Nan Yoong, in a new block of high end service apartments. Although Nan Yoong was not there, his parents were there as they had just moved into the service apartment themselves. So it was nice to have a few meals with them and I was well looked after there. My stay in Shanghai is definitely the most luxurious of my entire trip! So I thank the Rin family for their hospitality.

My first encounter at the expo was not only disappointing, it was embarrassing. The first pavilion I visited was the Singapore pavilion. The design of the pavilion is arguably interesting, but it did not grab me. The theme for the whole expo is Better City, Better Living and each pavilion had a chance to either show how they factually are creating better living or how they imagine a better city with better living. I think the theme for the Singapore pavilion was musical harmony, on the ground floor they had trampolines that made a sound when you jumped up and down. And there were 4 trampolines together, I guess so that a group like the Tang quartet could jump a tune. I certainly heard no music coming from the display. Then there was a video of 'Singaporean Life' starring JJ Lin as a lost traveler, Tanya Chua as an ethnic dancer and Stefanie Sun as a biologists. And they kind of look happy some times and kind of look stressed sometimes. I have no idea what part of the Singaporean reality this represents? And I do not see how this inspires any idea of better living. It came across as meaningless fluff. Walking from one level to another, there are facts about population and other statistics on the wall, accompanied by what appeared to be contour maps. But what the contour maps mean is a mystery, and I am science trained. And they did have a garden on the rooftop with an Orchid specially created for the expo. It is a nice gesture, but riiigggghhhhtttt…… As I left the theatre I heard a Chinese visitor telling his girlfriend that in an expo full of video presentations, the Singaporean one was the worst. And as I was leaving the pavilion, an elderly Chinese lady said that the pavilion's planning was stupid, anyone could have done it. Aaarrggghhh. As a country we are very livable. Great public transport. We are a world leader in water recycling techniques. We are known as the Garden city. We have arguably the world's greatest airport and port. How did we come across as such a lame country?!!?!?!?! Our presentations were simply incoherent and uninspiring. Sigh.

Several of the pavilions like Australia and New Zealand were predictable but quite well done. They had pictures of happy citizens and they put facts about their country across well. Some of the smaller countries like San Marino and Lichtenstein had to share pavilions in a Europe Pavilion. The presentations were usually straight forward with some history and tourist attractions. Most people used some sort of video/computer presentation. They may not have been great, but the presentations were honest. I found out some interesting information for my visit to Lithuania.

It got interesting at the Danish Pavilion. They let artists imagine what it would be like to have a perfect city, where people have more time to spend with one another and are closer to nature. There were beautiful video and photographic presentations that inspires the viewer to be drawn into a better, more holistic lifestyle. They had the guts to bring the little mermaid statue to expo and I think it is amazing for anyone to see the Danish icon in Shanghai. The Finnish pavilion, like some white alien spaceship, was highlighting design. The entire interior of the Finnish pavilion was an interesting space and design, like walking into a different dimension.

The best pavilion by a country was definitely by the United Kingdom. It looks like a giant pin cushion from the outside, but it is actually thousands of plastic rods which direct light into a room which they call the seed cathedral. And at the end of each rod are seeds from different plants. This seed cathedral highlights the work of Britain in creating a massive seed bank of plants from all over the world. The entire presentation is at once elegant, awe inspiring and brings across the core idea of the importance of nature immediately. During the day, the seeds are illuminated by light from outside, at night light is transmitted out of the rods to glow in the night. The pin cushion structure was presented in a park that resembled a present being unwrapped and this structure was a present from the UK to China. Now, this was inspiring.

There were other pavilions besides the country pavilions. Some were themed pavilions like the pavilion of the future where urban planning was discussed. It really got me thankful that there are people out there who are thinking about how to plan a city for water, electricity, mobility and more. There are also several pavilions for big Chinese companies to present themselves. The only one I went to was Chinese telecoms and they were hard selling communications technology. Right now we can transmit sound and images, but they challenge the viewer to think of transmitting all the 5 senses. Imagine visiting a friend virtually in a different country, but with all 5 senses. Seems a power akin to being a demigod, the ability to have omnipresence.

The whole expo kind of left me drained. Except for the pavilions that inspired the audience to thin out of the box, it seems impossible to truly understand much about a country from a few video presentations and iconic props (Our Singaporean one was a Durian Star with a badly drawn merlion on its chest!) I realized that my Overland trip was akin to going to the world expo, but I get a better chance of understanding things better by meeting locals as I travel.

I went and visited the Bund on my last day in Shanghai and visited their shopping street. I just could not shake off a sense of irony between how red China fought for its independence and now, through economic development, there has been an economic invasion by the capitalists.

Hurried Hong Kong and the cattle car to Shanghai

Hong Kong is definitely part of my overland trip, but it was essential because I had to pick up medicine that I had left with my friend and break my trip in mainland China so that I did not have to apply for a Chinese visa.

There is not that much to say about it except that I think I did a lot. Besides getting my medicine, I bought a few needed supplies like a thermos flask for the long train rides and a toothbrush. I have been finding it hard to change traveller's cheques in most places and I have not seen an American Express outlet so far on this trip. I did find out that I could change traveler's cheques at the Bank of China. So I took the opportunity to do that. (I do not think I will ever buy traveler's cheques again)  I met up with a couple of people and generally prepared for the next leg.

What was surprising was how difficult it was to get a ticket from Hong Kong to Shanghai. The Hong Kong underground has a train that goes directly to Shanghai, but the train was completely full. In the end, I had to get a train to Guangzhou in China and then get a train to Shanghai from there. I was giasu enough to get my ticket before I left Guilin, but even then all that was left were seats. What I did not expect was the coaches to be packed like sardine cans. They Chinese railway sold standing tickets for a 16 hour trip. And some of the people who bought tickets were old enough to be my grandparents! I shared my seat with a businessman but stood up once in a while to let other people have a chance to sit down as well. Suffice to say, I did not get much sleep on the way to Shanghai. But still, I have been having relatively nice trains rides up to now, even the hard sleeper is actually quite comfortable. So this human chaos was really an eye-opener. I wanted to take more photographs, but somehow it did not feel right.

Shanghai up next.