The Janssen Family World Travels: China

The Janssen family very much looked forward to China. We hadn’t had China on our initial itinerary but were persuaded by our fabulous travel advisor to include it. The heat in Vietnam was absolutely stifling, and coupled with the involuntary donation of approximately 5 liters of blood to feed the thirsty Vietnamese mosquito population, we were ready to move on. This winter there was nothing that I craved more than heat. Craving satisfied. With our bodies covered in welts, having required (but never taking) 3-4 showers per day, we were ready to head to hopefully cooler climes to the North.

At the airport in Hanoi, we experienced yet another small but classic traveling experience with airport security which requires a few words. I find it fascinating how there are such wildly different security levels in different countries. I still chuckle when I recall going through security in Kenya, having my bags screened and while they insisted that I carry the wooden bow and arrows with me as I walked through the scanner. “Sorry we need to confiscate this water and this peanut butter and those nail clippers, but I bet the pilot would love to take a look at that weapon of yours!” I never realized how much terrorism there was within India, and it probably had the tightest security of any country we’ve visited, with 2 or sometimes 3 different security checks. If you think that a security check is painful when flying solo, you don't know the depths of pain until you have tried it with a family. I have to admit that each of us enjoy the commercial flights. Once you are crammed into that seat, the restricted peace they offer is enjoyed by each of us. However, the security check with kids is painful. In my computer bag, I carry my PC, a second battery for my PC, two external hard drives, a mouse, an Ipod, an Iphone, 2 electrical converters, flashdrives with all sorts of back up documents, numerous cables, a bunch of AA and AAA batteries, a cheap cell phone and charger, a cribbage board and cards, a book or two, passports, visas, and a bunch of other documents. Looking like a nest of electronic explosive devices when X-rayed, I often need to have it rescanned and searched, and so my stress level is always peaked as I attempt to get through quickly without holding up the hordes in the queue. This sense of urgency is lost on the youngest members of our family, and in particular with Halle who likes to talk the entire time, ask dozens of questions of her parents, and just has a unique penchant to take her own sweet time. For whatever reason, Vietnam’s security is pretty lax. I guess there isn’t a Jihad against communist countries. So with a quick x-ray of carry-on bags using their 1970’s era machines, we made it through the first stage. However as we were repacking our bags, we were interrupted by a security agent who was about 6' tall and about 275lbs., and can most accurately be described as the Vietnamese equivalent of “Mall Cop”. The object in question was none other than Hayden’s inflatable rubber football. Having lost our genuine fake leather version that we’d carried from home while in India, we bought a $3 rubber replacement in Thailand. Mall Cop picked up the ball, squeezed it many times, eyed it suspiciously, then pointed to the tiny inflation hole and barked “Must take out air!” For starters, it’s hard enough trying to inflate these damned things. I’m always losing the little tube adapters used to blow these up, when you have them they often break, and there is no other tool or device known to mankind that will work to inflate them. “I don’t know how to take out the air” I pleaded. “Must take out air!” he barked. “I don’t know how to take out the air” I pleaded. “Must take out air!” he barked. I was about to get cheeky, and say something to the tone of “OK. Sure no problem. Let me just use the pocketknife I’m carrying to deflate this stupid toy….OOPS, I can’t carry one of those can I?” American footballs are precious in Asia, and I thought we were about to suffer a serious setback in our quest to play in each country. Then Mall Cop bounces it again on the table, but not realizing of course that when you bounce it at a 45 degree angle it bounces precisely back at you. So he bounces it tip down 45 degrees, it hits him right back in the belly then it bounces haphazardly around the screening area floor, and Mall Cop then very unsuccessfully dances around and attempts to grab it for about 5 seconds in a classic fumble drill. I couldn’t help it and I burst out laughing, at which several of his co-workers and my family all started laughing and that finally made Mall Cop laugh and he then realized from his years of grueling training that plastic explosives didn’t bounce like that and that it was indeed just a rubber toy. He handed it back to Hayden who greeted him with a huge, dimple-laden smile. The quest continues.

From Hanoi, our travels took us north on a 3 hour flight to Beijing, China. 3 hours and 20 minutes of pure bliss. When the guy in front of me put his seat back to pin me in, I selfishly extracted myself and left Traci with the kids and once again found an entire empty exit row. Good living! We arrived in Beijing and waited for an hour or so for our pick up at an airport Starbucks. Again, the small things in life that you fail to appreciate, such as a consistent tasting cup of coffee. We were met by Qi Lindesay, the wife of William Lindesay who together run a weekend Great Wall hiking camp a few hours north of Beijing. www.wildwall.com. William is British, and in the mid 80’s he became the first person to walk the entire length of the great wall. He has since dedicated his life to its study and conservation, and is in all likelihood the world’s foremost authority on the Great Wall. A few interesting factoids:

It is the largest man-made building or object, by far
It was built mostly by army families, not with slave nor prison labor which many other famous structures relied upon
It is the only building listed on major country maps
It stretches over 23 minutes of longitude
It is not one continuous wall but a series of 22 walls that together are estimated to be more than 35,000 miles long!
When the sun rises over it easternmost terminus, it takes 1 hour and 20 minutes before the sun rises on its westernmost terminus
It was built to defend the Chinese from the Mongols invading from the north. The Chinese had a huge population advantage over the Mongols but they were agrarian and the Mongols were nomadic warriors who would pretty much lay waste to the Chinese at will

We booked this trip in February, but in the bustle of planning the remainder of our trip, I lost the details of our exact itinerary. While fairly well organized, two months still approximates my retention span. Once on the bus with William and the other guests, we quickly realized that we were in for some serious hiking, which made Traci absolutely giddy. Approximately 8 million tourists visit the portion of the wall nearest to Beijing called Badaling. William’s camp is about a two hour drive to the north in a very remote mountain village, and it probably gets about 800 visitors. We pulled into their “lodge” which was a few simple brick buildings with 9 rooms, and in each room was a wide, thin bed that could accommodate 3 adults comfortably, or 2 adults and 3 children very snugly. There was a trough with cold water for washing, and simple camp showers in the afternoon. Perfect. The only challenge with the hiking is that the best time to see the wall is at 5 a.m., when the sun rises, when the colors and scenery are most spectacular. This was fine with all of us, except that it meant 3 consecutive wake ups 3 a.m., which is precisely 4 hours prior to what the Janssens define as early. I could make a feeble attempt to create the awe that we all felt when on the wall, but it truly has to be experienced. We hiked an hour or so to different parts of the wall each day, climbing about 1,000 vertical feet or so, then traveled on top of it or alongside of it for another mile or two. 4-5 solid hours each morning. The Great Wall It is just dumbfoundingly huge, and the effort required to build it is almost incomprehensible. It was built at the top of extremely steep mountain ridges and despite 500 years of sand storms, rain, hail, snow, lightning, tourists, invaders, etc., it is still in remarkable shape. I can’t say enough good things about William and the experience. It was a perfect mix of great exercise in clean air away from the city, beautiful mountains and scenery, and an incredible guide with incomparable knowledge of one of the most famous structures in the world. Truly Great in every sense of the word!

So on to Beijing. We needed to get Traci a new passport and Visa while there and unfortunately that consumed a big chunk of our planned free time. The US Embassy staff were wonderful, while on the other hand the bureaucracy we were subject to from the Chinese in getting a replacement Chinese Visa was incredible and could consume several pages, but let’s just say it was enlightening. Beijing was still a positive, educational experience. We visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven. We enjoyed some great food, a cooking class, Tai Chi Lessons, and saw a very cool Kung Fu show. I want to run when I see a tour bus parked in the vicinity, but despite about 6 tour buses in front of the kung fu theatre, the show was fantastic, with incredible actors doing flips and tumbles of every sort. It made me feel incredibly old and inflexible, but we all loved it. I can honestly say that it wasn’t because of low expectations after prior performances by the whirling dervishes, Thai dancers, nor Vietnamese water puppetry, but rather because it was quite good. Hayden placed it at #1, with the rest of us giving it a strong second place, with the Lion King in London remaining the favorite.

So in closing a few thoughts about communism and China. China is a huge threat to the U.S. The threat is caused by so many young people working so hard in comparison to many of their U.S. peers. I always thought of China as so far away, but when you are sitting in a Starbucks at the Beijing airport and you see flights departing for Seattle and Portland, you realize it’s a pretty small world. There are so many students and such intense competition for spots at the universities that their youth will be very well prepared versus the culture of mediocrity and instant gratification that is growing in the U.S. At the same time, there is hope. I think that Communism, here and in Vietnam, while not on its last legs, isn’t a viable form of governing in the long run. The beauty of the information age is that information, facts and truth are too difficult to hide. It is hilarious that the Chinese history books teach that China has never been defeated. This country was a whipping post for the Mongol invaders for hundreds of years (thus the need for that great wall thingy) but they teach that the people that came did not win, but in fact, became Chinese. So Ghenghis Khan and all his followers, having laid waste to the locals, became Chinese. Whatever. Chairman Mao is still beloved by most. Despite his followers in his Cultural Revolution killing over 70 million people, our tour guide (a devout young commie) tells us that he was such a great man, and that he was just getting old, and that it was his wife’s fault that his policies went awry. Yeah sure. I tried to post this blog but the site was blocked. Blogging is taboo. Facebook is banned. To paraphrase our guide “It isn’t allowed because people would use it to say bad things about the government which isn’t good. In addition, a person can write really bad things about other people.” A few stodgy old men and their cronies know what is best for 1.5 billion people? That makes about as much sense as not letting people use fire to cook lest they get burned. China's system is not built to last versus our freedom and democracy, but it will continue to be very formidable for the near future. I have great faith that if one works incredibly hard and smartly in America, there will be no barriers to his or her success.

This is being posted from Bali, Indonesia where we arrived last night. We’re doing some crazy transitions over the next 9 days in search of Komodo Dragons and Orangutans, but will be back in touch soon.

3 a.m. at the Great Wall base camp.

The kids rallied pretty quickly as we set out around 3:30 for the Great Wall

At a fort along the wall, prior to sunrise, with William's 11 year old son and junior guide Tommy

Made it!

That would be a rising sun, not a setting sun.

Happy, lucky father during an unforgettable moment.

About 30 minutes after sunrise with the rest of our group. There were a few folks who weren't quite prepared for the hiking and lagged about 45 minutes behind. Our guide William is in the hat at the back right

In 19 years of marriage I've seen Traci use thousands of hand gestures while chatting but I have no idea what she could possibly be asking William in this picture. He seems as stupefied as I am.

The kids with Tommy

Detail of the outside of the wall. 500+ years old and the mortar, waterspouts and capstones are still in place. Incredible.

Hayden and Tommy practice their Kung Fu at the end of the hike while William serves emergency hydration.

I obviously and blatantly cherry pick the photo collection to give the impression that all is honky dory 365x24x7. At sunrise on day 2, Sydney and Halle are in dire need of a nap.

Wim and Elise from Holland on their 34th wedding anniversary. Wonderful couple who are currently working in Mongolia

Sydney amongst the lilacs growing on top of the wall

William and part of the group on top of the wall. He coined the term "wild wall" to describe how wild it is, with about 6 inches of dusty soil and resulting foliage growing atop the will in many places

With William. At the top is a section where the wall splits. The last wall photos posted below are taken from this vantage point.

Our young scholars listening diligently while William discusses important history

You may be getting tired of wall photos by now, but there were so many incredible vantage points

Scrambling up a steep section

Lone pine at the aforementioned peak

Hayden sitting above a huge drop off

Halle wearing Traci's coat.

Another great thing about William is that he is a professional photographer, so he placed us in some fantastic settings

Good perspective on the steepness of some sections

Halle caught red handed with a chocolate muffin smuggled into the van from the breakfast buffet

Tiananmen Square

The beneficent Chairman's portrait at Tiananmen Square

Our young communist guide misinforms Traci and Halle

Still a sucker for a tuk tuk ride

Making dumplings with Mrs. Fang

Little known trivial fact that China has the ugliest dogs of any country in the world....this is one of the cuter ones, except it was yipping at us constantly.

Our final day we visited the Temple of Heaven. This is a huge park that was a former place of worship. Probably 1/4 the size of Central Park but filled with retirees dancing, playing games, and doing all sorts of active exercises and activities. Fascinating people watching.

Tai Chi lesson for the hopeless family, while in the Temple of Heaven.

Love this picture. You would think that the instructor said something like "whatever I do please do the opposite" but he was actually asking us to do as he did and he did it really slowly. But alas. Halle has her legs opposite. Traci is getting something out of her pocket. Sydney is making the mistake of watching me. Hayden is just standing there and I'm waving to strangers. We're 0 for 5.

Thanks to Traci, Sydney and Hayden we score 1.5 of 5. Observe the posture of the guy in the orange shorts vs. the instructor. The natives with more than 5 minutes of self-defense instruction would be safe from him.

The instructor scratches his head in frustration over his most problematic pupil's inability to do master even the most basic moves, while a crowd begins to gather for the bonus morning comedy show

The only thing worse than mangling a Tai Chi lesson is doing it in front of a crowd of onlookers who are laughing at your lack of prowess in few very basic steps of Tai Chi. I would however say that we are learning slowly and have increased our score to 2.5 of 5.

The pain and shame are almost over. Thank goodness for a bit of anonymity. The exasperated instructor mutters his displeasure silently and prays for the session to end.