A couple of weeks ago, me and Siqi decided to take a break from the bustling Beijing life and head ‘down to the countryside’ to stay at a traditional chinese homestay. We filled our backpacks full of yummy food and caught the oldest and most rickety train I have ever been on to Hebei province, about a 3 or 4 hour train ride. Onboard were mainly migrant workers who live out in the countryside but head in to Beijing for work. It wouldn’t surprise me if I was the first westerner ever to have made the journey!
The village we were staying in was in a valley surrounded by mountains. All the way around on the horizon you could make out the sillouette of the great wall snaking around. The homestay was very primitive but I loved it. Only a few hours out of Beijing and yet in this village the only electrical appliances to be found are lightbulbs and (if you are lucky) a telephone. Furthermore, there was no hot shower water and all cooking was done over gas flames or compressed coal blocks! The family were very welcoming and made us some of the most delicous food I have had in China. It was a big change from Beijing’s restaurants - a lot less meat and oil goes into the dishes and the flavours are not so strong. Much healthier - although most westerners (excluding myself and a few other odd ones) would not agree to the breakfast of rice porridge, spicy pickled potato shreds, steamed bread buns and a cabbage soup of some sorts! Another thing to note in the countryside was the cold! In Beijing it was still 20 degrees on sunny days and yet out here at night it was getting below freezing point - lucky I had some warm clothes packed.
On Saturday we got up at 5：00 and got a minibus to 金山岭 (jinshanling), one of the sections of the great wall. It was only a 20 minute ride away and when we got there, there was not a single tourist in sight… thats right… not one! This must be one of the best sections of the great wall to walk if you have the time to head that far out of Beijing. We walked all the way from 金山岭 (jinshanling) to 司马台 (Simatai), about 6 hours of walking in total. The scenery is amazing and the wall is pretty wild in places - some of it could be considered as mortally dangerous in wet conditions - many parts of the wall are starting to crumble here and some bits are ridiculously steep! Again, we didn’t come across anybody apart from the ticketman all along that vast stretch of wall. It rained quite heavily for about an hour in the afternoon but we took shelter in one of the many beacon posts along the way and munched on some rather odd chinese snacks. Got the minibus back to the homestay for lunch - again delicious - then had a rather sleepy afternoon!
We were up early on Sunday morning and got the 9:00 train back to Beijing. All in all a great weekend; it was lovely to get out of the city to some nice clean air and beautiful surroundings. It was also a great opportunity to speak some chinese - with Siqi, with the people who ran the homestay and with the other Beijing students (all Chinese) who were staying for the weekend. Finally, it was a good reminder that in fact the vast majority of Chinese people (80%) are still peasants and that the majority of what you see in Beijing, in films and on the news does not reflect in the slightest the harsh realities of everyday life for a normal Chinese citizen.
Jono
November 7, 2007
Eeek my comment just got swallowed. GRR!
It sounds ace and I was wondering how did you organise the home stay?
Last year I walked from Jinshanling to Simatai, it’s ace and we only met people about 20 mins from the end as we walked when we woke up. We slept the night in one of the Jinshanling gatehouses. But it didn’t take six hours, took us about 4 hours!
November 7, 2007
Yeah, was a great trip. Siqi actually organised it all but I have the contact details for the homestay if you wanted to go. They don’t speak a word of English but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem - you just need to ring up and book and let them know what activities you would like to do.
Yeah its a lovely stretch of the wall, sleeping in the gatehouses must be great but I think its a bit cold for that now!
Yeah we were pretty slow walkers - plus there wasn’t really any reason to rush - scenery is magnifique!
Hope all is well in tianjin!
November 11, 2007
You seem to be on gtalk but have gone somewhere so I’ll leave a message here.
Hmmm maybe I’ll wait until it gets a bit warmer then go next year to the homestay, I’ll ask for the details then. What sort of activities were there apart from going to the great wall?
Tianjin is going well although it’s rather cold now. I’ve just moved out into my own place. It wasn’t to do with not liking my roommate, I got on with him I just wanted a bit of my own space. Space to cook as our rooms were rather small in our accomodation there would have been very little room to fit a fridge and no space for pots, pans etc.
November 15, 2007
Hey Josh, sorry but I sometimes leave the browser open (but not neccessarily there all the time). Can’t remember what else was on offer but most activities were related to the wall in some way or another. Probably only enought to keey you occupied for a day or two. Beijing is also getting pretty near freezing! Think I have a bit of a cold coming on which is a pain in the arse but hey…!
I’m gonna stay in this accommodation until at least January but probably want to find my own place then. Whats your apartment like, any photos anywhere?
Hope things are going well.
Jonny
November 21, 2007
Oh don’t worry. It just seemed like you were there but you weren’t really. I now have a bit of a cold coming on too. GRRRR. At least we have heating now.
My place is quite decent, got a nice kitchen one big bedroom small living room and reasonable sized bathroom. I’m quite happy with it as it’s also about 10 mins from uni so very convenient. Seem to have people round loads already! tomorrow ruth and some of her friends are coming to make dumplings. No photos yet but when I take some I’ll put them on the net/email them. It’s in a very chinese area with a sort of night-market street right by it means loads of places to get vegetables, fruit etc. just on the street. I moved out as I wanted a bit of my own space. Our accomodation wasn’t nearly as nice as yours is in Beijing and my room was too small to fit a small fridge/cooking stuff and there were small problems with things like hot water etc and tv’s working etc.