Sixty One Degrees
An occassional journal of an Asia-overland adventure
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Great Wall, China
"It sure is a great wall", Richard M. Nixon
He may not have known much about tape recorders but tricky Dicky sure knew his walls. He's not wrong, it really is a great wall.
With all my time in Beijing I ended up spending about three days on the wall. There are several sections within easy reach of the capital. The most popular being Badaling, fully restored and with cable car access for the less able or just plain lazy. It's extremely popular with Chinese visitors who can combine it with a trip to the Ming tombs in a nice little day outing. Needless to say I steered well clear of this section.
I chose instead to travel to Huanghua, involving a slow bus trip to Huairou then a shared minibus to the village and wall. I hooked up with a New Zealand couple for the minibus journey so it was pretty cheap.
On arriving in the village you are immediately confronted by the magnitude of the effort in building this wall. The surrounding terrain is rugged to say the least, with steep mountains and deep valleys rising and falling on all sides. The route of the wall was simple: just follow the ridge line, no matter what it does. This results in some sections running at nearly 70 degrees as the wall resolutely follows the contours of the mountains.
The wall runs both east and west from the village so, somewhat randomly, I chose to go west first. My Kiwi friends, Romana and Donna, joined me and we scrambled up the hillside to reach the first bit of intact wall, the section right next to the road having crumbled almost away.
We quickly discovered that indeed, no restoration had been done on this section, the top of the wall was so overgrown it felt at times like a bushwalk. The sensational views of the wall on both sides of the village though made all the effort worthwhile. You'd have to stop every now and then and just marvel at what you were witnessing.
Every few hundred metres we'd come to a tower, mostly in surprising good condition with all doors, windows, and even roofs intact. Looking out it was easy to imagine the defenders peering through the windows, scanning the horizon for Mongol hordes.
A couple of hours of this was enough for Romana and Donna and we parted at an access point in a valley. They headed back to the village whilst I kept on. It was hard to stop. There was always one more tower in reach.
Eventually, as the day drew to a close, I reached a point at which the wall descended steeply then had a gap for a hundred metres or so where a dam was now in place. On the other side of the dam the wall climbed out again and continued on over the undulating terrain as far as the eye could see. This was it for me for the day though. I dropped out of the tower and climbed down the hill to the village below.
The whole day was so enjoyable I made a spur of the moment decision to stay overnight at the village so I could explore the other side the next day. I managed to stumble across a new hotel that had a room with a bathroom for 20 yuan. Incredibly cheap. And beer at 3 yuan (about 40 cents) a bottle! Who could say no?
The next day I was up early to climb the eastern half. Walking through the village I passed a lady grinding flour with a donkey-driven stone wheel. It seemed strange so close to Beijing. The eastern half of the wall had been kept clear of vegetation but was more challenging for the steepness of the terrain and the crumbling condition of the path. I found myself clinging tenaciously to the wall as my feet kicked broken steps and crumbling pavers.
The wall on this side seemed also to go on forever but beyond the first steep ascent and descent there was no obvious access so I reluctantly quit my wall-walking at about lunchtime. Time enough for a quick plate of rice before catching the bus back to Beijing.
A few days later I found myself with a day free and decided to head out to another section. A relatively well-known 10km walk connects the Jinshanling and Simatai sections. Thirty towers in all and four hours of walking. The start and finish of the walk are restored but the middle section is original. The relative popularity of these sections showed in the souvenir sellers though. Every entrance to a tower was greeted with "T-shirt? Drink?". As I was here fairly late in the day, and the last one on the wall, I was in a fairly strong bargaining position for drinks, which the sellers would otherwise have to cart back to their villages.
Reaching the end of the walk I was astonished by the terrain that the further (unclimbable) sections of Simatai traverse. A steep, sharp ridge with sheer sides made the wall look spikes clinging to the back of a dinosaur. Surely a great walk also, but not today.
Beijing, China
With crowds of people everywhere there's very little privacy in China. This has an interesting effect on people's inhibitions, or lack of them. In public parks people will sing as if they were Pavarotti and dance like they were Ginger Rogers. They are, of course, generally completely talentless but that doesn't stop them giving it their all in public places.
The corrollary of this is that they have an amazing ability to ignore others in their surroundings. It serves to prevent them from being distracted but they'll also quite happily stop and stand right in front of you when looking at a sight, as if you weren't there, because, to them, you aren't.
They also will not hesitate to stop and investigate some interesting behaviour. Taking a photo with a tripod, writing in a journal, or reading an english-language web-site all fall in to this category. They will happily take the guide book from your hands and I've had people lean over my shoulder, their face right next to mine, and slowly read aloud an email that I am reading, fascinated as they are to see a real-world use of english. The concepts of privacy and personal space just does not exist.
Some notes on my quest to acquire visas for Central Asia whilst staying in Beijing, in the hope that they might prove useful to someone else doing the same thing.
This is all based on an Australian passport although for most destinations the rules are the same for all countries. One notable exception is: Uzbekistan - no invitation needed for US and some EU countries.
Kyrgystan - no invitation required. 7 calendar days processing. Y462 (about $50). Received as promised. One month but with fixed entry date.
Tajikistan - no invitation required. 10 days processing. They don't keep your passport whilst doing the processing. Costs: 15 days - $50, 1 month - $60, 2 months - $70. Have to specify exact start date so I took a 1 month option to give myself some wiggle room on entering. You don't pay until you pick the visa up. Very nice people also.
From reading messages from others it appears unusual to not need the invitation, so Beijing's a good bet from that angle.
Note that they've moved address since publication of the Lonely Planet. Same building complex but now in 5-1-41 (building 5, unit 1 (left hand side), 4th floor).
Also note that they can't help at all with the GBAO permit. All the official information seems to be that's it's only available in Dushanbe.
More on the GBAO permit: a couple of people have picked one up in Murgab. See their excellent description here.
I have also just learned that Michael at Great Game Travel can now issue the permit by email in two weeks for £35.
Uzbekistan - invitation required. Getting one from Stantours for $30. Dolores Tour (formerly Sambuh) also seem well set up for this but charge $50 for the privilege (or $40 if you book at least 3 days in a hotel, starting price $20 a night).
Update: Invitation received via email after about a week or so.
The one month visa itself is a fairly steep $72 in Bishkek (US dollars only, not som).
Note on the Uzbek embassy in Bishkek: to get in the door in the morning you need to make an appointment by called 66-30-78 the previous afternoon (not morning). You'll need a Russian speaker to help as any attempt at English results in the phone being promptly hung-up. Payment is in US dollars but there's an ATM opposite the White House (parliament building) that issues $100 US notes.
If you don't have an appointment you could just turn up in the morning and you might be lucky. I was but others weren't.
Turkmenistan - invitation required. The Beijing embassy has moved to a housing complex about 4 km from the main embassy zone. I don't have the address in English but if you go to any other embassy they usually have a list of all embassies. Get them to write it down in Chinese then show this to a taxi driver. It's about a Y10 fare. It takes them 10 days to process an application.
For the invitation is appears that a couple of nights in a hotel are not enough. By government decree you must have a tour for the whole duration of your stay. The alternative is a transit visa for 5 days (although anywhere between 3 and 7 may be possible depending on the whim of the issuing embassy it seems). Note that the 5 days includes both the entry and exit days (so only 3 clear days in the country). Does not require an invitation but still take 10 days to process. To collect the transit visa you need to already have a visa for the following country and you can only travel directly across the country. I was going to do this anyway as most of my sights of interest are just by the northern border and then Ashgabat in the south.
Mind you, the Beijing embassy denies the existance of such visas.
In the end I'm getting Stantours to organise the visa. I'll pick it up in Tashkent, where I'll also get the Iranian visa. They do this for $30.
On my travels I met a Dutch guy who had a proper tourist visa by dint of organising all his accomodation and transport beforehand through a travel agency. It came to US$270 in total but he was only there for four days. There's not really much to see.
I finally got the visa organised by the time I got to Tashkent. Upon fronting to the embassy though they denied all knowledge of any such thing, said that they never deal with agencies, and that the agency is lying! I'll called the guys at the agency and they are trying to sort it out. Such lovely chaps are the Turkmen.
All sorted out the next day. $31 for a 5 day transit visa. Fixed entry date.
Iran - invitation required. Another one for Stantours. Again $30. The application for the invitation apparently takes 3-4 weeks so get this one started early. I should be able to pick it up in Tashkent.
www.iranianvisa.com seem very capable as well. They have a very nice website with online form and were quite prompt and helpful in responding to questions. In fact, I think Stantours use them for this visa. Recommended.
I'm getting a 14 day visa on the recommendation of Stantours, who believe it's more likely to be issued than the one month visa, but I've met a few travellers coming from Iran who reckon the one month is easy enough to get.
Stop press: Disaster on the Iranian visa. It's been rejected. No reason given. I might be able to re-apply with my Irish passport. Fingers crossed. Otherwise it really complicates the route.
Iranian embassies are particularly annoying. They plaster their outside walls with wonderful photos of all the cool things you can see in the country, then refuse to let you in. Doh!
My advice for Iran is to get it from home if possible. I met a couple of people that got one month visas in Europe and a friend researching in Australia said that the embassy there said no problem.
More info on the different embassies: according to the embassy in Kyrgyzstan all of the Central Asian embassies can issue a visa in two weeks (if you are approved) with no invitation. Beijing insisted on an invitation. All that's happening here is that the embassy is requesting permission from home rather than an agency doing it for you.
However, a German bloke wrote to me to say that he picked up an Iranian visa in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) in three days with the support of a Letter of Introduction from his embassy. When I tried there however they gave the standard two weeks line. Your mileage may vary.
I finally got it sorted on my Irish passport, again through Stantours. When I got to the embassy in Tashkent they said they hadn't received the invitation paperwork yet because it takes three days for documents to move from the fax room to the consulate!
One week later they'd found the invitation, that was Wednesday, they said come back next Monday. Almost there.
Azerbaijan - a little outside of the others but just in case people are trying this as well. I ended up applying for this one in Tashkent. Pretty straightforward. They asked for an invitation but when I said I didn't have one it didn't seem to matter. $50 for 3 day processing and $40 for one week processing for a one month visa, fixed entry date.
The embassy is just off the Lonely Planet (2000 edition) map. Go off the metro at Yoshlik and walk south along Halqlar Dustligi about five minutes. The embassy is in a nice building on your right, just over the bridge.
Georgia - Dead easy. Two hours in Tashkent and US$50 for a one month visa with fixed dates.
General
For Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, once the invitation/transit visa paperwork is complete it's supposedly a same-day operation at the embassy. They already have all your details and can issue the visa on the spot. For this reason though you have to specify which embassy you'll pick the visa up from when you're getting the invitation.
Big wraps for Stantours (so far). Very helpful and responsive, and you can pay with Paypal!
In the end I'm probably going to get the Kyrgyz and Tajik visas here in Beijing, then get the others in Bishkek (Kyr) and Tashkent (Uzb). Otherwise I'll be here for a month. I'll get the ball rolling on the invitations though, since they also usually take about 10 days to process (Ministry of Foreign Affairs processing time).
Note that to even get near most embassies you need your passport to flash at the guards blocking the streets. I'm sure you're carrying that at all times anyway though.
All Central Asian visas are fixed entry date. You can get around this hassle a little by getting longer visas with overlapping dates. The Tajik consul was quite happy to give me a two month visa for an extra $10.
Tips
Big tip! Have a scanned copy of your passport available somehow. You could mail it to your hotmail account to have it accessible there. Many applications can be conducted principally by email if you can email your passport to the visa support company (who then prints it out to send to the immigration office).
Buying US dollars
If you're in Beijing and suddenly discover that you need US cash for the 'stans there are officially only two places you can do this. Bank of China at the airport and the main Beijing office at 8 Ya Bao Lu, Jianguomen. I discovered that the branch next to the Kempinski Hotel behind the Lufthansa Centre will also do it though, and it's closer to the Sanlitan embassy district.
To buy US dollars you are supposed to have Foreign Exchange Receipt, showing that you have already concerted money to RMB. You probably don't (I didn't) but if you have ATM receipts they work just as well (since it's effectively the same thing). So keep those receipts!
Beijing, China
Half-way there. Six months gone. Six months to go (maybe).
So far I've been steadily travelling north. Now I turn and travel west.
So far I've been travelling in Asia. Now I head towards the Arab world. It starts even before I leave China, in the Uyghur-dominated Xinjiang province.
The silk road beckons.
Beijing, China
I visited Tiananmen Square today. Built in typical communist style: huge and graceless. It's just a large concrete-paved space. No benches. No trees. Surrounded by Soviet-style buildings and with Mao looking kindly down from on high. It's really only suitable for two purposes: flying kites and holding mass demonstrations.
The Chinese however are very proud of Tiananmen Square. Many times in the south of China, after mentioning that I would visit Beijing, I would be asked if I had heard of it. "Oh yes", I would say, "it's very famous in the west". The irony of this was, however, lost.
China is famous for it's English signs. Some of my favourites are:
From a guest house in Hue (okay, this is in Vietnam) - "Do not laundry in the toilet"
Seen beside a lake in Lijiang - "Do not quarrel and fight noisily while boating, or take the responsibility for doing it"
In a garden in Suzhou - "The toilet has gone bad"
Suzhou, China
There can be no doubt that communism, as a socialist ideology, has been abandoned in China. It probably never really existed in the Marxist-Leninist sense. It was more just a rallying cry for the peasant farmers against the Kuomintang.
Unfortunately, in moving away from the communist ideal the Chinese government is discarding the good aspects: equality of the people, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need", in the words of Marx; and retaining the bad: centralised government, a totalitarian state, and social conditioning.
The idea of equality probably never existed in the minds of the regime. Official announcements can, with a straight face, make the reference "from the highest state official to the lowest peasant".
Attempts at social conditioning range from the famous one child policy to the work of the Children's Song Committee, a group of elderly song-writers charged with writing songs for children so they don't have to listen to the adult themes of Cantopop. Their most famous work is 'Take Lei Feng as a Fine Model', mythologising a young soldier who was always ready to help others. The sixty-five year old committee chair acknowledges that they may be out of touch with the current young generation.
And today it was announced that henceforth, foreign (ie Hollywood) films would be banned from release during school holidays so that children could watch more wholesome fare. The threat of Harry Potter was too great. In the wake of China's entrance to the WTO it seems likely that such actions, they also limit overseas films to just ten per year, will fall foul of powerful US lobby groups.
Of course, all this pales beside the information access offered by the internet. The government is terrified of this medium and rightly so. Even behind "the Great Firewall of China" typing "Tiananmen Square" into Google brings up several websites about the massacre before any official tourist sites. Even those, such as Amnesty International's, which are blocked, are easily accessed via Google's cache feature.
Still, maybe the government has nothing to fear from the internet. In all the cafes I've visited the locals do nothing but play games, read emails, or chat online.