China | Hole In The Donut Cultural Travel

Is the Sleeping Dragon Roaring to Life?

Published January 28, 2011 | By Barbara Weibel

On my first full day in Pokhara, Nepal, a petite woman strolled down the sidewalk and stopped in front of my table at the open-air restaurant where I was enjoying lunch. Her muted, horizontal striped apron was cinched around an ankle-length gray dress and long, glistening black braids wound around her head. A wide smile split her ruddy cheeks as she greeted me in Nepali fashion.

“Namaste. How are you?” My polite reply was enough encouragement; she sat down at my table.

“I am Tibetan,” she announced as she pulled pouches and bags out of her backpack. Soon, every spare inch of tabletop was covered with handmade earrings, necklaces, rings, and bracelets. She was the first Tibetan person I had ever met, but she would not be the last.

Typical modest home at Tashiling Tibetan refugee settlement in Pokhara

In 1959, thousands of Tibetans crossed the rugged Himalayas on foot, fleeing a brutal occupying Chinese army that destroyed monasteries and massacred thousands of monks as they advanced. Those who made it to Nepal were granted refugee status and allowed to settle on land donated by the Nepali government. Although many Tibetans have since emigrated to other countries, about 20,000 still reside in these original refugee camps, many of which are located in and around Pokhara.

Eventually, realizing I wasn’t interested in buying anything, my new Tibetan acquaintance stuffed the jewelry back in her bag but made no move to get up. Instead, she pulled off her thick black shoes and began rubbing her swollen feet. “All day walk, up and down, but no customers. Business very, very bad,” she sighed.

Tibetan chidren play during International Human Rights Day Celebration

Men play dominos during International Human Rights Day Celebration at Tashilng Tibetan refugee settlement in Pokhara, Nepal

Shoving my plate into the center of the table, I encouraged her to share my lunch as she told me about her life. The jewelry she sells is handcrafted by her disabled husband in their home in the Tarshi Palkhiel Tibetan refugee settlement, located on the outskirts of Pokhara. Each day, though her doctor has advised her not to carry heavy weights, she slings the overloaded pack on her back, takes the bus to town and peddles her wares to tourists, hoping to earn enough money for daily living expenses and save a bit for her children’s college education. Too soon, she pushed back her chair, flashed me a beaming smile, and was on her way, leaving me to ponder how someone who lived with such hardship could seem so content and joyful.

In the weeks that followed this initial encounter I befriended many more Tibetans, who eagerly shared their stories with me. Those who arrived in Nepal prior to 1990 are recognized as refugees and have legal residence and religious freedom, however, their civil, political and economic rights are limited and many have no identity documents. Even Tibetans who have been born and raised in Nepal are denied citizenship due to political pressure from China, which insists that all Tibetans should be arrested, charged as criminals and repatriated to Tibet. Sandwiched between two superpowers – China and India – tiny little Nepal bows to pressure from both the north and south. Continue reading →

Posted in Asia travel |

Tagged blogsherpa, China, cultural travel, culture, Dalai Lama, Human Rights Day, Nepal, Nobel Peace Prize, Pokhara, refugees, Tashiling, Tibetan, Travel |

31 Comments

Time to Tell the Truth – China was the Most Frustrating Travel Experience of My Life

Published September 25, 2010 | By Barbara Weibel

What gives value to travel is fear. It is the fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our own country, we are seized by a vague fear, and an instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits…This is why we should not say that we travel for pleasure. There is no pleasure in traveling. It is more an occasion for spiritual testing. If we understand by culture the exercise of our most intimate sense – that of eternity – then we travel for culture. Pleasure takes us away from ourselves in the same way as distraction, in Pascal’s use of the word, takes us away from God. Travel, which is like a greater and graver science, brings us back to ourselves.
Albert Camus

If fear lends value to travel, then I have just taken the most valuable journey of my life. I can write about it now, because I’m in Malaysia, sitting on the beach, enjoying the beautiful sunset in the photo below. Today I am calm and serene, but a week ago my confidence was totally shattered.

Sunset,Tanjong Tonkong, Penang

I should have suspected that this would not be a smooth trip, since things began to go wrong even before I left for China. During the two months I was back in the States this summer, I was bombarded with legal, financial, and insurance problems that caused me no end of stress. Every time I worked through one issue, two more would emerge, taunting: You don’t really think you’re going to Asia for six months, now do you? But I decided nothing was going to keep me from going, not even when my bank arbitrarily canceled my debit cards two days before departure. In my gut, I knew these were all signs, but I forged ahead anyway. I finished what I could and hoped I could work on the remainder from the road (fortunately, the debit card issue was resolved prior to leaving, thanks to a wonderful RBC Bank manager at a branch in Smyrna, Georgia.)

As I boarded the plane to Shanghai I breathed a deep sigh of relief and put all the worries behind me. I was finally on my way to China! My euphoria got a quick check on the plane a short while later when the food carts began to roll down the aisle. No, they had no record that I’d ordered a vegetarian meal. It was a very long flight without food. On arrival, I headed for the closest ATM machine to get Chinese Yuan/Reminbi but try as I might it would not accept my debit card. The first fear alarm went off in my head – maybe the bank problems had not been resolved after all. My only backup is my credit card, which would accrue interest from the moment I took a cash withdrawal – horrors! Fortunately, I finally figured it out. Chinese ATM’s have two buttons – one says “Continue,” the other “Correct.” I was putting in the amount I wanted and pressing “Correct” when I needed to press “Continue.” Waves of relief ensued.

Next, I needed a taxi. I let a driver in the arrival hall talk me into going with him rather than finding the real taxi stand. Big mistake. I really should have known better, but I was tired, and hungry. Not only did I pay way too much, he immediately began talking about U.S. money, pulling a $20 bill out of his pocket and indicating it had been a tip. When we arrived at the hostel, he conveniently had no change; oldest trick in the book. I took my luggage without paying him and asked the front desk clerk at the hostel if it was customary to tip taxi drivers in Shanghai. Of course it was not. The hostel gave me change for the taxi driver, who was not a happy camper but I didn’t care; I just wanted to get to my room and lie down.

I have written previously about how difficult it was to work in China with all the Internet sites blocked by the government, how it was impossible to purchase train tickets from Shanghai to Beijing because absolutely no one – from staff in train ticket offices to concierges in international franchise hotels – spoke English, and about the fiasco of redeeming our World Expo tickets. But even more aggravating were the small things: Chinese who speak to one another in the decibel range of screaming; people who turned their back on me and walked away the moment they heard a word of English; being poked in the forehead by Chinese umbrellas, used rain or shine, whenever I waited in line or stood at an intersection waiting for a Continue reading →

Posted in China travel |

Tagged beijing, blogsherpa, China, Chinese, cultural travel, culture, English spoken, Great Wall of China, Hong Kong, independent travel, Shanghai, Travel, World Expo 2010 |

110 Comments

Best and Worst of World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China

Published September 22, 2010 | By Barbara Weibel

I ended up in China because of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. My second cousin, Len, sent me a message on Facebook, asking if I’d be interested in going, and suggesting we gang up on his mom, my cousin Loretta, to convince her to join us. My original intention to attend the Expo quickly mushroomed into a month long cross-country trip, especially when Len and Loretta decided to fly into Beijing rather than Shanghai. I arranged for a visit to the Great Wall of China where we were actually able to camp overnight on a remote section of the wall and flew from Shanghai to Beijing to meet up with them. After a whirlwind tour of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square it was back to Shanghai to finally attend the World Expo.

No other pavilion at the World Expo 2010 was allowed to be taller than the stunning China Pavilion

Had my visit to China not expanded to include things other than the World Expo, I would have been sorely disappointed. Problems began before we ever set foot on the grounds. We had ordered our three-day tickets months earlier from Peregrine Travel, China’s officially designated ticket agent in the U.S. They emailed us a “voucher,” which we had to redeem for our actual tickets once we arrived in Shanghai. The morning before we planned to attend, we took a very expensive taxi ride across town in the pouring rain to the Peregrine office.

At the “Modern Universe Business Plaza,” we rode the elevator to the 26th floor and stepped out into a dimly lit narrow hallway where plain brown wooden doors stretched in both directions. Following the fraying carpet around in a semicircle, we eventually located suite 2613 by its tiny stick-on numbers and knocked on the door. Nothing. We knocked again and waited. A young girl finally cracked open the door and peered at us. We held up our vouchers and explained we we’d come to redeem our tickets; she hesitatingly opened the door wider and motioned us to take a seat. With our vouchers in hand, she disappeared behind a screen and began banging on a computer. Some minutes later she emerged shaking her head. “Mei you,” she said; it is an expression I have come to know well in China.

“What do you mean you don’t have any tickets?” I exclaimed.

“You come back Monday. Have ticket then.”

“We leave on Monday. We want to go to the Expo Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.”

With a shrug of the shoulders and a flinging of hands into the air, she repeated: “Mei you,” and insisted we come back on Monday. When we again explained that we were leaving on Monday, she offered a different solution: “We give you refund.”

“Refund?” I asked, growing aggravated. “Are you going to give us a refund for our plane tickets and our hotel rooms? You will owe us many thousands of dollars. Can you pay us thousands of dollars?”

She nodded yes; obviously much was lost in translation. A second girl in the office emerged from behind her screen to explain in broken English that they had run out of three-day tickets for that weekend. Since there are no limits to the number of people who attend each day, what that meant was that they had planned improperly and were too lazy to go get more tickets from the Expo site.

“If you are out of three-day tickets, give us one-day tickets.”

“Oh no, one day not enough for Expo.” she insisted.

“Not one one-day ticket, three one-day tickets each. This is your fault, not ours. You must find tickets for us.”

The two girls exchanged glances, the second one giggled, and I came unglued.

“IT’S NOT FUNNY!” I yelled.

“Yes, I know,”she said meekly.

“Then why are you laughing. This is not funny. Don’t laugh, fix it.”

Len, who had been sitting quietly by my side, finally lost his cool. “We came here specifically to see the World Expo and your company told us we could redeem our tickets at any time. When we return to the United States, I will sue your office. I work for a law firm and can do this easily, and your boss is not going to be very happy with you when this happens.”

That did the trick. Following a hurried conference with a superior ensconced behind a closed door, the now serious giggling girl emerged, dug through a desk drawer and pulled out nine one-day tickets, explaining that they belonged to a “colleague.” In a single hour we had witnessed the height of Chinese incompetence and the ever-present need to save face. Continue reading →

Posted in China travel |

Tagged Asia, Better Cities, Better Life, blogsherpa, China, cultural travel, culture, Shanghai, Travel, USA pavilion, World Expo 2010 |

17 Comments

MagLev Train to Pudong Airport, Shanghai, China

Published September 21, 2010 | By Barbara Weibel

Can’t see the above YouTube video of the MagLev train that runs between Shanghai’s city Center and Pudong International Airport? Click here.

Posted in Videos |

Tagged China, cultural travel, culture, fast rail, MagLev Train, Maglev Trains, Pudong International Airport, Shanghai, transportation, videos |

There’s Still a Bit of Old China Left in Glitzy New Shanghai

Published September 20, 2010 | By Barbara Weibel

Shanghai has a scintillating skyline, a thriving economy verging on capitalism, and a nouveau-riche citizenry that dresses in the most fashionable attire and owns the latest electronic gadgets, but to a large degree it has lost its Chinese soul. Except for the thousands of Chinese who choke its streets and sidewalks, Shanghai could be a large, modern city anywhere in the world. I was disappointed that it seemed to have turned its back on such a rich cultural heritage and was about to write it off as boring until I decided to wander around Old Shanghai one evening. All the shops and office buildings in tthis fairly new neighborhood were built to resemble traditional Chinese architecture, right down to intricate roof tiles and eaves decorated with fire breathing dragons. Neon-outlined buildings reflecting mirror images in surrounding lily ponds and hundreds of illuminated fish lanterns strung overhead were pretty, but I was more interested in the shrill whistles, clamorous clanging, and raucous laughter emanating from a small side alley.

Can’t view the above slide show of Old Shanghai, China? Click here.

Rounding the corner I discovered half a dozen customers sitting on stools with their foreheads plastered to a large wooden box, a replica of a Chinese peep show from the 19th century. Layang Pian, or Xiyang Jian as the art is more commonly known, roughly translates to “pulling foreign picture cards,” which Continue reading →

Posted in China travel |