As a child I was fascinated by China. Everything I liked seemed to have
originated there. Chess. Fireworks. Kung fu. Fried rice. The real China was
out of reach, closed to tourism and hidden behind a veil of secrecy that
only enhanced its exotic appeal.
In 30 years, the veil has lifted. But to many China remains a puzzle of
unconnected pieces; images that may whet our appetite, but give us little
knowledge of the true picture. The real China. What is it? And in a country
of such dramatic change, how much of it can we expect to find left? Our
“taster” trip takes us to four very different locations, starting in Beijing
and ending in Shanghai. My daughter Anouchka, 13, who shares my passion for
all things Chinese, has never travelled so far before. My images of China
come from films, and from Chinatowns the world over. Hers come from history
lessons and postcards: the Great Wall, the terracotta warriors, footage of
tanks in Tiananmen Square.
We are both excited and a little apprehensive as we touch down in muggy
Beijing. In this country, we are both ignorant and illiterate. Airport signs
are a mystery. We have a Chinese phrasebook, but will have to rely mostly on
the language skills of others to get by.
Fortunately, our tour guide’s English is impeccable. She drives us to our
hotel through a city heaving with frenetic activity. Taxis, cars and
bicycles throng the streets; the buildings are a mixture of ancient and
modern, every surface illuminated with Chinese characters; street-sweepers
in straw hats keep the pavements litter-free. Many pedestrians carry
parasols, and the streets are a riot of clashing colour.
It’s mid-August, hot — 38C (100F) — and as humid as a Turkish bath. On arrival
at the blissfully air-conditioned Shangri-La we book a Chinese massage to
relax. The treatment works wonders; two hours later, though slightly
bruised, we are fully energised again, ready to discover Beijing.
It’s an old city, even older than London, with a history that encompasses
thousands of years of emperors and tyrants, revolutions and wars, culture
and art. We British are used to thinking of ourselves as an ancient race,
but when our ancestors were still living in mud huts, China already had
poetry, ceramics, silk, gunpowder, perfume, and sophisticated literature and
philosophy.
Reminders of this lie everywhere; our first stop is the Forbidden City, where
the emperor and his family once lived in luxury, and where millions of
Chinese tourists now come every year to see this relic of their imperial
past.
What strikes us most are the bright colours; the red, blue, green and gold of
the pagoda buildings with their elaborate roofs and dragon tiles. Colour is
no longer a forbidden luxury. A thousand years ago, only the emperor was
allowed to wear yellow. Thirty years ago, Mao’s China was predominantly blue
overall-clad. That has changed; the tourists (most of them Chinese) are as
triumphantly colourful as the emperors themselves, and the old buildings,
annually repainted, look as fresh and new as they did when they were first
built.
Over the next two days we visit the Summer Palace, with its beautiful lake,
and the Temple of Heaven, where China’s curiously sprightly pensioners spend
their mornings in such varied activities as ballroom dancing, mah jong and
music. We see Tiananmen Square, where the tanks have been replaced by dozens
of children flying kites; we visit silk merchants and tea vendors, and still
there seems to be something missing. I can’t help thinking that the “real”
China has vanished beneath the less appealing trappings of the Western world
— the ubiquitous branches of KFC, Western dress, the tarnish of consumerism.
But out of the city, on our way to the Great Wall, we begin to recognise the
China of our imagination. The countryside alone is worth the two-hour drive
out of Beijing, and although we have seen it in postcards, we are quite
unprepared for the Great Wall.
So many noted landmarks disappoint. The Great Wall of China is not one of
these. No photograph can do justice to its beauty, size and detail; the
sense of wonder and age that lingers in the old stones. The view from the
top is exhilarating; the steep drop into thick forest; the mountains
straight from a Dai Jin print; the plate-sized butterflies; the rampant
dragon shape, stretching out into the haze.
The following day, we fly to Xi’an, to see the terracotta warriors. Like the
Wall, we have seen them before in image form; but the reality is far more
striking than any photograph. Thousands of warriors, every one different;
foot- soldiers, swordsmen, cavalrymen, archers and generals, standing in
battle formation in the long pits. The scale is eerie — more so when we
realise that this is only a fraction of what was buried here; the rest, like
the Qin tomb, with its mysterious hoard, is still awaiting
excavation. What will be found there, no one knows. But the Chinese are not to
be hurried in these matters. Anxiety regarding the damage already done by
the climate to the terracotta figures has halted the work — and they mean to
wait, for decades if required, until they are sure that the relics can be
preserved intact.
Next, we fly to Hangzhou, best known for its silk, tea, the Lingyin temple and
the many islands and pastel-coloured pagodas on West Lake. “In heaven there
is paradise, on earth there is Hangzhou,” goes the proverb, and I’m inclined
to believe that this is true. Even the names are like something out of a
poem: Melting Snow at Broken Bridge, Viewing Fish at Flowers Harbour, Lotus
in the Breeze Crooked Courtyard. The pace is more relaxed here, and Anouchka
and I enjoy walks and boat trips around the lakeside, where we admire the
lotus and haggle for silks with traders.
The final leg of our trip is Shanghai. A very modern city, we are told — the
Pudong area, where our hotel is, was nothing but fields 15 years ago. We see
them as we travel by train from Hangzhou; fields of maize and wheat and
watermelon and peach and tea and rice. We travel through villages of rickety
shacks, where people in straw hats work the land with wooden utensils.
Then comes the city itself, like something out of a science-fiction movie. It
is a shock — and a delight. Anouchka, who has never seen New York, has no
point of reference; to her it is a magical place of skyscrapers, bright
lights and ultramodern design. To me, it resembles certain American cities,
but without the complacency of the West. Everything is new, shiny and clean.
The people are as sharply dressed as anyone in Paris or Milan. Our
Shangri-La hotel easily matches the best of the West; its Chi spa is nothing
but bliss, and its restaurant, Jade on 36, has a New York designer, a French
chef and a view that angels would fight over — at least until the food
arrived, and having tasted it, I know that for my last meal on earth,
nothing but Jade’s Short Pink Menu will suffice.
Old Shanghai, across the river, is equally magical. On our last day Anouchka
and I venture out alone, by taxi, into the maze of tortuous streets behind
the Yu Gardens. This is our last taste of “traditional” China (at last I’ve
stopped thinking of it as “real”), and we spend it enjoying the busy
atmosphere, the multicoloured shops, the fragrant (and not-so-fragrant)
street food.
We’re already planning to come again. We feel as if we have barely scratched
the surface of a country so dynamic, so vibrant and complex, that even a
hundred visits would barely begin our familiarity. Ancient or modern, rich
or poor, alien or unexpectedly familiar — the spirit of China is
irrepressible.
Joanne Harris’s most recent novel is Gentlemen and Players (Black
Swan, £6.99)
NEED TO KNOW
Joanne and Anouchka Harris travelled with Kuoni Travel (01306 747008,
www.kuoni. co.uk), Shangri-La Hotels (www.shangri-la.com) and British
Airways (www.ba.com). Kuoni, which has a dedicated Specialist Collection
brochure to China, offers a tailor-made holiday, staying in Shangri-La
hotels, for three nights in Beijing, two in Xi’an, three in Hangzhou and
three in Shanghai. The cost, from £1,674pp, includes return flights from
Heathrow on BA, private transfers, domestic flights and guided sightseeing.
DON'T FORGET TO. . . ANOUCHKA'S GUIDE
When in China, says Anouchka, remember to:
- Take an umbrella. Everybody has one — and when it’s sunny you can use it as a parasol.
- Visit the Great Wall. There’s a ski lift to go to the top for people who can’t face a two-hour climb through the jungle. Just approaching the wall you get a wonderful view. Miles and miles of it with turrets topped with dragons and phoenixes. And the view from the top . . .
- Try the street food: tea dumplings, fried rice balls, lotus milk soup, fresh watermelon, dim sum. Fantastic.
- See the terracotta warriors. Each has a different face and hairstyle. Thousands have been excavated. The Emperor Qinshihuang started having the clay army made when he was 13 — and it still wasn’t finished when he died. His pyramid has never been opened up, although scans show that it contains precious metals — and his coffin floating in a pool of mercury. Nobody knows why.
- Learn to say hello (ni hao) in Chinese.
- Fly a kite in Tiananmen Square. We saw a man flying 36 at once.
- Visit the markets. Tea, silk, silver, jade, or just cheap grockle. We had to buy another suitcase just to get our shopping home.
- Have a Chinese foot massage. So relaxing that I went to sleep.
EASTERN PROMISE
Essential information to plan your trip, by Chloë Bryan-Brown
Operators
Bales Worldwide (0845 0571819, www.balesworldwide.com),
escorted and tailor-made holidays.
Cox and Kings (020-7873 5000, www.coxandkings.co.uk),
upmarket group and private holidays.
CTS Horizons (020-7836 9911, www.ctshorizons.com), China
specialist, tailor-made and group trips.
Kuoni Travel (01306 747002, www.kuoni.co.uk), worldwide
holiday packages.
Airtours (0870 24128973, www.airtours.co.uk/chinaguide).
Regent Holidays (0117-921 1711, www.regent-holidays.co.uk),
tailor-made cultural tours.
Travel Indochina (01865 268940, www.travelindochina.co.uk),
small-group tours.
Wendy Wu Tours (0870 3430386, www.wendywutours.co.uk), China
and Asia specialist.
Hotels
Upmarket hotel chains are offering stylish alternatives to merely functional
accommodation. Shangri-La (www.shangri-la.com) is opening six new hotels in
the next year, four more in 2008 and three in 2009. The latest is a sleek
new tower in Sozhou. Raffles (www.raffles.com) has opened its first hotel in
China, the Raffles Beijing Hotel. Luxury Asian hotels and spas group Banyan
Tree (www.banyantree.com) has hotels in Lijiang and Ringha. Four Seasons
(www.fourseasons.com) is planning a second hotel in Shanghai, and one in
Beijing. Hyatt (www.hyatt.com) has seven hotels in China with 12 more
opening within three years.
Visas
Obtaining a visa can be tough. Tour operators will often help and you
would be wise to take up their offer. Otherwise, you need to apply in person
at the Chinese Embassy in London (020-7631 1430, www.chinese-embassy.org.uk)
or the consulates in Edinburgh or Manchester. A tourist visa for British
passport holders costs £30.
Health
Contact your doctor or travel clinic well in advance to allow time
for vaccination courses. Pack some oral rehydration solution, antiseptic
cream and hand sanitiser such as Travelproof H20-No hand wash, £3.50 from
Nomad Travel (020-8889 7014, www.nomadtravel.co.uk).
Useful websites
www.chinatravel.com, online booking service. www.chinatoday.com, news.
www.travelchinaguide.com, culture guide.
Further information
China National Tourist Organisation (020-7373 0888, www.cnto.org.uk).
