China

Until Tim and I get around to adding our photos and comments on our recent trip to Yangshou with Mum and Dad, check out their blog to see some pictures of the area...

http://tak.travellerspoint.com/8/

Flying into Zhengzhou airport I looked out the window wondering what the white stuff was everywhere. Turns out…it was snow. In a lot of ways it sums up my trip 1) COLD, 2) not what I expected, 3) many first time experiences, and 4) COLD! Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan province which is pretty much bang in the middle of China and is about the size of Victoria. It is home to 130 million people and is China’s AIDS and hepatitis capital.

The orphanage is in Gong Yi(the Ararat of China), about 3 hours west of Zhengzhou. It was set up by Nathan Bell, an American, in 2002 and is home to about 46 kids ranging in age from 1 to 19.

I took my bike, figuring I’d get some training in the beautiful mountains of China, and as a result was a right spectacle for the locals at the end of my epic taxi and bus journey to Gong Yi. I’m not exactly sure what “Crazy white man in shorts with big box!!” is in Chinese but I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it.

When I arrived at the orphanage there was only about 6 kids there, all in the nursery. Most of the other children had gone to their home villages or the other Home of Hope orphanage for Chinese New Year celebrations. The reasons for the children being at the orphanage varied a lot. Some children had been abandoned (many due to hare lip or other physical problems at birth), others had lost their parents to all too common mining accidents.

[Just hanging out.]

I spent the first week working mainly in the nursery and a little in the kitchen. I changed my first diaper (not mine, I haven’t worn one for AGES…at least a few years). I learnt to fold dumplings, feed kids and get kids to sleep. All of the kids were great but I really enjoyed working with Isaac. He was born with a double hare lip and as a result his father (mother was told he died at birth) didn’t want him. The orphanage took him in and paid for surgery to fix his lip, however there is still more surgery to come. I think Isaac enjoyed me being there because the staff were all women, and he enjoyed the boyish company. It was great for me because for once I could win at wrestling. If you are interested in knowing more about the kids, orphanage, or even donating then the web page is:

www.homeofhope.org

[Isaac with his balloon crown]

[Mary has some problems with her legs but is starting to walk.]

After Chinese New Year was over the staff and children began returning giving me plenty of free time to see the rest of Gong Yi and get to know some of the older kids. I went on a few rides but struggled because of the cold and pollution. If I went too fast my fingers and toes froze so I kept having to stop riding and start running to warm them up. I did get to go for a ride in the snow which was pretty cool for a kid from Beaconsfield. I also managed to go for some great runs through the cave villages and saw some amazing sights.

[Snow at the tombs for the first Chinese Emperor.]

I went to the local High School with one of the kids from the orphanage and was amazed by what I saw. Sam, 19, lives on campus and has school from 5:30am to 9:30pm. He said he was lucky because he had ONLY 64 kids in his class were as some schools have classes of up to 120. The dorms the students live in were…what you’d expect from hundreds of kids squeezed into a dirty old building. There are 10 kids in each room about 3/4 the size of the average Aussie bedroom. Some of the kids at the orphanage didn’t want to live on their school campuses because they were so dirty and their roommates stayed up all night drinking and smoking.

[High School classroom with "Book Mountains" to sleep behind.]

[The dorms, 10 kids each room.]

All the kids I met at the orphanage seemed really motivated to succeed and many had great English. The orphanage was doing a great job, as far as I could see, of preparing the children to be positive members of whatever community they end up in. Due to some levels of the government taking “commissions” on funding for the orphans in China, the orphanage relies solely on private donations.

Some random notes on my China experience:

- Many websites are banned in China, such as Amnesty International, and anything mentioning democracy, Tibet or Taiwan. It made me realise how lucky we are in Australia, and even Hong Kong.

- The average monthly income for people in Gong Yi was 600-1000 Yuan ($100- 160 Aus) for a shop keeper to a doctor. The gap between the haves and have-nots was incredibly evident. Some people lived in caves (“nice caves”) and “drove” donkeys, while other had apartments and new Toyota Landcrusiers.

[Cave homes of Gong Yi]

[Just popping down the street to get the paper.]

- The hospitals were shocking places. Much of the AIDS problem in Henan is due to people being infected via medical transfusions. I even saw a doctor smoking while treating patients.

- Rubbish and pollution was… scary. 130 million people with little infrastructure, many of which are struggling to survive, are not likely to worry too much about where their rubbish goes. I think the main philosophy is “If it’s outside my door, I don’t care”. You could cut the air pollution with a spoon (in HK at least you need a sharp knife). Everywhere you turn you could see a power plant or factory pumping out pollution.

[Rubbish is tipped down a canyon, close to the city center, and has concrete poured over it. Some people were searching through it.]

- Fireworks had been banned in China for many years but have just become legal again. At night time it often sounded like a war zone, and there were always kids on the streets looking for firecrackers that hadn’t gone off.

In the end it was an amazing trip! Not always easy or enjoyable but I would recommend anyone to do something similar. Spending time with the kids was great and the staff at the orphanage really proved to be an inspiration to me. Their desire to make the world a better place will stay with me forever.

For want of a better word, Beijing was unique - that doesn't indicate the amazing time we had or the new things we saw or experienced - it doesn't even begin to explain the vast contrasts that make up the Great City of Beijing but right now, that's the only way I can explain our week long trip - UNIQUE!

Well, first of all spending Christmas without our family and friends, in a below minus climate and without a Kassay Family Christmas feast was always going to throw me off balance but when we arrived on Christmas eve night (still suffering from a cold I had been battling for the previous 2 days) and took our first evening stroll through the streets of Beijing my head was doing circles.

For one - I didn't have enough clothes on, the three layers of jumpers and track pants were not going to do at all - from that night on I was a 6 layer girl - ski pants and all (For the rest of this story you can think of me as rolly polly girl!). Second - The city and streets are HUGE, to cross the road, you either go under them or you have to weave your way through mountains of bikes, buses and cars. Now, when I say huge I mean as wide as a freeway and this is just a normal main road through the city - think Kings Street but the width of the Monash Freeway! Not to mention, they also drive on the 'wrong' side of the road so we often found ourselves looking for traffic in the wrong direction.

We wandered for a while feeling a little peckish and decided to hunt for something to eat. The delights that we were presented with included kebabs of scorpions, sweet and sour dog (I kid you not!), Yaks Genitals Curry and toffee coated strawberries – I went for the fruit option and surprisingly became a vegetarian for the rest of the week.

The hardened people with weathered faces were ready to return our smiles more often than not, language was a huge barrier for us and we often found ourselves staring blankly at a stall holder as they babbled on explaining something to us in Mandarin while we shook our head and said "Shi Shi" (thank you) and tried to explain that's all we knew.

The sights of Beijing, the extreme weather (seeing a frozen over lake was amazing!) and the presence of Mao with his patriotic followers in the Peoples Liberation Army and just in the general population was all a new experience for us and the 7 days spent in both past and present Beijing was an fantastic way to spend Christmas.

A PLA Solider (they seem to be everywhere you turn in Beijing) standing guard in Tiananmen Square. Just behind is the Gate of Heavenly Peace with that lovely picture of the man whose party now officially uses the "70% Right, 30% Wrong" Phrase as their party slogan - I guess at least they're embracing their weakness.

Just kicking back in front of the Forbidden City Wall.

Tim and I loved the Forbidden City. Fans of the movie "The Last Emperor" we strolled through the grounds reliving the scenes from the movie.

We visited the Great Wall at Huang Hua which was a fair way out of town but well worth the trip. To get on to the wall you have to walk from the road passing through a lady's property (paying her Y1 to pass through - that's about 20 cents). Part of the wall was reconstructed and boring but the further we walked we left the new and clambered up the old sections overgrown with trees. The vast expanse of just this relatively small part of the wall we were on was amazing and to look over at the impressive mountain ranges thinking of what the warring Mongols would have had to come through just to get to the wall you feel sorry for those armies that made it that far only to find they'd built a damn wall!!

Just looking at the contours of the wall it is amazing to think that such a structure was conceptualized in the 7th Century BC and completed to the form we see today in the 14th Century AD.

Apart from visiting aw inspiring world heritage sites we also jumped in head first and followed suit on what a lot of other Beijing locals were doing - Hitting the Ice! Instead of slipping on the skates I hired this bike/skater thing and had fun feeling like a real bad ass hooning around the frozen lake.

The trip was made of so many monutmental experiences as well as a bundle of little ones like being hit in the head with a coat hanger, winning tea at a bowling alley, giving a little girl a flag of China and seeing her beam with excitement and having Tim see what he'll look like when he's 60....

(Somewhere along the way Tim's oriental side has phased in and out according to the shopping mall gizmo that created this little gem!)

Back in Hong Kong - enjoying the warmer temperature and the fact that there's now less chance of being served dog when i order chicken. Beijing is a unique place (there's that word again) and one we're glad we've added to our "been there" list.