Beijing by bus

In general, public transport in China is pretty damn good.

Dalian has a comprehensive network of buses and trams, plentiful taxis, and even a few ferries. Prices are cheap and service adequate, if not luxurious. I greatly admire the national train system. Most of China is well-covered by trains, there is even a train to Tibet. Considering the huge distances travelled, prices are very reasonable and certainly compared to the UK, where a trip hour trip from Exeter to Reading can cost over one hundred pounds. Ordinary people can afford the train in China, indeed, it's usually their preferred form of travel. I was looking forward to a nice overnight train trip to Beijing tomorrow, safely perched on a top hard-sleeper bunk. But the trains are so popular, and the Chinese people so many, that tickets often sell out days in advance. There were no tickets left for Beijing this evening, so my three friends and I had to resort to another form of transport - sleeper bus.

I had never seen sleeper buses before coming to China. They're strange and somewhat dangerous, with their three-bunk high interior they're prone to tipping over when driven in strong winds or by careless, reckless drivers. I've ridden Chinese sleeper buses before though, and it's a tolerable if not desirable way to travel. I much prefer lying down to sitting upright for long periods, especially overnight as I can't sleep in an upright position. Fellow travellers on sleeper buses can be rowdy and raucous, drinking baijiu and smoking, taking their clothes off and walking around with beer bellies on display. Smelly feet and lack of on-board toilet also present problems for the hygiene sensitive western traveller. Luckily, many years living in China have hardened me to these situations.

Juice Feast - Day 3 - Breaking the Juice Feast

I woke up on day 3 again feeling fine. I made three bottles of juice; 1# bananas, water, honey, ginger. 2# watermelon and honeydew melon. 3# Chinese pears, green leaves, ginger, lemon. I felt very irritable this morning, but that could be hormonal as I'm due to start menstruating next week.

The first juice was a good choice for breakfast, as the bananas and glucose will give me an energy boost and I can burn them off throughout the morning. I went down to the harbour to buy a ticket to Korea and didn't take any juice supplies with me, so needed something that would keep me satisfied for a few hours, backed up with lots of water. I got hungry again pretty soon, and with a whole party schedule ahead of me this weekend, I decided to break the juice feast. This has to be done gradually, so I started off by drinking a pulpy juice, then eating a whole raw carrot. Later on, at the beach, I had some naan bread from the Xinjiang BBQ stand.

Tonight there's a Mexican all-you-can-eat networking buffet at the Swisshotel, free of charge! It'll be the last time I can attend, sooooo...you can see the decision was made for me. Over the weekend various friends are holding leaving and birthday celebrations, which won't be any fun if I have to carry around juice bottles and can't join in with the tasty food. This mini-juice feast was an interesting experience, one which I'll probably try again in the future. At the very least, over the last 2.5 days I've taken in a huge amount of fruit and veg - which certainly can't be bad.

Juice Feast - Day 2

So far it's only day 2 and I've already been struggling to maintain my discipline.

I woke up at 7am and drank some juice from yesterday (watermelon, banana, ginger, mango, kiwi). I didn't notice any change in sleep patterns, nor any strange dreams. I had plenty of energy for a morning game of tennis, but the 35 degree heat, not the juice feast, soon sapped it. Yesterday's sunburn didn't help either. I have been drinking a lot of water because of the heat but also to keep my stomach feeling full. Quite often I think I'm hungry when actually I'm just thirsty, also want to avoid possible dehydration in this heat.

Around lunchtime I was out shopping when hunger pangs suddenly struck. I had to buy juice on the street, so they may have added sugar syrup to it. I had two glasses; one honeydew melon, the other watermelon. Throughout the day it got increasingly harder to control my food cravings and even the nastiest stuff began to look appealing. I felt like grabbing Portia's Big Mac out of her hand and gobbling it down.

Now it's 5pm and I've just beaten back more hunger pangs with three juiced bananas with honey. I already had a mix of Chinese pears and green leaves, so that was my first green juice! It was quite palatable thanks to the sweet pears. I also made one with carrots, mango and orange, which I stored up for later use. It smelt pretty good and should be palatable, maybe even tasty.

So far, I haven't experienced any notable side effects. I had sudden diarrhoea this afternoon, but more in the sense of things being cleared straight out, no stomach pains etc. I've been feeling a little irritable, but that's probably more due to the heat and the food cravings.

Juice Feast - Day 1

I woke up at 4.30AM feeling very energetic and lively in anticipation of the first juice feast day.
A morning walk round Labour Park kick-started me for the day ahead, watching the usual fan dancers, joggers and tai chi enthusiasts. I bought a large amount of mixed produce from the street vendors and headed home to juice it up. Before starting with the juice, I made a bottle of 'Master Cleanser' which is hot water with honey, pepper (I substituted cayenne for black) and lemon juice. Drinking this will start the flushing out process, getting a head start on those tasty buckwheat noodles I ate last night at the Japanese place. Then I checked out the fridge and yesterday's stored juices. The carrot one looked and smelt pretty bad, but the watermelon one seemed ok, so I drank about half of that. Then it was time to make some new juice. This morning's breakfast recipe was: 3 Chinese pears, 1 apple, ginger and celery. After blending it together I was left with the usual pulpy mass. The juice feasting websites often mentioned using a 'nut milk bag' to strain out the pulp. I tried straining pulp through a tea towel, which surprisingly worked perfectly (although messy). I was left with a lovely bowlful of clear juice. This one tasted deliciously refreshing and went down smoothly. I feel really good now, and am going to spend at least two hours today lying on the beach listening to podcasts and working on my tan. Life in China does have occasional moments of luxury.

In the afternoon things weren't quite so rosy. I had a sunburn for starters. Then I made my first veggie juice for lunch (carrots, green leaves, ginger, celery) but it smelt foul. I even added some watermelon in an attempt to improve matters, but it didn't work and now this juice is sitting in the fridge while I'm still building up the courage to drink it. I met a friend at Starbucks and by this point was craving FOOD, any food at all as long as it was solid. Even grease-ridden Chinese dishes were immensely appealing. I temporarily suppressed the cravings with a cup of herbal tea. When I got home, four bananas with honey soon fixed the problem. Now my stomach feels peaceful and relaxed, like it's in hibernation. It's a very comfortable feeling which I hope will last. I'm going to meet friends and go to a massage place now. I need to be distracted from possible thoughts of food. Tomorrow should be interesting, as many experienced juice feasters report that the second day is the most uncomfortable because the body starts pushing out all the toxins, which may cause some side-effects like headaches or nausea. I really hope I'll have enough energy for an early morning tennis game.
I'll see what happens tomorrow, and post another update.

Juice Feasting in China

China can be a toxic place, with MSG, oil, salt and sugar rampant in most dishes. So for the next 5 days I will consume nothing but juiced fruit and veggies.

Aptly named 'juice feasting' this will be a small attempt to counter-act China toxins and flush out some of the nasties that have built up in my system. The original juice feast idea came from an American guy who studied nutrition and then developed the detox programme. Steve Pavlina tried the juice feast and blogged about it, but he didn't make it to the recommended 92 days. I won't be feasting anywhere near that long, my goal is 5 days. I want to see if I have enough self-discipline to spend a large portion of each day blitzing fruits and cleaning the blender (arrgh! I hate doing that...)

According to the internet, juice feasting can do a lot for you, from increasing energy levels to reversing a number of serious diseases. After reading the blogs, I immediately went out and bought three large plastic bottles (you need to drink at least a gallon of juice every day). Then I visited my usual fruit and veg sellers and came away with an extraordinary amount of stuff. The fruit lady asked me why I needed so much fruit, so I translated the concept of juice feasting to her in Chinese. Hauling the produce home, I put the blender into action and made the following juices:

#1: Veg Juice. Carrot, celery, tomato, ginger and garlic.
#2: Fruit Juice Type One. Watermelon, ginger, mango, kiwi.
#3: Fruit Juice Type Two. Mango, banana, kiwi, apple, orange.

The original plan was to kick off the feast tomorrow morning, but I gave into juice temptation and finished off the whole bottle of #3. Today doesn't count because I already ate some of the IKEA cheese and the jam biscuits that were languishing in the fridge. I'll give the rest of those to Carol, she'll be pleased ;-)

My juice adventure starts tomorrow with #2 for breakfast. I'll let you know how it goes over the next 5 days.

Change of Pace

Do you know that nervous frozen up feeling that comes when you're waiting for life-changing news to arrive? It struck me so badly last week that I couldn't open my inbox for a whole evening. When I forced myself to click the mouse the next morning, prepared for failure but with a glimmer of hope underneath, the news was good. I got accepted by the university in Brussels for the biz course in September! I was SO relieved by this. Rejection would have meant studying in the UK (as this year WILL be the year Sam goes back to school) and piling up a heap of debt. Tuition is heavily subsidised for EU　students, a bargain at 540 euros per year. My course in International Business Economics and Management sounds rather a mouthful, and will certainly be challenging to cram into one year.

Should I wish to, I can continue for a further year and finally graduate with an MBA. I'm thrilled at the thought of living in Belgium as it will be everything China isn't. After almost four years here I'm pining for things like; cheese, real bread, tasty beers, proper chocolate, peace/quiet, personal space, politeness on the streets, no staring/name-calling/laughing, stylish clothes/shoes readily available, beautiful old buildings, reliable hygiene/safety standards. My standards have dropped so much that the smallest, pokiest student room in Belgium seems like heaven compared to some of the apartments here in Dalian...But I know I'll miss many things about Dalian. It's been a major part of my life and I've had lots of really worthwhile experiences here, also made some exceptional friends. When leaving a place forever becomes imminent, you begin to look upon everything with sentimental eyes - "the last time I'll ever walk down this street/eat at this restaurant/get stared at on this corner" etc.

Serious Business on the Border

Note: I planned to illustrate this post with a photo of the China/North Korean border at Dandong, but Chinese censorship means I'm still accessing my blog through a proxy, where some of the options have disappeared.

When I lived on the North Korean border I was never worried about the possibility of being kidnapped. The quiet barren wasteland over the river just didn't seem threatening. We all knew that armed guards sometimes lurked in the long grass, but we saw them as part of the vague thrill that came from living on the border of the hermit state. When we went to 'one-step crossing' and waded through the shallow water to touch DPRK soil, there was a small sense of apprehension, but it was never based on reality. After all, we were citizens of the free world and that kept us safe, right?
But this week two American reporters were caught by North Korean guards and sentenced to 12 years hard labour, in a gulag with horrific conditions. They were reporting from the Chinese border city of Yanji, which is further north than Dandong, and were apparently trespassing on North Korean territory when they were picked up. However, this can't be confirmed, and surprisingly no-one trusts the word of North Korea. They may have even been blatantly kidnapped from Chinese soil...After a matter of days, they were put on trial, found guilty of 'grave crimes' and sentenced almost immediately. I have never seen a court move so fast! If only we could convict rapists and child molesters within that short space of time. Of course it just shows that the North Korean 'justice system' is an absolute farce. Speculation about North Korea's motivation is rife. This new aggression could be an attempt to assert authority in the face of the new Obama administration, or a way to blackmail the US into giving diplomatic and monetary favours. North Korea's recent behaviour, since Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke last summer, has been increasingly erratic. His sons are jostling for position as his successor, the youngest one is currently favourite. Kim's government has tested another nuke, closed a major joint-owned South Korean production facility and now pulled this out of the hat to shock the world. They have become more aggressive, seem unconcerned about appeasing anyone and have refused to participate in the six-party talks aimed at peacefully resolving the nuclear testing issue and improving North Korea's relationship with the outside world. It's difficult to guess the next twist in their unpredictable behaviour, seemingly designed to shock everyone and alienate themselves still further. The US have already mentioned putting North Korea back on the blacklist of terrorist-sponsoring nations and tightening existing sanctions. I can't imagine the effect this must be having on the North Korean citizens, who live in bad enough conditions already. Having potential foreign aid cut off because of reckless government jockeying is the last thing they need.