Heading to China tomorrow...

[ChristianAnarchist]

Having married my Chinese wife 22 years ago, we have made perhaps 20 trips to China in that time. It's been a bit over a year since our last trip so we are looking forward to going back to visit friends and family and do a bit of sightseeing. Tomorrow at noon we leave Detroit for Beijing. We will spend a couple of days there and then travel to Wuhan, my wife's home town. We also expect to make a trip to Xian and view the Terracotta Warriors which we have only seen one other time about 12 years ago.

I will try to post updates as the trip progresses and answer any questions any of you have for me. I've found China to be quite a contradiction. In many ways it's the draconian system that we've all been taught it is but in many other ways they actually have MORE freedom than we have here. I've only posted a small bit of my experiences on my blog (below) and many posts in the past here and on the Daily Paul.

I'm kinda tired after driving all day so I'll try to post more in a couple of days...

[Ronin Truth]

I'll SWAG the Chinese will welcome a Christian anarchist with open arms. LOL!

[Danke]

Wuhan. Wear the fox hat.

[tommyrp12]

Here is a spot that might interest you. It is a temple where a famous monk runs a school practicing Shaolin Chan (Buddhisim) wu (martial arts) yi (medicine) , Chanwuyi. The hike looks crazy by itself. I don't know how far it is from where you are going but if it were me going it would be high on the list of places to see.

Songshan Monastery is located in south-western Shaoshi Mountain at Songshan in the city of Dengfeng within Henan Province.

[Danke]

Oh, BTW, does she have a sister? I'll be in Beijing on Sunday.

[brushfire]

Hey, who's gonna watch the vette?

[ChristianAnarchist]

Oh, BTW, does she have a sister? I'll be in Beijing on Sunday.

Her sister is married and living in Alaska (which is coincidentally the place I met my wife while her sister was still in China and had no plans to come to USA)...

What will you be here for and do you care to meet up if possible?

[ChristianAnarchist]

Ok, first day in Beijing and not much to report. We were flying standby so we barely got on the plane but the nice thing about standby "buddy pass" is that you usually get business class overseas (and we did). It makes the trip so much better when you can recline and sleep. The bad part was our luggage did not make it on the plane so now we have to go to the airport again tomorrow to get the luggage. Oh, well...

Today Beijing is unusually clear. The smog is very light today by China standards. I'd say about 8 miles visibility. The worst I've seen is about a block. When it's that bad you can smell and taste the air. You really don't want to be out in it too long that's for sure.

Kinda tired so I guess I'll start to get ready for bed. The jet lag is pretty bad the first 4 days or so...

[juleswin]

I did my little bit of summer traveling yesterday and I saw a couple in the train station in Atlanta airport that I really thought was you.

White guy in his early 50s or late 40s with an Asian wife/gf and I was wondering if that was you and the wife. The wife had a gold chain on her neck.

This was around 2:45pm Friday. Anyway, hope you have a good time in China.

[PaulConventionWV]

Having married my Chinese wife 22 years ago, we have made perhaps 20 trips to China in that time. It's been a bit over a year since our last trip so we are looking forward to going back to visit friends and family and do a bit of sightseeing. Tomorrow at noon we leave Detroit for Beijing. We will spend a couple of days there and then travel to Wuhan, my wife's home town. We also expect to make a trip to Xian and view the Terracotta Warriors which we have only seen one other time about 12 years ago.

I will try to post updates as the trip progresses and answer any questions any of you have for me. I've found China to be quite a contradiction. In many ways it's the draconian system that we've all been taught it is but in many other ways they actually have MORE freedom than we have here. I've only posted a small bit of my experiences on my blog (below) and many posts in the past here and on the Daily Paul.

I'm kinda tired after driving all day so I'll try to post more in a couple of days...

I'm in Beijing as we speak. Hit me up if you want. It would be great to meet a fellow RPFer here.

[Natural Citizen]

I'm in Beijing as we speak. Hit me up if you want. It would be great to meet a fellow RPFer here.

How is that working out for you? Do you like China? I knew that you were going over but wasn't aware that you had already left.

[PaulConventionWV]

How is that working out for you? Do you like China? I knew that you were going over but wasn't aware that you had already left.

It's working out well enough so far, but it's early to tell. It gets stressful because I have no phone and at one point I thought my computer crashed so I had no means of communication and I have things to do. The food and the language are a big obstacle, not to mention jet lag. I've only eaten 3 times in 3 days because I'm not comfortable walking into restaurants without speaking the language and I feel the need to sleep a lot.

At some point I would like to make some videos and/or blogs about my experience and I'll post them on the forum when I do. It took some work to get this site unblocked.

[Natural Citizen]

It's working out well enough so far, but it's early to tell. It gets stressful because I have no phone and at one point I thought my computer crashed so I had no means of communication and I have things to do. The food and the language are a big obstacle, not to mention jet lag. I've only eaten 3 times in 3 days because I'm not comfortable walking into restaurants without speaking the language and I feel the need to sleep a lot.

At some point I would like to make some videos and/or blogs about my experience and I'll post them on the forum when I do. It took some work to get this site unblocked.

Hm. You're going to have to eat right so do what you can to make that happen. I can imagine it being an obstacle not being fluent in the native language but Beijing has a large amount of westerners if I'm not mistaken. Maybe try to find places that cater to the demograph.

I still say you should have chosen Japan but good luck over there. Some videos would be a neat thing to share.

[PaulConventionWV]

Hm. You're going to have to eat right so do what you can to make that happen. I can imagine it being an obstacle not being fluent in the native language but Beijing has a large amount of westerners if I'm not mistaken. Maybe try to find places that cater to the demograph.

I still say you should have chosen Japan but good luck over there. Some videos would be a neat thing to share.

It does have a significant Westerner population, but you don't just run into them on the streets. I haven't seen another Westerner out on the streets since I got here last Wednesday (that I can recall), although I have run into a fluent English-speaking Chinese man.

Luckily, most places have signs that are translated into English. The smog is the worst it's been since I've been here, but I haven't really had any negative respiratory effects yet. While it can be intimidating walking into a place, it's usually easy enough to get what you want by pointing and pulling out your wallet.

[euphemia]

Have a good trip.

[PaulConventionWV]

Not to hijack the thread, but I thought I'd add that a couple good reasons I didn't go to Japan was because it's harder to get a teaching job there (and it takes longer) and the standard of living is higher. There are a few more less significant reasons, but those are the main ones.

[ChristianAnarchist]

I'm only in Beijing for about 12 more hours and then we take the bullet train to Wuhan. I'll be returning to Beijing around the first of the month. Any RPF'ers who are in Beijing and want to meet I'd love to get together. If you want to call me my China phone number is 13522032878. Call me if you get a chance (I really don't think google is interested in storing my China phone number).

My regular (boring) name is Gene...

[PaulConventionWV]

I'm only in Beijing for about 12 more hours and then we take the bullet train to Wuhan. I'll be returning to Beijing around the first of the month. Any RPF'ers who are in Beijing and want to meet I'd love to get together. If you want to call me my China phone number is 13522032878. Call me if you get a chance (I really don't think google is interested in storing my China phone number).

My regular (boring) name is Gene...

I will definitely do that.

[devil21]

Having married my Chinese wife 22 years ago, we have made perhaps 20 trips to China in that time. It's been a bit over a year since our last trip so we are looking forward to going back to visit friends and family and do a bit of sightseeing. Tomorrow at noon we leave Detroit for Beijing. We will spend a couple of days there and then travel to Wuhan, my wife's home town. We also expect to make a trip to Xian and view the Terracotta Warriors which we have only seen one other time about 12 years ago.

I will try to post updates as the trip progresses and answer any questions any of you have for me. I've found China to be quite a contradiction. In many ways it's the draconian system that we've all been taught it is but in many other ways they actually have MORE freedom than we have here. I've only posted a small bit of my experiences on my blog (below) and many posts in the past here and on the Daily Paul.

I'm kinda tired after driving all day so I'll try to post more in a couple of days...

Have you seen China becoming more free over your 20 visits?

[ChristianAnarchist]

Have you seen China becoming more free over your 20 visits?

I would say definitely yes. Economically freedom has flourished with the privitation of many industries and the liberty to start a small business. There used to be almost no taxation of any kind but taxation reached a peak around (I'm guessing) 2005. Since then the goons have been lowering tax rates to all kinds of business sectors to stimulate growth (don't know why OUR goons can't get that simple lesson...). Farmers have become completely tax free to try to get the farm boys to stay on the farm insted of migrate into the cities and work in factories.

When I first came here most people were "members" of the communist party. It was almost a given that all people join. My mother-in-law was one of the few who never joined. Today only "government" people for the most part are communist party members. Most of the average joe's are no longer members and they don't have any reason to join. People just try to get ahead. Wages are many orders of magnitude greater than 20 years ago with a huge middle and upper class. Private cars are everywhere and most people now "own" their home (it's something like a 99 year lease with right of selling and no property tax so it's effectively the same thing).

Free speech is non-existent here and censorship of the internet is a big problem. I can only watch youtube and other sites by using a VPN and if they ever figure out how to kill that without killing all the business uses of VPN then I'm sure that will end. Trade as far as imports is anything but "fair" but they are now lowering import excises on many products as well. Automobiles are highly restricted which is why most cars here are domestic versions of foreign cars built with partnership agreements.

All in all, China is a waking giant and I hope that there's never a war because it will be the worst war we have ever seen...

[PaulConventionWV]

A friend of mine here who has a business helping people like me told me you used to need 100,000 RMB (about $16,400) in capital to start a business, but now you don't need any at all.

[devil21]

A friend of mine here who has a business helping people like me told me you used to need 100,000 RMB (about $16,400) in capital to start a business, but now you don't need any at all.

Better to do that sooner than later if that's in someone's plans. The 7 to 1 peg isn't going to last much longer.

[Danke]

I would say definitely yes. Economically freedom has flourished with the privitation of many industries and the liberty to start a small business. There used to be almost no taxation of any kind but taxation reached a peak around (I'm guessing) 2005. Since then the goons have been lowering tax rates to all kinds of business sectors to stimulate growth (don't know why OUR goons can't get that simple lesson...). Farmers have become completely tax free to try to get the farm boys to stay on the farm insted of migrate into the cities and work in factories.

When I first came here most people were "members" of the communist party. It was almost a given that all people join. My mother-in-law was one of the few who never joined. Today only "government" people for the most part are communist party members. Most of the average joe's are no longer members and they don't have any reason to join. People just try to get ahead. Wages are many orders of magnitude greater than 20 years ago with a huge middle and upper class. Private cars are everywhere and most people now "own" their home (it's something like a 99 year lease with right of selling and no property tax so it's effectively the same thing).

Free speech is non-existent here and censorship of the internet is a big problem. I can only watch youtube and other sites by using a VPN and if they ever figure out how to kill that without killing all the business uses of VPN then I'm sure that will end. Trade as far as imports is anything but "fair" but they are now lowering import excises on many products as well. Automobiles are highly restricted which is why most cars here are domestic versions of foreign cars built with partnership agreements.

All in all, China is a waking giant and I hope that there's never a war because it will be the worst war we have ever seen...

Any recommendations on a VPN? Would like to get Pandora and YouTube to work here.

[ChristianAnarchist]

Any recommendations on a VPN? Would like to get Pandora and YouTube to work here.

I am using "Private Internet Access" and it's worked fine on past trips but on this one it only worked for a couple of days and now it seems the goons have blocked it. Another bummer is we use logmein.com to access all our home and office computers remotely and now it seems that's blocked as well. Not sure how we are going to get any work done while we are here and if I can't find a way to get past all this B.S. I'm not so sure I want to come back here. The censorship is very bad...

[ChristianAnarchist]

Spent several days in Wuhan mostly visiting friends and family but now we are in Xian, the walled city. Last night I rode a rental bike along the top of the wall. The wall is perhaps the best preserved historical wall of any ancient city. The size of the wall is amazing. I believe it's a bout 3-4 mi along each of the 4 sides and it's about 50 ft wide at the top. I did not take the time to ride around the entire square as it was already getting dark and I didn't want to keep the rest of the party waiting too long. Unfortunately the smog is pretty bad and visibility is now down to about a mile so scenerey is limited.

When we arrived at the train station a young man approached us about riding us to our room and also using their tour service to see the sights so we agreed and I told them I wanted to drive. The kid said I could so I drove the mini van through the traffic jam to our hotel. At one point I drove through the south gate of the wall. I do have a Chinese d/l and had to get it replaced when we were in Wuhan because I left mine back in the states. I actually like driving in China because the "rules" are more "flexible"...

[ChristianAnarchist]

I've been busy. We've had 3 days in Xian to see the sights and I got to drive several vehicles while here. The tour guide let me drive their Ford mini-van out to the terricotta warriors and back which is about an hour each way. The warriors are truly an amazing sight. Emporer Qin was a bit of a crazy man (which ruler isn't) and spent way too much of the wealth of their nation on his burial. The whole idea is that in the afterlife he would have more power if he had the largest army so these thousands of warriors were burried to protect him and keep him powerful. His dynasty did not last long after his death I think mainly because everyone hated him for stealing all their freedom to make his afterlife powerful. These warriors and this grave site is the most impressive thing I've seen in China and I highly recommend this to anyone who is traveling to China.

The next day we stopped to have dinner with a friend of ours who lives in Xian. We met this couple 2 years ago when we participated in the Beijing to Shanghai Antique Car Rally. They drove their "Red Flag" parade car in that rally and he is one of the few antique car buffs in China. He showed us his collection of cars and motorcycles and let me drive one of his "Red Flag" limosines around for a bit. They are HUGE cars. Unfortunately his open top parade car was damaged when being towed back home from the rally two years ago and has not yet been fixed. He also rode me around in his antique motorcycle with side car. He has a whole section of an underground parking garage just for his vehicles. I would extimate that he has at least 20 cars and 12 motorcycles stored there and more vehicles elsewhere. He has 5 of the Red Flag limosines in various states of repair. Unlike here, there really are no places in China where old cars are "restored" so he does what he can to keep these running and looking good. At the end of the night he insisted on loaning us one of his "regular" cars to drive for the next two days of our stay there.

The next day we drove around Xian and in the evening enjoyed one of their ancient dance shows. Right this second I'm on the bullet train back to Wuhan currently traveling at 305 km/h...

[ChristianAnarchist]

Although I have not yet posted any pics from this trip here's a link to some pics from the Antique Car Rally 2 years ago...

http://chinaclassiccar.imgur.com/all/

[ChristianAnarchist]

Today we rented a car in Wuhan. Last year when we were here with my wife's sister and her husband (American) they had rented a car and it was a lot different then. A year ago the rentals were showing their age and it was quite difficult to rent. They actually had to bring the property deed to their parents apartment as collateral in order to rent the car. Today was much more streamlined and almost like in the West. The car rental agency just needed our I.D. and credit card to rent the car. The cars are less than one year old and in good shape. The price is reasonable at $15 a day and $30 with insurance (I usually don't get insurance but figured it was a good idea here). The first thing I did with the car was to drive it into a drop-off where they had cut the pavement away on one of the drives to the road. It was completly cut from end to end and not marked at all. From the driver's perspective it just looked like a "seam" where the pavement went from concrete to blacktop but the blacktop was about a foot below the concrete. Fortunately I was barely moving and the front wheels just dropped over the edge and the frame became grounded. No damage to the car but they had to lift the front to get it off of there and just gave me another car to drive while they got it lifted. There are many areas here where there are open holes and hazards that are not marked. I'm fully aware of the hazards but this one was so perfectly camoflaged that I just didn't see it until I felt the front wheels dropping. Had I been driving even 10 mph the car would have been damaged for sure so I'm glad I was creeping along.
The rest of the day was just spent slumming. Drove to a friends home to visit... Boring stuff like that...

[ChristianAnarchist]

Had to return the rental car today. It turns out they have an office at the airport and train station so if we want to we can rent directly from there next time. It's not quite as convienient as home but getting there. Tomorrow we take the bullet train back to Beijing and in 3 days we will be flying back home.

A side observation (one of many) regarding the Chinese. I've noticed that it seems they only print English on their t-shirts. For the last several days I've been scanning the shirts on thousands of Chinese and have only seen English and to some lessor extent, French. I've not seen a single t-shirt with any Chinese written on it. In many cases the English is mis-spelled or otherwise mutilated but it's English. There are many other strange things I've observed and maybe some day I will compile a list...

[ChristianAnarchist]

Our 3 days in Beijing are quickly coming to an end. A professor we know borrowed me one of his cars to drive around. Our son had had one of his college classmates here in Beijing studying Chinese so we dropped the kids off at a mall while my wife and I met with a fellow RonPaulForums member (PaulConventionWV). We had a nice dinner and chat. It's nice to see Liberty minded people living in all parts of the world.

There was an interesting exchange with a policeman yesterday. While I was waiting for my wife and son I was illegally parked at an intersection waiting for them and took out my DSLR and started taking pictures. There were many policeman in a park nearby and that was kinda strange in itself so I think they were training the young goons to be goons and they took an interest in my picture taking. I saw them over there looking at me and talking and sure enough in a few minutes the oldest one of the group came over to me and tried to tell me in Chinese to not take photographs. I did not understand everything he was saying because my Chinese is not too good but he was motioning with his hands like a camera and I just keep indicating that I did not understand him. It was kinda funny watching him repeat his motions and finally in Chinese I said "my wife" and motioned across the street. With that he seemed to be satisfied and went back to his goon friends and as my wife and son came back from across the street I took more pictures of them just because I can. It's strange because I'm always taking lots of pictures and have never been approached before. It's even stranger because our location was right near the foreign language institute and there are tons of foreigners here and many of them taking pictures. Later that night when I dropped our son's friend back at the school I saw a Chinese woman with a DSLR on a tripod taking night photos. Funny thing, he didn't show any interest in my illegally parked car...