Tuesday, September 25, 2007
It's 7:01am and we're on a bus an hour out from our hotel in Jinan heading for Beijing , 6 or more hours away. Almost everyone is sound asleep, or trying to get comfortable so they can become sound asleep, curling up in every position imaginable. They're all becoming very good friends on this trip, leaning on or propping themselves against each other to be able to rest. In addition, there's a variety of neck pillows, small travel pillows and even a Beijing Olympics doll being pressed into service to assist in the process. We are tooling along a turnpike between Jinan and Beijing on our Jinan bus since we had too much luggage to fit in the compartments of the fancy train we were scheduled to take. I feel overloaded with possessions in one sense, but since they have to provide me with clothing for a variety of levels of weather and formality, enable me to teach classes, and provide a touch of comfort without much re-supply over 5 months, I don't think I can easily do with much less. However, I can't defend the enthusiastic shoppers amongst us. Uff da.
I had been watching the rows and rows of poplar/cottonwood type trees along the road with peeks into farm fields and farming communities but suddenly the smoky fog/haze is so thick it's hard to see much. As long as the driver can see, I'm content to write…
Sunday afternoon, after our flight from Shanghai and lunch at an airport hotel, we visited Baotu Springs Park in the center of the city. The city has over 70 natural cold springs which bubble up in the park. They've been protected for over 900 years in this city which was home to Confucius, Mencius, the author of The Art of War (blanking for a moment on his name), and other luminaries. Since it was a Sunday afternoon, and a lovely one at that, lots of people were out enjoying themselves. I think we were all struck by the clarity of the water that bubbled or gushed up depending on the individual spring. The name, Baotu, is onomatopoetic for the sound of the bubbling. The main spring has three strong “gushes” in a large pool. They're impressive as they break the surface until the guide mentions to you that they used to shoot up a meter high. Would the reason be groundwater depletion? I'm not a hydrologist, but am sorry to hear of the change.
Yesterday morning we climbed the Thousand Buddha Hill to get a view of the city. First, remind me next time that a hill in China may not be a mountain, but they're very steep and certainly feel high as you're climbing up. It was a nice dry day so the rocks and steps were slippery only from wear – it would have been quite nasty if they had been wet. The view was hazy so one couldn't see very far but the slide down the “hill” on scooter boards made the climb worthwhile for many.
I think we had been lucky for the weekend. Saturday was “no private car” day country-wide and Sunday has less traffic so the air had been relatively clear. On Monday, by the time we finished our brief Yellow River cruise and students played in the mud on the banks on Monday, the air was thicker. When I returned to my room after dinner, it smelled like I was near a burning garbage bin. I had noticed that the window in my room had tape peeling from the frame but had thought since it wasn't winter, it wouldn't matter if air leaked in. Wrong. Everyone else was fine (filters on the air intake?), but it was a challenge for me to sleep breathing that stuff. I found out this morning that farmers “burn their crops” and that causes the haze. It's very thick right now, as I mentioned at the beginning of this entry.
About half way to Beijing , 9:30am. The crops we're passing have been primarily corn and cotton with small plots of veggies and sunflowers as well. I've not seen more than 4 people in a field harvesting corn or picking cotton and often it's only one or two working. I've seen several burros, a 3 wheeled bicycle and a motorized carts, and one tractor. The contrast of watching people harvesting and picking by hand while passing truck load after truck load of new trucks, building beams, and pipes for road construction is striking. Towards Jinan the plots are smaller and corn is spread on roofs and on the roads to dry. Closer to Beijing the fields grow larger and larger, and there are small trucks with white sacks filled with corn and huge loads of cornhusks traversing the lanes.
We've hit the 6 th ring road outside Beijing . Almost there, over 7 hours later.
More soon,
Kris