Month: March 2016

(Friday, March 4th, 2016)

Tomorrow morning I will get back on a ship, yay!

We are headed for Shanghai. I doubt that I will get off the ship there. I’ll not be posting until I get to another good internet place, which probably means Houston. If that’s the case, I’ll not only be able to post, but my Dropbox will update and a bunch of photos will become available to see online.

The short-term schedule for the Rickmers Antwerp:

— here in Xingang until March 6th
— in Shanghai from March 8th until March 10th
— in Houston (after crossing the Pacific and through the Panama Canal) April 8th until April 13th

After this post, there will likely be a month-long gap. I hope I have some posts ready to go by then.

I have been taking photos of vehicles that catch my eye throughout Asia. I’m including a few below. I doubt that they are practical where we live, but that could be just a lack of imagination on our part.

(Thursday, March 3rd, 2016)

Admin: I uploaded the photos in this post before realizing that I had not captioned them. Rats. It takes about 2 hours to upload, and I decided not to redo. I hope the photos are mostly self-explanatory.

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On Tuesday I took a day trip to Beijing, mostly to revisit places I enjoyed before, and also to ride a bullet train.

Everybody knows Beijing, so I won’t write much for an introduction. Beijing is one of the largest and most important cities in the world, with a long history.

This week a general assembly of the Chinese government is taking place, so the area just west of Tienanmen Square was busy, and had some extra security as I walked past. From what I could understand, there are about 3000 representatives. China is a big and populous place!

Beijing is polluted. Worse than Tanggu or Tianjin. The weather had changed significantly overnight in this north China area, becoming unseasonably warm, which was fine by me. I am not sure if the warm weather was contributory, but I certainly felt the pollution. I have been nowhere in the US that feels like that, even industrial cities like Gary, Indiana. Many of my photographs show it. It was not a “misty day”. That’s not fog. Okay, enough of that, it isn’t where I want to focus.

The bullet train was really fine. One of the best parts of it is that I didn’t get the sense that people thought it was overly special. It is more expensive than the regular trains, but it is not expensive, even in Chinese terms. And there is not one “bullet train”, there are many bullet trains in constant use, going all over the place.

One thing, though. Unlike some trains, you can’t just count on “standing room” and just show up. It is all reserved seating, and tickets must be accompanied by ID, not just for us foreigners but for everybody. On Monday I showed up an hour early for the first of two morning trains from Tanggu to Beijing and was shut out. I didn’t feel too bad, there were many locals who were surprised as well. So on Tuesday, with tickets bought Monday, I was ready.

When I first saw the train approaching it was smaller than I imagined it would be, much lower to the ground. I need to go find my photos of European fast trains I’ve taken to see if there really is a difference. Inside, kind of like an airplane but with lots more room. Kind of like an airplane interior that movie studios use, tee hee.

Smooth, electric, quiet, and we were moving before I realized, slowly leaving Tanggu and then all of a sudden things are going by a lot more quickly than usual and when we came near a highway I saw that we were more than doubling the speed of the fastest cars on the freeway. There’s a display at the front of each car, and our car was traveling 287kph, just a shade under 180 miles per hour. The only feeling of speed is if you look out the window.

So we were in Beijing quickly. You could easily commute Tanggu – Beijing, 100+ miles, without much stress. There was wifi on board, places to plug in your chargers, and trays like on an airplane, but, again, with much more room.

I decided to spend the day walking, as the train station was close enough to my goals (Tienanmen, Forbidden City, some hutongs). I ended up with tired legs and knees at the end, but saw most of what I wanted to see. I also thought that the walk from the train station to the center of town would give me an opportunity to see some of “regular” Beijing, and I think I saw some of that.

The train station is close enough in that you are inside all the freeway rings around Beijing, which makes walking okay. I followed some main streets until I felt confident that I was near to my destination to take more chances on side streets, much quieter and more interesting.

I came upon a hutong that was being demolished in favor of a new set of luxury apartments. I was surprised that they would do that, but I guess all hutongs are not automatically historical, and not protected. This particular hutong was not in the “main hutong area”, so maybe that was a factor. Hutongs are neighborhoods with semi-connected buildings, extremely narrow accesses (bicycles being walked, no cars), and many ancient buildings. I think that “hutong” is a word that describes both the narrow “street” (really alley) and the neighborhood.

I also walked into an older market area, some shops for locals, and some obvious shops (and pitchmen) for us tourists. I was the only foreigner around, so I was often being pitched by two vendors at once. Choices! I disappointed most of them. I feel sorry for one guy in particular. He had a bag shop. I love bags – I could see myself as a bag shop owner. But I have enough bags. So I dawdled, looking, and he saw “big sale” in his dreams. I almost bought something just because.

I finally found my way back on track towards Tienanmen Square, past some government offices and some fancy hotels.

The way that I approached Tienanmen Square was from the southwest, using an underground walkway to get across a busy street. In the underground part was a security check as good as TSA. Looked at my passport. I guess they are careful about visitors to the square.

I really like Tienanmen. It is a huge area. I know about some of the history of course, and it is easy to imagine a million people in this area. The haze contributed to an even greater sense of vastness. I didn’t go there to look at Mao or to visit any particular building – only to stand in the middle of it and imagine how it must have been for several past events. It feels like an important place. Guards were out and about, sometimes marching, sometimes standing, making their presence known. They all looked young to me – maybe that particular duty is for junior members. They all certainly looked serious, and were armed.

I think I stood out as the odd foreigner. Four or five times folks asked to take a selfie with me, or have someone take our picture. Quite fun. They were very friendly, made me feel welcome.

I went across the street to the Forbidden City. The second time through, 12 years later, wasn’t quite as exciting as the first. Some of the superlatives are lost on me, but it is still interesting that entire buildings were reserved for the purpose of, in one direction, progressively vetting visitors before allowing them an audience with the emperor, and, in the other direction, preparing the emperor to receive visitors. Or something like that. Each next inner circle was defensible. “Inner circle”, nowadays, is a political or organizational term, but back then was a physical reality. I was impressed by the size of the place, the number of rooms, the ornateness, and the overall sense of a grand plan. I could imagine people bustling about, going about the day-to-day empire business.

I did see some extras that we skipped 12 years ago. We were 4 then, it was hot, and we didn’t need to see it all. One of the extras was an exhibition of old clocks. Seems the emperors in the 18th century had a thing for clocks. There were some pretty cool clocks in there, some as big as a room. You know a clock is substantial when it has, in the back, its own stairway to the upper sections.

After the Forbidden City, it was fun to walk through a few little hutongs nearby. The juxtaposition is radical. And, literally, these hutongs were “outside the wall” of the Forbidden City, with a moat and a 30 or 40 foot wall in the way.

Out of legs, I took a cab ride back to the railway station. One of those “did we just go all the way around the city to get straight over here?” kind of cab rides, but oh well. And whiz whiz back to Tanggu inside the bullet, this time in the dark, so even less sensation of speed.

(Thursday, March 3rd, 2016)

A few days ago I visited Tianjin. I thought it would be a 10 or 15 minute cab ride, since I thought I was already in Tianjin, but I was wrong. Tianjin was about 20 or 25 miles from Tanggu, maybe 45 minute cab ride. Next time I will take the train.

I had no real notion of what I wanted to see. Looking at a map of Tianjin I could see that there was a riverfront walk, so I made that my goal.

Tianjin is a large city, at least 5 million or so. It is also a municipality of about 13 million overall.

In the cab from Tanggu to Tianjin I saw many places at which there were clusters of tall apartment buildings. It didn’t seem that they were connected to a town, but rather that a developer decided to fully build on a spot of land. I assume that the communities are somewhat self-contained, with maybe some shops and services. I also assume that they are connected via public transport to jobs in Tanggu and Tianjin. I didn’t see the amount of cars that I would have expected if this many apartments were in the US (with the possible exceptions of San Francisco and New York City apartment buildings).

I saw hundreds of cranes working on new developments. “Hundreds” might be a significant understatement.

Also from the cab I saw many areas of new tree growth. It looked organized, in rows, like huge tree farms. I didn’t see any forests – any natural or old growth.

I got let off in downtown Tianjin, and started walking towards the river. It was cold out. Beanie, hood, gloves, all that. And it was polluted. At least to me, who wasn’t used to it, there was a definite taste to the air, not a good one. There were more people with masks on than the few I noticed in Tanggu. The cold brought out scarves that were worn across the face.

The Tianjin riverfront was very nice. The river winds through town, and is calm. There are many bridges crossing the river. There are old bridges with ornate statuary and gold trim, a couple of industrial-practical bridges, and a few modern design bridges at all sorts of angles. The map I had was all in Chinese, but it was useful that each bridge on the map had a small drawing of the bridge, so I could tell by bridge style where I was on the river walk. I walked farther than I thought I would because I would decide, at each bridge, to walk “just up to the next interesting bridge”. Ha! The bridges won – eventually I had to turn around, without having run out of bridges.

All along the riverfront there were various small parks. Some had sculpture, some had organized “groves” of trees, some had long lines of places to sit. There were wider areas at which I imagine, in warmer times, there are probably street vendors. And there was a very large plaza in front of the Tianjin main railway station.

Set just a little back from the riverfront were some fancy hotels, looking very executive. And a little further back from the hotels were some taller buildings, but not competing with those in Shanghai or Singapore. Tianjin is a financial and shipping center. There were two tall buildings with “COSCO” on the side. One of them had a mini Eiffel Tower on top! That name is on the side of many container ships we used to see in San Francisco waters. “COSCO” that is, not “Eiffel”.

One older hotel right on the riverfront, I think a luxury hotel, had snow on its front lawn! Fun! It was obviously imported, although the temperatures certainly did not threaten any melting. It looked set up for either sledding or the most beginner type of ski or snowboard fun. It was ready for nighttime activity, with a bar nearby, and temporary lights. Nobody was using it in the middle of the afternoon.

Just off the riverfront, there was a small section of town called “Italian Style Town”. I cannot verify authenticity, since I have never been to Italy, but okay, at least it looked European and had some European-named restaurants. It actually was fun to walk through – it had a good feel to it. There was quite a bit of outdoor seating, cafe style, going unused for now. Many people were walking around. It was a touch warmer there, with less breeze in the protected streets than along the river.

All in all, it was a nice little trip – a bit of demystifying Tianjin.

On the way home in the cab, I saw a very long coal train. We were alongside it for several minutes. I don’t know if coal trains are a common sight in other parts of the US, but in the places I have lived they are rare, so it was an unusual sight for me. It reminded me how much of China’s (and the world’s, for that matter) energy still comes from coal. I knew that, but sometimes seeing it makes it more real. I also realized that I was “getting used to” the pollution, putting it towards the back of my brain. Seeing that train renewed my awareness.

(Wednesday, March 2nd, 2016)

I am in the Juchuan Magnolia Hotel here on 3rd Avenue in TEDA, also known as Tanggu, Tianjin, China. Since I see “Tanggu” around me more than TEDA, I’ll use Tanggu.

The Rickmers’ agent booked this hotel and Rickmers is paying for it, which makes sense. A couple of the Romanian officers, one of whom lives in Shanghai (he handles on-shore activities for Rickmers in Asia), recommended that this be my hotel, due to its proximity to a couple of pubs in which English is spoken and American/European food is served. That turned out to be a good recommendation.

My room is very good, with one of those “sleeps four or five” beds. This is my third hotel in Asia on this trip, and all have shared an interesting trait I haven’t seen elsewhere: At the door there is a place to insert your key card. It is where you can always find your key card, so that is nice. But the important part is that power to the room is enabled when the card is inserted. So, when you leave, taking your card, there is a slight delay and then all the power to the room is either turned off or changed to “unoccupied” settings (for example, hallway light only). Ashtray near the elevator:

The room overlooks a local soccer stadium, seating for a few thousand maybe, like a large high school stadium. The surface is something rubbery poured like a popcorn ceiling over concrete. It feels okay to run on, or do jump rope on, but it would be devastating to fall on without armor. It is in constant use by the public. The lights are on until 9pm. There are groups doing Tai Chi, groups doing exercises to music, people along the sidelines using some strength and flexibility equipment, and people jogging or walking around the track. It is motivational to look out my hotel window and see those people, so I have exercised a reasonable amount while here, even though it has generally been cold. “If they can do it so can I” I say to myself, and that’s enough motivation to get me out the door and over there.

I have taken several walks in different directions while here. Sometimes I have a goal, like getting to their waterfront “Bund” park, or finding the site of the August explosion, but other times I just take a roundabout path that ends up at one of two nearby pubs at the end of the walk. I’ll include a few representative pictures. Some of them are just my capture of regular city scenes – some fancy places with statues and all that, some regular storefront places, some working sections (hardware stores, scooter repair), and some mall and waterfront scenes.

They have shown Chinese professional volleyball on TV (I recognized some American and European players on some teams!), and the Chinese Olympic Woman’s volleyball team is featured on a car commercial. Wow!

I have not seen any suburbs. There are so many tall apartment buildings, maybe consistently 30 stories. To be fair, I am mostly walking, so I might not go far enough to see suburbs, but when I have taken taxis to a couple places that involve leaving the city proper, I still haven’t seen suburbs.

It doesn’t seem to me that Tanggu is a tourist destination city. Cruise ships berth here but from brochures I’ve seen they generally take a tour bus, a taxi, or the bullet train to Beijing for the Great Wall and all the Beijing city sites. So I think this is a pass-through place for tourists. When I am out and about, very few people, including cab drivers, understand English. One exception – there was an alien spaceship resting across the river:

Tanggu is mostly a port-support city, with international businesses that are connected to the shipping industry, or dependent on shipping. There are a couple big malls, many apartment complexes, some executive-type hotels, a downtown area with tall buildings (not like Shanghai, though), a well-developed waterfront amusement area, an extensive subway system, and many rail stations including two that support fast trains.

On my first night here I went to the recommended pub, only to find most of my ship’s senior officers! We couldn’t get rid of each other, tee hee. ‘Twas a fun night. It was also the last night of a week-long New Year’s celebration, so, a little later into the night, there were really loud noises just outside the pub. The noises were a local fireworks show that was really good, really long (45+ minutes), and right in the middle of a major city street. I mean with no barricade, nothing like that, cars had to choose to stop or make their way around the fireworks, as they were firing. Ha! I thanked them, of course, for welcoming me to their city.

I had a brief interaction with Tanggu police. Sorry, that was deliberately sensational, blame it on too much reading of US political stuff. Anyway, I was walking along a sort-of busy street, and heard a crunch behind me – that noise that you know in your gut is a wreck. A scooter and a car had come together. The car won. Always bet on the car. There were bits of scooter and car on the road, and the scooter rider was down, his ride trashed. He was in pain, a leg, but not bleeding, able to talk easily, and could use his cell. The two guys in the car also got on their cells. I stood so that traffic would have to move around us, and “asked” the guy on the ground if he wanted help up or wanted to stay there. He wanted to stay, but did take some water from me. When the police and ambulance arrived I was about to continue my walk, but the police wanted me (I think) to make a statement. I tried to mime to them that I had heard, not seen, the wreck, but it didn’t work. They took me to the police station, and found someone with English. We had it all solved in 15 minutes. They asked if I wanted to be taken back to where I was walking. I said no, I was just walking anywhere. When the English-speaking guy translated it for the others, he said they said “well you are sure to get there”. Same joke all over the world.

(Wednesday, March 2nd, 2016)

Waiting for my new ship, the Rickmers Antwerp, to arrive, I’ve been mostly walking around. Tanggu, Tianjin, Beijing. I’ll write three posts, and maybe another general post or two. First, I thought I ought to explain these names.

It took me a while to figure this out. I had made some assumptions that stuck in my brain, keeping me from listening properly and learning more. Some of this may be a repeat but there’s more detail for those interested. I’m not sure this is all exactly correct but as a working theory it has served me well.

I am in Tanggu, Binhai, TEDA. They are all ways of saying almost the same thing. I’ll explain later.

This part of China is best known as “near Beijing”, since Beijing is the largest city by far and the most well known. Beijing is about 100 miles from where I am now, in Tanggu/Binhai/TEDA. Beijing is west of here.

Tianjin is a very large city between Tanggu and Beijing. Tianjin is about 20 miles west of Tanggu and 80 miles east of Beijing.

The extensive ports here serve both Beijing and Tianjin.

Beijing and Tianjin are also municipalities, one of four in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chungqing). The closest analogy to American divisions is that if you think of “City and County of Los Angeles”, maybe “municipality” is similar.

Tanggu is (was) a district (a city within a municipality, think Long Beach inside of Los Angeles County).

The Tanggu area has a harbor, several ports, and serves both Tianjin and Beijing for shipping.

A while back an economic development effort (I don’t exactly know what that involves) resulted in a new entity, the Binhai New Area. I think that there must be special considerations for international business, because many international businesses came to the Binhai New Area. Tanggu, being within the geography of the Binhai New Area, ceased to exist as an entity, except as a place name. There are many things named “Tanggu” around, and it doesn’t seem to me that people are trying to erase it. It is just no longer a governmental entity. Binhai is slightly larger than the old Tanggu, encompassing a few additional communities.

Inside the Binhai New Area, there is an even more special development area called TEDA. I had thought that “Teda” was another town, next to Tanggu. Nope. TEDA is Tianjin Economic-technological Development Area. It is mostly over by the ports, but its presence is felt all over, and there are TEDA signs all over the Tanggu/Binhai area.

Binhai has about a million people. Tianjin City has 5 million, Tianjin municipality 13 million. Beijing municipality has about 21 million.

When I got in a taxi and asked to go to downtown Tianjin (I actually pointed at a map with Chinese characters and HOPED that I was pointing at downtown Tianjin!), I thought it would take 10 or 15 minutes. 45 minutes later, and a trip on a toll road, we were there. I almost told the driver that HE had made a mistake, but I held my tongue, luckily. Mostly I kept quiet because I had no clue as to how to start the conversation. That’s when I decided to “study up”, tee hee.

One more name: Xingang. Xingang is really just one of the port areas. It probably has some separate administration but I don’t think it is a town or anything like that. Just one of many ports.

“Tianjin” was recently in the news due to a large explosion at a storage location for dangerous storage in August of 2015. Many deaths and injuries – I see conflicting numbers. Ed showed me the location on a map. It is in the TEDA area of Binhai, which of course is “technically” in Tianjin (municipality), but a long way from Tianjin City. This makes sense – for international news, Binhai or TEDA wouldn’t make as much sense to people as Tianjin. The site is very close to where I am staying. I took a walk there, only took a couple of hours, but surprise surprise there were guards there so I didn’t get the pictures that I wanted. Here’s a couple, though…

I am learning to read Chinese street signs. It is relatively low risk – if I get lost I can get a taxi back to the hotel by showing the driver a card with the hotel name and address in Chinese. That card is important!

These areas have a long history due to their importance to trade as Beijing and Tianjin grew. Hundreds of thousands of years ago the Chinese domesticated dinosaurs (Tanggusauri) to pull giant freighter ships on an intricate canal system between Tanggu and Beijing. (One of the preceding sentences might need some fact-checking.)