A Canadian in Beijing: Digesting the Air in Beijing

by Ember Swift on

Happy Earth Day!

It’s Sunday morning and I am already looking forward to going outside to take a deep breath. I love the weekends in Beijing, not only because I don’t have to go to school, but also because the air is cleaner. Factories are often closed at least one day every weekend and you can see more blue sky and feel a higher oxygen count in the air.

(The above photo was taken a few days ago. During the week, it’s much more grey outside.)

My fellow (Canadian) student and new friend here, David, said it perfectly: “You don’t just breathe the air in Beijing; you digest it.”

He’s so right.

The air quality in this city is atrocious. Internet reports tell me that the air quality in Beijing does more damage to one’s lungs than smoking two packs a day. Most large factories are still burning coal as their main energy source. You can smell and taste the coal dust in the air. That’s what I’m breathing here and there’s not much I can do about it.

Continuing my running effort in this city has been proof. After running, I usually have to cough for a while and I find that there is a greater collection of phlegm in my system than usual.

I’m thinking that this is perhaps why there is so much hacking and spitting in this city! People don’t just spit here; they make deep, guttural sounds to clear their esophagus and then fire huge piles of mucous and saliva onto the sidewalk (or platform or shopping mall floor or out the window of their car onto the street). I have developed an instinct to weave outwards and away from the source of that throat-clearing, body-emptying sound when I hear it. I want to veer from the path of the oncoming phlegm deposit. So far so good!

Many people wear masks when cycling and I believe this helps on the roadways, at least. I will be investing in one for myself this weekend so that I can enjoy cycling with cleaner lungs. At least, slightly. You can filter some air but you’re still ingesting the pollutants no matter what.

One of the English magazines here called Time Out came with an insert flyer for a product called IQAir. It’s a product for air purification designed to filter “99.97% of dust, pollen, pet allergens, smoke, chemicals, gases, odours, spores, bacteria and even viruses.” The pictures on the advertisement are of non-Chinese, Caucasian people and their pets and children. I imagine these kinds of products are very popular here, but I wonder if they’re popular in all communities.

You’d think in a city in which the air quality was the equivalent to smoking nearly two packs of cigarettes a day that people wouldn’t really have the need to smoke! That is, of course, not the case. Smoking is everywhere. The only two places that I have seen ‘No Smoking’ signs (in any language) have been in the subway cars and in the classrooms at the university. You can, however, smoke in the subway walkways and ticket purchase areas and you can also smoke in the hallways at the university. In fact, our dorm rooms simply request that we don’t set the bed on fire.

David told me he quit smoking since coming here and I wondered if he was just trying to neutralize or offset his toxic intake. Sort of like being carbon neutral, if you quit upon arrival to Beijing then your body would probably feel pretty much the same as it did while smoking in Canada and you could feel positive about not making this air quality worse! I’d say it’s pretty hard to quit, though, in a country that so heavily endorses the activity. Malls have full smoking counters (see picture above). Tobacco is available everywhere and it’s pennies a pack.

Sigh.

“Beijingers” are telling me that it’s improved dramatically over the past few years as a result of the Olympics. Pressure from the international community and a commitment to have a “green” Olympics has prompted some serious efforts by the city to plant trees in urban spaces and to convert many coal-powered energy lines to natural gas.

If not the sake of the living world and the survival of our Earth as impetus to clean up an urban environment, the Olympics will do. Good timing on my part.

When travelling out to see the Great Wall two weeks ago, I was amazed at the fields and fields of newly planted trees in the outlying parts of the city, not to mention the incredible use of space. Agricultural fields are now flanked by new trees. New trees line roadways, parking lots, creek beds and narrow strips of land between buildings and crops.

Here in the city, you can likewise see the attempt to plant trees in open spaces. Between the two tallest buildings in Wudaokou, Google and Microsoft, the new trees and tiered flowerbeds create what appears to be a geometric urban park — beautiful as well as functional.

I’ve also heard that factories will be forced to shut down two to three months prior to the Olympic games in 2008. Sounds to me like a last-ditch effort to boost the air quality and reduce the airborne pollutants before the athletes arrive. I’m wondering what these factories and workers will do without productivity and income for as much as three months. Someone suggested they thought that the government would probably compensate the businesses during this time. I wonder why the powers-that-be don’t just help businesses to convert to cleaner, greener practises in the first place. But, coal is a huge industry here, so that suggestion is a surface one in a much deeper and more layered problem that starts and ends with money. Don’t they all?

This Washington Post article talks about the efforts made by the government to “green” this city before summer, 2008. (These days, the colour green has become a verb!) It says that “about 190 steel, cement, chemical, paper and other factories have been dismantled piece by piece and moved away from the city and surrounding areas. Nearly 680 mines in the vicinity have been shut down. Some 4,000 buses and 30,000 taxis with high emissions were retired, and the government is discouraging driving.” Well, I’m not sure about the latter point considering how many cars I see on the road, but it’s good to hear those stats nonetheless.

Will the city continue with this “green focus” after the international community has turned off the spotlight on Beijing?

One can only hope.

A Canadian In Beijing: Vegan in China, Part 1

by Ember Swift on

I have had several requests to write about what it’s like to be vegan in China. In the first week, I felt as though my writing would be more of a whine and less informed, less patient and certainly less complete on the subject. Why? Because I was starving!

After all, stepping off the plane in Beijing without having ever had any immersion in this language, you can imagine how I’d find it hard to ascertain where the whole foods were sold, what restaurants were good to eat in, how to order without making a mistake and receiving something I couldn’t (and wouldn’t want to) eat, how to read packages in Chinese, etc. Now, after more than two weeks here, my honest first impression is this:

It sucks to be a vegan in China.

Many of you are probably thinking, “How is that possible? It’s a country of rice, vegetables and tofu?” Well, that’s true, in a way. . .

I could definitely eat rice many times a day and it only costs pennies a bowl (literally: one bowl of rice is 5 mao in the university canteen which equals about $0.05 Canadian.)

I can also order vegetable plates in most restaurants but the food here is exceptionally oily and is always prepared in the same woks as the meat dishes. It’s not unusual to receive a plate of vegetables with the occasional chunk of stray beef from a previously cooked dish. Eggs are also used in everything here. Bits of egg seem to show up in the most unlikely places.

And tofu? It is often prepared in the juices of meat. It is not designed as a meat replacement for the vegetarian diner, but more as an alternate taste and/or texture in an already diverse meal. Many people eat tofu here, but not because they don’t eat meat. It’s simply a common legume-derived product that is part of the Chinese culinary palette.

I have partially been living on snacks like fresh yam chips, all natural compacted fruit snacks, lots of soy milk and sesame snacks. Thanks to some forward thinking on my part too, I had about ten Larabars with me that kept me going during my first week.

In the land of Buddhism, where is the food?

On my fourth day here after eating lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, white rice and some terrifying though apparently vegetarian restaurant dishes that I shudder to re-visit in my mind (and stomach), I decided to make the long and uncharted journey to a vegetarian restaurant just south of the university.

With map in hand, some Chinese currency and a determined appetite, I braved the subway for the first time (hunger motivates!) and then also navigated several unmarked streets and eventually, after about an hour of combined travel and walking, came upon a pair of locked gates. Beyond the gates was my restaurant, Beihe Vegetarian, closed and inaccessible.

The guard at the gates said “bu kaimen” over and over, which only means “not open” and when I asked why, he answered me but I had no idea what he said. I looked at him blankly, blurred by hunger. My vocabulary is growing daily but it’s definitely challenged whenever I ask someone “why” about nearly anything. On day #4, my vocabulary was seriously impaired, not just by the culture shock and unfamiliarity with this language, but also by my empty stomach!

Dejected, I walked slowly back to the subway. It was now 1:30 in the afternoon.

I stopped in a corner store and bought a cold bottle of sweetened green tea. The sugar hit helped. It reignited my commitment to finding a place to eat – my one mission for that day – and so I decided to seek out another location of the same restaurant, this one downtown.

I made my way to the second subway line, got out at the right stop, walked the forty-five minutes or so into the northeast edge of the city core and happily discovered a snack vendor selling fresh peanuts. I ate them ravenously as I continued to search for the street that I needed. Another half an hour of walking and getting lost (though with more of a sense of humour thanks to the peanuts), I found the little street that housed the downtown location of the Bei He Vegetarian Restaurant.

This time, it was open.

It was now 4:30 in the afternoon and I was more than ready for a meal.

I proceeded to have a brilliant lunch that was spontaneously shared with an American woman who was also eating alone. Altogether, the meal cost each of us about $3.50 Canadian.

This was an example of an oasis in a carnivorous desert. At least, that’s how I felt at the time. But, there had to be more options! I refused to have to launch a pilgrimage to a downtown restaurant every time I needed to eat.

That’s where my Aussie friend Sarah came in. She had a Lonely Planet guidebook to Beijing and it actually listed a vegetarian restaurant in Wudaokou, the suburb I live in. She came to visit me last week and together we set out on foot in search of food. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at my new best friend: The Happiness Restaurant.

Oh, what a happy day!

Not only is this restaurant vegetarian, but it’s also egg-free, dairy-free, smoke-free and alcohol-free. Did I mention it’s also delicious? I have now eaten there three times. Last night, they greeted me like I was an extended member of their family. I may just wear path between my house and this restaurant after three months.

Finally, I’ve taken to cooking in my dorm. I bought a cute little pot that has a lid and a bowl that all fit together. I have found that this contraption works as a steamer as well. I can put rice noodles in the bottom of the pot, pour boiling water over them, put veggies in the bowl and place this over the cooking noodles. Then, I can cover it and let it sit for about five minutes and everything is cooked perfectly. I finally bought tofu that isn’t flavoured or smoked, as well, and some almonds and Bragg top off the meal nicely.


Bragg is my travelling companion. I don’t leave home without it. It’s a low-sodium, wheat-free, non-GMO, liquid soy product that is touted as “liquid amino acids.” It’s tasty and lighter than Chinese soy sauce and I’m so glad that I brought a big bottle with me. I hope it lasts me three months!

All in all, please don’t worry. I’m eating. I’m learning. I’m finding more and more options every day. I do believe I will have more to say on this topic and so stay tuned for Part 2. I hear there’s even a Vegetarian Association of Beijing. I’ll be looking into that for sure.

Until then, I’m being innovative.

A Canadian In Beijing: Movement of Movement

by Ember Swift on

My preferred exercise is running. I usually try to run about three times a week, but I must admit that I’m usually satisfied with twice a week coupled with lots of walking. When I get a bike, I’m sure that cycling will replace a lot of the walking that I’ve been doing. Still, I admit to craving the open country roads and woodland paths for running that I’m so lucky to have at home in Canada.

Here at the Beijing Language and Culture University, there is a huge fitness center equipped with a mondo track, swimming pool, weight facilities, and much more. There is also an outdoor workout area, which is like a public gym that is permanently fastened to the cement. There are stairmasters and rowing machines and various other gadgets available for public use.

In response to the National Physical Fitness Program established in 1995, these parks were put in place to provide more people access to public health-building facilities. Did you know that Chinese people live longer on average than North Americans and currently the oldest living person resides in China? Well, there’s some impetus if you’re looking for fitness motivation! (By the way, she’s reportedly been a vegetarian her whole life.)

Well, whatever their original motivation, I think the parks are fantastic and I took a tour of one yesterday and tried all the machines like a giggling kid. It was a like a fun-park for adults with no ticket price and I loved how brightly coloured everything was. Maybe to make working out a more sunny experience? Whatever gets the public to move, I suppose.

The university also has courts for every kind of team sport including (but not limited to) badminton, racket ball, volleyball and basketball. “Western” sports are extremely popular in China and I can see the proof of that every day.

My building sits right next to the basketball courts. There are seven full basketball courts all stretching horizontally in a row just outside my window. That makes fourteen basketball nets, or fourteen possible simultaneous half-court games at any given time. Every day, the courts are packed starting from six in the morning until past midnight, even without any lighting after dusk! Those who play into the night do so by the secondhand light from the adjacent pathway, which amounts to barely any light at all. I’m always amazed by the diehards who play in the near dark. Now that’s dedication.

I’ve had to become quite familiar with the bounce, bounce, bounce sound of basketballs in motion. In fact, I can finally sleep through it and this is a huge accomplishment after two weeks! Someone asked me why, as a musician, I would have trouble with the sound. They said, “Isn’t it like a drum?”

Uhm, quick answer? No.

Unless, of course, the drummer has no sense of timing and rhythm! It’s more like the sound of. . . basketballs.

Constant basketballs.

Oh well, at least it keeps me inspired to stay in shape! The drone of sports being enjoyed just outside my window definitely prompts my own activity. And, it’s hard to begrudge a sound for being a sound. Sound is my business, after all.

So, I’ve been using the track a few times a week. Every morning from about 5:30am onwards, the walkway between the basketball courts and the track is filled with scattered elderly folks doing Tai Chi.

I walk first between basketball games and then through the graceful movements of the Tai Chi practitioners, all the while trying to see through my morning fog. When I arrive at the track (three minutes from my door), I deposit my water bottle on the side and then take my place among the spinning humans who look like dice of varying speeds on a giant roulette wheel.

At 6:15am, the track is filled with people running or walking, always counter-clockwise. Some are even walking or running backwards (why?) and most are wearing jeans and not workout clothes. Very few wear proper running shoes and I find myself worrying about their feet and the impact on their knees.

The center of the track, which is also the soccer field, is filled first by the university guards, two of whom I recognize as those who helped me carry my stuff the first day. The full battalion (what are they called in a group anyway?) are in full uniform while thick in a game of soccer for about twenty minutes as their mandatory daily exercise. Then, the soccer field is usually taken over by another group exercise. On this day, it was a group of women who were working on keeping what looked like a tennis ball balanced on some sort of paddle. I have no idea what sport this is for. Do you?

All in all, I only do ten laps, which is about a twenty-five minute run (4km) for me, and I am by far the longest distance runner I have yet to encounter. Everyone else works out for half the time and I wonder if they know something I don’t related to air quality and/or blood flow as per Chinese herbal medicine or something?!

And speaking of flow, I really believe in changing directions, too, when running on a track. Too much time spent counter-clockwise puts an imbalanced strain on your limbs and muscles. (Thanks to April Boultbee, my marathon running friend and Few’ll Ignite Sound‘s savior, for this bit of info!)

Today, I finally decide that I am going to take the plunge and just run on the far outside lane in a clockwise direction to avoid the oncoming human dice. I get so many strange looks that I nearly re-join the counter-clockwise current out of embarrassment. Still, I talk myself into pushing on and doing half of my run against the flow. Afterwards, I feel better in my body, despite feeling shy and all-the-more foreign than I already am.

Being a non-Chinese person here gives me some leeway to be “weird” and I’ve generally been open to that flexibility!

After my run, I weave my way back through the Tai Chi and the basketball games to my building and my shower. It’s a great way to start the day and even though I miss my quiet, solitary, countryside running, I feel like I’m part of some sort of Chinese fitness movement here; a movement of movement.

Sign me up.

Beijing Cabbies Not Allowed to Dye Hair Red

by Jonathon Morgan on

Yesterday I posted about tickets going on sale for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Understandably, China wants to make a good impression on the hordes of international travelers who will descend upon their country. In an effort to control that impression, the government has made a 12-item self-improvement list for cabdrivers.

So, if you travel to Beijing for the games, you can be sure your cabdrivers won’t smoke, spit or overcharge. Women won’t wear big earrings or have red hair, and men’s hair will be kept short. They’ll also always use their meter, or they’ll run the risk of losing their license.

On the one hand, I feel sorry for cabbies who are having their appearance micro-managed by the Chinese government, but on the other, taking a taxi in a country you’re not familiar with — especially when your language isn’t commonly spoken — can be daunting. Travelers who are confident they can make their way around the city — without being taken for the proverbial ride — are far more likely to enjoy their stay.

That being said, what does the government have against red hair?

Talking Travel with Matthew Polly

by Justin Glow on

We recently got a chance to talk travel with Matthew Polly, author of American Shaolin, and winner of a Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing. His stories have also appeared in Esquire, The Nation, Playboy, Publisher’s Weekly, and Slate.

Growing up a 98-pound weakling tormented by bullies in the schoolyards of Kansas, young Matthew Polly dreamed of one day journeying to the Shaolin Temple in China to become the toughest fighter in the world, like Caine in his favorite 1970’s TV series Kung Fu. While in college, Matthew decided the time had come to pursue this quixotic dream before it was too late. Much to the dismay of his parents, he dropped out of Princeton to train with the legendary sect of monks who invented kung fu and Zen Buddhism.

We’ve got a few copies of his book to giveaway to three lucky Gadling readers, so stick around after the interview to find out how you can score one.

How did you get started traveling?

I grew up in Kansas. Every year my family would go on one big driving adventure. Since this was pre-GPS, pre-Mapquest, and pre-video Ipods, it involved a great deal of shouting and getting lost. Personally, I’m not sure why I still find travelling exciting. It must the masochist in me.

How much traveling had you done before going to China? And since?

I did a fair amount of traveling before I went to China but it was mostly in very safe, standard areas: North America and Western Europe. After Shaolin, I’ve been around the globe. Not everywhere but a number of fascinating places like Rio, Bangkok, the West Bank.

Did you have any previous martial arts experience or training before deciding to study kung fu at the Shaolin Temple?

When I got to Princeton I started taking martial arts classes in the typical way of most busy college students. A couple days a week when the week wasn’t too busy with other activities.

What made you choose the Shaolin Temple, and not, say, the kung fu school down the road from your house?

When I was a kid I saw the TV show Kung Fu with David Carradine. I idolized his character. He looked as awkward as I felt and yet he was a total bad-ass. When I was in college I started to study Chinese language, philosophy, Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, and kung fu. The Shaolin Temple is the birthplace of kung fu and Zen Buddhism, so it was like going to the source.

What was the tipping point that made you decide, “okay, I’m going to drop out of Princeton to study kung fu in China?” Was it spur-of-the-moment, or something you thought long and hard about?

I went to one of my Chinese language teachers and asked him where in mainland China I could learn about kung fu and Zen Buddhism.

He asked me in Chinese, “Are you afraid to eat bitter? Are you afraid to suffer?”

“No,” I said, lying.

“Then you must go to the Shaolin Temple.”

As soon as he mentioned Shaolin, it was like a light exploded in my head. I knew I had to go.


Matthew Polly on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson


How did your friends and family react to that decision?

My friends didn’t believe I’d actually go through with it. My family thought I had lost my mind. This was in 1992, three years after the Tiananmen Sq. massacre. At that point in time, China’s reputation was that it was North Korea only with more food and better hairdos. My mother was afraid the government would kill me. Eventually, I convinced them to let me go, but it was a hard fight.

It’s got to be intimidating: an American traveling across the globe to study kung fu at the temple in which the martial art was born. What that was like?

It was terrifying. The Shaolin Temple is situated in a tiny village between five mountain peaks in the middle of rural China. When I arrived I was the only laowai (foreigner) there. The monks didn’t know what to make of me. It took me about six months of proving that I was willing to train as hard and as bitter as they did before they finally started to accept me as a member of the community.

Looking back on your experience, what advice would you offer up to someone who is considering a major life change to travel?

If you know in your heart that this is the right decision, then you don’t need any advice. Go and see where the path leads you. If you’re uncertain, then don’t give up your day job and drop out of college. It can be a long road back.

What can you tell us about the movie rights you sold to Fox Studios?

Fox2000 has optioned the rights to the book. And they are currently developing it into a feature length film. The A-list screenwriter who wrote Austin Powers II and III [Michael McCullers] has already adapted it into a screenplay. But one never knows with Hollywood. They may ask Britney Spears to play the role of me. She has the shaved head.

Ha! Now I have to ask… who would you want playing you in the movie version of your book?
Having looked in the mirror recently, I don’t think it will be Brad Pitt. If Tom Hanks had a much younger brother that’d be a fairly close approximation.

Thanks, Matthew!

Matthew Polly’s American Shaolin: Flying Kicks, Buddhist Monks, and the Legend of Iron Crotch: An Odyssey in the New China (Gotham Books/Penguin Group, $26.00) debuted in bookstores in February, 2007.

As promised, we have copies of the book to give away to three lucky Gadling readers! Just leave a comment below and our magical system will automatically select three random winners — but make sure you use a valid email address, as we’ll have to contact you to get your mailing address. For official rules, please click here. Comments and contest will close one week from today, April 25 at 8:00 PM.