Accommodations

Lodgings in China are hit or miss, and in true statistical fashion, I had one mostly hit and one mostly miss.

My hostel in Beijing, the Ming Courtyard, was located in one of Beijing's many "hutongs" which as far as I can tell is Chinese for alley neighborhood. In the States, alleyways are the shady places where drug deals go down, women get assaulted and Bruce Wayne's parents get murdered. Here in China, the hutong is the cornerstone of the local economy. The theoretically one way streets that lead off the main roads are filled with tiny shops selling water, soda, fruit juice, packaged foods, and freshish fruit. Taxis, pedicabs, and mopeds clog the alley at nearly any time of day or night, making travel difficult, but not impossible for the wary pedestrian. The stink of public toilets and open sewer lines mix with the delicious aroma of cooking meat and vegetables coming out of many tiny restraints and from carts, creating a nauseating, mouth-watering miasma of olfactory sensation. Tiny one-room massage parlors fill what look like single-car garages, some legit and some obviously covers for less legal activity. Construction materials lie scattered on the street; some getting used, some not, and always in the way of the ever-present traffic. American pop music blares out of a single-room barber shop that somehow always has exactly one customer.

                              

In the middle of this semi-organized madness is my hostel. The Ming Courtyard is exactly that, a courtyard with the upscale rooms around the edges, and the larger dorm rooms occupying an annex just past the entryway. The lobby doubles as the hangout space for a few American, British and other European expats, most of who have been in China for more than a year teaching some form of English. No one remembers names, and people are referred to by their nationality and state titles. They are an eclectic group – a lanky Texan and a short British girl seem to have been there the longest. Both teach English at international schools, though neither seem to have a passion for it and seem like they're just marking time. The Brit has taken a sharpie and written "Don't Mess With Texas" and "Border Control" above the entryway to Texas' dorm room. She seems to think this is hilarious, and Texas humors her. New Jersey is a skinny guy with glasses that seems to know the most about China. He's traveled a lot of Southeast Asia overland and gives me free advice on how to get to various tourist stops. He even goes so far as to look up bus times, which is how I got to the Great Wall and met Mike and Anne. His name is Ken, and last I heard from him, he was looking for new jobs outside of China.

These and others formed a nightly gathering in the lobby, all seeking to use the internet and inevitably creating issues for everyone else, thanks largely to too many expats all trying to use the same amount of bandwidth. Simple emails often took more than a minute to send, and web page load times were glacial.

Speaking of glacial, it snowed my second day in Beijing, and I was forced to move rooms because the roof leaked in mine. The same day, the water wouldn’t work for most of the day, and after that it was a struggle to find hot water to bathe in. Most of that week the weather stayed lousy, and the temperature rarely got above ten Celsius. So you could take a freezing shower, go hang out in the freezing lobby or go out into the freezing streets of Beijing.

As you can tell, I really loved the Ming Courtyard.

Not all of it was bad though. Being inside of a hutong was both fascinating and enlightening, and was a good introduction to the social niceties of China.

Mostly, there aren't any.

Cars have the right of way, unless you think you can get past them in time. Trash goes wherever you want it to, but it’s bad form to actually toss something out on the street. Kids should be watched out for, but not watched all that closely. Most of all, get your ass in gear or stay out of the way, because people have places to be, and if you ain't movin’, you losin’.

Xi'an was not that much different. There were no hutongs; the streets were, for the most part, large and wide – slightly cleaner and better smelling than Beijing, and most of the real market activity was confined to the Muslim Quarter. The 7 Sages Hostel was much nicer though.

The site 7 Sages sits on has been occupied more or less continuously for around 2,000 years. Most recently it was used by the Red Army as a base of operations during the Communist Revolution in 1949. Unlike the Ming, it is a true courtyard, which is to say that there are large and impressive exterior walls, within which are multiple buildings and courtyards where the guest rooms are. Showers and bathrooms are common, but the rooms are heated, and there is a bar/restaurant with reasonably good internet.

You can tell 7 Sages is good because the Chinese actually use it. Nearly all of the guests were Chinese on weekend or week long excursions to Xi'an, which is apparently a popular domestic tourism location. The old city walls have been around for over 1500 years, and as mentioned previously, Xi'an marks the beginning of the Silk Road across Asia. Add to this the Terra Cotta Warriors and you have a pretty alluring destination.

You can also tell 7 Sages is good because they have kittens – adorable kittens.

Off to Thailand next, then Cambodia. Looking forward to the heat!

-Doug