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August 20, 2023
I got back from China on Thursday; Nicholle won’t be back until Sept 3.
We flew 13 hours to Hong Kong, 3.5 hrs to Beijing, and then took a 4-hour fast train to Changchun.
My route back was a slow sleeper train to Beijing (8 hrs) where I stayed for a couple of days and the same flights.
It was a brilliant trip and wonderful to reconnect with Ba & Ma, some other friends, and with some of my old haunts.
It was fairly clear upon landing that I was not in Kansas Vancouver anymore.
We got into BJ really late and ended up heading out for food in a lovely 24-hour DIY BBQ place
We then got on the fast train around 07:00 and traveled at 300kph to Changchun.
At that speed, a Dublin to Galway train would take 37 minutes; Vancouver to Toronto, 11 hours.
Many things had remained the same in Changchun…
Some things had changed a little…
For Changchun people, the huge shopping mall on the corner is “over”, as is Walmart. Instead, the new mall in the pic above (where there was nothing for so long) is doing well, and a new supermarket inside JiDa is the new go-to place for the neighbourhood.
I went walkabout on days two and three. Took the #13 to Chongqing Lu ⬆ for a look (Peace World is still there) and back down to Xin Min Da Jie & Long Li Lu.
I stopped off at the Norman Bethune Health Science Center of Jilin University to pay my respects to the Canadian-born hero of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Henry Norman Bethune. An interesting chap; he pioneered the mobile blood transfusion unit dontcha know – read about him here
The Changbaishan hotel, one of the best-known landmarks in the city, is being torn down it seems. Nicholle says she remembers when it was the tallest building in the city.
Seeing this signpost brought back a lot of memories.
Gulin Lu is similar to how I remember it, though the French Bakery is gone (the horror!) as well as Chez Maman. The Guilin market is still there and is exactly the same. Some other places are the same…
Xikang Lu is pedestrianized and is pretty swish. The Foreign Food store is gone as are the Muslim noodle joints we used to frequent. There are some lovely murals in the area too and the pedestrianized street is lovely (except for all the delivery scooters buzzing/beeping past).
I thought about getting some chuan’r on Guilin but made a wiser choice and two of the best Roger Moores (Rou Jia Mo) ever for lunch,
I needed a pit stop so I wandered the same streets on the other side of Tongzhi Ji looking for Nemos/Nautilus/Grandpas but couldn’t find them. I ended up in Happy Home and had a wonderful chat with Happy who was in early preparing for a wedding reception that night. People are still travelling all the way to Changchun to find love, it seems.
Most of my time in Changchun was spent at home base, our old apartment where Ba & Ma now live.
We live(d) on the 24th floor, facing north, with a great view of the city. There was a bad storm for a few days, so I sat on my window perch and worked on a project I was given right before I left (see here if you’re mad curious) with amazing food appearing regularly to sustain me.
Ba & Ma go to the morning market at around 05:30 (it closes at 10 am) to get fresh food for the day. Nicholle and I tagged along a couple of times; it is an amazing site.
We also went to the wet market for fish one morning where I snapped my favourite pic of the visit; Nicholle and Ma, deep in debate about which crab to buy and how to prep them
Loads of beautiful shellfish up from Dalian
There were frogs too, but we went for the crab instead (don’t knock it till you’ve tried it; frog hotpot is good!)
One evening, Nicholle and I went back to where it all started and played a few games for old-time’s sake.
We also spent a morning in Nanhu Park, checking out some of the activities there
How does a whip break the sound barrier? – Smarter Every Day 207
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnaASTBn_K4
There were a lot of good times and people to remember from my time in China. A moment to remember some of those…
Though I did change quite a bit between arriving and departing…
Back to this 2023 visit, we met some old friends in Changchun and had some great evenings out
We also had a visit from my old friend Jackie and her boy Alberto. Jackie was my student in Galway back in 2001; she was home visiting her family in Shenyang. It was she that suggested I go to China all those years ago; I went and she’s stayed in Galway since.
I took the slow train to Beijing on my way out; I love the sleeper train – I find the quiet and the dark and the click of the tracks very soothing.
I was in the upper berth and there were two more on the other side of the cabin. With the door closed, it’s cozy and peaceful.
It was nice to roll into Beijing Zhan one last time; it’s the same station I pulled out of on my Trans-Mongolian adventure (Beijing-Berlin) in 2003.
I dumped my bags at the hotel and went off to Tiananmen Square to get my usual shot of Mao’n’me but I was unable to get into the square or near the Forbidden City gate as you now need to make an appointment online (they were all booked up for the next three days so I was out of luck).
Instead, I went for a wander, passing the Canadian embassy. Note the graphic on the sign; it is a statement, in more than one way.
(May 17, 2023) Beijing tells foreign embassies to remove ‘politicized propaganda’
https://bit.ly/3KPyEKm (The Guardian)
I met up with some of the Beijing crew for dinner…
and had one last hurrah with J-Hart (on the right above) where we spent the following day cycling around Beijing, playing shuffleboard, discussing beer, and catching up.
Meanwhile, Nicholle was back in Changchun, catching up on her daughtering and enjoying being back home.
So, I’m back home now and the jet lag is still kicking my ass. Hopefully, I’ll reset tonight and head into the week refreshed.
As it happens, by the end of the week I’ll have spent enough time in Canada to be eligible for citizenship. I have much to say about this but, instead, I thought I’d share this for your interest. It’s a long read but it might be illuminating for those who have never spent time in Canada (and, indeed, for those who have)
(May 24, 2023) Mary Simon Is Leading Indigenous Peoples to New Heights
https://thewalrus.ca/mary-simon/
Email me with any thoughts or comments.
Cheers,