Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/10/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]15 hours' time difference between Beijing and Vancouver, BC makes you wake up at 3 am and crave for Beijing duck! - We came back on Sunday from two weeks in China; one week in Hong Kong and a 25 hour train ride to Beijing and the balance of time there. I have been to Hong Kong a couple of times before, but for Tuulikki it was the first time. It was a good training for the upcoming LHSA meeting in San Francisco, after HK San Francisco will feel like a Midwestern flat cornfield. HK is vertical, everything straight up or down. Only place that I know of that uses escalators (world's longest by the way) as commuter transport. We were lucky enough to have been offered the use of Howard and Esther Cummer's apartment while there, complete with amah and Neil the Peke, a Pekingese, 12 years old and if he had been a car he would have been declared unsafe a long time ago - one eye, bad back and a limited amount of teeth but extremely cute and he managed to convince us that he could sleep on the bed between us. Of course Joseph and Sarah provided guidance when it came to the sightseeing, Joseph with camera stores and Sarah with wines, including a trip to Macau where we had an excellent lunch with superb wines at her friend's restaurant. Macau is set to become Las Vegas East. The Sands is already there, and The Venetian is being built as we speak as well as several other fake "Seven Wonders of the World". These will cater to the Mainland Chinese who gamble with dedication. The statistics are interesting, the average visitor to Las Vegas spends about $7-800 and the average visitor to Macau spends about $11,000! Boy, would that piss Mao off. As we were traveling light I resisted buying anything heavy and it was also a test to see if I could survive with 2 Leicas and two lenses (all right, three lenses as I picked up a 25/2,8 and it's finder there - one has to brake habits slowly). Great lens and the best finder I have ever seen through. Expensive, but for once you get value for the money. Hong Kong had a small typhoon while we were there, only a stage three which barely slowed down the shopping frenzy although umbrella sales took off. There are certain things you do when you go to HK - take the tram (1930's wooden double deckers) from Happy Valley to Kennedy town (about 1 hour) and from the top you have a perfect view of the street life. These trams rattle and shake with a vengeance, minimum speed is 1/500 but at 2 HK$ (about 22 cents) it is a bargain. Of course we ventured over to Kowloon (with the Star Ferry) and camera stores there; Cameron Photo, Francisco Photo, Shogun Camera Company and several others. Lots of interesting things, back caps for Contax/Nikon lenses, hoods for a variety of other lenses and my favourite, a Nikon SLR lens adapter that allows me to use these lenses on my PenF. When we planned this trip we decided that we were going to take the train to Beijing. Everybody warned us, particularly the people here who never have done it! It is a 25 hour ride with the Express (the slower train takes 36 hours) and it was a great decision. Flying is not fun anymore - you are stuffed into this aluminium device (built by the lowest bidder) and fed strange looking food as you are folded into a shape that is not natural for the human body. This said, I found that Air Canada, an airline that I have refused to have anything to do with for a long time has now grown up and actually cares for passenger comfort, but the food still is weird. On the train we had a two bed compartment in the "Soft Class", nice and clean and we could look at China rolling by. Every house had piles of corn on the roof, only colour in an otherwise fairly gray landscape. The train stops only 4 times and you cannot leave the platform. Yellow tape blocks the exits and if that does not stop you, military guards line the station walls. When you leave Hong Kong you are entering another country even though they nominally are the same. We had outfitted ourselves with wine, water and snacks and timed it perfectly; the last snacks were devoured as we rolled into Beijing's West Station. There was restaurant car in the train, but we decided to forgo it (and we had eaten enough in HK to support us with no problem). Great coffee though! Beijing was a first for both of us. Adrian Bradshaw and Joseph met us (Joseph - with LUGGER Jonathan Kott - had flown ahead of us to save his vacation days) and we piled into Adrian's Cherokee (built in China) and joined the traffic. Driving in Beijing is something else, New York, Mexico City, Montreal, Paris are but kindergarten compared to the mayhem on these streets. Nobody gives an inch; you just aim the car and blast into the traffic, the cars coming have to fend for themselves. Great fun and if I lived there I would get an old F-250 pickup truck, replace the bumpers with railroad ties and really go to town! Most of the cars are locally made, the old Audi 100 has re-emerged as a Chinese produced Red Flag II, Buicks are plentiful, Shanghai GM makes them, the aforementioned Cherokee's, 5 speed and about 2-3 inches more ground clearance (gives you an idea about the potholes!). Lots of Korean cars as Taxi's - at least the pedestrians have a chance with these. My favourite is the "QQ" - a small, size of the Toyota Echo, car, 4 door "bubble". Actually a nice design, usually in bright colors to set it apart from the rather dull black/grey majority of vehicles and it sells for under US$6,000! Maybe we should send some of the guys from Detroit and Dearborn there and show what some of us would like to have! No, it is not sophisticated and electronics are kept to a minimum which means that it can be serviced and fixed without involving guys with lap-tops and white coats! Before you start yelling about pollution, etc. Beijing has very stringent controls for cars, unfortunately this is for cars only as the industry spews out foul smoke and when you mix that with the dust from the Gobi desert (50 miles away) you have air that makes smoking filtered cigarettes healthy - at least the filter removes some of the stuff. Those who do not own a car yet, bicycle and some actually walk. This is exiting as crossing streets is a death defying experience. NOBODY stops, neither bikes, buses and cars. Marked pedestrian crossings are only for wimps (and they don't stop for you there anyway). They do have right hand traffic, but that is not set in stone - occasionally you are bumper to bumper with somebody who has decided that maybe its quicker in the oncoming lanes! The drivers are a courteous lot though - if you hit someone, you pick up the hapless victim and drive him to the hospital! In 5 days we saw at least 3 pedestrians moved down just around where we were staying! At least it keeps you on your toes (which is good as otherwise you would end up on somebody's handlebar). After a while you learn the tricks and reduce your chances of becoming "road-kill". Due to damage to my legs I use a cane (custom made of Titanium no less) and that was somewhat unnerving for drivers and bicyclists. With the cars, you point at the drivers and they realise that I would probably be splattered over the hood, but they would be "embedded" in the seat with a ?" titanium pipe through their head - for bicycles you just wave it at their face level and they suddenly find that they have brakes! Of course we did the tourist things; The Ming Tombs, The Great Wall, and Tiananmen Square, etc. but with Adrian being a 20+ year veteran of China we saw lots of more interesting things. Factory 798 - a huge (multiple city blocks) that used to house a tool manufacturing operation and now is an artist enclave. Exhibitions, galleries, and even living spaces (including one woman who rents one of these places - her living room is 7700 square feet!). We did see a photo-exhibit on - surprise - China and bicycles! Good work too. The Great Wall had its moments - it rarely rains in Beijing, but on the day we went there, it poured. There is a Gondola ride to the Wall section, but we had somehow misread the description and ended up on the "Beijing Badaling Biconvex Pulley". Imaging a track, very much like a rollercoaster track and small, soap-dish like single seat plastic device, occasionally decorated with a Disney'esq duck-head - this is so you cant see where you are going, not a bad idea actually. You jump into this "thing" - at least most did except me - my legs were a bit too long for the soap-dish, but two very large guys assisted me by bending the legs sufficiently that they would fit - it took most of the visit to get them straight and then it was repeated on the descent! Did I say that it was raining too? Now they haul you up to The Wall and three guys decided that I would have difficulties getting out so they promptly grabbed me, one on each leg and one under my arms and unceremoniously sat me down on the exit platform! At least they were smiling while they did it. We climbed the staircase and run a gauntlet of hawkers of T-shirts, raincoats (25 cents) made out of blue plastic that looked like something the Man from Glad would promote. It was obvious that the emperors never actually walked up to the wall as the steps were a/ soupy slick and b/ spaced unevenly and had a 24-26 "rise. Once you make your way up, you stare through the rain at various ramparts and tourists (mostly Chinese) taking pictures of each other. It is impressive, The Wall that is, and the fact that it would stretch from San Diego to Maine is mind-boggling. It also cost a worker's life for every meter of its length! Once we had become thoroughly wet it was time to go back down! The soap-dish awaits us - once again with the help of the operators I was squished into the seat, my legs were bent to fit and then off we went. In front was a couple of guys with a smallish stick that supposedly functioned as a brake (oh, yeh!) and we hurtled down - not until now did I know what "hurtling" really meant! The side of the track is littered with broken, crushed and dilapidated soap-dishes, a fact that gives you less confidence in this contraption as you go by. All right, for a local, used to the Beijing traffic this probably qualifies as a "Safe Ride" but for us from a cosseted Western life style it was kind of scary. Pictures - you got to be kidding - I was hanging on for dear life and the Leicas had to fend for themselves. In retrospect it was fun but I assume skydiving, swimming with sharks and free-climbing large rockfaces are. too. OK, I have now seen The Great Wall and I never have to go back, but both Tuulikki and I want to go back to Beijing and China. I found people (once they are out of there cars and off their bicycles) friendly and very helpful. Of course it helps a lot to have friends like Adrian and Yu Li (his wife) as guides and also assisting with menus. The food we had was outstanding both in HK and Beijing - kind of rough getting home to the mundane fare here! We Had Peking Duck both in HK (Hong Kong duck?) and Beijing. Ray Tai took us to his favourite restaurant in Kowloon. Lots of food and cameras on the table, too. Oh, for the camera addicts - there is a large, barn-like structure somewhere in Beijing (Adrian drove so I have no idea where it is) that contains about 200 stores - all catering to photographers. New stuff, used stuff, film, paper, tripods, bags (for a bag-freak it would be Nirvana!). I picked up some black and white film, Lucky 400 and a 100 ASA b/w of unknown manufacture - 10 rolls of 36 exposures for around $5! My cameras survived fine, even though I got a drop of rain in my MP while reloading and it created a bit of a mark on 5-6 frames. I primarily used the MP with a 50/2 Planar (occasionally with the 35/2 Biogon) and a M2 with the 25/2,8. Just finished running the films and the 25 is a stunner. The 35/2 Biogon is very good, but I find it big and will go back to the 35 Summicron for that focal length. The 50 Planar is sufficiently different from a Summicron to warrant taking it along in the future - probably match it with either the 75/2 or the 50/1,4 Aspherical. The 25/50/75 combo would also serve me well, too. Our thanks to everybody in Hong Kong and Beijing who made the trip so good. Tuulikki and I hope to see you all soon again, either here or there. Best for now, Tom A -------------------------------- Tom Abrahamsson Vancouver, BC Canada rapidwinder.com