[Leica] CHINA STORIES - long & ramblingâ

[TTAbrahams at aol.com (TTAbrahams@aol.com)]

  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