Re: [Leica] CHINA STORIES - long & rambling…

[cochranpr at mac.com (David Cochran)]

Tom, your story is so good I "almost" don't need pictures.
Thanks for sharing it. So when will we see photos?

peace

David
On Oct 6, 2005, at 5:52 PM, TTAbrahams@aol.com wrote:

>   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
>
>
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