China Ethnographic Expedition II. Part I. Beijing, Tianjin, HohhotMapNovember 8, 2015 The members of yet another ethnographic expedition gathered at the Belorussky railway station, leapt aboard the train at the last moment, and took up an entire vestibule. Liza is waiting for us in Beijing. 
Yakov At airport security in Sheremetyevo airport a shoehorn hangs cosily on the cubicle where the woman in charge of the X-ray machine sits.  BejiingMapBeijing is shrouded in fog.  A minimarket owner in the slum we’re staying in. This is also where he sleeps.  The owner of this coffee stall (the only thing that’s open at two in the morning) blows at the coals with a hairdryer.  Asya’s still painting. She’s even taken to using the grease from our omelette and tomatoes as paint.  We spend the night in a room that sets us back 47 yuan a head (that’s 470 roubles). It’s cosy, with six beds and no windows.  [Short four-hour kip.] A meeting of the generations.  At some point the Beijing authorities decided to preserve the slums instead of razing them to the ground. As a consequence, even random shit (aircon units, electrical cabinets) is now covered with a decorative casing.  This protects the wheels from urinating dogs.  We’re on our way to visit the Russian embassy. It’s surrounded by lots of shops and restaurants, which have Russian names and stock Russian foodstuffs.  At grandma’s There’s “Stalin” brand Georgian wine on sale for embassy staff. — Hey, Sergeevich, drop by mine for a glass of semi-sweet Stalin.  At the Russian embassy even the flowerbeds are watching you.  Inside there are splendid chandeliers with hammers and sickles.  Expedition members examine an architectural model of the embassy.  There’s a working temple here. 
ONLY children over the age of 7 are admitted to confession!
The embassy occupies large grounds, which have the potential to be really great. However, in Soviet times the park was landscaped to look as dreary as possible back and so far they haven’t come up with the wherewithal to modernise it. On the other hand, you immediately feel like you’re back in the motherland here, no prompts required.  Here’s what the embassy staff get up to.  Chinese military men at a pedestrian crossing.  Lots of mopeds have built-in mittens and fur aprons — after all, it is zero degrees outside.  We board a high-speed train to Tianjin, where there was recently an explosion of some kind in the port. But for us it’s just a transit point, a place to have dinner and change trains.  TianjinMapWe travelled from Beijing to Tianjin. Railway stations in China are huge. Everyone usually gathers in the central atrium, then when it’s time to set off the turnstiles unlock and you can proceed to the platform for boarding. It’s sort of like the boarding gates at the airport. Ergo, you’re not allowed to just hang around on the platforms.  Toilet-bus. It pulls up if you need to go.  There’s a surfeit of LED advertising in this city. The city itself isn’t particularly interesting.  Expedition dinner.  From here on we’re in a couchette car. I must say, this is the best couchette car I’ve seen in my entire life. All of the beds are made, crisp and clean sheets on all of them. It makes you want to lie face down on the pillow and start dreaming right away. There aren’t any side racks, only fold-down seats and a luggage rack on top. On the bright side, the third racks are official sleeping spots — that’s what we all got.  The washbasins are next to the vestibule in an open space without any doors. Three sinks, all right next to each other. Spotless.  The very first thing I laid eyes on this morning: goldfish.  HohhotMapWe made it in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia region. It’s the spitting image of North Korea, except with more cars.  Over the last year QR code payment systems have really taken off in China. It’s worth noting that they grew out of apps, originally designed for something else altogether. For instance, in addition to text messaging, voice messaging, and photo sharing, the most popular messaging service “WeChat” now offers you the option of paying for your purchases. You link up your credit card to the app, then hold your phone screen up to the scanner — your payment’s gone through.  A Chinese young pioneer sporting a red necktie. The Soviet legacy is painstakingly preserved here.  We drive on and on, going deeper into Inner Mongolia.  It’s exactly the same as regular Mongolia, except that it’s on Chinese territory.  Conversation with a relative (she’s in the phone).  Asya loves all animals. She chases little goats, cows and horses. Dogs in the frame? Even dogs will do for Asya.  Our trip to Mongolia would not be complete without some archery.  And our trip to Mongolia definitely wouldn’t be complete without a night in a yurt. We had one yurt for all of us. It’s bitterly cold — thankfully, they heated the subfloor using cow dung.  Petr hard at work.  There’s meat, noodles and Mongolian tea for dinner. This is one fine Mongolian cat — when a noodle slipped off my chopstick and fell, the cat ate it up, no complaints. They sure raised him right.  Early wake-up call.  Asya brushing her teeth in the freezing cold.  Before going on to decorate the frost- covered windows of our minibus.  You’re a dick Driving to the airport. Interesting: diners aren’t allowed to use the sockets in the restaurants at Hohhot airport. Existing sockets have been completely covered up in order to save us from temptation.  In Chinese airports they screen your suitcases right then and there at the check-in counter. And if they happen to find batteries in your luggage, they’ll give it back to you immediately so that you can repack.  We flew to Harbin. But the weather there was frightful — blizzard and fog. That’s why we landed in Dalian instead. Fat chance of getting to see sunny, green Dalian — we refuelled and took off for Harbin without leaving our seats. By the time we landed it was nighttime already. |
