Wednesday June 24 - Datong to Chengde (537 km)

Today we travel from Datong to Chengde which is slightly north east of Beijing. It is sad, we have left the agricultural areas and the small communities behind and entered the greater Beijing industrial belt. The major item monopolizing conversation on the Truck is the pollution. All around us is a mushroom haze or fog ("chog" I think its called), and the atmosphere has a distinctly "coal" smell to it. The industrial installations are enormous, and smoke rolls out of factory stacks all around. The road is saturated wtih elongated lorries whose cargoes are hidden by the canvas blankets securing the load in the trailer, or returning empty from the city. I am currently reading "The Coming China Wars" by Peter Nevarro. It is a very chilling discussion about the major problems China faces and the threats they pose to the global environment. If the information is only partly true, it is a frightening thought as to what the next 25/30 years will bring. However, it is only one "angle" to a multi-faceted problem. There is another book called "The Bad Samaritans" which has another angle on the same problems. The Coming China Wars lists the following as some of the problems China has to face which not only affect them but also affect the rest of the world: (1) the huge counterfeit and piracy trade due to disregard of IP laws; (2) being the largest dope dealer in the world; (3) the air pollution and its affects on global warming or climate change and the huge natural disasters their policies are stimulating; (4) their thirst and need, for oil and their policies to ensure they get it; (5) their Imperialist wars, i.e. the way they are manipulating other countries such as Africa, not by helping them grow but by taking all of their resources back to China for manufacturing; (6) their huge dam projects and the fact that they are running out of water and how they are affecting other countries such as Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with their water policies; (7) their disruption and riots from within the country; and finally (8) their internal problems such as aging, and sicknesses. It is the author's view that it will be our children who will end up having to fight these "wars". On top of this, as I was writing my journal, I was also watching a TV program on CCTV, Channel 9, an English program, called "Dialogue" which was discussing a book "Why is China Not Happy" written by 5 Chinese guys. It was an interesting discussion and hearing the panel's views on how China should face its problems and the rest of the world was quite heartening. However, what matters is if they stick to their ideologies, or take the easy way out. I suppose the bottom line is, that the 8 problems mentioned above seem to be accepted as a short-list of problems China will have to face in the coming years not only by westerners, but by the Chinese themselves. Another minor problem we and the Truck may have to face is that the government allocates which trucks can use the road system around Beijing according to number plates. On one day certain #s are allowed on the toll roads into Beijing, on the next day, certain other numbers are permitted access to the city. Ant assures us that somehow, we will make it to Chengde even if there is a "number plate" issue!! In one of the farming areas we drove through, we saw lots of little donkeys pulling carts in the fields. They are such troopers and like the working ponies and horses have big hearts. In another area we noticed wind-mills on the horizon around a body of water. Not sure of their widespread use here, haven't seen any so far, but have seen tons of solar panels. And trains with their long convoy of retangular coal cars. The mountaineous areas have been fascinating. Heaps of red mud gouged wtih deep weather lines. Quite weird to look at. We entered into a hilly region as we neard Chengde; the typically treed, conical hills one associates with China. Chengde is set in a river valley bordered by these hills in Hebei Province. Its population is about 700,000 and it was the location of the Mongol Emperors' summer palace and dates from the first half of the Ming dynasty. It is modern, but not as new as Xi'an. Our hotel Sa Bei Hotel seems to be right in the centre so location is good. We arrived around 6 p.m. cleaned up and went out to wander around to look for somewhere for dinner. We came across the remainder of the group and ended up in a tiny up-stairs restaurant where dinner cost us about Y26, thanks to the good advice of Su-Mei. We are lucky to have her on our trip. She helps us out quite a bit with language and eating issues when our guide is not around. You can really eat cheaply here if you eat Chinese. Afterwards we went looking for a place to have a drink, but ended up buying a bottle of beer and sitting in the main square drinking it. Everything was happening in the Square. Kids were roller blading, playing football, and kicking around large shuttlecocks. Su-Mei and Ray joined two Chinese guys doing the shuttlecock thing; soon there was a group of 8. It was fabulous. Everyone just moved around the square joining in where they wanted and then moving on. All of a sudden at 10:30 pm, the lights went out....and people disappared. Sort of like Cinderalla! So we came back and went to bed.