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Beijing Qingfeng-Xisi Hutong Guest House

Located at No. 58 Xisi bei wu tiao Hutong (no.58 Xisi North 5th Alley) Xicheng District, this hostel has been an additive experience to my stay in Beijing. Although I arrived the first morning before 7am in the morning and clearly woke up the people who manage the hostel, they were still so nice and accommodating. Not only was their spoken English so welcome, but their demeanor and helpfulness made me feel so much better after having just arrived in this new place. I should probably place such a review on yelp or tripadvisor, but for now, it will remain as a memory to me of how wonderful the staff was.

The front door of the hostel:

Front door

Although the inexpensiveness of a hostel is appealing enough to make me want to stay at one, the atmosphere and the camaraderie shared at most hostels was also a strong pull being a solo traveler. In the morning before I even settled in, I met Mike from Montreal who was consulting in the Chinese space program. As a gift from them, he received a model Chinese space rocket, which was very impressive. He told me where a couple good food spots were and how to get around. After meeting Mike, I had the confidence to go check out some of the sites that Beijing had to offer.

Later that day in the evening, the guest house taught us how to make dumplings. Not only was this a valuable cooking lesson, it was also the perfect opportunity to meet the other residents.

Making dumplings

Me and dumplings

While having my hands messy forming dumplings, I met the residents and staff members. There was a mixture of English and Chinese spoken by all, except for a few of the residents like myself who only could contribute in English. One of the residents has been staying here for about 6 months and is in an intensive Mandarin language course. He was our default translator in both directions whenever communication blocks arose. I met one pair, Laura and Alex, who traveled here from the UK by train. It sounded like quite the experience when they recapped a couple of their highlights from destinations like Berlin, St. Petersburg and Mongolia.

Hostel Scene

By the end of the evening, after playing a couple games of chess with Mike, I was able to convince Laura and Alex to join me the following day on my adventure to the Great Wall.

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Ni Hao

Having had very limited exposure to China or Chinese culture, I regrettably admit that I only knew China through my Chinese friends and Chinese food. I was also aware that Chinese food in California is not what I might find in China. It was probably a highly Americanized version of Chinese food, which although still delicious, it lacks some authenticity.

Recently, the cliché that has come to surround China is that China is the future. Its economy, its language and its international influence continue to grow every year. When thinking of studying a new language, many people told me that I should consider Mandarin because it is the language of the future. With well over a billion residents, the Chinese have the first ingredient to propagating any language, a large Mandarin-speaking population.

China also has its long and storied past, which can start as far back as Homo erectus more than a million years ago if we choose to start there. Closer to 2100 BC is when the dynasties begin with the Xia, Shang, and Zhou. Coming from a country that has limited recorded history before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1942 and really before the Plymouth Colony started in 1620, going all the way back to 2100 BC produces such significance and grandeur that I am unaccustomed to. Through its five millennia of existence, China’s history is filled with wars, emperors, invasions, rebellions, revolutions, invention, art, natural disasters, foreign rule, and modernization.

I look forward to leaning about a small piece of that throughout my visit.

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My First Traveling Companions

The Passport Ice-breaker Game:

Fast forward about 10 hours and I’m sitting on the plane with 3 hours left of this marathon flight to Beijing from LAX. I’ve been able to sleep a descent amount partly because I was so sleep deprived that I was passed out before the plane even left the gate. With lighter eyelids, I now receive the immigration form from the flight attendant. I think she could tell that I wasn’t from China. I’m not sure what the biggest give-away was, but my appearance and my language barrier are both high on the list.

Now that I was relatively rested and feeling more sociable, I thought it was a good time to meet my non-English speaking row mates, and what better ice breaker than comparing passports and visas. I receive the yellow immigration form and pull out my passport, and immediately, I notice how interested the couple sitting next to me was. The wife spoke a small bit of English, which was helpful while we tried to make friends. It was also helpful when I was filling out my immigration form. When I was trying to find a couple details that I was supposed to transfer from the visa in my passport to the immigration form, a few of them were only written in Chinese. I wasn’t sure I had it in me to start busting out some Chinese characters, but luckily, my new friend was able to translate it into English and I was spared the embarrassment of what my Chinese characters would’ve looked like.

As the couple sitting next to me stares more and more intently at my passport, I hand it to them with a gesture that says, “go on, take a closer look”. I would’ve said it too, but most verbal cues were lost in our conversation. The first thing they do is settle a disagreement they had when they immediately looked at the year I was born. They show twenty-five by holding up their fingers, first 2 and then 5. I tried to ask them how old they thought I was, but that conversation path ended up being rather unsuccessful, so I moved back to passport examination. At this point, they take out their passports and we compare some of the differences. The most obvious difference was that they had Chinese passports with US visas, and I had a US passport with a Chinese visa. Another very noticeable difference was the amount of artwork that is placed throughout the US Passport. I recently renewed my passport, so I am not sure if the artwork was there to this extent before, but when comparing it to the plain pages of the Chinese Passport, the graphics and images became quite noticeable. All in all, the pictures received praise from my neighbors, and then they proceeded to show me that there were hidden images that you can see when holding up a page to the light. This hidden-image feature was also present on their passports, which showed a graphic of the Great Wall.

Now that the ice was broken, we championed the small talk that is available to people who have trouble understanding each other. I find out they went to New York and LA, they learn that I am going to Beijing and Shanghai, and they give me a recommendation of where to stay and what to eat while in Beijing.

Finding the Hostel:

In one word, the Beijing Airport is impressive!  They remodeled the airport for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and that was very obvious.  High ceilings, elaborate displays, clean and shiny, and streamlined.  Going through customs was quick and easy, the bags were already coming out when we got to baggage claim, and I was done within about 30 minutes of landing, and that includes having to take a tram from the terminal I landed in to the baggage claim.

After going through baggage claim, I bumped into Eric from Cleveland who looked similarly lost.  He was in Beijing on business, but also didn’t know a lick of Chinese and was trying to figure out how to get into the heart of the city.  Since I had an address from my hostel and knew that I was heading in a similar direction, I asked if he’d be willing to share a cab.  The first buses into the city wouldn’t be leaving for at least another hour or two.  Eric said yes and we shared a cab to his hotel, which was about 2/3 of the way to my hostel, and then I continued on.  Overall, I’m where I wanted to get to, I’m here in one piece, and I’m starting to think about how I want to start the day since it is not even 8am yet.

Although I might not get to all of them, some spots I’d love to see while here include the Forbidden City, Tianenmen Square, the Great Wall, and the Temple of Heaven to name a few.  I’ll wait for some others in the hostel to stir and then I’ll see if I can meet some buddies to adventure with for the day.

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The Before Picture

Ready or not, here I go. Filled with the feeling that I’m forgetting something, I end a crazy week of goodbye’s, of packing, of moving, and of wrapping up work. But now, as I sit here in Terminal 2 at LAX waiting for Air China to begin boarding, my mind is really starting to move. Usually when I’m worried about something, I can largely pinpoint what it is, and somewhat lessen that worry. Unfortunately, being worried about the unknown is a particularly hard fear to mitigate. Even when not looking that far into the future, I imagine landing in Beijing and figuring out how to get to the hostel from the airport. For this first hostel, I decided to make a reservation, get an address, and have something concrete to start my trip after landing at 5:30am in the morning, but despite all of that, it still remains unknown how I plan to get from A to B. I know that I will eventually get more comfortable with this type of task as I continue, but for now, it remains exciting.

Before Picture

I’ve packed one backpack that also fits the small day bag in my other hand. In preparing for the variation in temperatures I would experience from China to SE Asia to Nepal to Europe, I embraced the layers philosophy meaning that there are very few clothes that I packed that can’t be worn at the same time. In terms of numbers, I’m bringing 3 short sleeve and 3 long sleeve shirts, one pair of shorts, two jeans, and one synthetic pair of pants. I’ve brought 6 pairs of socks and underwear, a beanie, gloves, and hat. For jackets, I have a fleece, light down jacket, and wind/rain shell, all of which can be layered. I’ll find out soon how effective my packing really was.

Other than possibly having some more facial hair, I’m excited to see the differences between the before and after pictures from this trip, both superficially and psychologically.

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My Worn Identity

Several times throughout my academic career, my class was asked to write words that we identified with, whether it was adult, tall, American, blue-eyed, Muslim, etc.  Unfortunately, it is these “identities” that could get me in trouble as I meet new people from other cultures.  And to complicate matters further, these identities are far from self-imposed.  Instead, I have no choice but to wear them in plain site as I travel.  I can’t hide speaking english with an american accent and having curly hair with a jewish nose.  I also have little doubt that Americans and more specifically Jewish Americans might not be loved everywhere they travel.  People may disagree with our politics, philosophies, and general cultural norms.  It is for this reason, that if given the chance, I want extend that identity.

I am a brother.  I am a son.  I am a new uncle.  I am a grandson.  I am a friend.  This is easy to say and hard to prove.  I can foresee a situation where I am sitting next to someone on a train or bus and they look at me and immediately fill with preconceptions of who I am.  This scenario soon devolves into a lecture about why Americans are failing in some aspect or another, and there is little pause to see if I agree with the philosophies and politics of my American people, but that doesn’t matter.  I am not an individual here.  I am an American.  I might as well be riding a Harley Davidson wearing an American flag bandana blasting Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA through the heartland of Vietnam.  I might have to wait for this anti-American lecture to start to fizzle, and then I will reach into my backpack and grab a couple photos that I’ve been traveling with.  These photos start to show that I am not just an American.

Family in San Francisco

I hope these photos will show that my identity starts with family.  Whatever happens, I know my family will be there.  Whatever I do, I know my family will support me.  And whatever I blunder, I know my family will forgive me.  These values I feel transcend any one culture and will hopefully allow me to connect with that lecturer sitting next to me on a much more personal and individual level.  I will introduce him to my 5 month old niece.  I will tell him what my sisters do and who my parents are.  The stories we then begin to swap are more about who we are as individuals and less about what our politics are.

My niece

These two photos I will carry with me as I begin to travel.

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Visas – “Check Everywhere You Want To Be”

As the USA has become stricter and stricter letting in foreign visitors, the reverse has also become true.  This is probably due to a combination of countries being frustrated with US stricter policies as well as just taking greater security precautions.  That said, as a traveler, it hasn’t always been an advantage being from the US when applying for travel visas.

To make this point very clear, China asks for a fee along with its tourist visa application.  When reading the chart for how much I owed, there were three columns.  The first column was to designate the number of times I wanted to enter the country and for how long.  The second column was how much Americans would have to pay, and the third column was how much citizens of other countries would have to pay.  As a citizen from the US, I would’ve had to pay $130 regardless of how long or how many times I entered the country.  Citizens of other countries would have to pay only $30 if they wanted a single-entry visa.  China is also one of those places that require you to have a travel visa before arrival.  In most places, I will be able to purchase a travel visa for a minimal fee and a couple passport photos of myself while making my way through customs.  Of all the places I plan to visit, only China and Vietnam required an advance visa.  In the end, I don’t blame these other countries for getting frustrated at the USA’s visa policies because it ends up causing people like me who need to apply for those visas to learn how tough the US really is on foreigners and to subsequently question if that’s right.

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The Dance of Travel Immunizations

In medicine, I’ve always heard that it never hurts to get a second opinion.  But in the case of travel immunizations, more opinions may mean a little more pain because they usually mean more pokes in the arm by long, sharp, shiny needles.  That said, when I didn’t cry, I sometimes received some celebratory lollypops.  (I’m calling that the silver lining.)  I do appreciate everyone who helped me figure out what I needed, but almost every time a new person, such as my friend’s girlfriend’s mother’s cousins’ next door neighbor suggested I have some XYZ vaccination against a deadly disease that wasn’t worth taking the risk on, I usually followed through.  When I finally leave on this trip, I will have so many fabulous antibodies floating around in my blood, that only kryptonite from my far-away home planet will be able to get me.  And lucky for me, there aren’t many mosquitoes that carry said kryptonite.

All kidding aside, the world and especially its jungles can be a scary place when you learn about all the diseases you can get.  Let’s take one disease, which I will talk more about when it comes to shots and dosages, as an example of nature’s lethality to be Japanese Encephalitis (JE).  Of those infected with JE, the CDC reports that 1 in 4 dies and of those who live, up to half may suffer permanent brain damage.  So with a little math, I learned that 63% of those infected with JE die or have permanent brain damage.  Like that good neighbor of my friend’s girlfriend’s mother’s cousin said, it’s not worth the risk.

Most vaccinations are easy.  One poke and I’m done, and a week or two afterwards, I’m ready to make out—vampire style—with a mosquito carrying that disease.  But not all immunizations are so easy.  One example is JE, which I just finished detailing the dangers of.  Don’t worry because I’m only going to go into detail on this one vaccination.  Currently, there are two vaccinations available against JE in the US, and those are JE-VAX and Ixiaro.  To serve as a quick bio, JE-VAX is the older, been-around-the-block vaccine that has been well tested and well documented, while Ixiaro made itself known in 2009 with a similar profile and slightly higher geometric mean titer. I didn’t know what those three words meant until I looked them up either.  Essentially, geometric mean titer just correlates to how much of the antibody is actually flowing through the blood.  JE-VAX is a 3-dose series at days 0, 7, and 30, and Ixiaro is a 2-dose series spaced 28 days apart.  Big pro for Ixiaro is its one less poke!

For the juicier part of this whole discussion, I was left with 25 days to receive either of these two vaccinations, and neither fit in the right time span.  It was time to put my nerd herd hat on and hit the journals.  First thing was looking at what the difference really was between the two.  I found Tauber et. al.’s article titled “Safety and immunogenicity of a Vero-cell-derived, inactivated Japanese encephalitis vaccine: a non-inferiority, phase III, randomized clinical trial” from 2007 in Lancet.  Basically, the article described the new Ixiaro vaccine and compared it to the old JE-VAX vaccine using a blinded study.  And not to worry, even the Ixiaro patients still had to receive the 3 shots, so they remained blind to what they were receiving, and the middle shot was just saline.  Conclusion of the study was that they both work, and the new one works slightly better.

Back to not having enough time to complete either course of injections, I found a study that compared JE-VAX when it was administered in two ways, one taking the usual 30 days, and one taking only 14 days.  The article, found in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from 1999 by Defraites et. al. had results that gave me a sigh of relief.  The difference between the two dosing regimens was the geometric mean titers that I mentioned earlier.  Those who received the 30 day regimen had higher titers at follow up time points.  What does that mean for me?  It could mean that I have slightly less immunity; although, this is only very slight.  More than anything, it will mean that my immunity will probably wear off faster than average.  That same Journal of Tropical Medicine article said this; I’m not just making it up.  I’m not planning on being in Southeast Asia more than a couple months, and I’ll remember to boost my immunity next time Asian jungles call my name.  Importantly, I now have a good chance of avoiding that intimidating 63% statistic for the small number who acquire the infection.  Science, for the win.

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T Minus One Month

My departure date both beckons and looms.  I leave the San Francisco Bay Area in less than a month, and before then, there is a lot to wrap up including job, apartment, and trip plans.  Since there’s little exciting to say about putting my room into boxes, one area of my trip planning that I love to think about is figuring out how to pack for a trip that will last almost 5 months.

When I begin to count out the days, if I wanted to bring a clean pair of socks for each day that I would be traveling, that will require 150 pairs.  I then add a couple extra for those days that necessitate changing half way through.  I realize that I am going to need a huge suitcase for each type of clothing leaving me with a socks suitcase, a shirts suitcase, a pants suitcase, etc.  That’s a lot of extra airline fees.

In all seriousness, there are two items that I thought most important when figuring out what to take.  Good shoes and a good backpack.  I have already purchased hiking boots that I wear several times a week breaking them in.  There’s no reason to use my moleskin for blisters if I don’t need to.  For a backpack, seeing as this was going to be my one piece of luggage, I wanted something big enough to hold the essentials but not so big that it wouldn’t help me cut back on what I was taking.  Given the length and character of my trip, and given that I would be both moving from hostel to hostel as well as hiking to the Annapurna Base Camp, I chose an internal frame pack by Gregory with 75 liters of space.  75 liters is on the big side, but I’m hoping to bring 4 to 5 changes of clothes, a sleeping bag, layers of jackets and fleeces, and a camera or two.  The pack had sufficient pockets to help me keep things organized, but not so many that it would be hard to utilize all its internal space.

Deciding what to put in the backpack will be difficult, but I need to remind myself that I can both clean the clothes I bring as well as find new clothes as I travel.  That knowledge, however, did not preclude me from getting the underwear with the tagline, “17 countries… 6 weeks… One pair of underwear.  (Ok, maybe two.)” by Exofficio.