It just might be one of the better cities after all

I’m one of those people who moved to Xiamen and pretty much went nowhere. For one thing, I didn’t have a job, so I had no money. An afternoon spent in Quanzhou, a mere bus ride away, doesn’t really count.

Being told I was going to be travelling around China for two weeks as part of my job was kind of exciting. Two weeks! Cities I’d barely heard of! Now that is the way to see China, right? I’d get a real appreciation of what this country is really like.

I think part of what dulled my response to Hangzhou, supposedly a romantic city for its close proximity to Westlake, was the weather. It was smoggy and grey, with visibility rather low. I thought the traffic was somewhat crazy, although I’d be stuck to think of a single city in China where traffic isn’t. The especially annoying part was not being able to spend more than a few minutes at Westlake, where I was working and did not have any opportunity to see its famed beauty and tranquility. Apart from us, it did seem pretty quiet.

As we headed to Chongqing, we were told that it was the most populated city in the province. Since I took a walk around the town, I can confirm that there are a shitload of people there, many more than Xiamen. An underpass connecting two ends of a major road teemed with so much activity I thought if I went in, it would over-teem and it would burst. None of us could locate a liquor store, which, to some, was a mighty shame.

My memories of Chengdu include the bus trip out to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Facility, where we got to enthusiastically snap away at snoozing and playing pandas. Trishaws, a sight I’ve not seen since Singapore, were welcome, and most of the drivers I met seemed quite nice and willing to take 20RMB to drive me around and show me the town. Chengdu struck me as a city like any other city in China.

I’ll break here to mention that we were in Chongqing and Chengdu (in Sichuan province) just as the heavy rains were falling and the towns and villages flooding. We must have been on very high ground, as we saw nothing more than some rain.

Wenzhou and Zhengzhou were such dreary industrial cities that I can barely remember them at all. Wuhan, on the other hand, had the Eastlake, a rather pale replacement for Westlake. At least we got to spend some time there. The cheesy tourist attractions didn’t make it any better, unfortunately.

I would say the highlight for many on the trip was the time spent in Shanghai. I’d never been to Shanghai before, so I was looking forward to seeing if it was all it cracked up to be. It is, if you have a strong nose. I did not enjoy the pollution that seem to sit in the air, clogging up my sinuses and making me feel filthy. Sure, the shopping’s good, and the restaurants and bars plenty, but I’d trade that kind of lifestyle for clean lungs any day. I didn’t quit smoking to replace it with Shanghai pollution.

In the end, it must be said that for the colour and life of most of these cities, I was glad to come back to relatively peaceful and clean Xiamen. I never thought I’d say it, but it’s true — Xiamen might be one of the cleanest and best cities, environmentally, in China. Let’s hope they keep it up.

• 24 Sep 2004

• Thinking