The Occidental Tourist

Beijing, most days, is filled with tour groups galore. They crowd the many attractions with swarms of tourists wearing identical hats (yellow, red, blue etc.). Domestic travel is booming, so much so, that it’s novel to see the occasional foreigner tour group. But how can you not venture out to at least see it all once: The Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven Park, The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Ming Tombs, and of course… The Great Wall… I put a few pictures together. Some pics include my parents, who chose a great time to come for a 3 week guided tour vacation to see China, and spent five days in Beijing. [Right]: Camels and assorted other stone animals guarding the path to the Ming Emperor Tombs
	We’ve done some traveling outside of Beijing, though China is so huge you can always do more. So far our main trip was to Yunnan Province, which is in the far west, and shares a border with Myanmar (Burma), Lao, Vietnam, and Tibet. Yunnan is truly a beautiful place, and its remoteness made coming back to Beijing feel like we were coming “home”. Our stay in Yunnan included Kunming, the capital, as well as Dali, Lijiang, and various “minority people’s” villages. We hooked up with a Nature Conservancy program which organizes eco-tours with stays in sustainable-development village guesthouses. We also went to see the heralded stone forest around Kunming, but were diverted by an independent-minded Chinese minibus driver to a beautiful waterfall instead. It’s all par for China. So, do peruse the Yunnan photo page.
A weekend getaway in Beidaihe, a summer beach resort. Of course it wasn’t summer and the place was mostly a ghost town, all the better. Beidaihe is a bizarre seaside resort 300km east of Beijing, originally patronized by European diplomats, missionaries, and businessmen. After the Communist takeover of China, Beidaihe became a getaway for party bigwigs and favored workers (for example the “Sanitarium for Coal Miners”). Beaches used to be demarcated by rope barriers and reserved for different rank, and only dark bathing suits were allowed to avoid the illusion of nudity. Apparently, in 1979 foreigners were allowed in to West Beach, where guards were posted to chase off Chinese voyeurs interested in catching a glimpse of daring bourgeois swimming costumes, or lack thereof. On the hill behind the beach are beautiful villas where it is rumored that every politburo member still has a residence. We stayed at the “Guesthouse for Diplomatic Missions.” We were the only guests. It was all kind of Maine-like, in the off-season, as photos suggest.

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