MAKING A SLIGHT DETOUR
“Let’s go to a country you haven’t been to!” My wife says.
“Let’s go to a country where I won’t meet any divers!” I said.
Mongolia: 3 million inhabitants and lots of open space! Chinggis Khaan (Genghis Khan), the great conqueror of the world, was born here.
But first, Beijing.
We flew east from Baja to Los Angeles to Seoul, and finally to Beijing, where we decided to stop and visit for a week. The Great Wall of China was very impressive. It went beyond what our eyes could see as we looked over the mountains.
The Chinese and Their Walls
The Chinese built the Wall to protect themselves from the invasions of the various Eurasian nomadic groups, including Genghis Khan. I stood there awestruck, contemplating at the overwhelming effort it must have taken to complete it.
Compared to Beijing with its towering buildings, I think the west is back in the Stone Age in terms of infrastructure. Downtown we saw Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and all the name brands that supposedly keep you in style. China has become expensive. And capitalistic to the extreme.
Mao Zedong was still very respected, like a Catholic Jesus Christ of the Vatican on the Tian’anmen Square. I saw Chinese greeting him and praying in front of his statue in a religious manner. He has been linked to a version of the proverbial wisdom ‘It is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish.’
I think that was a good saying. Maybe he was just a bad fisherman and farmer…
Foreign relations
The South China Sea is a burning issue among the countries surrounding this body of water. Of course, there is also the ongoing conflict with USA. I didn’t need to understand Mandarin, but just by watching the Chinese news, I could easily see the aggression of China towards USA. The poor Philippines got their closest islands invaded.
Food
Anyway, the food was great! We found this noodle house close to our hotel, where we went and picked up what we wanted, brought it to the counter and got it cooked. It was so good! When we weren’t slurping noodles, we were having hot pot or standing in a very long line for Peking duck. Street food, I love it!
The Other Side of the Wall
I needed a temporary resident visa to enter Mongolia, while my wife from the Philippines did not! This was the first time her Philippine passport trumped my Swedish one in all the trips that we had done together. After a visit to the Mongolian Embassy in Beijing, we head for Ulan Bator…
