Haunted Disneyland, skating and New Year!

BOOM. boom-boom-boom-boom BOOM. Trarararararara. It's new year in China and that's hard to miss. I believe even my new little fish, Zhigga, can hear it. Yes, I'm quite settled down in this apartment, although I haven't fully unpacked yet. School life is in full swing, and this time, I want to get it right from the start- so I'm learning my characters dutifully. And to my great surprise, it's paying off- I am actually becoming good at this 'hanzi' thing. Well, good is the wrong word of course- I can recognize a few characters every now and then, just like before, except now I recognize a few more. I am aware it doesn't sound like much, but it does feel like it!
And other than that, it was a good first week! I saw some of my friends back, the ones that didn't leave yet or that have come back already. I've discovered my neighbourhood, with the help of some of said friends. It is a great neighbourhood, as I expected. 

On friday I went to an awesome place! In the outskirts of Beijing lies an eerie set of structures, clearly intended to have become an attraction park called Wonderland. But in time, conflicts began to arise with neighbours and the constructors ran out of money.  The result is a skeleton of castles and other buildings, in some parts adorned to perfection and in other completely empty. To put it in the words of others: 

'Drive north along the Badaling Expressway for about 25 miles to Changping County, take the Chenzhuang exit and you will set eyes on a magical vision of archaic Western buildings and castles rising out of the farmland. Don’t worry, this isn’t some drug-induced episode, but Beijing’s answer to Disneyland, or rather the abandoned version of it.

This is one of the city’s forgotten landmarks; a source of much curiosity for passers-by, and the sort of place the Scooby-Doo gang might battle a headless popcorn seller.

Back in 1998, local company Reignwood Group invested in a massive theme park project set

 to span over 120 acres. Its aim was to create the biggest amusement park in Asia. However, financial problems stalled the scheme in its infancy; almost a decade and a half later, the developers have still to reach an agreement with local farmers on the rights to the land.

In the mid-2000s, Reignwood executives seemed poised to restart the project, but the local government and farmers raised the stakes as land prices had been rising ahead of the Olympics. The company refused and the project was left in limbo again.

Today, the park lies rotting, a monument to unrealised grand plans, while photographers travel to take shots of a dreamland that remains little more than the stuff of dreams.' (from: Timeout Beijing).

So obviously we had to see for ourselves. And it was just as creepy and exhilirating as we thought it would be. From the outside the place looked like dysneyland, only slightly unkept and completely devoid of human life. Inside the mighty castle, however, there was almost nothing. We walked around completely freely, climbing up and down beginnings of staircases and into pitch-black 'rooms'. There was quite a lot of (Chinese) graffiti, which was quite funny- one of the 'pieces' was the entire periodic table of elements! In one room we met a very troubling sight: In a ditch lay ten or so dead hedgehogs, some with mouths wide open, where they had obviously fallen and couldn't come out anymore. There was also a sickening, almost-mumified cat. It was quite upsetting and I'm not going to post any pictures of that right here. 

Outside the main body of the castle- like front building there was a huge skeleton for a hall, witch was also unfinished, and where my companions and I met the true meaning of fear: Walking up a subtle ramp which was easily thick enough to walk on, only a few meters above the ground- and we were terrified. All of us. Not one of us made it up the entire ramp.

Behind the skeleton of a building lay a little unfinished castle. There was a lot of graffiti around there, too, but we found no easy way in without getting stuck in some underground areas, so we just walked around a little more before heading back home to Beijing. But the experience was amazing, I would encourage anyone with a little time to go and visit this place- especially accompanied by friends who know a lot of horror movies. Apparently, since I was the only girl, I would have survived!

The weekend didn't start as I had hoped- in the morning I suddenly got a strong fever that had me hallucinating for hours, quite the shocking new experience for me. By the time I was sane enough to make my own tea, I got well quickly enough. In the afternoon I went ice-skating at Hou Hai, which is now obviously very much frozen. Just like the rest of China, by the way- the Chinese system of spitting on the floor creates some hilarious results!
Skating was fun, there were all kinds of activities going on like ice-biking and some kind of sleighs you could propel forward using little sticks. It was good fun, although it was really cold.
And the day afterwards, on sunday, it was time to celebrate new year! Again! I thought I was done analysing the year past, but here I was again- not with champagne but baijiu this time, and not in my cozy Dutch neighbourhood but in Beijing. First step was to buy some fireworks. We had no idea what the rules were on buying and using fireworks, and the guys got a bit carried away (behaving like 10 year olds, of course). BUT we weren't kicked out of the country, which was positive. I had been invited with some other people to celebrate new year on the top floor of a hotel, with windows everywhere, head to toe, overlooking the city.
It was an old Dutch friend from the U. school who asked, who is now working in a 5-star hotel. Good to have connections here!
It was a beautiful day of course- as is every important day here in Beijing. Rumour has it that is by no means an accident. After buying and using some fireworks, we went to have dinner with some co-workers of my friend, who turned out to be a lot of fun. We spoke half in Chinese and half in English, and they seemed quite impressed at my pronunciation in Chinese (hahaha). 

We had some ehm.. interesting food, called hotpot. It's a traditional dish here- the basics are similar to fondu but in boiling water. After 'cooking' your food in this way, you are supposed to dip it into a strange sauce. It's edible, although you might want to start with other dishes if you are new to Chinese cuisine. We had some nice moments of Chino-Western Confusion, such as when we asked for desert and got salty dishes of course.

And of course don't forget the cow stomach!

After that we set out in the large group to watch fireworks outside, and join in the fun. Chinese people are very content when you wish them a happy new year in Chinese! (The pictures here are of the co-workers of my friend.) And then we said goodbye to the Chinese people and headed up the hotel to the 27th floor to watch the fireworks. From above you could see the extent of new year for Chinese people. They have spent weeks now preparing for the new year- replacing old 'decorations' with new ones and buying a lot of fireworks. And I must say, although usually loud fireworks really annoy me and hurt my ears, somehow being here makes them a lot more bearable. It's part of culture here, and this part and the dedication to it really amaze me. So without further ado, here are some pictures of fireworks, I hope you enjoy! And have a happy Dragon's year! 


Love,
Soof

Massive noisy fireworks!

Leftovers, quickly cleaned up by thousands of workers.