07.12.08
On to the EastNorth
Well, it’s been a rather hectic last two days due to work-related reasons I have no need to bore you with on this blog. But the good news is early tomorrow morning (very early tomorrow morning) I am finally going to get out of Beijing for my first extended trip this summer. At 7:15 am I will be taking the direct super-fast 8 hour train to Haerbin.
Haerbin is the capital of Heilongjiang province, and in the heart of what is called “dongbei,” which means “Eastnorth.” (the Chinese denote the east-west direction before the north-south one, hence “southwest” would be “westsouth,” etc.) I plan to use Haerbin as my starting point, and then slowly meander back to Beijing. On the way back, I am aiming to stop in at Yanji, the Korean autonomous prefecture in Jilin, and possibly Dalian, and of course several random rural podunk towns which always seem to be the most interesting places in China. From past experience, I have always found it is always easiest to travel in China with no reservations, no concrete plans, and carrying nothing more than what can fit in a small backpack. This always makes for the most spontaneous and flexible Middle Kingdom excursions. I’ll try to post regularly from smoky net bars along the way.
Cathy
said,
July 13, 2008 at 3:04 am
Enjoy Harbin! Part of my family is from there — instead of fleeing Russia west to America, they fled east to Manchuria — so I visited it two years ago. The original European architecture in the old city center is still pretty well preserved (with some modern upgrades), to the point that it looks a lot more like St. Petersburg than Beijing.
I also really liked the Harbin beer, which I never found outside the area but was sold at the local Walmarts…
Henry
said,
July 13, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Hi, Ben, it’s a fucking long time since i saw you last time, haha.
How’s everything going with you now?
I’m now doing foreign trade with customers from North America and European countries.
Looking for your reply, and tell me what’s going on.
kent.ben
said,
July 14, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I remember you left fujian and came back to U.S for work, now you are travelling in China again.
to cathy:
you may do not know one fact that in China the beer producing and selling has region district, for instance, haerbin beer can not be produced and sold in heilongjian province, due to the region protection policy.
kent.ben
said,
July 14, 2008 at 1:43 pm
sorry, it is “can only be “
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 14, 2008 at 2:55 pm
@Cathy and Kent
Interestingly enough, I remember several of the bars in Fuzhou used to sell Harbin beer as their default cheap beer when they ran out of Snow and Sedren (the Fujian local brand). It always seemed like a random beer to have in stock. I wouldn’t doubt that there is a regulation in place like Kent mentions, by which a particular beer from one province isn’t officially allowed to be sold in different regions. Then again, iPhones aren’t officially being sold now in China either. Gotta love the 水货.
Cathy
said,
July 14, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Granted this is China so all bets are off, but the way region controls usually work is that they prevent products famous and/or labeled as being from one region from being produced in another region. E.g., champagne. Although anyone can make sparkling wine, you can only call it champagne if it truly was made in the champagne region. But then you can sell it anywhere.
Interestingly, I thought I read that Anheuser-Busch bought the Harbin beer brewery. Which leaves me a little surprised that I can’t find it anywhere. I just figured it wasn’t really known outside the region.
I did really like it, but I’m hardly a beer connoisseur, so what do I know?
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 14, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Cathy-
Interestingly enough, I just read that Anhauser-Bush got baught out by a Belgian company? Maybe now it won’t taste like stale urine anymore.