It takes around 10 hours to reach China’s capital from ?stanbul. In terms of both land and population, China is an enormous nation, spanning an area of 9.326 million square kilometers.
Its population is around 1.35 billion, and despite strict population planning and China’s one-child policy, the population continues to grow, increasing by around 10 million people every year.There are 56 ethnic groups living in China. Each of these groups speaks a different language, and there are many different dialects within most of these languages. But there is only one shared official language in China: Putonghua. This language is known often in the West as “Mandarin,” and most people living in China can speak and understand it. From this perspective then, we can see that Mandarin is actually the world’s most widely spoken language, as an estimated 1.35 billion people speak it.
The Great Wall of China.
On the economic front, the per capita income of China is $1,700. One-third of all granite and lignite in the world is located in China.
Visa: China requires visas from citizens of all countries, including, of course, Turkey. You can obtain your visa from the Chinese Embassy in Ankara or the Chinese Consulate in ?stanbul. You need special permission if you want to also obtain a Tibetan visa.
Costs for tourist visas:
Single entry — $20
Double entry — $30
How to go: Turkish Airlines (THY) has regular flights every day of the week from ?stanbul to Beijing, as does Air China. These are comfortable nonstop flights.
THY: on average 653 euros + tax
Every day of the week.
Going: Departure from ?stanbul: 11:45 p.m.
Arrival in Beijing: 3:00 p.m.
Coming: Departure from Beijing: 11:55 p.m.
Arrival in ?stanbul: 4:35 a.m.
Air China: on average 1,014 euros
Every day of the week.
Going: Departure from ?stanbul: 11:45 p.m.
Arrival in Beijing: 3:00 p.m.
Coming: Departure from Beijing: 11:55 p.m.
Arrival in ?stanbul: 4:35 a.m.
Where to stay: You won’t have any trouble finding a hotel for any style and budget in Beijing. There are many great, comfortable hotels, but it is advised to make reservations in advance. You can find hotels ranging from $50-300 per night.
When you enter Beijing, you can observe enormous skyscrapers reaching 30 to 40 stories into the air all around you. The city looks much different than it did even nine years ago, when we were last here. Rapid development has taken place in many fields, with larger taxis replacing the many smaller and older taxis and a wide scale elimination of the previously numerous parking spots for bicycles and motorcycles. It appears that everything possible has been done to make this city look modern. There has been a huge reduction in the number of bicycles, which had become almost a symbol of Beijing. Interestingly, around 80,000 foreign nationals study in Beijing.
Beijing has actually been the Chinese capital for centuries. The population of Beijing is around 15 million. The most famous boulevard in Beijing is Wangfujing, and this thoroughfare is very crowded on the weekends, though we should note it is mostly closed to motor traffic!
In China, it is common for both men and women to work. And many children, since both their mother and father are working, are taken care of by their grandparents. The one-child policy for families has led to an interesting tableau here: Most children do not have uncles and aunts or large extended families. So children really can’t even conceptualize what these extended family members would mean in their lives. Most children just have their mothers and fathers and their grandparents, and not many more relatives than that. The same will be true for children of the next generation. In fact, it really appears that China has long forgotten the concept of what it means to have a large family; most children will never even know what it means to have a brother or sister. Many people say that since kids are raised as only children, they are often spoiled, too.
A ceremony at a Buddhist temple.
Like many other large cities in the world, traffic is a serious problem in Beijing. There are more than 3 million vehicles on the boulevards and streets of Beijing. And every day, another 1,600 or so vehicles are added to this already tremendous flow of traffic. Some days are designated as days when people should voluntarily avoid driving, but it is quite apparent that even these days see heavy traffic. Perhaps the relative cheapness of gasoline here — 66 cents per liter — is what pushes people to add their vehicles to the traffic.
Official statistics show that there are 200,000 Muslims living in Beijing. There are around 30 mosques in the city.
A group of men performing the traditional dragon dance.
We get into a gondola lift to travel to the Great Wall of China. In a little bit, we see the wall in all its glory. They say this is the only manmade masterpiece that can be seen with the naked eye from the moon. And truly, there is no parallel to the Great Wall of China anywhere else in the world. In some places it is 10 meters in height, four meters wide and has 12-meter-high towers dotted along it. The Great Wall stretches for 6,000 kilometers all told. It really underscores that humans can do almost anything when they set their minds to it.
Every year, thousands of people, both local and foreign, come to see this wall. It is the greatest tourist attraction in all of China, and thus, it is an enormous source of profit for China. The part of the wall we visited is called Badaling. Not every part of the Great Wall is open to visitors, but the safe parts that have been restored are in fact open.
QUICK FACTS
Capital: Beijing
Languages: Standard Chinese or Mandarin, Yue (Cantonese)
Government: Communist state
President: Hu Jintao
Premier: Wen Jiabao
Area: 9,640,821 square kilometers
Population: 1,330 ,044,544*
GDP (PPP): $7.8 trillion**
Religions: Daoism, Buddhism, Christianity (3-4 percent), Islam (1-2 percent)
*July 2008 estimate, **2008 estimate
People stumble over each other trying to take souvenir photos of the Great Wall. You can hear the clicks the moment people arrive at the wall; people are not only thrilled to finally see this masterpiece of architecture, but they also can’t wait to capture pictorial evidence of it to show friends and family. People can take the gondola lift up to the top, and then walk their way down if they wish. And if they feel strong, they can walk up themselves, and then wend their way downward by foot as well. Tourists who use the gondola lift to go up to the top of the wall pay $15; though if you choose to walk up, you pay only $6.50.
Though China is already on the list of the top five nations in the world most visited by tourists, it is anticipated that by 2020, it will surpass France as being the most visited.
Sadly, people say that certain parts of the Great Wall of China face the threat of deterioration these days. This is the result of a lack of care and maintenance and, of course, the climate conditions. Naturally, it is not at all that easy to repair this giant wall, which runs for 6,000 kilometers across China.
19 February 2009, Thursday
SAIM ORHAN
zaman.com