BEIJING, CHINA: City Basics

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008

By Simon Elegant

Arriving. Taxis at Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) are plentiful; the ride into town costs about $15 to $20 and can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half, depending on traffic. For the adventuresome (or impoverished) there's also a brand new (opened for the Olympics) train that whisks you in 23 minutes to a fairly central station in Beijing from which you can cab it to your hotel.

Getting Around. Aside from cabs, the subway is by far the best way to get around Beijing and also the best way to beat its increasingly gridlocked traffic. At about $.25 to ride anywhere in the city, it's also the best bargain going. All the signs are in Chinese and English, but make sure you have figured out the name of your destination. If you get lost, ask. Beijingers are friendly and willing to help. Hint: The younger the person is the more likely he or she is to speak some English.

There are plenty of biking opportunities and bike lanes left over from the glory days when two-wheelers were kings of the road. But if you decide to bike, consider very seriously buying a helmet. You'll be the only one apart from other foreigners wearing one, but given that 40% of Beijing drivers have had their license for less than three years, it's a bit of a no-brainer (which, of course, is how you might end up without a helmet).

Taxis. Taxis are plentiful, clean and cheap. Be warned however that almost none of the drivers speaks or reads English so make sure you always have a copy of your destination (and hotel or wherever you are returning to) written in Chinese. It's sensible also to have the phone number of someone who speaks English and Chinese in case you get into difficulties.

Tipping. Tipping is so rare that waiters will run out into the street to return the money you must have accidentally left on the table. Speaking of money, bring lots of it or hit the ATMs regularly. Cash is still king in China and credit cards something of a novelty item.

Bargaining. Newer malls and shops have fixed prices, but in places like the Silk Market — a paradise of knock-offs frequented by dopey foreigners — the first asking price is usually about 10 times (yep, you heard that right) or more what merchants will finally settle for. As ever, walking away will bring the price down very rapidly indeed.

Crossing the Street. Look in all four directions when crossing streets and then up, just in case. Like we said, 40% of Beijing drivers have been on the road for less than three years and it really shows.

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BEIJING, CHINA: Great Wall of China

Tim Graham / Getty

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008

By Simon Elegant

No visitor to Beijing leaves without at least a quick trip to the Great Wall. Usually people visit the Wall at one of the two main heavily touristed sections: Mutianyu and Badaling. But there's a lot more to the Wall — called the "Long City" in Chinese — than those destinations; with a bit of effort and not that much extra time, you can have a piece of the Wall more or less all to yourself.

One option is to arrange a visit to a part of the Wall that's farther off the beaten track. Simatai is two-plus hours from Beijing, which usually puts off the more casual visitors. But the effort is worth it. Not only is the scenery here — with the Wall snaking up and down plunging cliffs and jagged ridges — the most dramatic, but the crowds are also thinnest.

There's also Shanhaiguan, where the Great Wall begins, literally, rising out of the Gulf of Bohai at a spot called Laolongtou, or "old dragon's head," after the beast carved into the section of the Wall that faces the sea. This spot outside the port of Qinghuadao about three hours from the capital, gives a completely different and unique perspective on the Wall.

Finally, for the more adventuresome, check out the Beijing Hikers website, for news on their latest expeditions. The group organizes trips to remote sections of the Wall and leads hikes for all levels of ability, with transport and food included in the price. It's a wonderful way to get better acquainted with this chunk of history.

• 1. Great Wall of China
  Beijing, China 40.332809116.477651
• 2. Beijing Hikers
  Lido Holiday Inn, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China; 86-(0)139-1002-5516 39.977893116.479282 beijinghikers.com
  

Chengde

Liu Liqun / Corbis

Another chunk of Chinese history can be found at Chengde, a city about two hours' drive outside Beijing. This was the summer capital of the Qing dynasty emperors, and each successive monarch has left his own particular stamp on the place. Not only does this mountain resort boast a plethora of palaces and imperial gardens to wander through, including a full scale replica of the Dalai Lama's Pottala Palace in Lhasa (built to make the monk feel at home on his visits), its museum features a dazzling array of the paraphernalia necessary for the gilded life of the court — like huge golden statues and exquisite snuff bottles.

1. Chengde
Chengde, China More Info

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SHANGHAI, CHINA: Sampling Hairy Crab at Wang Bao He in Shanghai

Yang Liu/Corbis

September 21, 2008

By MICHELLE GREEN

Food writers describe it as a delicacy on the order of foie gras; bloggers praise it as a life-changing experience, and restaurant critics all have their favorite haunts in Shanghai for the city’s signature crustacean: hairy crab. Gray-green, fist-sized, its legs spiked with bristles, it is in season only from September until November, and diners may pay $45 for a good-sized specimen said to be from Yang Cheng Lake in Jiangsu Province, the crab-equivalent of the Champagne district.

But is hairy crab all it’s cracked up to be? My companions and I were stoked when we hit Wang Bao He last November. Known for its crab-fests, the centuries-old restaurant is a series of intimate dining rooms buzzing that night with Asian diners — a good sign, we thought.

Menus were in Chinese with photos subtitled in surreal English, but my friends, Terry Acree, a professor of flavor chemistry at Cornell, and Janelle Bloss, a graduate student studying Chinese in Nanjing, interrogated our waitress to make sure we ordered the don’t-miss crab dishes. We also asked for Shaoxing-style “yellow” wine, the traditional accompaniment.

Presented live, our hairies were bound with reedlike material and resembled rocks in a Zen garden. When they returned, steaming and pink, we decided that they might have been more appealing if they had experienced Zen purity somewhere along the way. “The smell,” said Terry, “is like dirty river water.” Under the carapaces lurked gelatinous black deposits; instead of sweet meat, we discovered stringy, bland flesh.

The off-odor was less prominent when we bathed bits in the sauce of rice vinegar with ginger, “which would make anything palatable,” as Terry observed. But the wine, served in a metal cruet, added another unpleasant note; dry and acidic, it recalled a hyper-oxidized, bitter Marsala,

Other choices, including a crab and tofu dish, proved disappointing. In the end, only the roe delivered a savory marine taste. Not much satisfaction for the $140 we’d paid for a four-course shared meal, including the wine and three beers.

But the bust was probably less about Wang Bao He than about the hairy crab market itself, which (like much of China’s food supply) is vulnerable to pollutants and counterfeiters. Hard times for the hairy crab, then, and for travelers like the Korean couple next to us.

As Terry, Janelle and I chatted about our malodorous meal, I noticed our neighbors sitting with a pile of crab carcasses, picking their teeth unhappily. On their table was a guidebook with a Shanghai scene on the cover. “I know what they’re thinking,” I said. “’Is it just us?’”

Wang Bao He, Fuzhou Lu 603, Shanghai, (86-21) 6322-3673

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RUSSIA: Extravagance at Russia’s Edge

Vladivostok, now a thriving, bustling port city with glittering nightclubs, was long closed to the West.  Andy Adams/Polaris

Published: August 17, 2008

By ROBERT REID

ANCHORING the far end of the 5,757-mile Trans-Siberian Railway, the Russian port city of Vladivostok did not exactly welcome visitors during the Soviet era. Despite its strategic position — near the Russian border with China and North Korea — Vladivostok occupied its own world during the cold war and was off limits to everyone, even Russians, since it was also home to the Russian Pacific Fleet.

But its ports have swung open in recent years, not just as a thriving trading post at the edge of Asia, but also as a surprisingly picturesque city of hillside mansions, scenic bays and, these days, extravagant night life fueled by the booming shipping and commercial fishing industries.

Numerous airlines now fly into Vladivostok. Low-cost carriers like S7 (www.s7.ru) have softened the distance from Moscow, while airlines like Vladivostok Air (www.vladivostokavia.ru) fly from regional hubs including Hanoi, Beijing, Seoul and Osaka. This summer even saw new flights from the United States, with service on Vladivostok Air from Anchorage, Alaska.

More change is on the way as the city prepares to host the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in 2012. About $6 billion in new hotels, highways, theaters and casinos have been proposed, although parts of Vladivostok already glitter.

Among the shiniest new spots is Okno (Batareynaya 3A; 7-4232-555-222; www.myspace.com/clubokno), a flashy Moscow-style nightclub that occupies the top floor of a new office complex on Sportivnaya Harbor. On a recent night, young professionals in designer halter tops and stilettos were lounging on gold Baroque-style armchairs, sipping vodka-and-Red Bulls and dancing to a cover of “I Will Survive.” Price of admission? A whopping 3,000 rubles, or about $125 at 24 rubles to the dollar.

“People come here to feel like they have the luxury life, even if they’re spending their last ruble,” said Okno’s manager, Evgeni Park, 30, who was dressed in Prada and Gucci and who drives around the city’s hilly streets in a 2005 Bentley Continental GT.

A similar aesthetic informs the city’s dining scene, nouveau riche establishments that take the form of dacha-style microbreweries and 24-hour pizzeria lounges you’re expected to dress up for.

The money crowd heads to the Syndicate (Komsomolskaya 11; 7-4232-469-460), a cavernous steakhouse that is set up like Al Capone-era Chicago, with homegrown blues bands and painted storefronts that look right out of “The Untouchables.” The menu includes a dish of grilled tiger prawns called Clan Soprano (550 rubles).

Also popular among the catwalk-ready crowd is Grand Café (Morskoi Vokzal, 7-4232-302-722; www.grand-cafe.ru), a split-level nightclub atop the former Morskoi Vokzal, or maritime terminal, on Golden Horn Bay. By day, it’s a quiet lunch spot to do business over salads and sandwiches; at night, boozy dance parties take over, spilling over to the large roof deck.

“Vladivostok used to have nothing,” said Mr. Park, “so now people want the best.”

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SHANGHAI, CHINA: A Triple Play for the Olympics

EPA/BOCOG

Published: July 30, 2008

By FLORENCE FABRICANT

If you’re traveling to China this summer for the Olympics, you might want to take the slender new Zagat guide to 618 restaurants and 106 hotels in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. In Beijing, Made in China in the Grand Hyatt Hotel got the highest rating of 27 for food; in Shanghai, Hanagatami, a Japanese place in the Portman Ritz-Carlton, got the highest rating at 28.

In Shanghai, the highest ratings for Chinese food went to Guyi Hunan and Din Tai Fung, which received scores of 26. In Hong Kong, Lung King Heen in the Four Seasons Hotel and Sushi Hiro in an office building at Causeway Bay were tops at 28. The guide costs $15.95.

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VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA: Crime, Corruption Persist in Vladivostok

April 23, 2008

by Gregory Feifer

Russia's Far East port city of Vladivostok is notorious for rampant crime and corruption. Residents say the violent killings of the 1990s have subsided. Political analysts say criminals used to influence politicians — now, they are being elected to office.

TRANSCRIPT:

STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Next we're going to a crime-ridden city in a crime-ridden nation. The city is Vladivostok, Russia. It's a port in Russia's Far East, and we mean Far East. If you found this city you do it by going to the map, looking at Moscow, moving your finger seven time zones to the east. Residents say violent gangland killings that made that remote city infamous in the 1990s might have subsided now, but only because now the criminals are moving into politics. NPR's Gregory Feifer reports.

GREGORY FEIFER: It's a dramatic setting, from a bay on the Sea of Japan, Vladivostok rises inland over a series of steep hills lined with water stained soviet high rises.

(Soundbite of waves)

FEIFER: In the port a passenger ship navigates through oily water littered with bobbing plastic bottles and other garbage. Near the water, appealing 19th century buildings overlook teaming streets. In addition to the Russians, there are many Chinese and Koreans here. But apart from its frontier town energy, Vladivostok oozes with something else, crime and corruption. The city is the center of a major fish poaching industry and officials here make fortunes helping criminal groups smuggle timber, cars, and other goods.

VITAL LENA MATUNIF(ph)(Far Eastern State University): (Russian spoken)

FEIFER: Vital Lena Matunif of the Far Eastern State University says at least 70% of the region's natural resources are exported illegally. Vladivostok is holding elections for mayor next month after the previous mayor Vladimir Nikolayev was convicted of selling city land. Nikolayev is believed to be a one-time mafia enforcer whose nickname is Vinnie(ph) Pooh, Russian for Winnie the Pooh. Nikolayev, who's serving time in jail for beating a local official, was elected in 2004 after his main opponent was injured in a grenade explosion. That opponent was no stranger to violence. Unusually for Vladivostok, he had campaigned against corruption. A former mayor in the 1990s, Viktor Cherepkov wage an epoch battle against the then governor and he says several assassination attempts forced him to sleep in his office to protect his family.

Mr. VIKTOR CHEREPKOV (Former Mayor of Vladivostok): (Through translator) When everything else, the governor's people tried to declare me insane. In order to kidnap me from a hospital they controlled, they sprayed mercury inside city hall. When the ambulance staff came, I said I'd rather drink mercury than risk going with them.

FEIFER: Cherepkov says he was beaten, kidnapped, and his son sent to jail on a false charge. But Cherepkov says official corruption today is even worse that it was back them. He says in those days criminal groups might have influenced politicians, but the criminals themselves didn't hold power.

Mr. CHEREPKOV: (Through translator) Today, known criminals pay prevailing huge sums to help fix their position to office. That's how Moscow maintains control out here, because the local authorities know that they can be arrested at any moment if they step out of line.

FEIFER: The current governor denies such accusations. A former businessman, Sergei Darkin, was reappointed to office in 2005. He says there are no improper connections between business and politics in his region.

Governor SERGEI DARKIN (Governor of Primorsky Krai, Russia): (Russian Spoken)

FEIFER: Of course not, he says the region's reputation is beginning to change for the better. On Vladivostok's streets, residents say at least they have constant electricity and heat now, but that nothing has been done to rebuild the city since former Mayor Cherepkov constructed roads here in the 1990s. Cherepkov has been banned from running in next month's mayoral election, which the candidate from the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party is expected to win.

(Soundbite of guitar and singing in Russian)

FEIFER: Back down at the port, busker Serge Sirgumsacoy(ph) plays guitar on the steps of a dusty pedestrian underpass. He says most Vladivostok residents seem to think the city's corruption is normal.

Mr. SERGE SIRGUMSACOY (Busker, Vladivostok): (Russian Spoken)

FEIFER: The authorities spit in people's faces, he says, but they wipe themselves off and continue as if nothing had happened. Nothing will change here, he says, until our people learn that's wrong.

Gregory Feifer, NPR News, Vladivostok.

(Soundbite of guitar and singing in Russian)

RUSSIA: In Russia's Far East, North Koreans Labor Silently

April 13, 2008

by Gregory Feifer

Russia's Far East today resembles the old American Wild West: Rolling hills covered by scrubby evergreen forest called the "taiga" stretch endlessly in vast tracts of unsettled land.

In the 1970s, the Kremlin began building the colossal Baikal-Amur railway to help develop the desolate region. North Korea sent prisoners to labor camps in the area to build the railway, but the project was eventually considered one of the great follies of the Soviet era.

Today the project remains unfinished, but nearly 20 years after the Soviet collapse, North Koreans are still logging Russian forests. They're no longer prisoners, but they're still doing dangerous work and remain isolated from the local population.

Barracks-like housing inside a compound for North Korean laborers in the town of Tynda, in Russia's Far East region of Amur.  Gregory Feifer, NPR

The Forest's Silent Workers

The snow-bound town of Tynda is the project's main crossroads. A collection of Soviet concrete-slab buildings, Tynda is only 30 years old, but it's already decrepit. At the end of a narrow road, a tall gate blocks the compound entrance that sits next to a guardhouse and a big searchlight. The complex is surrounded by an old wooden fence and a string of rusting barbed wire. Inside, conditions are basic — a red communist North Korean flag flies and prominent banners and monuments bear slogans written in large red Korean characters.

During the Cold war, North Korean prisoners were sent to Tynda to help pay off Pyongyang's debt to Moscow. Today, North Koreans travel here voluntarily and work for private Russian logging companies. Only those in good standing with North Korean authorities are allowed to come.

Occasionally, the gate opens to allow laborers through, usually in groups of three. Walking along the road, they look bedraggled and weather beaten, and they're forbidden to speak to anyone. One worker, who speaks fairly good Russian, says he doesn't want to talk because he doesn't understand the language.

Local residents say the workers keep to themselves.

"When we come across them in the forest, they're afraid of us. We used to feel sorry for them looking very poor, dressed in their black work clothes," says Tynda resident Liudmilla Alexandrovna. "But now we're used to them. After all, their lives here are far better than in North Korea."

North Korean characters mark a building at a logging camp 20 miles south of Tynda.  Gregory Feifer, NPR

Backbreaking Work

Logging, one of the main occupations of Russia's Far East, is a poorly regulated industry. Huge volumes of timber are cut illegally and sold cheaply to China, Japan and elsewhere. But most Russians aren't willing to undertake the backbreaking work — legal or illegal. The North Koreans provide a cheap source of labor for the Russian timber companies. They cut and clear wood by hand, without the help of timber harvesters or other heavy machinery.

Estimates of how many North Koreans work in the region vary. One official says there are 1,600. But a former manager with one of the big logging companies says he thinks his firm alone employs around 6,000. And he says there's no shortage of people hoping to improve their bleak lives in North Korea with years of backbreaking labor in Russia's Far East.

Inside one timber company office, North Koreans wearing military-style clothes and pins bearing images of the country's dictator, Kim Jong Il, can be seen coming in and out. Despite their obvious presence, few people in Tynda will talk about the North Korean logging camps, how much the laborers are paid, or in what conditions they live and work.

A logging camp in the forest 20 miles south of Tynda bears a red North Korean flag in the distance.  Gregory Feifer, NPR

"Normal" Relations

Nikolai Sarnovsky, chairman of the Turan-les timber company, says workers' camps are run entirely by North Korean managers as they see fit.

"They live there how they want to, not how I want them to. They even build their own barracks — we only give them the materials to do it. But they carry out all their agreements with us," Sarnovsky says.

There are reports of abuses, frequent accidents, and food shortages. But Russian officials say they don't have jurisdiction over the North Koreans. They say the terms of their work are controlled by an agreement between Moscow and North Korea.

"We cooperate with the North Koreans, but only through the timber companies. We've never had any problems," says Mikhail Mikhailov, deputy head of the regional administration. "In the 30 years the North Koreans have worked here, relations have been perfectly normal."

An Unforgiving Climate

Inside a processing plant 20 miles south of Tynda, a massive saw cuts logs into boards. North Koreans working alongside Russians are only allowed to communicate through their North Korean foreman.

In the surrounding forest, it's desolate and freezing in the winter. In summer, the woods are hot, humid and swarm with mosquitoes. The North Koreans come here for three years and sometimes stay longer.

Russian lumberjack Yuri Mitkin says his Korean counterparts live tough lives in an unforgiving climate.

"It's a very hard life. The work is dangerous and there's nowhere even to wash properly. I don't know how much they're paid, but it can't be a lot. And they're under constant surveillance," Mitkin says.