The Interview: Daniel McCrohan by Agnė Vei

PATH TO HAPPINESS

An interview with Daniel McCrohan; a Lonely Planet guidebook author, a travel writer who specialises in China, and the creator of the best-selling travel app, Beijing on a Budget

Agnė Vei

Photo: Daniel & dolly-like daughter, hiking along Zhuangdaokou Great Wall.

We have agreed with Daniel to meet up at a café called The Other Place that is located in a hutong. After leaving the yellow Bei-jing cab with my camera suddenly in my hand, I saw two rickshaws passing me in lighting speed, carrying tourists in, what looked like, jaw dropping amazement. With the old streets abuzz with life, I heard a soft, whispered “Welcome!” in the air as if it was flying toward the horizons on wings. Wandering across the narrow street alleys, I was picking up the smiles on people’s faces – what a euphoric feeling! I got to the café where we had arranged to meet and sat down in a cozy courtyard. After ordering a cup of jasmine tea, I felt my eyes racing around: intoxicating, pleasant, happy, sweet and cozy feelings overtook me...! Suddenly I saw Daniel McCrohan in the doorway, radi-ating an aura of zen-like peace and tran-quility. A Lonely Planet guidebook author, a travel writer who specializes in China, and the creator of the best-selling travel app, Beijing on a Budget (Daniel has considered Beijing to be his second home since 2005). After snuggling up in one of the cozy spaces at The Other Place, we delved into a dis-cussion about the path to happiness. I read out some words of Japanese wisdom to the writer. Daniel nodded and smiled. Our con-versation took off.

• Let’sgobackto1994?Youbecameatraveler.Wasthereadreambehindthefirstjourney?WhyEast?WhyAsia?

Not really. It was by chance. I had failed my examinations to get into university. So, I had to spend another year studying and retaking them. I decided to use the end of that year to do something. Some of my friends were going traveling to India. I thought, why not join them? I had had some time to earn some money, but I knew nothing about India. I had no guide-book. We just went there.

• Wehavethisgapoffiveyears,beforeyoubecameajournalist(1999).Whatcanyoutellmeaboutthoseyears?Whatdidthatstageinyourlifegivetoyou?

During that trip in India I just fell in love with traveling generally. When you are a student in a university you have those long holidays and lots of time to do stuff. So, I used that time to go on “a big” trip every year. The first year – India, next year I went to Morocco, third – South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia. The year after – Egypt. These are my four years while I was in university. During those trips I decided to become a writer. It was not necessarily

travel writing I wanted to do. I thought I’ll become a journalist. I was studying eco-nomics and decided that was too boring. I left university and started to look for a journalism-training course to get my qual-ifications. I applied to local newspapers to get a trainee-ship and they took me as a trainee-journalist. I started my post-gradu-ate journalism studies too.

• Andthenextfive/1999-2004/?

I worked on a variety of newspapers and moved around “newspaper to newspaper” for seven more years before I came to China.

• 2005isTheDate,right?YoucametoChinaanditwasloveatfirstsight?IbelieveIwillnotbetoorudeaskingwasitChinaorwasitloveforthegirl?(Westartlaughing)

At first it was China! A couple of years before I met my wife. I had traveled to Chi-na before in 2004 – one of those “big” trips I did every year. I loved it and decided to stay longer, like one year. I was working as an English teacher. I planned to go back to England, but I fell in love with China, living abroad, culture, history... Started learning Chinese. And eventually met my

wife and obviously that was the reason to stay for such a long period of time.

• So,youbecameparttimeEng-lishteacher,journalist...Probablyyouboughtlegendarybicycle“FlyingPi-geon”aswell?

Yes! I did it during my first week in China! That is now nine years now. I bought it for 70 yuan. It was second-hand bike... I dis-covered that it is older than me - forty years old! Old Gentlemen... (A hearty laugh)

• ‘NineMillionBicycles’wasre-leasedasthealbumsfirstsinglebyKateMelua2005.TheinspirationcamefromhervisittoBeijing.Shesings„ThereninemillionbicyclesinBei-jing...“.Andthemainideaofthesongisjuxtapositionof‘NineMillionBicycles’againstidea‘IwillloveyoutillIdie’.So,mostprobablythose‘NineMillionBicycles’arelegendaryChinesebicycles‘FlyingPigeons’.Howisliferidingtheoneinhistoric‘hutong’alleways?Whatwouldbeyourjuxtapositionofperson-alrideinthecapitalofChina?

It’s my daughters favorite song! No, I didn’t know that... Thats difficult (pause for a while

Daniel)... When I’m riding around I feel that I’m exploring all the time. Something different happens all the time. I stop – take a photo. There is always something more to learn. If I’m riding a taxi – I just move around...

• Whatcanyoutellusabout2006?SometimeswemeetStrangers...WasitinUzbekistanwhereyou’vemetanoth-ertravelwriter...Whatishisname?Hegaveyouasuggestiontoconcentrateonlyononething.Onlywritinganddonotwaistyourtimeforotherthings?How,overall,hasthatadvicechangedyourlife?

Yes, changed it dramatically. Greg Bloom. He didn’t say so much. He said he thought that I was ready to do the job I’ve dreamed about. He said “You can just do it. You already travel. No one just goes to Uzbeki-stan... You are already a travel writer”. So, he kind of gave me a kick-up the back-side to apply for Lonely Planet.

• 2007–2008youstartedtoworkforLonelyPlanet?Whatisspecialaboutworkingthere?

Well... I guess the special thing about them

is – they go to all the places there are in the books. Not all companies do that. In most countries it’s the number one guide num-ber one company. It’s got the resources to send out people to all the places. It’s in your contract – you have to go to all the places you write about, which makes it more inter-esting. You end up having to explore every-where in depth. This is real.

• PhilosophicallydoyoufeelaLonelyTravelersometimes?Manytripsyoutravelalone,right?

Yes, it can be quite lonely, but you don’t feel lonely as you meet lots of people. On a bus trip you always sit next to someone. You miss family, children. It feels lonely not being with your loved ones...

• ProbablythemostlonelyonesarethosemonksinChinesemountains?AmIright?Whatdoyouthinkaboutthislife-styleifwecouldcallitso?

Yes, that was probably in Sichuan province. To me, theirs is a wonderfully romantic existence. The places they live in are very remote - very tough to get to. I’m not a particularly spiritual person, but it must be wonderful to be free of worries and stress-

es... If you don’t mind just drinking but-ter-tea every day... (silence…)

• Whataboutguide-books?It’smorethan20now?

Yes, more than 20. This (Daniel points the finger to his Beijing guide-book) that I’m up-dating now is 21, I think. Normally the whole project takes about four months. One month – preparing the journey, then two months travelling alone and one month writing, editing... Ideally, 2-3 book projects a year.

• Thelastonewasaboutspicyfood?Yourfavoritespicetospicealife?

I just wrote one recipe: Chongqing Hotpot. This is a very spicy dish found in China - ingredients of your choice in a boiling broth of chilli-laced madness. • 2011youlaunched“Beijingonabudget”app?Whatisspecialabouttheapp?

It is so special, because it’s being updated frequently - I’m living here in Beijing. I can focus on it all the time. Apps done by companies that have many apps... I don’t

think they have a person for each app – that wouldn’t be financially valuable... I live here, I’m up-dating it all the time. The “comment section“ is directed to my e-mail, so I can put comments live on the app immediately…

• TimeoutBeijingsays“Weliketothinkthatwe’retheonlyguideyou’lleverneedtoBeijing,butifyouwanttoaddafundigitaledge,tryBeijingonaBudget”.Usersseamshappyaswell.Somanypositivereviews!Howthatmakesyoufeel?

I was so pleased – especially when people whom I’d never met started giving even better reviews than my friends! That’s a fantastic feeling. It’s fun! Just me doing it. I just write whatever do I want to write. It’s my personal recommendation of things I like in Beijing.

• Usuallywhenwearedonewiththeprojectpeopleareasking-whatnext?So,whatnext?

Well, I’m doing Beijing’s book now for 2015. Then I’m gonna do the big China book and I’ll be busy until September. And then I’ll be working on the India guide-book.

• So,doyouagreethat„Thejour-neymayseemlong,butwhenwestrideforth,withoutpause,ourpathwillopenupandwillleadtohappiness“(Konosu-keMatsushita).Areyouhappy?

I am happy – very privileged and lucky! But things have changed a lot: Lonely Plan-et is changing, travel writing is changing, travel-guides are changing a lot... The whole world is changing... I am trying to enjoy what I can now, because it might not last forever. People are buying guide-books less and less, unfortunately. They might not be here in ten more years... That makes me sad. It’s an opportunity for writers to try new platforms. There are more writers in this digital age. Even I hope that if I am still will be a travel writer in ten years, I’ll be writing in exactly the same way. But as long as I am able to see the world, travel and write – I’ll be happy.

• Howdoyouthink,isthereanysuccessformulaforlife?Atleastsomeingredientsorspice...?

I try to tell people when they are thinking to go about going somewhere – don’t wor-ry about what may happen. Just go there. You’ll work out everything while you’ll be

there. If you are worrying too much about dangers or getting lost – don’t do that, you’ll never go! When you get there, you’ll deal with those situations. You can’t deal with them until you’re not there. It’s impos-sible to plan everything perfectly. Just go, and deal with things as they come along.

• Andthelastquestion:WherecanwefindBeijingPenguins*andhaveacompletefreeswimespeciallyrecom-mendedduringthedeepwinter?

Go to Houhai Lake - the north-west side of the lake. There is an exercise park there. That’s where Beijing Penguins jump in. You can even join them yourself - I’ve done it three times now in the winter. It’s the coldest thing you could possibly imagine.. but it’s good for your health, apparently. And it’s not just here in Beijing. There are Penguin groups in lots of cities across Chi-na.. even further north than here!

• THANKYOU.

* These are Beijing’s healthiest who swims all year round – every day

To the ones who search for the self-substance!

Agnė Vei “With a Wish!..”April 10, 2014

Beijing (China)

Illustration: Tlim SackDesign: Marius Kasperas