The Country 06/08/25: Hunter McGregor talks to Jamie Mackay

Today, we find our Shanghai-based correspondent in Beijing, where, like millions of other Chinese residents, he's taking in the sights in the summer heat. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's our guy in Shanghai, Hunter McGregor, Roxburgh born and bred.
He's over there and has been for a long time,
selling venison and red meat to the Chinese. But Hunter,
you're not in Shanghai, the westernized Chinese city. You're in
old old world China, as I would describe it. You're
in Beijing at the moment. It's just a wonderful contrast

(00:21):
between those two cities.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yeah, no, it's China is such
a big country, and you know, it's so diverse and
very different, and you know, being spending a bit of
time in Beijing, it feels like sort of you know,
from a New Zealand point of view, going to Australia
is very familiar, but there's a lot of small differences

(00:44):
that you pick up on, and you know, I can
pick up on a lot of differences here. You know
that everything's very different to Shanghai. And yeah, here for
the week on a bit of a holiday and enjoying
some Beijing heat. So that's really good.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Mind, you would be stinking hot in Shanghai as well,
is it.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Oh yeah, it's actually hotter in Shanghai, so that's a
little bit cooler here, but yeah, when you're sort of
thirty thirty thirty five degrees high humidity, it's not much fun.
But you know in Beijing that the people are a
lot different because you know, you've got a high hot
summer and you've got a super cold winter. You get
down to minus twenty minus thirty, and I think that

(01:26):
hard winter, you know, makes people a little bit harder
up here, a little bit more. But what they roll
there are is like good self and is up here,
So I find that my Chinese really improves because you
just sort of mumble fast and sort of put an
R sound on the end of everything. You sound like
a local.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Are you wearing your Beijing bikini? And what is a
Beijing bikini?

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, it's it's something that it's really funny. It's because
the Beijing is up here, especially in summer. They like
sitting around and drinking their local Yanjin beer and eating
lamb on skewers, and you don't get to do that
down and especially down in Shanghai. They're a bit more sophisticated.
So they sit up here, specially at nighttime on the street,

(02:09):
and it's fantastic. You sit there, you drink your cold
beer and lamb skewers. And what people do is they
especially if they they've got a good body, if they've
been doing that for a while, and they get their
motor out and they roll up their shirt and let
their belly hang out, and it's sort of a famous
sort of thing. You don't see that that very often

(02:30):
at the moment in Beijing. But yeah, last time, you know,
ten to fifteen years ago, it was everywhere. So I
haven't seen too many Beijing bikinis, but hopefully we'll see
a few more tonight when I get out on the
streets and eat a bit of lambs, some lamb skewers
and drink some beer.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Well, for anyone who hasn't been lucky enough to go
to Beijing, it's a magnificent city. Obviously, there's so much
history and heritage there. I love the Forbidden City and
Tienum and square right in the middle there. But you've
been down? Is it down? Is it else of that?
The Summer Palace.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah, sort of on the edge of town. The Summer
Palace is a man made lake that they more or
less dug to dig to make a hill which is
sixty meters high, and you know, it's a fantastic place.
It's a little bit cooler than with the breeze coming
off the lake and things like that. But it was

(03:24):
made in seventeen fifty. It took them sixteen years to
sort of dig the lake and make this a big
mountain to put a palace on. So yeah, it's impressive
that you know the history and things around Beijing. It
is definitely a place you really want to visit once
in a lifetime and experience it all because it's very different.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Just to finish on, we always talk about the state
of the Chinese economy. I note that you're coming back
when it comes to our global dairy trade auctions. We've
had good Chinese interest again overnight. Are you seeing that
pick up in the Chinese economy? And does Beijing move
slower than Shanghai?

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Beijing, it moves at a different speed. It's still still
reasonably fast, but it's got a very different feel too
to Shanghai and the rest of the country because you
know that the government sits here. It's a bit like
Wellington and Auckland there, but they move at different speeds
and things like that. But you know, what I've noticed
is that I've been traveling and living in China for

(04:22):
eighteen years now, and the tourism is picking up, is
a lot more than what it once was. And you know,
people are people are happy to spend for an experience
and do something different, so they're all getting out. So
these tourism sites are absolutely packed, all all across the
country because people, you know, at the moment, we're in

(04:44):
the middle of summer holidays, which is sort of two
months for everybody. It's a July and August. So there's
a lot of driving a lot of consumption, you know,
around around the whole country tourism now, and that's and
that's a positive thing. You know, it's low tourism mostly
the foreigners are starting to come back, but that's driving
a lot of consumption, which I was just surprised at

(05:07):
how many people were at the Summer Palace yesterday. God,
you know, I've been there a few times before and
there's hardly anybody. So you know, it's just interesting. Things
are always changing out here, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Yeah, and you can't get into the Forbidden City because
there's one point four billion Chinese all wanting to look
at it as well. Hunter McGregor, enjoy your family break
in Beijing. We'll catch you back in a couple of
weeks at home in Shanghai.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah. Thanks Jamy,