Summer Palace - WOW!

Beijing, July 11
Today's field trip, boys and girls, is to the Emperor's Summer Palace. Quoting from the Guide to the Summer Palace: "The Summer Palace, originally named Garden of Clear Ripples, was built by Emperor Qianlong in 1750 to celebrate his mother's birthday. It was later used as a pleasure garden by the emperors and empresses. In 1860 it was brutally burned down by the Anglo-French Allied Forces. Empress Dowager Cixi diverted navy funds to rebuild it in 1886. The garden was again seriously damaged by the Allied Forces of Eight Powers in 1900 and was rebuilt again in 1902."

The Summer Palace, also known as Yihe Yuan or the Garden of Health and Harmony, has a total area of 2.9 square kilometres. The buildings on the property have an area of about 70,000 square metres (roughly 700,000 square feet). Roughly three-quarters of the 2.0 square kilometres is under water, an artifical lake called Kunming Lake. The dominant land feature is Longevity Hill which was built using the earth excavated from the lake bed. (Information from Wikipedia and ebeijing.gov.cn)

Why should we care? First reason: it is my host's favourite of the historical sites in Beijing. Since she has taken care of me so well during my visit, the least I can do is tell you about her favourite place. Second reason: it is easy to get to, two subway stations on Line 4 are close to two different entry gates for the Summer Palace. (As always, "close to" is a relative term, about a fifteen minute walk, or you can spend Y20 for a power rickshaw ride.)

Third reason: it is incredibly beautiful and breathtaking. It is a long steep climb to the top of Longevity Hill from the North Gate entrance. Anybody who made that climb regularly would almost certainly be fit and live a long life. Once you get to the top and start down the other side, you start to catch glimpses of Kunming Lake. If you go on a fairly busy day, as we did, then you will also see various sizes of boats on the lake. It is almost magical. The small boats look as if they are floating high on the water or perhaps dancing on the surface. Even the larger ones look light and airy as they head in various directions to various destinations on the lake. There must have been some wisdom in the heads of the planners of the Summer Palace. Buildings are scattered around the site, more of them around Longevity Hill than elsewhere but they are spread throughout the Garden. If you were a court official (or the emperor) you could spend a few hours in one of many different places in the Garden and be away from the noise and business of the court.

One of the things that struck be about the Summer Palace is the significant similarities between it, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. The buildings have the same design and the decorative touches on the buildings are almost identical. The Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven are considerably older than the Summer Palace. All are immense engineering and design feats, especially without motorized vehicles. Yet they all look as if they could have come from the same mind (or set of minds) and all been built about the same time. At least some parts are deliberately similar. Parts of the Temple of Heaven were built to match parts of the Forbidden City for example. But these similarities suggest a mindset that relied on the past for guidance and did not change readily. Even work commissioned by Dowager Empress Cixi is like work completed by emperors in the distant past.

Another thing that struck me about these three sites (and the Great Wall) is something I alluded to in the previous paragraph. The work was done without motorized vehicles. The Summer Palace, all 2.9 square kilometres of it including dredging roughly 2 square kilometres for a lake, and piling that earth to make the stable, long lasting Longevity Hill, all that was done using human and animal power. And it was completed in less than two years, in time for Emperor Qianlong's mother's sixtieth birthday.

Some things have changed in China since then. The country and the government look forward as well as show respect for history. For example, China has the single largest number of Internet users in the world on a per country basis. However Internet penetration on a per capita basis is not impressive, people are working to change that. And China, like most nations, has lots of motorized vehicles for major projects. The government is still able to mobilize tens of thousands to millions of people to focus on a particular national project just as the emperors could. Unlike the projects of the emperors today's projects are focused both inwardly (Three Gorges Dam) and outwardly (2008 Olympics).

Living Art

Beijing, July 10
My host and I made the trek to the 798 Artists Collective this afternoon. I don't know if it is correct to call it an Artists Collective but I think that name gives a sense of the area. Out past the 4th Ring Road there is an area of abandoned factories and warehouses along with what look like workers' housing units along with other buildings. The area has been taken over and converted to galleries and shops. The warehouse spaces are very good for displaying large pieces and installations. The workers' houses and other low buildings have been converted into shops and stores.

Some of the art is not to my taste. All of it is beyond the range of my budget this trip. There was a gallery of Buddhas in ceramic, priced from Y250,000 - Y500,000 (The Y means Yuan. The exchange rate is roughly Y6 = $1.) The statues were very beautiful, most were serene, some were a little playful. Some were distinctly Chinese. Any one of them would be a good addition to a Buddhist home. We saw one exhibit of what I have to call "modern painting", I have no idea what stream of modern art this was. And I would not have any one of them in my home. I either did not connect with the pieces or I connected negatively.
We saw an exhibit of large black and white photographs made during the photographer / artist's trip to Tibet. A few of them I felt neutral about. Almost all of them I would have taken home if possible. There are stunning, powerful images that reveal some of the beauty and the reality of living in Tibet.
Scattered around the parts of 798 we visited were what would probably be classed as "grotoesques" by art critics. Human figures that are distorted in some way, or non-human figures that the human visitors could react to and with. We saw two sheet metal outlines of human figures attached to a wall. They reminded me of sardine cans. Each metal shape was big enough for one person to stand in. People were gathered around waiting to get their chance to get into the cans and be photographed.

We went into one dimly lit shop that was full of cloth and embroidery. The space was about 3 or 4 meters square and roughly regular ceiling height. Except for the door and window there was cloth and clothing stacked floor to ceiling. There was also a pile about table height in the centre of the room. The woman who talked to us told us the embroidery was done by monks, Tibetan monks, or monks from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, from the look of the designs. Absolutely beautiful work, bright colours, fascinating designs, swirls of colour, almost all strong primary colours: reds, yellows, blues mostly. I wanted to buy something but I knew I would never be able to walk out with just one piece.
There were lots of souvenir shops of course, and most of them were overflowing with people, some looking, some buying. Quite often one or two items catch my eye and I think about buying, and then I see the same item in two or three or four places and I know the "unique" piece I saw in one shop is a mass produced item. I did buy a key chain with the name of the subway stop I have used every day since I got here. It will be a daily reminder of this trip once I get back to Toronto.
And we went into the UCCA Store. That is the store to go to if you want new or unusual items from the 798 area (unless you buy original art of course). Lots and lots of well designed pieces, pieces people can live with and use. Lots of art gallery souvenirs as well and some limited edition art. So it has something for all pocket books, and probably something for all tastes. A great place, and full of people young and old wanting to find something for themselves or for others.

Lost and Found Tea

Beijing, July 9
This morning I managed to get myself lost. I went to the bank machine which is about ten minutes walk away, that means walking east about 1 1/2 blocks along Dazhalan and then north five blocks on the closest main street, which is called Meishi. Then 1/2 block west on Qian Men Xi is the ATM for the bank. On the way back I decided to go into the hutong and wander a bit, knowing as long as I kept heading more-or-less south I would come out either on Dazhalan or a street parallel to it. Full of self confidence I just kept walking making turns that I thought were appropriate. When I eventually came out of the hutong I did not know where I was.

I thought I recognized a couple of familiar landmarks in the distance so I walked towards them hoping to be re-assured about my location and direction. Whoops, they were familiar alright, but I could not remember why or when I had seen them before. More importantly I did not know where they were in relation to the hotel. I turned off the main street I was walking on into a quieter pedestrian area and stilled my brain. Then I had the best thought I had since I left the hotel: it was only about 8.30 am. That meant the sun was in the east. Then I realized I had been walking south since I left the hutong instead of walking north. So I headed back the way I came. Then I remembered when I had walked on this street before. This street was Nan Jinhua, it marks the western edge of the hutong where the hotel is located. I kept walking north until I got to Qian Menxi, then east to Meishi and south to Dazhalan and then to the hotel.

Except I did not go to the hotel. I walked past the hotel and went to the tea shop I first visited yesterday. I spent over an hour there, seeing, smelling, tasting tea. I bought a few hundred grams of tea which I could make last a very long time if I wanted. I could save them them for very special occassions and very special people, or I could enjoy them as they should be enjoyed, which is what I intend to do. One of the things I found out was the tea merchant will ship tea to Canada if I tell him what I want, and if I pay for it of course. Now I have a list of five or six teas I like very much which I can order from him whenever I wish. He does not speak very much English but his daughter was very helpful. She sat with us and translated when necessary. It was a very good start to the day, and a very nice change from being (almost) lost.

The tea merchant is the Yaxiang Tea Shop, Tiehuxie Jie #4 Beijing. The owner's name is Zhang Heming. I have an e-mail address and two phone numbers if you are interested in ordering. Tiehuxie Jie is at the western end of Dazhalan, maybe five minutes walk west of 365 Inn. (Jie just means street or road or avenue or way.) If you visit tell him Robert from Canada sent you.

After we finished our most pleasant business I went to the grocery store to buy water for tea. According to my host nobody in Beijing drinks water out of the tap. That is partly because most Chinese will not drink anything cold, but mainly because tap water here has a distinct odour, usually a little like sulfur. It is quite safe apparently just not pleasant.

In the afternoon I caught up with some work and watched some TV. I wondered what people will be doing in church in Toronto on Sunday. My host and I hope to go to one of the art districts in Beijing tomorrow afternoon. I have seen some of the main historic attractions, I have seen the modern commercial side of Beijing, perhaps tomorrow I will see some of the avant-garde side. This city has over eight hundred years of history (four hundred years more than Quebec City) and is a vibrant and forward looking as the fresh shrimp you will have for dinner next week. How all of these parts work together as well as they do I am not sure, and I will probably never be sure. Right now I am just enjoying swimming in as many streams of Beijing culture as I can.

Bugs, Books and Ducks

Beijing, July 8
Unless you go to a particularly historical area there is not much to take pictures of during a shopping trip. I was focused today on the purchase possibilities and not on architecture and people so I am not posting any images this time. The malls in Beijing look very much like malls in toronto or Halifax or Vancouver. The signs are in a different language but many of the store names are the same, and many of the products on sale are quite similar.

Three of us shared a significantly large dim sum lunch: szechuan dumplings, chicken feet, soup inside buns and what were dishes four, five and six? (Why did I not write them down after lunch?) Then we shared a wonderful mango and sago dessert as well as a bean dessert which had a disappointing colour but a pleasant flavour.

Then my host and I headed to the famous Wangfujing Street to do some serous shopping. I am not a serious shopper most of the time, but I can stay focused on shopping for several hours if necessary to get what I consider to be the best gift for a particular person. Wangfujing Street is featured in many tourist guides mainly for its food market. It has its own Wikipedia page. Apparently if it is edible it is available on Wangfujing Street. We walked past at least two shops featuring scorpions on a stick. There is at least one video on Youtube about this dish. And there are probably contests every night to find out which guy can eat the most of these "treats". I say probably because I know guys who will do anything on a dare, especially after a few beers.

Wangfujing Street is a pedestrian only area, at least the main shopping area. There are many big Chinese brands in various stores as well as well known international brands. One of the important things to know about Chinese companies is their potential size. A company that operates only in China has the potential to sell goods to about 1/4 of the world's population. Why would they need to become multi-national?

Because the area is well-known there are lots and lots and lots and lots of souvenir shops and stalls. And lots and lots and lots and lots of people eager to sell you whatever you might want, and everything is offered at the best price in Beijing. (And if you believe the last bit about price, stay away from this part of Beijing.) We walked through one narrow area of souvenir stalls and we got out alive and without spending any money. That's because both of us stared at the exit and kept moving, occassionaly having to make a hand motion to say "no". These sellers are quite persistent, one man even grabbed my arm briefly. Unfortunately for their sales techniques, their merchandise was almost all the same, arranged differently in different stalls. But it was the same statues and bracelets and wooden things that I have seen in many places since I hae been here.

We went into one department store that had one floor of toys. Such a place! Some toys were internationally known, like "Transformers", others were new to me. Some were distinctly Chinese, others could have been sold anywhere in North America (basketball, dart guns, etc.). There were some lovely intricate wooden kits of various historical buildings in Beijing as well as wooden dinosaurs and doll house furniture. After fifteen or twenty minutes on this floor the rest of the store looked pretty plain.

We also spent considerable time in the Wangfujing Bookstore. If I remember correctly it has been on the same site for about sixty-two years. If you are a book lover this is a place to go. Only new books are sold on the four floors, and more than half are in Chinese of course. Even so, the selection of English language books is quite wide. I saw English language books in many categories: recent novels, classics of literature, cookbooks, dictionaries, children's books and more. There are lots of books for people who speak Chinese to learn other languages and people who speak other languages to learn Chinese. One of the things that amazed me was the number of people under fourteen reading and talking about books to each other. My host explained that at least some of them were groups of children from local day camps. Even that is amazing, who in Canada or the U.S. would take kids in day camp on a field trip to a book store? But these kids were swarming over the books, excitedly enjoying them. I saw copies of one of Stephen Hawking's books in Chinese in the children / young adult area. When I mentioned this to my host she reminded me she has one nine year old student who wants her to tell him about Einstein's General Relativity equations.

We both managed to spend some money in the bookstore and other places along Wangfujing. Then we made our way back to the hotel. I left my bags behind and we went to the restaurant next door to have the world famous Peking / Beijing Duck. (In the ten minute walk from the subway station to the hotel there are at least four restaurants that specialize in duck. We picked this one because ??) First thing to know is there is no one correct way that Peking Duck can be served and eaten. Some cookbooks say one way, others describe other ways. Whatever way you like and whatever restaurant you like is the "right way". Second thing to know is that it is duck (unlike Bombay Duck which is a fish), so it is bound to taste good. Third thing is unless you can eat enormous amounts or like lots of leftovers, go with at least one other person, preferably two or three other people.

So I had my first Peking Duck meal in Beijing -- what could be better -- at least as far as first tastes of a world famous dish. And we had an incredible mushroom and bacon dish which I think I may be able to cook correctly myself, if I can get the same quality of bacon. Of all the wonderful things I have eaten here so far, this one dish is right at the top of the list. This mushroom and bacon dish, along with the egg and tomato dish I have had a couple of times, would make a perfect breakfast or brunch or lunch or light supper for a family. With rice and some green vegetable (brocolli or something similar) it would be filling family meal. I am not saying anything mroe about this dish until I learn how to cook it myself.

Heavenly Temple

Beijing, July 7
Tian Tan Day, a trip to the Temple of Heaven, parts of it anyway.
My host told me this particular site is about half an hour walk from my hotel. As usual she was right. It was a reasonable walk considering the temperature and the blazing sun today. A blazing sun in Beijing is a good thing, it means the air is relatively clean.
Towards the end of the walk, as I got to the intersection of Qian Men and Zhushikou I found I could not get there from here. I could see where I wanted to go but I could not walk directly from where I was to where I needed to be. (That happens fairly regularly and unpredictably here.) There was construction which completely blocked the sidewalk for several dozen metres. There was no way to get passed it directly without walking into traffic. I had to go in the wrong direction along Zhushikou a little, use a raised pedestrian walkway and then figure out how to get back to Qian Men so I could cross over it and continue to Tian Tan. Either the streets had moved a little or the the scale of my map does not allow the amount of detail I required but I did not find exactly how to get where I was going. But I was not on a schedule and I knew what direction I had to go so I followed the traffic and found my way.
On my way back to the hotel I discovered I could not cross Zhushikou from south to north. There was a barrier separating east and west bound traffic. I decided not to run across five lanes, jump a barrier and then run across another five lanes. Again there was an elevated pedestrian walkway provided. Again it required I walk east for a little while in order to cross over and then walk west back to Qian Men.

If you come to Beijing, visit this park and historical site. First it resembles the North American idea of a park more than the other historical sites I have seen. It has lots of grass and other low growing green stuff. It has thousands of trees, mostly cypress and pine, but many other types. You cannot and should not walk on the grass. Like me, you will be a guest here, so follow the rules. It has flower gardens. There is a wonderful collection of roses that were nearly finished flowering in early July (unfortunately for me). China is the home of the tea rose, one of the main parents of modern Hybrid Tea roses, sold to millions of people every year in North America. The entry fee is Y30 and there are some special parts of Tian Tan that each require another Y20 to enter. I stayed within the "basic" part of the park.
More than the other areas I have visited, Tian Tan felt to me like a family or community park that happened to have historical monuments in it. Before I get to that, I remind you what I said about The Egg: the Beijing City government likes to do things on a grand scale. That was even more true when there were emperors in Beijing. The Temple of Heaven was the centre of worship for the entire country. People believed that what the emperor did here determined harvests and prosperity for the entire empire. So it was a very important place. (If you rent the audio guide when you come you will hear some of the stories.) Because it was so important emperors would add, renovate, rebuild parts of it from time to time. The current Tian Tan park is four times the area of the Forbidden City. When the audio guide said that I thought my legs would fall off. However most of the space is open, very little has buildings on it. The various worship spaces are extremely impressive, and built on the same "bigger is better" principle that rules in the Forbidden Palace. While you are always aware of those buildings they do not dominate, I found it easy to relax and wander, no pressure to make sure I had seen everything there was to see.

I think because of this relaxed atmosphere, which is greatly aided by the cypresses and other trees, the park seems to be the home of many amateur performing groups. People get together to practice (perhaps) or show off (perhaps) or just to enjoy various minority folk dances and songs as well as various groups of the dominant Han sharing their songs with the open air and anyone in ear shot. By the way I assume these were all amateur groups, but it is possible some were paid to show up and perform. I saw line dancing for fun and exercise, folk dancing and singing, dance groups practicing routines. I heard Peking Opera in several places, I heard what looked like a spontaneous group singing either folk songs or revolutionary songs. I saw middle-aged women dancing with multi-coloured ribbons and enjoying themselves immensely. I think I would visit this park a lot if I lived here and lived close enough to it to visit.
After more than three hours wandering around on concrete and stone I decided to go back to the hotel area for some lunch and some air conditioning.

The Egg

Beijing July 6,
Another day not full of exciting events or places, partly because my host was working today and will be for the next several days. (Other people have to work even though I am on holiday) Also a quieter day because of the heat and the air quality.

I knew before I came there would be days, perhaps the whole trip, when the air would be thick here. Today was one of those days. The TV said it got to 31 today but I was outside at noon, it certainly felt much hotter. The Weather Channel Internet site says it is currently 29 but with the humidex feels like 38. That I believe. It also says it is currently hazy. That's a polite way to say the air almost has body. However there is supposed to be up to 5mm of rain overnight. That should wash some of the junk out of the air and make tomorrow more comfortable.

I spent a few hours this morning marking and then went for a walk. I started out going west since I thought I had not been that way before. The next main street west of the hotel has many musical instrument stores and stores for calligraphy supplies. One day I will be in the market for the proper instruments to write characters. But I am not going to buy things that will sit in the closet for years gathering dust. And since I do not play an instrument and don't want to carry one home on the plane this part of the street was not particularly interesting. So I turned and went north, crossed Qian Men Jie, one of the widest streets I have encountered (six lanes of cars each way plus two lanes for buses, taxis and other vehicles each way), and kept going north.

As I was walking I noticed a large round silver building. As I got closer I saw it looked like a silver ball someone pushed down on to make the main diameter wider. It was surrounded by lots of green space. When I got to the green space I discovered another thing in Beijing that is free. The first thing that is free is the public toilets (very civilized), the second is the part around the National Center for the Performing Arts, also known as the Opera House even though many other kinds of performance happen here. I am beginning to think perhaps all public projects in Beijing have to be huge. The park is quite large, although, as always, stick to the paths, stay off the grass.

According to Wikipedia the Center itself holds 5,452 people in three performance areas and is nearly 12,000 square meters in area. It is 212 meters east to west, 144 meters north to south and 44 meters high. The building itself is surrounded by water. The entrace is down a wide long set of stairs. From the lobby I could see that at least parts of the interior space are open directly to the water. So it must feel like you are under water in those areas.

The construction took about six years and cost over Y3.2 billion roughly $530 million at current exhange rates. Not only were the construction costs supported by the National and Beijing government the enormous operational costs are also constantly subsidized by both governments, a matter of some discussion at many levels in Chinese society. Looking at the building, either from inside or outside it is clear the building is a major achievement for the city of Beijing. I am not sure if I like the look of the building but it is a lot more attractive than many "modern" buildings I have seen and the inside looks fabulous. I think it is extremely important there is continual government financial support for the arts. I think the people of Beijing should be proud of their government for taking on such a project.

The Forbidden City

Beijing, July 5

Just like Qian Men and Tian An Men Square and the Great Wall there is no way to be prepared for the Forbidden City. It's official name now is the Palace Museum. It is not forbidden at all to anyone with the price of admission and it is a museum, there are some static displays of artifacts in quite a number of buildings. However the word "museum" carries with it for me the sense of one building or perhaps a few interconnected buildings. The Palace Museum is truly a city that has been preserved on site. It is not one palace the way we might think of Buckingham Palace, but a vast array of palaces and audience halls and pavilions and gardens. There are some small, specialized buildings and some enormous palatial buildings and all sizes of buildings in between. This is the first thing I wanted to show in the pictures I selected for this article: the scale of this historic site is incredibly large. For example there are three gigantic gates and three immense courtyards to go through before you have to pay admission. As I said to someone today, one could easily spend at least half a day taking pictures of these areas and probably still not capture everything there is to see, and these are just the preliminaries.

The second thing I wanted to show with the pictures I selected is the astounding beauty of this city. In the six hours I wandered around I took about two hundred pictures. I wanted to be reasonably selective and I wanted representative material since I knew I would never remember all of the names of all of the places where I took pictures. From what I saw people doing today there are cell phones all over Beijing with hundreds of pictures of the City all taken during a three hour tour. I did eventually go into the Treasures area where there are priceless items used by the emperors of mostly Qing (about 1640 to 1911) but also Ming (about 1350 - 1640) dynasties. Bowls and cups of jade, crystal, jasper, gld, silver, cloisonne, and other materials, miniature gardens made with jewels, Ancient inscriptions on stone "drums", over two thousand years old, Imperial seals, a couple of collections of material for the last emperor. They are dazzling. But there is magnificent beauty in the architecture and that's what I wanted to show in my photos.

Third I wanted to show how much I enjoyed my time in the City / Museum. For that I need to tell a couple of stories. People want to take my picture, they especially want to have pictures of themselves or their children together with me. And I have always been pleased to do so. Today I decided that I would also ask them if I could take their picture, if that seemed to be a polite thing I could do. In one of the big courtyards a man asked if he could take a picture of me with his son, who appeared to be about four or five. I agreed but we both had to encourage the son to stand close enough to me so that it looked like we were together. Then I asked to take a picture of the two of them, and he agreed. You can see the son is much happier to be beside his father. About an hour later we saw each other again, this time there were two women with them. I readily agreed to a few more pictures.

Later on in the afternoon, perhaps 1.30, I sat down on the edge of some building to take a rest. I sat down about two meters away from a little girl who was sitting beside a woman (her mother perhaps). After some minutes and with considerable persuasion from the woman the little girl reluctantly agreed to look at me long enough for me to look at her in what I hoped was a friendly way. After a few minutes we even waved a little at each other. Then two more women and two more kids showed up (sisters? cousins?). The women asked to take pictures of me with the kids and I agreed. Then I took three of my own. I uploaded one of them is here. Then I remembered I had some Canadian coins in my bag so I gave each kid their own coin from Canada. That was a big hit with the women anyway. Then the little girl in the picture brought me a gift of a Chinese flag. A few minutes later they gathered up all their stuff and went out across the courtyard.

There have been many little times like this. I don't have a common language with almost everyone in Beijing but many people make an effort to communicate with me. Almost always we have a good conversation despite the language barrier. It is usually a short conversation, but I have generally been treated with courtesy and respect. I have had the occasional "dirty" look on the subway, but that happens in Toronto too.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. It would be nice if it brought cooler weather and some rain, if the rain lowers the humidity. However I don't think that is going to happen until next week, looks like mid to high 30s with little or no chance of rain until at least next Monday. I will keep drinking lots of water and finding air conditioned spaces.