November 28, 2006

Beijing (Llama Temples, Pandas, Summer Palace, Forbidden City)

Kevin Lee, the same tour guide as the Ming Tomb and Great Wall tour, picked me up this morning from the hotel. It was great to see his smiling face sticking outside the door of the bus cheerfully yelling my name. Today we were joined by Silvia, a French woman, and Vanessa from South Africa.



We tackled the Llama temples including the largest wooden Buddha in the world. These wooden Buddhas are made from a single piece of wood. The amazing fact about the Buddha we saw today is that it was over 100 ft. high and at least 30 ft. thick, all from a single Tibetan sandlewood tree. The tree was a gift from the Buddhist Llama of Tibet when the emperor decided (in a politically astute move) to build a Llama temple in Beijing. (Sorry they only allowed pictures of the outside.)





The pandas in the zoo were full of wonder. They were unusually active and of course were amazingly photogenic.





The Emperor’s Summer Palace could easily be a spot of repose for an entire day in the appropriate season. During the late fall it was still beautiful, especially the over 14,000 paintings and the obvious thought put into the layout.











The famous stone barge was built as a symbol of the unsinkable durability of the dynasty, but even the tour guide pointed out that it didn’t float so technically couldn’t be sunk.



After the Summer Palace I was dropped off at the Forbidden City for a chilly stroll through the many corridors and palace temples. Beijing is in major restorative mode, so the largest temples or empirical halls were tarped and under construction.







Strolling toward and eventually out the main Tiananmen Gate one can’t help but be taken aback by the density of military and police guards, not to mention to typical marching icons.



The Tiananmen incident is still a very soar spot for the powers that be and overt control of the area is clearly evident.

November 27, 2006

Beijing (Hutong Tour)

A Hutong is a style of one-story structure built during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties around the Forbidden City. The structures were typically quadrangles, with large courtyards, housing nobles and support for the Emperor. Typically, one family would occupy an entire quadrangle. Today six to eight families occupy the same space. Many of the courtyards have now been filled with additional structures, providing kitchens and outhouses for the additions families.





A large contributor to Beijing's famous air pollution is the burning of coal for heat and cooking fuel by tens of millions of families. Coal is taken from raw form and pressed into cylinders. After the fuel has been consumed the cylinder turns from black to a lighter gray, without losing shape. The good news is that with the coming Summer Olympics, this is the last winter that coal can legally be burned in Beijing. Massive hydro-electric projects under way are to generate enough electricity to replace coal burning in the future.





A great mode of transportation around the narrow Huton District streets is pedi-bike.



The 700 year old Huton District is now under cultural attack around Lake Shishahai. Old structures are being torn down and replaced with new historical replica's that will be bars for the Summer Olympics crowds.







After the Huton tour we headed to the former residence of the "Last Emperor's" uncle. A great irony of China is its inability to fully admit the massive flaws of Mao and his systematic destruction of their cultural artifacts and millions of people. The shattered remaining history has now been gobbled up by the state and put on display with pride. The cognitive dissonance is numbing. As beautiful as the house and grounds were, the irony is that the only reason why it is held up as a jewel today is that the house was considered too insignificant to destroy during the cultural revolution. Under hushed voice, the guide said that the official party line is now that Mao was 60% correct. They end the sentence there, skillfully ommiting the 40% wrong portion.





It was a very pleasant surprise to receive an energetic reception from a military choir waiting to perform for tourists. This was the response to just a casual wave.



To say that the tea is China was amazing would be unbelievably trite, but it was. To sit through the forty-five minute tea ceremony, trying five different styles of tea, was a relaxing pleasure.



One of the pleasures of travel is meeting many new people. Tonight that translated into a "traditional dinner", specifically designed for tourists, with some great Australians and the Chinese National Acrobats.

November 26, 2006

Beijing (Ming Tombs & Great Wall)

Burial of the dead is always an interesting cultural experience. There seems to be a commonality in the ancient world where hubris meets mortality. In building the great pyramids, it is said that the engineers and key officials who knew the design and therefore the route to the sarcophagus were killed when each burial pyramid was sealed. The burial chambers were filled with everything the pharaoh would need for a resurrected afterlife journey. The same was true in China during the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Tombs are the eastern equivalent of the Valley of the Kings. Generations of Tombs are arranged in proxity to the main site. The actual tombs are not elaborate stone structures, but appear as large earth hills preceded by a complex of buildings.

The largest of these buildings now hosts a few of the artifacts from the tomb.



During the Ming Dynasty, size mattered. If you were physically large, then you must be prosperous. This Emperor must have been huge. Below is a picture his jade belt. Only the jade pieces remain, as the fabric has disintegrated. Even rapped twice around the waist, imagine the shear girth. Very prosperous indeed...



Many Chinese still practice veneration or ancestor worship. So it is not uncommon to see piles of money at the foot of a statue. The real Ming Dynasty emperor buried in the hill behind would not have been over sixteen feet tall, but one definitely receives the impression that in life he was a dominant presence.



Leaving the artifacts gallery and heading straight back towards the hill is a gate, that is very important to visitors, and the grave marker. The gate is so important because it is believed that after visiting the dead one must be careful to maintain the presence of a personal soul. So, the tradition goes that on your way out you must walk through the gate and say, "I'm back" in Chinese. Otherwise your soul will be left behind at the burial ground. Another very interesting point is that there is an obvious threshold to the gate and practically any period building maintains a similar trip hazard. It turns out, that is exactly by design. Local ancient belief was that spirits do travel the earth, with both good and bad seeking to complete their tasks. However, as a means of transportation, spirits move along the ground but cannot jump. So, to keep a spirit out of your house or yard simply build a threshold high enough that it can't jump over. Or in this case, build a threshold high enough to keep them in when you jump out.



Behind the gate is a multi-story building housing the grave marker. This arrangement confused archeologists for a while. Searching structurally, there did not appear to be any passageway underneath the marker or the building leading to the gravesite. Finally, it took a linguist to solve the riddle. What the gravestone truly said was, "Behind this marker lies the Emperor" not "Underneath". The site had literally been in front of them the entire time and was simply covered with trees.



Part of veneration is the requested respect of tourists not to take pictures, even of the hill that dwarfs the marker building. Archeologists have basically found a similar cache to an Egyptian Pharaoh. Everything needed for the afterlife was buried with the emperor: clothes, gold & silver ingots, crowns, food, concubines, members of court... That's right, his favorite and most trusted people were buried alive in chambers on the site. Can you image the human posturing that goes on after the emperor's death? "No, no really, he liked me but I wasn't his favorite. Honest. I thought you were? Right?"


(On to the Great Wall)
Even if you go to the most heavily touristed location, as we did, this is a worthwhile venture. The good thing was that the weather was bitterly cold, so most tourists stayed within a few hundred yards of the main starting point. After the practically government imposed "group shot", the guide pointed us in the direction of the steeper left branch.



This route was truly "steeper". We marveled at how difficult construction must have been because we were simply, or not so simply, walking up a sometimes greater than 45 degree grade, not building it.



The climb was absolutely worth the effort. In twenty minutes we were relatively free of tourist and enjoying the views. The only down side is that this leaves you totally exposed to the wandering and incredibly persistent vendors. If you go to the wall make sure to bring your sense of humor or else these folks, trying to scrape a capitalist living together, will probably drive you a little nuts.

November 25, 2006

Seoul to Beijing

Skype is turning out to be a great tool and friend. Skype is an internet based system which allows for international calling for about $0.02 cents per minute. All that is needed is a relatively fast internet connection and a computer with a microphone. My laptop has an embedded camera and microphone so in the future it should be possible to videoconference. The other beauty of Skype is that if a friend is also registered and on-line then videoconferencing or simply calling is free. Mom, Kristen, and I enjoyed a long conversation prior to my boarding the Air China flight for Beijing. The world has become a well-connected smaller place.



Japan and Korea must have been a solid indoctrination to Asia because the transition to China feels relatively smooth. The one exception is falling prey to the typical airport cab scam where one gets snagged by someone posing as a state approved transportation provider and then charges upwards of four times the going rate. (Note: never get into a vehicle or put your bags in the trunk without agreeing to a metered rate or fare first.) I refused his offered rate and stated the usual price. He started to drive which I thought was acceptance but was really upping the ante by removing my other options. So I said, “When we get to the hotel we will ask the staff what the fair price is and I will pay you that amount.” What these imposter cabs also do is park across the street from your hotel, effectively putting a barrier between you and the assistance of the staff. Fortunately, I had received a previous tip as to a typical fare so grabbed my pack from the trunk prior to paying him half his demanded price (roughly twice the normal rate) then headed quickly across traffic and into the hotel lobby.



My room is basically nothing like what was advertised on Expedia. Just like trademarks and patents, truth in advertising is a flexible concept in China. The room had no windows; came complete with mold stained ceilings and the industrial plastic grid shower mat, and a plumbing system devoid of p-traps. What this basically means is that any gases running through the sewer system are free to rise in the path of least resistance, a.k.a. my bathroom. I am determined to be undeterred but will need to find a solution.





The afternoon was spent shopping at the silk market, which really is home to five floors of packed booths providing “knock-off” branded goods or if you are lucky “Saturday/Sunday” first quality production which makes its way to the grey-market. I was after a North Face down parka for the Everest climb in January. There were none to be found on display but “magically” when you ask they appear from the back.

Haggling is an art form in Asia. First, throw any Western considerations for fair pricing or honest emotion out the window. The initial price is easily four to five or even twenty times the market value. For perceived higher demand items the price tends towards the upper end. In my case the price started at approximately fifteen times market value at $600 USD. This would be a crazy price to pay, even at home. Now the game of chicken begins. Who will make the first move? After carefully inspecting every inch of the jacket, I state that I want to check all the booths then make a decision. Leaving the booth is your leverage because many vendors carry the same items. Also, my Uncle Don told me once, “Never negotiate for something you can’t walk away from or else you will pay too much.” Moving towards the booth entrance forces the vendor to make the first move and use the most overstated phrase in Chinese retail, “Because you are my friend, I have special price just for you.” This is usually one third off the list price. Some tourists will fall for this. If you don’t then the vendor will put the ball in your court and ask you what you will pay. Go ahead and be incredibly low if you don’t have a sense for the actual market value. In spite of any protests the vendor will not sell an item to you for a loss. Everything in between is pure retail bargaining smoke. Since a family friend Ken had purchased North Face parkas in the same location for $25 USD a piece I had a benchmark. This jacket was down so I explained this and moved the price up to $40. Vendor counter $60, reply $40. Vendor counter $50, reply $40. Vendor counter $40 (witnessed by my drive), reply acceptance. She packed up the coat and I gave her the $40 USD. Now begins the high stakes negotiations. You agreed to $50 USD she screamed over the shuffle of hundreds of people. Calmly, “No we agreed to $40 USD.” “No fifty”. Turning to the driver, “Did you not hear us agree to $40 dollars?” His head nods. “I’m sorry but we agreed to $40.” Still projecting, “No fifty.” Grabbing the forty dollars held loosely in her hands and handing the coat back, “Not a problem, I just buy it somewhere else.” (By this point I meant it.) Leaving and walking down the crowded aisle she came chasing after me, “Ok forty.” “Thank you.” Never get flustered or angry, even if the other party feigns offense. This is a documented natural part of tourist negotiations, ref. Lonely Planet China. In the end, everyone was happy.

After these efforts it was time for lunch and Peking duck. This was served with the equivalent of flour taco shells and plum sauce. Everything was delicious, even the delicacy of eating the muscle that operates the bill. When the driver balked at eating the brain I followed suite. That would have been a stretch, even for my adventurous palette.



My culinary openness was challenged while venturing out into the evening for a two-hour stretching of the legs. Right outside the doorstep of the hotel was a nighttime lighted food bazaar of extraordinary proportions and variety. There was everything from the tame octopus and squid to the more adventurous scorpions and various crustaceans on a stick. Everything can be readily grilled to your liking. No thanks… but I appreciate the offer, really.





As a change of scene I was off for the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, but first there was the prostitute evasion game. There must have been a big red “X” on my forehead, being a lone male western traveler with a map. I was taken aback by the first offer and gently refused. As I continued down the busy “tourist shopping” street by the hotel it started to rain proposals. Confused by this attention I stepped aside to get my bearings on the map.



Yep, there were the upscale stores and McDonald’s right where they were supposed to be. What I came to find later was that the traditional tourist shopping areas are the prime pick-up locations and not the stereotypical imagined “dark passageways”. With my directions and an increased pace the more traditional nighttime sites were now a clear target.