March 13-15 - Beijing and Home

Mar. 13 – Beijing


Bright and shiny, we were met by Mr. Lu and Lee on a very cold and blustery day. While we had packed for the ‘layered look’, all layers had to be donned to cope with the temperatures which, we were told, would be colder at the Great Wall, a two hour ride northwest of Beijing.

China in this early spring didn’t look much more appealing than Peacham at the same time – brown and somewhat dismal. But The Wall is something everyone must visit when in China, and this was our day to tick this off the list of must-do’s. We chose to go to Badaling where in the interest of tourism the wall has been kept in fine repair, tourist shops are abundant and one has the opportunity to leave the tourist/bus lot and take either side of the road to have your ‘wall experience’. Lee suggested the side which was longer, higher and thus less coated with humans, and so following her lead we started the climb. But the knee and I were having an argument – I wanted to get to the top, it didn’t. So after about climbing 1/3rd of the way, I conceded defeat. There we stopped, took the requisite pictures and left. I wish I could say I was dumb-struck by the experience, but the anticipation and the publicity leading up to it made the event itself something of a let-down for me. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the steps, maybe it was cynicism, but within an hour I was quite prepared to leave. What was so amazing was that the other portion of the wall was chock-a-block with tourists – mostly Asian. If it were possible for astronauts to see the Wall from a space shuttle (which it isn’t), they would probably be as amazed by the millions of human ants crawling all over this structure, built centuries ago to protect the big cities from the Mongols and barbarians who threatened the area.

On our way back we stopped at a Cloisonné factory and lunch spot. In order to accumulate as many tourist ‘bucks’ as possible, many factories have installed large lunch rooms so that when you have examined the process of manufacturing and creating a product you have time to eat a meal while you contemplate the acquisition of some of these fine products. Cloisonné has never been our ‘thing’ but we did have to acknowledge the amazingly detailed handwork which goes into creating one vase. The showrooms which had every known object from plates, to pens, to human-sized urns, certainly was a dazzling display of the craft. But, other than pictures, we walked out empty handed. When you are in such a place, having watched the process, there is something in you which says “I need one of those”, but if you let sanity take over, you quickly realize that when it appeared in Peacham your reaction might very well be “what was I thinking”. The factory provided-lunch room was gymnasium-sized with tables for as few as two and as many as eight people. We were escorted to a table for two, and while we were served guest food, our guide and driver went off for ‘local’ food. I’m not sure which of us had the better meal, but let’s just say that the Hutong meal the day before stood head and shoulders over this mass produced event.

After lunch ,while it wasn’t much warmer, the sun had tried to make a come-back and the wind had died down so we went off to visit the Ming tombs where no less than ten different Emperors were buried in a series of complexes below Tianshou Mountain. It reminded me a bit of the Valley of the Kings in Egypt where each pharaoh was buried in his particular tomb. The Chinese emperor’s tomb which we focused on was the man who first created the tomb site, and then was buried here himself: Emperor Yongle. He was the man responsible for moving the capital of China to Beijing where he created the Forbidden City and then designed the canal/moat which surrounds the city. Even during the days of Mao when most of these emperors were not considered worthy, Yongle was declared to be one of the ‘good’ emperors because he did many good deeds for his people and always placed his people ahead of his own ego. Thus the words used to describe him throughout the tomb site made it quite clear that this was a stellar example of a ‘man of the people’. He designed his tomb site to resemble the Forbidden City with three main temple sites: heaven, earth and middle, with the sacred bell and drum placed appropriately at each end of the site. What was interesting to me is that Daddy described visiting a site where Mongol emperors were kept in a town near Muckden, and his description matched exactly what we were seeing – which meant one of two things: either he was confused as to where he saw things, or two sets of emperors chose to use the same entry format: a magnificent entry gate under which sat a huge stone turtle bearing a set of tablets on its back, following which one walked down a tree-lined, stone-animal-lined ‘sacred way ‘ to arrive at the temple of heaven. It resembled the one in Beijing, including the huge stone ramp which was etched with figures of dragons and snakes.

The best part about this site was that there were practically no tourists – a few Asian families with their adorable small children, and otherwise an empty, peaceful place: a rarity in China, where the sheer size of the population makes finding small sanctuaries of peace and quiet a wonderful discovery.

Inside the Hall of Eminent Favor was an enormous statue of Yongle seated on a throne with his ‘Fu-Manchu ‘moustache and his very well-proportioned body. There was a small series of glass exhibition cases surrounding this statue in which one could see the many things Yongle accomplished during his long reign as emperor, including ships designed to conquer new lands, laws created to manage the population, and the creation of the first multi-volume Yongle Encyclopedia. The site was a more manageable size than the Forbidden City and we spent a good deal of time reading the displays and giving Yongle his full due. Other emperors we learned about had brief descriptions in an out-door display and in the wording alone you could tell if these were respected emperors, or simply greedy men with entirely too many concubines. (One of the less promising emperors was named Ding Ling which made us assume that that was the source of the word ‘ding-a-ling’). Their tombs were located in other places which, were we emperor-experts, we would examine them all. Not.

A full day, lots of walking, and we were ready for our beer. The hotel definitely caters to Americans and we ran into another couple from the ship who was taking a few days themselves to enjoy the city before heading back to Los Angeles. But for all the catering to Americans, and all the English training they receive, we found most of the staff quite poor in English – be it the woman pouring our beer, the ladies at the front desk or the people in the restaurants. We were a little taken back since this is a very all-American chain, but then, our Chinese is sorely lacking so who are we to whine.

March 14 – Beijing

Off to the Summer Palace, the last site from Daddy’s trip which we’re trying to replicate. Unfortunately we awoke to another cold, semi-gray day so we had to layer ourselves for a good deal of walking in blustery weather. From having watched “The Last Emperor”, we knew all about the summer palace and the Dowager Empress, Cixi. This was a woman with a very large ego, the power to control a country, and the desire to have the world run her way. She managed to take a large portion of money, meant for the Chinese navy during wartime, to rebuild the Summer Palace, creating wonderful covered walk-ways which allowed her to stroll around the lake without ever being affected by inclement weather…and if she wanted tea in her huge marble “ship”, which sat frozen in the lake, it could be brought to her from the main palace area under the wonderful portico area. Who says wealth doesn’t buy privilege.

We wandered happily for many hours, mimicking the pictures Daddy took, and enjoying the 10,000 hand-painted pictures that lined the long portico. Each picture was either an idyllic scene or an illustration of a fable. It seemed that Lee knew every one of the stories – no matter where we stopped and asked ‘what’s the story of this one’ she seemed to know the legend and its purpose. Somehow I feel we never plumbed the depth of Lee’s knowledge since she seemed to know almost everything about everything we asked. She turned out to be a perfect guide for us with fabulous colloquial English, a great sense of humor, and a sound and reasoned attitude towards the Communist government under which she lives. When we would discuss the issues with our two-party system where people can’t agree and politics drives the messages, her short answer was: “at least you have a choice and can show your choice by voting… all we can do is complain”

At the Summer Palace there were very few Caucasian visitors, and all the Asians were happily snacking on corn on the cob. Every hundred feet there was a vendor selling out of a large plastic bag hot corn on a stick or silly masks, which if you blew thru a tube, a moustache was created out of plastic. They reminded me of Clarabelle the Clown masks and they were not very popular. Corn was definitely the object of choice. We got a good deal of stares, as we are getting used to, and I’m sure our gabbing in English was equally interesting. We stopped at a small teahouse, over the water, which Daddy had definitely stopped at also. We have a picture of an ornate bridge, that he took out the window. We had hot tea and scrumptious pork buns, steamed in a paper bag. Yummy… and warming.

Our last tourist stop was a silk factory where once again, you were able to learn the process of creating silk from worm to finished product, and then enjoy the showroom filled with everything from quilts to scarves to clothing. Unlike the Cloisonné factory we did fall sway to the sales pitch and acquired a silk-filled duvet cover for summer. It seemed exotic , the package was small and light and we thought ‘why not?’ and so we did.

On our way back to Beijing, and lunch, we drove past the Olympic site used in 2008. Lee told us that on the site there used to be a small village of about 15,000 people who were simply told to move out. A new set of housing was provided along with a small stipend, but there were no if’s, and’s, or buts about it. The power of a dictatorship. The ‘Birds Nest Stadium’, built for the opening ceremonies, took five years to build, and now is trying to figure out its purpose. The Olympic Village which housed the athletes was quickly sold out as apartments, but the rest of the site is now basically an empty area. If I were one of the 15,000 who had been moved, I would probably be cynically amused…maybe.

Our last lunch together as a four-some was at a dim sum palace in Beijing. We thought we’d ordered a nominal amount of food to go with our bottles of beer, but as usual, there was much too much left on all plates which Mr. Lu, our driver ,happily took back to his family for an evening dinner.

The last stop on the tour was the Pearl Market, an emporium of copied objects from t-shirts to sweaters, luggage to purses. I thought I would be looking forward to this shopping adventure, but the stall owners were so persistent and pushy that I quickly lost my interest in acquisition and wanted to flee the place to get away from “hey Lady, best price, slow day, only ‘five dolla’, come look, hey lady, need a Gucci, nice watches, special today just for you”….and on and on. I thought I’d last thirty minutes, and I just about did.



March 15 - Beijing

And thus ends our touring of Beijing. We had one last day to do whatever we wanted, but since both of us had hacking coughs, and were basically toured-out, we stayed in our hotel, slept late, lunched in the Asian Bistro, gathered our wits about us, packed, and went to bed early since we would be picked up at 06:30 a.m. for a very long series of airplane rides.

March 16 – Flying Home

The Beijing Airport, all spiffed up for the Olympics, was a huge picture of cleanliness with every known food chain from Burger King to Starbucks. We enjoyed a last Starbucks with Lee ($7.00/cup) before heading through immigration to our gate. All flights on our trip home were uneventful. Our first stop in Narita did give us pause, however. Here we were in the country that was in the midst of a national crisis, and yet for us tourists moving from gate x to gate y, it was an invisible crisis. Airport terminals, once one is in the secure area, are pretty much the same worldwide, and Narita was no different. The only hint of a difference was that most local people were wearing face-masks against the nuclear pollution which is now threatening Tokyo. All flights were full as all manner of nationalities fled the country to return to cleaner safer air. No one is sure how far south the radiation has wafted from the various power plants, and in any case rolling brown-outs, threats of power outages and the general unease about the health of the country have caused many foreign-based firms to encourage their workers to return to their native homes. Unfortunately the Japanese can only chose to move south or west to avoid the potential threat.

We were happy to board our next plane and head to L.A., where we connected to JFK. After many too many hours (over 30) we landed in New York and were driven groggily to Darien, where we fell into a long hard sleep.

CODA:

We left for this trip knowing we were following Daddy’s path, but not sure what to expect. In all aspects we were amazed, delighted and impressed with the energetic, forward-thinking world of Asia. We both kept saying that if one wants to understand the 21st century, one should look to Asia where the burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit, the deep desire to improve their lives and the strong belief in their future drives the populations in these countries. It will be interesting to read this blog in twenty-five years and see what has happened. Will Thailand, now in the midst of anti-government demonstrations, be as calm and stable as it appears to tourists? Will Viet Nam with its high energy, youthful population and growing economic opportunity continue to be governed by a one-party system? Will Korea still be divided? Will Taiwan exist or become another Hong Kong within greater China? Will China continue to be governed by a strong one-party communist party making five-year plans or will the citizens, more aware of other alternatives, vote for a more 'democratic process' ? And how will Japan repair its economy and infrastructure in the wake of this devastating set of recent disasters? I am so glad that we were here at this particular time when things are in a state of flux, and I know we’ll return to many of the places we saw on this trip. As I always say, cruising gives one a survey-course of a country, and it allows one to decide if a return visit is required. From this trip, I know I want to come back to the cities of: Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai. and I will want to see more of the countryside of Viet Nam, China and Japan. If it weren’t for Daddy’s letters, we might never have seen any of these places and for that I am amazingly grateful . It has been a most amazing Journey of Discovery.