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Published: January 8th 2010
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After New Year's in Wuhan, it was off to visit my buddy "ChinaMike" in Beijing. I had a good time showing him around the city of Kolkata last year, so it was time for him to return the favor.
When I arrived on Saturday morning, there was a pleasant dusting of snow on the ground. The taxi from the train station was very expensvie, but worth it. ChinaMike lives in a neighboorhood of great historical wealth. From his bedroom window, he can see the roof of the Temple of Confucius-also known as the Kong Maio. Yes, "Civilization IV" fanatics,
that Kong Maio! He is also a short walk away from the Lama Temple- the center of Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing.
After being dropped off where so many thousands of aspiring civil servants took their examinations in the Imperial days, I was met by my "local guide". After a rest he took me to Houhai, a frozen lake full of tourists. It was shocking to see so many honkeys after living in Jiujiang for many months. I was also suprised by the fact that it was cold enough for the lake to freeze over. Was I in for a surpise.
That night we meet with some expats and ate some Xinjiang food. It snowed about fifteen centimeters. The next morning ChinaMike had to work, so I set off on foot to try and find Tianamen Square. It was cold, snow was thick, my Chinese was poor, and yet I was almost successful. I did manage to find an old palace, but by the time I got there it was too late to enter.
The people in Beijing are much taller than the southerners. They do not stare at foreigners. In the area I stayed at, it is not very crowded. There are many public toilets around. Apparently it used to be considered an excessive wealth display to own private bathroom facilities.
The next day I took their subway system to buy my tickets back to Jiujiang. The Beijing Metro is great- only two yuan for access anywhere in the city. However, it gets awfully crowded. The nice thing is, at a certain point, you don't need to hold the handrails anymore. That day, the high was -9 celcius, with a low of -17. We tried to visit Jingshan park, but we were too late. We needed
to keep moving to avoid certain death in the cold.
Tuesday was the day of big adventure! BennyBoy, my British co-worker, came to visit Beijing. The three of us took a bus to Jingshan Park. I sat next to two Chinese girls, and was able to understand (enough) of their conversation!
Girl one:
Something guo something Meigouren ".....country.....American"
Girl two:
Something something Janadaren "Canadian"
Girl one:
Ta hun da something something Meigouren "He/she/it very big....American."
Girl two:
something something ta bu dong something something ".....He/She/It dosen't understand........"
Girl one:
something something ta hue dont yi dien dien ".......He/she/it can understand a little."
There was more, but we had to get off the bus. I think they might have been talking about me.
Later that night I was talking to a woman from Spain at BennyBoy's hostel. Now, unless I am careful, my Spanish sentences are usually sprinkled with some Bengali and Chinese. Maybe I am just ahead of the curve- in a thousand years, everyone will be speaking Esputongali.
Jiangshan Park is awesome. There is a hill on which one can
sight a panoramic view of Beijing. The city is a series of circles, with the Forbidden City in the center. Within the first two ring roads, sky-scrappers cannot be built. The effect is beautiful- from the top of the hill, you can see a line of tall building encircling the old city, for as far as the eye can see. Which, granted, is not very far. The hill was built entirely of excess earth from moats constructed in the Ming dynasty. Jingshan park is a place where I could feel the history- the things that change, the things that stay the same.
There is a cool Buddha statue on the top. However, in 1900, the Eight Power Alliance ( Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States ) stole the other, more minor Buddhas. No wonder the Chinese are so proud of their current (and past, and future) prowess- they used to be pushed around quite a bit. I bet these Buddhas are in some Mafioso don's island mansion.
The Forbidden City is similarly psychedellic. I could sense the immense mental, historical, and symbolic value of the land and buildings. The beautiful gardens
No Scratch
This used to be slang for something, I just don't know what. were enhanced by the snow. I was thinking of all the violence that must have occured on this small piece of land (more than its fare share, I am sure) when I was struck by a snowball from BennyBoy! One must stay on guard in the Forbidden City.
Next we went to Tianamen Square. Under Mao's benevolent gaze, BennyBoy remarked "This is white girl central!" Truly, we are deprived in Jiujiang.
The evening ended with some wandering through the Beijing
houtongs. It was not until the next day that we found out we had just lived through the coldest day in Beijing for forty years. -19 Celcius was the low, with a high of -10.
We checked out the Kong Miao and the Lama Temple on my last day. At the Lama Temple, I noticed how one of the dark dieties was stepping on a dwarf- just like Lord Shiva (and a bit like the Virgin Mary).
Beijing was great, but its wonderful to be back in Jiujiang, where I am a minor celebrity on account of my nationality, and where everything is cheap.
Many hundreds of years ago, Beijing was struck by a plaue.
The people cried out to Quan Lin to save them. She sent Lord Hare from the moon, who distributed pills to the Beijingren, saving everyone. Sounds to me like they all had a bad case of the "took too much."
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Aunt Pat
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Brendan...awesome pictures! We are having a cold wave here - not cool. I thought we left the cold weather up on the Cape. When does spring come to China?