Ten Days In Beijing, Part II

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Beijing - Part 2 of 2
August 26-30 - 2006

Saturday

Another attempt to go to Mao’s tomb, another day not waking up in time…. By the time we got out the door it was 10:30 and so we headed toward the internet café but got distracted first by the Liulichang Jie “hutong” on the way. It’s been rebuilt to look traditional although it is much cleaner than the authentic nearby hutong, featured more touts, and was shiny in the special way that suggest no locals would ever patronize the shops. We walked around a bit and stopped in a couple of stores. We were tempted by a porcelain shop despite the higher prices and the thought of the good times to be had carrying and shipping glassware back to the US.

We wandered through the hutongs trying to get to the internet café knowing we could get very lost but we (well, Roger) actually found our way out right by Tian’anmen Square. After some more time doing research at the internet café, we headed to the shopping area to find out about tickets for the famous Chinese opera. We started with the recommendation of our guidebook for an opera experience that would be more authentic. It took us awhile to find it because the marquee was on the building next to the opera (duh) and we circled for awhile.

Once inside we saw that the tickets were 60 Y and up and so we went inside to try to buy tickets. Amy asked the woman “working” there if she spoke English to which the woman responded “no I do not speak English”. She then responded “no” when Amy asked if there was anyone that spoke English that could help us. She also understood each one of Roger’s questions enough that she was able to respond yes or no. The only time she appeared not to understand was when we actually asked for tickets. We still are not sure why she did not want to sell us tickets. A guy out front wanted to sell us tickets to that evening’s performance but because the woman (you know, the one who spoke no English) had told us there was no opera that evening we passed. It appeared from the posters we saw that there was some event that night but we did not feel comfortable taking a chance. We went into the next hotel we passed and they sold tickets to the opera (at a different location) for 280 Y and up which was much too rich for our blood.

We were hungry so we walked to the Oriental Mall for lunch. We had a good lunch at a diner-style dumpling place. The noodles we ordered were nothing special but the pork soup dumplings and prawn soup dumplings were delicious (soup dumplings are dumplings that are assembled with gel inside that melts as the dumpling cooks, so eating them in one bite is a combination of meat and broth). We are big fans of these in Washington and so we had been eager to find them in China. This was the only place we had them during our visit but that was probably due more to our limited vocabulary than their availability. Lunch was rounded out with Beard Papa cream puffs.

We walked from the mall to the train station because we needed to buy tickets to Xi’an and we had read that there was an office for foreigners. We walked all over looking for it but we could never find it. We asked several people who either directed us to the wrong place or didn’t understand us at all. We went to the only line that had English on its sign but the woman only spoke Chinese and so we were not able to purchase tickets. We found a hostel near the train station where we purchased our train tickets (with a 30 Y commission each). When possible we like to book tickets directly to avoid paying commission but there appears to be no way to do that as non-Mandarin speakers in China.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for awhile to watch some of the local boys playing basketball across the street from the mall (16 full basketball courts worth). Unfortunately, we also saw a man who was very abusive (lots of shoving and screaming) to his wife who was crying. No one did anything to stop it and we were, of course, unable to understand exactly what was going on.

After hanging out at the hotel for awhile we went to dinner at a nearby hot pot place. Hot pot is like fondue and it is very popular in China and while Roger liked it Amy was not crazy about it. It was the most expensive meal we had at that point in China and the mixed vegetables were just greens so it wasn’t a very interesting meal. We stuck with beef although there was a large selection of more adventurous delicacies to choose from like fish head, shark lips and various other animal parts. Also the broth was not really broth but oil and so it was very greasy. We are sure it would be much more fun and inexpensive with a large group because just ordering the liquid to cook the ingredients was 30 Y. We met some expats in China who took awhile to come around to hot pot but are now addicted but our time in China was too short to foster a love for hot pot.

Sunday

We finally made it to Mao’s tomb today. We had our usual breakfast and then got over to Tian’anmen where we checked our bag and camera (a very efficient set up which cost 13 Y ($1.65)) by 10am. We were nervous we wouldn’t make it through the long line and the tomb by 11:30 when it closed but the line moved very quickly and we were through the Chairman and buying Mao souvenirs by around 10:30. The souvenir stand, featuring Mao key rings, bracelets, ash trays, lighters, and other plastic crap is a nice wedge of capitalism just outside the preserved body of the communist leader. Many Chinese people left yellow flowers inside the tomb as a tribute to Mao and just about everyone treated the experience as a pious and reverent occasion (the opposite response one might expect for a mass murderer with a body count higher than that of Stalin or Hitler). Seeing Mao’s grimly lit corpse was just as creepy as seeing Uncle Ho in Vietnam but we are always pleased to add to our list of dead communists visited in progressively market oriented countries.

From Tian’anmen we took the metro to Yonghe Gong, Tibetan Lama Temple, the only Buddhist temple still permitted to function in Beijing. Leading up to the Temple is a hutong with lots of vendors selling religious souvenirs. Inside the Temple local visitors go from altar to altar leaving incense. The buildings were similar to the architecture we had seen inside the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven but the statutes of Buddha inside were beautiful and different from other Buddhist iconography we had seen. The Temple also included a little room of Buddha figures originally from Tibet which felt like the government was trying to say “see how we respect Tibet.” The temple houses several beautiful displays of carved Buddha figures but the centerpiece of the collection is the massive sandalwood Buddha which is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest Buddha carved from a single piece of wood.

While at Yonghe Gong, Amy was lucky enough after all this time of traveling to still be able to have new experiences in the bathroom. The woman in line before her went into the stall, pulled up her skirt and squatted down to do her business without messing with the complications of shutting the door.

From the Temple we walked over by the Drum Tower to try to find a restaurant that was recommended in the Rough Guide. Looking for a specific address in Beijing these days has an air of futility about it from the word go as new construction is visibly and literally shifting entire blocks and re-routing entire streets. Often the re-numbering of individual buildings seems out of sync or even irrational as new straight streets collide with winding old ones. We finally found the restaurant, Goubuli, which was lucky because it was really worth it. We had pork dumplings and shredded pork in bean curd which were both fantastic.

On our way to the internet café, we passed our Great Wall tour provider Ting, eating cookies but still out hustling for new business. We wrote in his comment book and talked to him for while. He is very interesting and would be a great travel agent because he isn’t interested in offering what everyone else is offering. Someday he would like to either own a travel agency, open a kung fu theatre where people actually fight (he told us the theatres in existence now do not have actual fighting and that the stage, slow-motion variety is just not worth it) or a restaurant serving donkey. We would meet Ting four times and the subject of donkey meat would come up at three of the meetings. He remained shocked that Americans do not eat donkey and insists that it will make you strong.

After our run in with Ting we decided that we would prefer to buy opera tickets from him regardless of whether it may lead to the most authentic version of the opera or whether there would be a significant mark-up. We had chased around the city to save a few dollars but ultimately preferred that the money go to Ting. We were very impressed with Ting’s ambition and his clear desire to learn and accomplish more. He speaks English well and is self-taught and he has worked very hard to identify a niche where he can do business that the large hotels and government tourist agencies cannot. During our conversation something came up about a Mercedes and we joked that some day he would be chasing down clients from a Mercedes rather than his bike (which does not have a seat - he insists it allows him to jump off the bike more quickly when he needs to). He told us quite seriously that if he had money he wouldn’t own a Mercedes but a Hummer H2 because it’s safer in traffic.

Speaking of safe in traffic, on the way to the internet cafe we saw a van almost hit a guy on a bike. We were not sure who was at fault but cars appear to always have the right of way and they get annoyed at pedestrians even if they are doing a u-turn out of nowhere. After almost hitting the bike the van sped up and acted like it was going to run the bike off the road, chasing the biker down the street, stopping abruptly in front of it, and weaving dangerously close to the bike.

We finally made it to the internet café but we were exhausted and so we didn’t spend too much time there. On the way home we stopped at McDonald’s to get our new favorite treat - coffee with ice cream - and we ran into the Chinese guys from Shanghai we had met a few days earlier at the very same McDonald’s. In a city of 16 million people, we ran into three different “friends” in the same afternoon, in this case thanks to the convenient location and low cost of McDonald’s.

On our walk home we went into a few shops along the hutong including one where Roger looked at a brass four-faced Buddha. We were just looking and not intending to buy anything but we asked the price so that we would know price ranges for the future. The price started at 150 and dropped to 50 just by us leaving the shop. The vendor actually tried to block Roger’s way out of the shop. Vendors in Beijing had been much less aggressive than in other parts of Asia but if you go into the shop it becomes just as pushy.

We returned to the hotel and rested while watching the Chinese Price is Right (please see our post on that from August) and an American Idol type show. We got hungry around 9 or 9:30 but not enough for a meal so we walked further into the hutong to get fresh snacks. We got a burrito like treat with lettuce, slaw and other stuff which was awesome for 5 Y and a bag of savory and sweet dough snacks for another 5 Y (for a grand total of $1.25).

Monday

We celebrated six months on the road with Roger feeling bad all day. We started the day very late - late enough in fact that our breakfast vendor was gone. We made our daily stop at the internet café before heading to pick up our train tickets from the hostel near the train station. We walked to the Orient Mall where Amy ate noodles with vegetable and egg from the food court and Roger had rice, plain soup and a sweet unfilled bun from the bakery. The food court would be fun with more people because there are many vendors that sell small dishes and it’s easy to experiment because you can see most of the dishes rather than just reading (or not reading) a menu. Because Roger wasn’t feeling well we took a cab back to the room which took awhile because traffic was very bad. When we got back to the room Roger took a nap leaving Amy free to work on the internet (of course all of the computers downstairs in the hotel as well as across the street were full so she hung out in the room working on the blog).

We left our hotel at 6:30pm to meet Ting and spent about 35 minutes talking to him before going in to see the opera. He told us about the government putting people in jail for sleeping on the street or selling goods. He asked us for business ideas and an explanation for why westerners don’t eat donkey. Having taught himself English he’s moved on to teaching himself business and psychology and if there is any justice the young man will one day own half of China.

We had great seats for the opera. Each seat cost 150 Y but we are not sure how much the seats actually cost because there was no indication at the theatre (there is such a huge re-sellers market in Beijing we assume the price is largely determined by where you may buy it). Each table of four at the opera had tea and nuts, watermelon, dried plums and a cookie. You get the feeling from the lack of posted prices that the opera, kung fu and acrobatics don’t want westerners to buy tickets on their own but that they want you to buy them from agencies. The opera was interesting although the second act was better than the first act because there was a little bit of acrobatics and theatrical play fighting. The makeup and costumes were impressive and the expressions were great to see up close and Roger felt like he could see where Jackie Chan got his moves.

There is no denying the acrobatic or theatrical talent expressed through the drama and choreography of the opera, but the music may be the least melodic thing we have ever heard. The repetitive, high pitched, metallic “ting, ting, ting, ting” with occasional string instrumentation is more musically in line with a two year old clanging pots and pans than any opera (let alone your average busking ukulele player). We are pretty sure our ears were bleeding by the end (and we still like to imitate the music to each other months later). We think one of the musicians dropped their instrument in the middle of the music but you couldn’t tell. We were glad we went to see the opera but it was not something we need to see again. We sat with a couple from Japan who purchased some souvenirs during the 10 minute intermission and when it came time to pay, the man opened up his wallet to reveal many 1000 Y bills (in almost a month in China it was the only bill of that size we would see). After the opera the Japanese couple rushed onstage to take a picture with one of the performers for a charge. We settled for a picture of them with the performer from our seats for free.

Afterwards we walked down the hutong to look for the sweet snack we had had the night before but the woman was all sold out so we went to a restaurant we’d eaten at before to get pork dumplings for 12 Y ($1.50) to take with us to the room. We ended up eating them as we walked until we came upon a nightclub that we had seen every night but that never actually appeared to be open. This night it was open and there was a little girl probably around 7 or 8 dancing out front. This reminded Amy of performances that she used to give at that age at shopping malls so we sat across the street from the night club watching the little girl, the women working out front, and the men going to the club.

You can just sit and rest or watch people in China with no one bothering you. This is a nice change from Thailand and particularly Vietnam where you can’t sit anywhere for long unless you want to be accosted about buying something. When the family with the little girl was getting ready to leave the mother told her to come over and talk to us so she came over and said hello. Amy told her we liked her dancing but she didn’t understand so Amy told her again while trying to indicate what she meant by shaking her shoulders. We think her mom told her she should dance for us but she was very shy. She held out her hand to Amy to ask her to dance with her. It was the last thing Amy wanted to do because the streets were crowded and a white woman dancing would be likely to attract attention but how could you say no? So Amy danced with her and spun her around before it was time for her to go. When she left she said “thank you very much” and “goodbye”. Even with all of the interesting things we saw in Beijing, this was one of our favorite memories.

After the family left we sat and watched for awhile longer to try to figure out who goes into the nightclub. We have a feeling it is almost completely empty inside and could only speculate if prostitutes work inside (the working girls quite obviously work in hair salons and massage parlors that line the streets). It was 30 Y ($3.75) for “infinite Chinese beer - drink to your heart’s content. No limited.” The two young women working out front were definitely entertaining - one spent most of her time bobbing to the music (to convey how fun it was inside we imagine) and the other one spent most of the time on someone’s motorcycle out front checking out her makeup in the mirror. As far as we could tell from sitting outside it appeared that the only people interested in the nightclub were kids and babies who danced or bobbed to the music out front.

On our walk back to the hotel we saw 4 or 5 people with the conical hats that Chinese farmers use to block themselves from the sun. What possesses people to buy these? Do they buy everything that people wear (or more likely used to wear) when they visit a country? Our feeling is that if you MUST buy something of this nature do not wear it in the country where you bought it. If you insist on buying one, take it home and put it on a shelf as a souvenir. We have yet to see tourists in England wearing the famed bobby hats.

Tuesday

After our typical breakfast, we took the metro to the Exhibition Center and bought tickets to the Summer Palace (entry plus a boat ride to the palace was 70 Y ($8.75)). After purchasing our tickets the vendor told us we would need to take a speed boat to the Beijing Zoo where we would change to the boat that would take us to the Summer Palace. Unsure when the speed boat would arrive we went to get tea nearby. After we sat down at the café by the water the waitress bought us a menu which indicated at least 40 Y ($5!) for their cheapest cup of tea. We begrudgingly ordered one cup of tea but were saved when our speed boat noisily pulled up before the waitress could put our order in.

After our short speed boat ride to the zoo we ran around manically trying to see the pandas before our new boat left for the Summer Palace. The panda enclosure was too far away, unfortunately, but we managed to see the elephants and to gawk at some “little emperors” devouring cotton candy. Being an only child or grandchild in a one child policy country has its advantages (for the kids and for vendors).

We were packed onto a boat with iron windows which would have been immovable in case we struck an iceberg (for example - in case of any sort of accident no one was getting off). On the boat a woman up front talked on her microphone the entire time. We assume she must have been pointing out sites although there didn’t seem to be any to point out really. The river was penned into its banks by concrete and flowed through a park and well built up neighborhoods. After a few minutes we were switched to another boat that had a couple of mechanical problems and ended up stalling in the middle of the busy waterway. We watched as the pilot of the ship scurried from his cabin to the engine and, having diagnosed the trouble, he made a call on his cell phone. Moments later a man hanging from the side of an ongoing boat handed off a tool that our captain used lickity-split to solve whatever malfunction we had. The combination of efficiency and tenacity was impressive. A few minutes after we were underway the boat with the man who had delivered the tool passed by again, this time collecting it (a billion people, a million boats, one screw driver?). We arrived at the Summer Palace only 10 minutes behind schedule. The whole boat journey took an hour but the lack of scenery left a lot to be desired.

Because the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, and other dynastic buildings were constructed around the same time the overall appearance of the buildings were all very similar. Nestled along a lakeside and sprawling up in to the hills the Palace maintained a distinct feel and even in modern Beijing it feels like something of a retreat. The vast, sprawling Summer Palace, and its 3,000 structures, are located a mere 15 km from the Forbidden City, though the cooling effect of the lake is apparently significant in the heat of summer (it was not for us). The palace vividly presents the total decadence of the emperors. On the lake near the fringe of the palace, for example, is an unmoving and massive marble ship constructed with funds the Dowager Cici filtered over from the actual navy. As impressive as a large, un-sailable marble boat is it cannot help but impress the visitor as a representation of the largess and irresponsibility of the rulers.

After walking around the palace grounds, themselves spread along the shore of Kunming Lake, you reach Longevity Hill and the buildings that constitute the main body of the palace. In order to get into the heart of the Summer Palace, the Hall of Old Age and Benevolence, you had to pay another 10 Y, which is always frustrating (you’re trapped so give us more money). On this occasion it was worth it in the end because we were able to get away from the crowds and see some attractive and unique features.

Leaving the Summer Palace grounds we couldn’t find the stop where we were supposed to catch the right bus so we decided to walk for awhile because our guidebook recommended the area as if it were some sort of urban wonderland of restaurants, internet cafes, and other similar amenities for students. We did not really notice much of the promised amenities and found more large scale construction than anything. We were able to walk through Beijing University which has a bustling and attractive campus. The university is separated from the city by walls and traffic in and out is monitored at large gates. Though the signs were unclear it did appear to us that we were supposed to show our identification and certify to the gate officer that we were not there to cause any trouble. The officer appeared to enjoy the respect we showed him as we approached with our passports in hand but there was no real drama.

We were exhausted from all of the walking but we weren’t able to get a cab to take us to the hotel. Luckily we stumbled upon a massive internet café with literally hundreds of terminals in a dark and neon basement. At the conveniently located Tian’anmen Square café (tourists section) we had been paying 20 Y ($2.50) for an hour. The slick local youth oriented café charge? A measly 3Y (37 cents) for an hour. We grabbed some quick food at McDonalds and sat outside resting a bit. We were able to catch a cab back to the hotel, though the system as to how a cab driver selects his fares remains beyond us. We were too exhausted to venture out so we watched our pirated copy of Devil Wears Prada in our room.

Wednesday

Our last day in Beijing was spent back in the mall area of Beijing. We wanted to buy Roger a new shirt which took longer than necessary because they don’t carry a lot of larger sizes and their sporting/outdoor stores are organized by brand rather than item. So rather than going to the shirt rack you have to look at the shirt rack at Nike and then Converse and then Adidas and so forth. We had a last feast at the mall with soup dumplings and then little dishes of smoked tofu, Chinese sausage, cucumbers and Chinese broccoli. We finished off the meal with unfilled sweet buns. We tried to find internet around the mall and ended up at the Hyatt business center. After asking about their rates - 3 Y/minute (rather than the 3 Y/hour we had paid the night before) - we tried to inconspicuously slip out.

Not finding internet around the mall we went back to the Tian’anmen Square area and our usual internet place. Amy had another bad experience in the woman’s restroom when she slowly pushed open a door to see if someone was in there. Not only was a woman in the unlocked stall (where the lock worked) she didn’t even try to stop Amy from opening the door. The woman just looked at Amy when the stall door was opened. One bathroom, two deer in headlights.

We left for the train station around 6:30pm and shared a cab with a young woman from London who had been traveling for about 6 months by herself and had about 3 weeks left for her journey. We left earlier than we needed to because the train station was gigantic and we thought it would take us forever to find our train but when we got inside the station the board said exactly where to go. Despite the ease with which we found our gate it is worth mentioning that the word “gigantic” does not adequately cover the girth of this train station - several levels with a spaghetti bowl of roads in and out and covering more ground than any modern airport terminal the station is simply overwhelming.

We shared our four bunk cabin with a teenager, who appeared to be in military school and didn’t say a single word to anyone, and a guy who was a couple of years older than us who was traveling on business for the GPS company he worked for. He spoke terrific English and so we talked to him for about 1.5 hours about his family, work, life in China, etc. We’re thinking about naming our first child after his 1 year old son, Ding. Ding’s last name? Ding. Ding Ding Brown isn’t definite yet but we’re definitely kicking it around. As much as we enjoyed talking to him, we were surprised by the level of respect he showed for Mao. We were also annoyed (but have gotten rather used to it during our travels) when he criticized America while we spoke in politely glowing terms about China when asked. Maybe we should just be more honest?

The train itself was nice with one bathroom (which had sinks) per car. Each bed had a little tv but the only viewing options were in Chinese and they shut the tvs off at 10:30 anyway. About 2 hours before we arrived (and while we were still sleeping) an employee came into the cabin to collect our headsets, slippers and trash which was not a very nice way to wake up. That said our very educational time in Beijing was concluded as we headed out to explore Xi’an.

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Photos

Nothing Says Buddhist Temple...
...like Guinness Book certification for the largest sandal wood Buddha!

Fellow Visitors to the Summer Palace
Including the former center for the Golden State Warriors, Ralph Sampson!

A Boat Made of Marble!
Pretty, but don't go trying to sail her.

Amy at The Summer Palace
This is no trick, she really is holding that wall in place.

Uh Oh
What is it Lassie? Did Ding fall down the well, girl?

Roger at The Summer Palace
Though we disliked having to pay extra to access specific areas of the palace, we were overjoyed to have found a spot in Beijing without throngs of people.

Chinese Opera, Bridging International Divides
While the Chinese and the Japanese have a long and difficult history you would not know it from the post-opera photo opportunities.

Hot Pot!
Notice the pot is divided in to two kinds of marinade for cooking. De-luxe!

Mao's Mausoleum
(insert editorial comment about murdering millions of people and still getting a public mausoleum)

Tian'anmen Square
Mao's mausoleum is in the background.