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Since our last blog we have had two weekend trips to Beijing, which we have spent exploring smaller venues in city. Now that we have decided to move to Kuala Lumpur for 2008-2009, the pressure is on to devour as much culture as we can. For Craig and I that tends to mean doing lots of little things rather than the big ones.
Lama Temple - Yong Hu Gong
On a Saturday morning we made our way up to Yong Hu Gong (built 1694). This is a very pleasant temple to explore, but most impressively, it boasts an 18 meter solid sandlewood Buddha statue, sculpted from a single tree. Of course pictures were not allowed, but we have included a number of pictures from other parts of the premises. They were of course busy cleaning up and restoring the temple for the Olympic visitors...but such is the case in most of Beijing. Despite reading in the guide books that foreigners who used to visit the temple were known to "dissapear", we can happily state that it has been well over a month since our visit and we are still here!
After the Lama temple we explored
the nearby hutongs. We went past Confucius temple but left it for another time. We find too many temples in one day doesn't lend itself to true appreciation of the sites. The hutongs were being torn down left right and centre and were being rebuilt. These hutongs were much "cleaner" than the ones we usually frequent. We decided to head back to the ShangLin hostel again for our next trip, we didn't like these new squeaky clean hutongs...although we did still find our 50 cent breakfast of baozi and doughtsticks...
WALKING
With no particular goal in mind we started walking southward and eventually found ourselves on Wanfujing Street. Wanfujing Street is special because it houses the Foreign Languages Bookstore. It also has lots of huge department stores and is very loud. Its not that exciting for us, as Tanggu boasts its own such street - Jin Jie- but Wanfujing does have one fun little detour- Snack Street. Here stalls sell you anything you want. Candied fruit on a stick (a favourite), shwarma or something like it, and of course, scorpions on a stick. We opted for ice cream actually.
We decided to head for the
Ancient Observatory near the Beijing Train Station. We met a nice couple from Hunan province and walked a few blocks with them. They were on their first trip to Beijing and were really excited to meet and speak to real live foreigners.
The Ancient Observatory
OK, probably the coolest thing to do in Beijing and so cheap! This is one of the oldest space observatories in the world, it was built as part of the city wall in 1442 and was used for about 450 year. Inside, there is a peaceful little courtyard where we decided to rest our weary feet for a little while and read our books. We then examined the exhibits tracing the history of astronomy in both Chinese and Western culture. Finally we climbed to the top of the observatory which boasts huge astronomical instruments of artistic worth and scientific purpose. Not to mention a half decent view of Beijing. The instruments were stolen in 1900 by French and German troops. They would all eventually be returned, the ones the Germans took not until after WWI.
How we didn't do the Great Wall even though we planned to
Renovating the Hutons
Well, at least they are keeping the tree for the courtyard...Craig and I have had a very busy past month. The EARCOS Teachers' Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur 3 weekends ago. It was an incredible professional experience, and a nice opportunity to scope out our new school for next year, Taylor's College. It was however; a very busy weekend, arriving back in Teda around 8 pm Sunday night, after a six hour flight and 3 hour bus ride....and of course right back to work Monday morning. The very next weekend I took four brilliant students to the 1st Global Issues Network Conference in Beijing where we met Mark Kielburger, John Liu, video conferenced with Jane Goodall....again...amazing experience with a return time to Teda of around 8pm Sunday night. I was on burn out mode, Craig not far behind. We decided to cash in those most prized of prized personal days. We had yet to do the Great Wall, here was our chance.
Except we never made it to the Great Wall. We found a great deal for a day trip...but the weather looked terrible for Friday. It rained hard Thursday night but was beautiful on Friday...of course. Too late to change our minds at that point. We then
Wedding Pictures on Wanfujing
There must have been 10 couples getting their photos done in front of the Cathedral. I liked this bride who would be able to go from gown to jeans in only minutes. booked ourselves in for a trip that left at 7:30 am Saturday, but when the guide phoned late Friday night to say he wanted to pick us up at 6:30 am, we felt a wave of anticipated fatigue...we wanted to get rested! We decided to postpone this momentus moment for another weekend. So then, what did we do with 3 days in Beijing?
What didn't we do in Beijing
First of all, we were shocked to find our own precious section of hutong in Qianmen to be under "restoration" as well, scaffolding and construction supplies blocking the streets and the rebuilt sections barely recognizable. Happily we found our little hole in the wall restaurant favourites were still present, but behind a cleaner facade. Fortunately, the personality within the buildings themselves still seems to be present.
Living Dangerously - Don't opt for really cheap massages! One small endeavour was to get ourselves some massages. This was a sketchier moment in our trip, although a very cheap part. We started second guessing ourselves as we were led below to the basement. We had to enter this big massage room through separate men's and women's
entrances and it was poorly lit. Our room had a red lightbulb to boot. Well, we went through with it and had our aching shoulders and feet massaged back to life. It was an ok massage, but can't deny we didn't complain that it was on the short side. I think we will need to visit our Thai Foot Massage place in Teda very soon in order to overshadow this massage memory with a cleaner one, that involves a hot foot bath that smells of orange and cloves, green tea to sip, and a general atmosphere of peace, relaxation and cleanliness.
Coal Hill Park We enjoyed strolling about Coal Hill Park. Like any good Chinese park it features lots of people practicing dance of all sorts, with their various loud speakers competing over one another to broadcast the right rhythms. It features grandparents walking their grandchildren, who of course don't sport diapers, but whose trousers are simply slit up the back with their two bum cheeks proudly protuding out. It features old men "walking their birds" as Craig and I call it. Old men bring their caged song birds to the park, hang the cages in
the trees so the birds can visit with one another and pretend they are in trees. Meanwhile the old men play Majong.
The key feature of this park is the hill. In Chinese it is called "mei" or beautiful hill, which is the same word but a different tone than "coal", so the foreigners mixed it up, so its English name is Coal Hill. The hill was formed by the material dug up to build the moat that surrounds the Forbidden City. You wind your way up the hill, to the top to get an incredibly spectacular panorama of the old city. On one side you can begin to grasp the magnitude of the Forbidden City. No wonder I was exhausted by the time I got through it. On the other side of the hill you can look down the hutongs towards the Drum and Bell Towers.
The Bell Tower We also visited the Bell Tower which is pretty interesting and a great workout. You have to climb the most incredibly steep set of stairs to make your way up. At the top you are confronted with a bell 7 m in height and weighing
Practicing in the Park
Women practicing Rhythmic Gymnastics in Coal Hill Park. 63 tons.
We visited the Dirt Market, but were a little non-plussed. We have found far more interesting knick-knacks (so called antiques and crafts) in the streets of Tianjin, and much less picked through at that.
The Underground City After much searching, we finally found the entrance to the Underground City, which is more interesting to think about than to tour, however, the tour is quite short so it works out well. Chairman Mao had a series of tunnels built during the late sixties and early seventies in case of Soviet attack. Lacking the technology, they carved these 300 km of tunnels out by pick-axe. Our guide said they run all the way to Tianjin!!! They were supposed to provide bomb shelter to some 300 000 people. Although you can't enter any of the rooms, as you go down the tunnels, signs on doors announce "hospital", "seniors recreation room" and other interesting things. Strangely mid-tour they have set-up a silk shop just incase you need to buy that silk dressing gown you have been considering. The tour does a short circuit, and you have no choice but to take a tour guide who won't let
you take pictures...national security issue I suppose. However, we understand that there are entrances to these tunnels throughout town, in a carpet factory, on Wanfujing Street and into government buildings.
The Highlight - An Actual Jazz Concert!
Flipping through a Beijing entertainment magazine we discovered there was an Italian Jazz Festival on for the weekend, and not so far from our hostel, just the other side of Tian'anmen Square (this is a joke to anybody who has any idea just how big this square is). We decided it was an omen.
Arriving at the concert hall we were informed there were no 30 rmb, nor 60 rmb tickets left. Just 90 rmb tickets. The lady behind the desk rotated her screen so we could choose our preferred seating in the Mezzanine. Tickets in hand we dashed to the concert hall entrance, followed the directions to our seating area, only to discover, that like soccer matches in China, once past the ticket booth it was just a free for all. First come first serve. More expensive tickets served no purpose if you were not there early enough to score the sweet seats. The show was far
from sold out, so Craig and I also benefited, on floor level with a good view of the stage.
Anyway, the show was actually quite great. There were two bands "3quietmen" and "Manomanouche". We preferred the first band, trumpet, bass and drums, but it was the 2nd group that truly pleased the crowd which was more 1930s French Swing with a singer in a red dress. We just enjoyed the opportunity to see live Western music. I think that living in Beijing would present a lot more opportunities to do things than where we currently live.
Back to Teda
So we didn't do the Great Wall, but we did lots of little things. We also have a good sense for the layout of the town now, and know the best place to get a really good, tastes like it should, chocolate brownie. We feel we have mastered the Beijing Subway System as well.
Anyway, the good news is the x-ray shows that Craig's wrist is healing well...quite the relief. He can take it off on Thursday of next week which will be fantastic and gross at the same time. Craig told Dr. Lee that
Walking My Bird
Old men like to take their birds to the park and hang the cages in the trees while they play Majong. if they ever need a Westerner to do an advertisement for ground beetle pills, he is their man.
We had a great visit at Taylor's College in Kuala Lumpur, where we have accepted teaching positions for next year...our leave of absence in NB was renewed for 1 more year. It is a university campus and feels like a university too, and oh yeah...there are palm trees everywhere. KL seemed like a pretty hip city with lots going on. The air quality seemed much better than where we presently live. We asked a cab driver if there is a rainy season and he laughed really hard. Apparently KL has one season, the one where it is nice in the morning, and a huge Thunder Storm rages around 4 pm, and then it cools down for a pleasant evening. I think I can handle it. Also, we have already made contacts with a Malaysian Nature Conservation Group and Habitat so we should be up and running with community service as soon as we arrive.
Thanks for all the message from Canada. Keep us posted.
Beth
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Roundyrhino
Aoife & Alan
Missing China!
Hey, you're making us miss China! Nice photos xx