Day Before Shane

Shane actually missed his flight to Beijing due to bad weather in Nashville, so the day he was supposed to come I did some sightseeing instead to cheer myself up.  As I've mentioned in a previous post, I tried to go to the National Museum, but they were out of tickets, so I went further west to visit one of the few Daoist Temples in Beijing, called DDD Temple.  To the untrained eye, it looked very similar to many Buddhist temples that I have seen in China, but there were some differences even to me.  The art and carvings on the god statues and furniture in the temples was noticeably different; fewer geometric designs than in Buddhist temples and more realistic carvings, many in relief style.  There were also many flowers in every temple room.  I also thought that the god statues looked less scary than in Buddhism and more realistic, but they were still made out of gold or had red faces, so were definitely stylistic to some degree.  There were many similarities as well; incense burning in front of every temple, mats for kneeling, and the same general layout with a central axis of temples begetting temples behind them flanked by minor temples on the sides.  The whole complex had a nice garden and it was a nice retreat from the crowds of Beijing as there were barely any visitors.

One of the temple buildings with various gods.

Sutras, or oodles of miniature holy men, each with a little light.

Monks do laundry too.

The Daoist temple also had a ancient Daoist Chinese medicine doctor's office, complete with modern-day patients!

At the entrance to the temple complex was a brass gong with a bell in the middle.  People threw tokens at it for good luck.

After the temple, I walked back east and came out at Qian'men, one of the only remaining ancient gates to the old city.  It stands at the southern edge of Tian'anmen Square and you can have a good view of Mao's Mauseleum from the top.  There is also a quasi-interesting museum inside about the old city walls and gates.

On the way home, I stopped at the Beijing Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, which had many strange exhibits glorifying Beijing.  There was a neat map of the future Beijing metro, which is going to be HUGE as well as an entire floor taken up with a scale model of the city.  It was actually very interesting to look at as an inhabitant of the city, I even found my apartment building!  It was cool to see how everything is connected from the viewpoint of a really low-flying airplane.  I don't think it would be nearly as neat for a visitor to Beijing who had no experience with the city, so I was glad Shane wasn't there for that bit, although I was overall very sad that I missed a day of hanging out with him.  But never fear, he managed to catch the plane the next day and arrived only a day late ready for Chinese adventure!

A view of the Beijing city model from above

The Olympic Stadium and Water Cube, something very recognizable to everyone in the model!

My apartment! (less recognizable to most people)  Its the 5th building to the left of the traffic circle that is surrounded by yellow lights.

The future Beijing Metro map.  Insane!

Last Orphanage visit

Last weekend I visited Harmony House Foster Home for the last time, as I will be leaving China in less than a month.  It was a chaotic morning as my partner showed up to meet me but looked horrible with a cold, so I went by myself.  I felt bad driving for 45 minutes with the driver and being pretty much unable to talk with him as he speaks no English and I speak next to no Chinese, but I passed the drive reading the news.  When we arrived I really noticed what a difference even several months can make - almost all the kids recognize me, and only one of them still cries when she sees me - the others have gotten used to this foreign girl!  

The kids are so needy, they crave attention and I feel sad that I will not see them anymore.  Its also interesting how they react differently to their situation; there is one little boy who is just as sweet as can be despite having no use of his arms and writing/grabbing with his feet, while another little boy is spiteful and ugly, ripping toys from others, hitting them, and intentionally annoying staff and visitors.  Both of these personalities are built from a combination of their inherent self and their environment and being an orphan, and the spiteful one needs just as much attention as the lovely one, but he picked the wrong way to get it.  And its easy to see how the spiral of bad behavior can happen, its hard to treat him with love and kindness when he hits you or rips the books you bring or runs up to scrawl on the windows with the crayon, and then of course he feels left out and hated and resorts to bad behavior to get attention.  

After the visit I was sad leaving, but at least I know that volunteers will continue going to play with the kids every week.  And I even managed a rudimentary conversation with the driver on the way back about his own kids, wife, and family! 

Tian'anmen Square Sensitivity

Today there was a story in the New York Times about the new statute outside the National Museum on Tian'anmen Square being mysteriously removed during the night on Friday.  The National Museum just re-opened after several years of restoration, and it has been a rather big deal around here, with tickets selling out in the early hours of each day.  China has touted the museum as being the biggest national museum in the world, with the most exhibit space, etc etc.  Another article in the NYT recently focused on the museum, stating how odd it was since it calls itself a museum of China as well as hosting international exhibits, but the exhibits carefully dance around anything to do with the Cultural Revolution or the events following that, the Tian'anmen Square massacre, or anything deviating from the current party line.  In addition, they apparently somehow manage to have an entire exhibit about the Renaissance without mentioning liberty of thought and expression, hallmarks of the Renaissance.

It was a big deal when the statue of Confucius was installed outside the museum, on the east side of Tian'anmen Square, because Mao Zedong was so anti-Confucius.  Along with other religions, Confucianism was suppressed during the Cultural Revolution, and its followers were persecuted.  Mao encouraged the Red Guard to deface or destroy Confucian temples and artifacts.  So many people were surprised when the statue was placed just across from the entrance to the Forbidden City and in Tian'anmen Square, a place so carefully controlled by the government that there are about 5 video cameras on every light pole and you must go through a metal detector and pat-down to get in, even on non-special occasions.  Some Chinese hailed it as sacrilegious to Mao and his lifework, while others thought it was a step towards moving onwards and encouraging Confucian ethics in modern-day China.  Apparently the former crowd won the ideological argument however, because the statue is now MIA and even the guards outside the National Museum don't know where it has gone.

Luckily I tried to go to the museum last week right before Shane came, and although the tickets were all sold out, I did see the statue and took a picture before it disappeared, maybe for good.

Craziness in Beijing

In more ways than one, it has been crazy here recently.  Personally, it has been a whirlwind, sorry for the dearth of posts; about a week after Judy and Lisa left, a friend from med school, Shane, came to visit.  He just left yesterday, and my apartment again seems strangely empty, but I am scrambling to catch up with things.  I have definitely enjoyed having all the visitors this year though - please feel free to come to Nashville next year, although I know its not as exciting as China!  (it IS cheaper though to get to)

Crazy things have been happening in Beijing recently as well:
--Its snowing in April.  About a week ago great fluffy puffs of white pollen appeared in the air, and on windy days, it really looks like a snow storm!  Apparently 10-15 years ago, the Chinese government planted tons of poplar trees without researching their behavior, only to discover that they have copious amounts of white pollen in springtime.  I've been warned that the pollen storms will continue for 2-3 weeks!

--Human rights continue to be infringed, with an unregistered Chinese Christian church in Beijing having their building barred from them and members arrested when they tried to meet in the street instead.  I don't understand why the government regards freedom of religion as such a bad thing - there are plenty of historical examples where Christianity has actually been used as a social and spiritual balm for the poor oppressed masses, but it seems like the government here is worried about it provoking unrest.  It does seem like they are less critical of Christianity in general, and more so of churches who are not registered with the government, which I suppose smacks of free thinking.

--There was a wine festival at Carrefour yesterday, and Adam, Alison, and I, along with several of their other friends, attended.  It was basically a huge room filled with people handing out free wine in hopes that you'd buy it!  Carrefour is a french grocery store chain, so of course more than 50% of the wine there was french, and there were actually French vineyard owners there serving wine!  It was awesome!

More posts coming soon about Shane's visit and recent events :)

Chaoyang Park

On my list of things to see in Beijing before leaving was Chaoyang Park, the biggest green space in Beijing.  I decided to go on Saturday, but first, Adam, Alison and I went to a yummy Indian restaurant I found last month.  Right next door, a taste of home:

I have to give it to the Chinese, they know how to build a public park.  And they use them, much more than we do in the US.  Even on cold winter days there are people doing exercises and walking in parks, and now with the nice weather finally here, Beijingers were out in force!  You might have seen some different activities that people do in parks in pictures I posted from when Judy and Lisa were here as well: exercising, playing on exercise equipment, juggling, tai chi, rolling big metal hoops, hacky sack, singing, playing musical instruments, dancing...you name it, there's people doing it in a park.  This was the first time I'd seen people camping out: not exactly my idea of camping as its still in the middle of a city and there is absolutely no privacy between tents, but everyone seemed to be having fun.  And lack of privacy is just the norm here anyway.

Chaoyang Park hosted the volleyball in the Olympics so there was a bunch of Olympic stuff...

as well as nice fountains with elaborate explanations...

and huge statues with NO explanations. Haha

There was also plenty of evidence that spring has come to Beijing, including many plum and cherry trees in full blossom

 And to top it all off, a public bathroom...shaped like a bug.  Why not?!

Shanghai - Day 2

My second day in Shanghai, I decided to stay in town instead of leaving, since there were a couple of museums I wanted to see (and I didn't get up early enough!).  The first museum was the Shanghai History Museum, which was actually the best museum I've been to in a long time.  It was really well laid out and had mostly very detailed scenes with waxed figures to illustrate ways of life at different stages of Shanghai's history.  Some of my favorite scenes were the fish store:

and the opium den (of course attributed to the evils of colonial powers):

After that, I went to THE Shanghai Museum, which is more of a China Cultural relic museum. There were really good collections of bronzes, sculpture, Chinese painting, pottery, jade work, coins, and more!  I thought this food vessel was particularly striking:

This Buddhist statue was also fear-inspiring:

 One thing I didn't really realize before my visit was that Ming pottery was much more varied than the standard blue-and-white that we hear about.  There was pottery of every color imaginable and decorated with intricately painted and glazed scenes.  These vases were titled '100 deer':

I just liked this one:

 All the Chinese painting in the museum focused on nature scenes, with varying degrees of human interruption (buildings, people, etc)  Captions made distinctions of style that were beyond me - one that I do remember is the remark that for a particular painting, the fact that the monk in the lower corner was walking down the mountain instead of up was of great importance!

There were impressive jade sculptures

 And ridiculously intricate Qing dynasty furniture.

This is the museum from the outside, where it sits in the People's Square.  There were loads of people out enjoying the beautiful weather and fountains.

After the museums, I headed off to find a famous Japanese noodle joint, hidden away on Nanjing Lu, the biggest commercial road in the city.  There was HORDES of people, huge blinking signs and music and noise coming from every corner.  I never went there at night but from the postcards, it beats Times Square!

I had a yummy pork/bamboo shoot noodle dish for dinner, and then headed to the Shanghai Grand Theatre, where I had spontaneously decided to buy tickets to hear Mahler's 2nd symphony.  I think my tired and aching museum-bruised feet might have helped me decide!  This was the theatre from the outside:

 And this the view from inside.  I had never actually heard his 2nd symphony before, but it was very emotional.  Thankfully I went to the talk beforehand which walked the audience through Mahler's life and what he was thinking of as he composed the symphony.  It has 5 movements, starting out with a funeral march (apparently he was one of about fourteen children, half of whom died in childhood), moving on to a flashback of a happy memory of the deceased (with light dance music), followed by the 3rd movement with music evoking utter depression.  The 4th movement was an attempt at recovering and moving on, but it didn't really succeed, as happy tones kept sliding into minor keys and there was an anguished wail at one point.  The 5th and final movement was supposed to convey the triumph of the second coming of Christ, and a call from heaven for the dead to rise.  This part was really cool as there were actually trumpets and horns BACKSTAGE who played this haunting triumphant call with the rest of the orchestra silent.  This was followed by busy music as everyone rose from the grave, a brief quiet interlude to portray the empty Earth, and then a triumphant finale as everyone is admitted into Heaven and death is conquered forever.  I just realized I wrote more in this paragraph than about the rest of Shanghai, but it was really cool!

On my way to the airport the next day, lest I forget with all the modernity and Western music that I was actually in China, I observed this dad with his baby boy...completely dressed...mostly!

Shanghai - Day 1

I now return to my trip to Shanghai, which I mentioned in my train post a few days ago.  The first day was super-busy because I thought I was going to go on a day-trip the next day to a nearby rivertown.  After I woke up, I wandered off into Shanghai in search of a french cafe I'd read about in the book.  It was somewhere in this cute European-style courtyard full of cafes and bars, but I couldn't find it! I ended up having German-style sausage for breakfast instead.

After breakfast, I stumbled upon the house where the Chinese Communist Party was born.  There were many many signs like this, as well as pictures and personal objects that belonged to the party founders.  There were also life-size wax replicas of the founding fathers, including a young-looking Mao, in the upstairs room where the first meeting took place.

In general, many historic or touristic sites in Shanghai had a very anti-Western and anti-colonialist theme to them, with dramatic language denouncing the humiliation and defeat that China experienced at Western hands.  I guess this makes sense since Shanghai was the treaty port that was originally divided up by colonialist powers after the Opium Wars.  It has led to a mixed identity in modern times however; they seem to express resentment towards foreign powers but also are very happy to be the most modern city in mainland China and to have a recent history of trade and progress.

While Shanghai did feel very modern, there were plenty of scenes like this still as well; he is cleaning oysters.

After the Communist party museum, I headed to Yiyuan Garden, an ancient Qing garden in the old part of Shanghai.  The garden itself was surrounded by a warren of alleys and courtyards, filled with people selling all sorts of 'ancient' and not-so-ancient Chinese souvenirs and products.

Inside the garden, there were many beautiful lakes with trees, flowers, and rock formations.  It reminded me of parts of the Summer Palace in Beijing. 

One of my favorite parts was the intricate stonework on the floor, with forever-changing patterns:

In the garden, there be dragons:

After escaping from the bazaars surrounding the garden, I made it out to another famous part of Shanghai, the walk along the Bund.  The 'bund' is an old word to mean embankment, and is the stretch of river in Shanghai where the British, French, and others built many of their most important buildings.  Today, it is an impressive stretch of scenery with cool old architecture on one side, and the river and cool new architecture on the other!

These are some of the most famous skyscrapers; the one on the far left is a TV tower, while the one on the far right is the Shanghai Financial Center.

I went across the river and up inside the Financial Center, which has the world's tallest observation deck on the 101st floor!

Here is the view from the top of the Financial center.  I was there just as day turned into night, so I got to watch the progression as lights came on all over the city.  It was pretty impressive and was the perfect thing to cap off my first day in Shanghai.

Judy and Lisa's Culinary Adventures in Beijing

After the first day of their visit, Judy and Lisa mostly went on tourist adventures by themselves since I had to work.  I went to the office early and often joined them in the mid-afternoon or evening, but they went to the Forbidden City, Great Wall, Olympic Park, and Summer Palace by themselves.

I did meet them for dinner everyday, and over my time in Beijing have managed to luck upon several really good restaurants of many different genres, so I got to share them with my guests.  The second day (for first day see above post) we went to a place famous for Dim Sum, which is a culinary practice from southern China and Hong Kong where food is brought out in little portions on carts and you just take the plates that you want.  There were no carts in Beijing, but the food did come in smaller portions (and prices) so we could try many different things.  Notably, we all tried the black-bean-fried chicken feet, which were spicy but quite good!

Before they knew I was taking the picture, I got their real emotions...

And this is their facial reaction to the picture!  haha

After their Great Wall trip, we went for Muslim hotpot.  We each had our own pot of boiling broth and shared various things to dip in it and cook - lamb, beef, shrimp, lettuce, mushrooms, yams, lotus root…after cooking, you can dip it in a special sesame-peanut sauce before eating.

The fourth night, we went to an excellent Taiwanese restaurant famous for its 'xiaolongbao' or thin juicy dumplings.  We discovered while there that the restaurant had been listed by the New York Times at one point as among the ten best in the world (a seemingly preposterous claim, but still, evidence to its quality).  The dumplings have really thin skin, and when you put them in your mouth you experience this explosion of pork-y goodness that is exquisite.  Judy and Lisa were amazed, and actually went back to the same restaurant the next day for lunch on their own!

The shaved ice with red and green bean dessert that we had after dinner

Next up was vegetarian cuisine - hard to get in China where even plain vegetable dishes are often cooked in meat broth.  I thought I was taking them to a chain restaurant that I had experienced in Yangshuo with Andrew, Lotus Pure Vegetarian, but upon arrival it became apparent that the Beijing version was much more opulent than its southern cousin.  There were no less than 5 Tibetan-robe-clad attendants in the parking lot to usher us into the restaurant, which was hiding behind a massive swinging door with big metal hands.  Inside the restaurant, the colors were muted with hanging curtains, a Mongolian-looking tent, fake foliage, and tiny lamps on each table.  The food was fantastic, with the highlight being the best pumpkin soup i have ever had, it was sweet and savory and creamy and not-too-heavy all at once.  We also had a mushroom dish, an excellent noodle dish, 3 organic vegetable/fruit drinks, seaweed wraps, and even cheese fondue!

Judy with the veggie wraps the server recommended

A view of the restaurant complete with Mongolian-ish tent

Having a little trouble with the fondue...the bread kept falling off the stick!

To top it all off, we capped their last evening in Beijing at Da Dong Duck, the city's 5-star modern Chinese cuisine restaurant famous for its 'lean ducks'.  Adam, Alison, and I discovered it on accident on our first full day in China, and it was since become a staple for guests; the duck is just excellent and the other dishes are unique, tasty, and presented beautifully.  We got there a little early, so enjoyed a glass of wine at the bar before being shown to our table.

We were trying to create a photo documentary of dinner but our stomachs got the better of us when the duck came - but I do have several of the earlier dishes -- purple yam and orange balls, and bamboo shoots with mustard sauce.

And I do have previous pictures of the duck with the accoutrement dishes from previous trips to Da Dong.  You dip the duck in the brown sauce and put it on the tortilla, then add various veggies and pickles from your side dish.

For dessert, we ordered an interesting-looking cotton-candy-coated-fruit dessert, which - surprise! - came with strawberry sorbet as well.  We were so full and happy at the end of dinner, it was a great end to a great visit, I really enjoyed showing them what I have learned about Chinese food here in Beijing.