Sunday, December 22, 2013

Soon it will be Christmas day...

My badge showing my affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party 中国共产党. I found it on the ground when we were at the Temple of Heaven Park 天坛公园 in Běi​jīng 北京 last week, and it's proudly adorned my backpack ever since.

Ring-a-ling and hear them sing, soon we'll be spending our first Christmas in Shàng​hǎi 上海. While there are some decorations to be seen about town (lights, trees etc.), it still takes some effort to get into the proper spirit of things. At least this Wednesday will be a day off from the consulate. Combined with my daughter being on winter vacation from school, the three of us will be together as a family all day long on the 25th. There will be presents under the tree come Wednesday morning as Santa will surely find a way to get in despite the lack of a chimney. Our friends at the public security bureau 公安局 can no doubt show St. Nick how it's done.


Amber in front of the Shanghai Grand Theater 上海大剧院. After several more smoggy days recently, we were blessed today with relatively clear skies. Behind the theater you can get a glimpse of Tomorrow Square 明天广场, which looms over the entire People's Square 人民广场 area. 



The Shanghai Art Museum  上海美术馆 is (was) located inside the clubhouse building of the former Shanghai racecourse, a venue for horse races built by the British in 1862. The racecourse was razed after the Second World War, and much of the former racetrack is now People's Park 人民公园. The clubhouse dates from 1933, and features a clock tower that was once nicknamed "Little Ben". It's another magnificent example of Shanghai's unique architectural heritage, but unfortunately the museum was closed this afternoon. Apparently, it's in the process of being moved to a new location. The old clubhouse still hosts an expensive restaurant on its top floor, so hopefully it will stick around.



People's Park is home to the Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art  上海当代艺术馆 (currently hosting an exhibition of works by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama 草間彌生. The long line of people waiting to get in was the main reason we gave it a pass today) and an Arabic-looking bar fronting a lotus pond. On weekends, the park is filled with parents and grandparents (and professional matchmakers) looking for spouses for their children and grandchildren (and clients). Printouts are displayed with all the important statistics - age, height and monthly income. Curiously, only a few have photos of the person. It's an interesting, sometimes amusing, scene from a sociocultural standpoint, but on a personal level it's somewhat disheartening to see so many souls seeking partners, and one wishes them all the best of luck in their searches.


The aforementioned Tomorrow Square. At any moment, I expected the top to open up and a rocket to blast off, like in a scene out of You Only Live Twice


Tomorrow Square is home to some very expensive apartments, as well as the five-star JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai at Tomorrow Square, the lobby of which is on the 38th floor.


From the lobby can be seen great views of People's Park down below


Looking down on the Shanghai Museum  上海博物馆


I'm sure it looks even better at night, but the hotel employees probably wouldn't take kindly to gawking tourists, unless the latter were willing to spring for overpriced cocktails.


Beside Tomorrow Square is a street called Jiāng​yīn Lù 江阴路, consisting of run-down buildings that have managed to resist the developers (so far). A number of pet shops line the road, dealing in critters ranging from rabbits and turtles to newts and salamanders.


When in Rome, buy a cricket and put it in a small cage


It's only a matter of time before our caged prisoner makes music...or else



 










Tuesday, December 17, 2013

#humblebrag in Beijing, Part 2: Going to heaven


Continued from yesterday's post...

Sunday was another cold but sunny day in Bĕjīng 北京. Having already visited the Forbidden City 紫禁城 and Tiān'ānmén Square 天安门广场 (and with my loved ones earlier having taken advantage of my needing to work by going to see the Great Wall 长城 without me), and with our time limited (we had an afternoon high-speed train bound for Shànghăi 上海 to catch), we (OK, I) made the decision to spend the morning in the Temple of Heaven Park 天坛公园, "(a) tranquil oasis of peace and methodical Confucian design in one of China's busiest urban landscapes", according to Lonely Planet's Discover China guide.


Like virtually all open urban spaces in China, the Temple of Heaven Park was full of people exercising, dancing and playing games (though the folks in the photo above were atypical in that whatever it was they were doing, it wasn't being done in unison). Still, the crowds were nothing like the hordes of the day before at the Forbidden City, with the result being that we had some relative elbow room while visiting some of the sites within the park.


The Round Altar 圜丘 was first constructed in 1530 and rebuilt two hundred years later. Made out of white marble and arranged in three tiers, the structure is dominated by the number nine, which is explained in detail in the link above. Suffice it to say, it all adds up if you're superstitious and Chinese. Being an altar, it was used for religious rites, especially for rain-making ceremonies conducted by the emperor in times of drought. 


We were joined at the Round Altar by a tour group consisting of members of one of China's 54 officially recognized minority groups. The colorful native dress would no doubt have pleased the government, at least judging from this recent BBC article.


The presence of the tour group, however, made it very difficult to experience the altar's acoustic properties. One's voice supposedly is amplified when standing on the circular stone in the middle.


Behind the Round Altar was the Imperial Vault of Heaven 皇穹宇, the next place we visited (included on the through admission tickets we had purchased before entering the park).


This hall was built at the same time as the Round Altar. It's surrounded by the Echo Wall 回音臂, which is said to be able to carry a whisper from one person to another. 


The interior was used for winter solstice ceremonies. It contains tablets of imperial ancestors.


The approach to the third and final site we saw at the park, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests 祈年殿.


If the hall seems vaguely familiar, it's probably because you've seen pictures of it in guidebooks. Built in 1420 (and rebuilt in 1889 after burning down following a lightning strike), it's one of Beijing's most iconic structures.


"Look, Ma, I'm in China!"


The interior consists of wooden pillars supporting the ceiling without benefit of any nails. Speaking of the ceiling, it has a carving of a dragon, the imperial symbol.



A couple of small on-site museums explained the hall's purpose as a site for ritual sacrificial offerings and on the architectural features of the building.


And that was how we spent our last morning in Beijing. We rode the metro back to our hotel, retrieved our belongings, and then took a taxi to Beijing South Railway Station 北京南站. On the way, we passed by the China Central Television Headquarters, aka "Big Boxer Shorts" 大裤衩. 


The scenery from the train window was just as dreary going back to Shanghai as it was traveling up to Beijing, with some horrible smog partway through the trip. Fortunately for us, Beijing's notorious pollution wasn't much in evidence while we were there. A day-and-a-half for sightseeing (three-and-a-half for Amber and Pamela) wasn't enough to do the city justice, so I hope to have a chance to return before our time is over in China.














Monday, December 16, 2013

#humblebrag in Beijing, Part 1


Bĕijīng 北京 - the capital of China, the country's political, cultural and educational center and its second most populous city after Shànghăi 上海. Just like you can't visit the U.S. without going to New York, or travel to the U.K. and not skip London, in China you have to go at some point to Beijing. For my family and me, that point was last week. Taking advantage of the opportunity to go the embassy for consultations, the three of us scraped a little of the surface of the most important city in China. 


Eschewing the wonder of flight, I traveled by high-speed train last Tuesday for the nearly five-hour ride from Shanghai to Beijing. 


The trains were fast (up to 306 kph/190 mph), punctual and efficient, but the scenery from the windows was dreary - hour after hour of flat surfaces, construction sites and brown-colored fields. For the first time for me, however, the contrast between the wealthy cities and the rest of the country could be glimpsed from the train. Villages filled with traditional homes but few personal vehicles, dim lights (or none at all) as the sun began to set and, in one case, a farmer using a water buffalo to till a field. 



The view from my five-star hotel room in Beijing. Expensive and with all the amenities you would expect from such an establishment, yet I found it hard to relax among all the businesspeople and the nouveaux Chinese riche. In my travels I usually stay in two- and three-star accommodations, in part because a hotel to me is merely a place to sleep and store your things while you're out and about seeing the sights, and because I'm a tightwad who worries if he's spending too much. Which I was at this place, even if much of it was covered by per diem. Still, I had no worries about taking advantage of the complimentary buffet breakfast or the free evening happy hours.

My wife and daughter came up by train on Wednesday evening, and for the next two days, while I was busy going from one meeting to another at the embassy, the girls enjoyed some quality time, first by checking out some of Beijing's famed  hútòng 胡同 houses on Thursday, and then spending the day at the Great Wall 长城 on Friday (sorry, no pictures - some of us had to work). Consultations finished, we were able to enjoy some family time on the weekend. And, of course, if you only have one day in Beijing, the place to visit is the Forbidden City 紫禁城 (故宫).


Amber and I in front of the Gate of Heavenly Peace 天安门, from where Máo Zédōng 毛泽东 stood on October 1, 1949 to proclaim the establishment of the People's Republic of China 中华人民共和国, and where a giant portrait of the Great Helmsman (and mass murderer) glares beams down upon the masses, surrounded on either side by anachronistic Communist slogans.


As you pass under Mao, you leave the 20th century and enter the Imperial world of 500 years ago, starting with the huge Meridian Gate 午门, once reserved for the sole use of the emperor.


We were blessed with (relatively) clean air and blue skies the whole time we were in Beijing, a great relief after the record-setting pollution levels Shanghai had experienced just a few days before. But it was cold - the temperatures in the daytime never got higher than a few degrees above freezing, while at night they fell sharply, to a low of -10°C/14°F on Thursday night. Here, Amber and Pamela stand by a couple of the marble bridges that span the Golden Stream, which was frozen over.


The Gate of Supreme Harmony 太和门, which fronts a square that could hold an audience of up to 100,000 kowtowing people.



Thanks to The Last Emperor and the countless historical TV dramas my wife watched in Taiwan, it all seemed very familiar, but no less imposing. 


The Hall of Supreme Harmony 太和殿, the largest of the many buildings that make up the Forbidden City. It was also the most important, as it was used for grand ceremonial occasions, such as the emperor's birthday.


Inside sits the Dragon Throne, the seat for the leader of the Middle Kingdom, the center of the world in the Chinese scheme of things. It took a lot of persistence and patience fighting the crowds to get a glimpse of it from afar.


Amber and I by one of the 308 water vats that were kept in reserve in case any fires broke out. In winter, fires were lit under them to keep the water from freezing. Unfortunately for us, that custom was no longer being observed.


The Hall of Middle Harmony 中和殿, which served as the emperor's green room of sorts while he was getting ready to address the multitudes. 


Next up was the Hall of Preserving Harmony 保和殿, used for banquets. Inside was another luxurious throne, but it was too hard to get a good look with all the tourists there. 



The view from behind the Hall of Preserving Harmony, looking toward the Palace of Heavenly Purity 乾请宫, initially an imperial residence and later a receiving hall for welcoming foreign barbarians. 



The Hall of Union 交泰殿 (top) and the Earthly Tranquility Palace 坤宁宫. By this point, serious imperial grandeur fatigue was beginning to sink in. 





Which is why the Imperial Garden 御花园, though still crowded, provided a welcome respite, with its cypress trees, rockeries and manageable-sized, but nonetheless impressive, pavilions.


Mother and daughter near the Chéngguāng Gate 承光门, close to the Forbidden City's northern entrance, which meant it was time to make our way back, a journey that was going to take a long time.


Amber by a cypress tree described as the "Elephant Man" of the Imperial Garden by my Discover China guidebook.


Lunchtime 



Following lunch it was time to check out some museums, beginning with the Clock Exhibition Hall 钟表馆, a magnificent collection of amazing timepieces. In at least one area, imperial China had something to learn from the Europeans, especially the English (pictured at top is a huge Chinese water clock). A brief demonstration of how some of the clocks worked was given while we were there, one of which I was able to capture on film, but which I'm unable to upload onto this blog at this time. I'll set my watch and try again at a later time.


My daughter leaps for joy in front of the Nine Dragon Screen 就龙壁




Some imperial artifacts on display. It was at this point that my wife smugly pointed out that the collection at the National Palace Museum 故宮博物院 in Taipei 台北 was much better. And just why is that the case, my dear?


Hall of this, Hall of that. It eventually became too hard to keep track of them all. Better to just enjoy the Forbidden City as a whole.




Beautiful works carved out of jade, and a room full of bells and chimes


The Well of Concubine Zhēn 珍妃井. The extremely nasty Empress Dowager Cíxĭ 慈禧太后 had a concubine thrown to her death here as a result of a political disagreement.




Back to the beginning, at last! The Forbidden City is an amazing place, but be prepared to spend an entire day there, as we did. And we still weren't done, as Tiān'ānmén Square 天安门广场 was just across the street.


A lot of people were waiting for the flag-lowering ceremony, but we were too cold and tired to stick around for that. Still, I had to take a walk around Tian'anmen Square, site of the notorious massacre on June 4, 1989, as well as of various other protests against religious and ethnic persecution. Mostly, though, it's a massive, (understandably) well policed-square enjoyed by the people of Beijing and the tourist throngs who visit.

The monolithic (and very Soviet) Great Hall of the People 人民大会堂



The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall 毛主席纪念堂, where Mao's preserved body lies in permanent state in true Communist personality cult fashion. Fortunately for us, it had closed by the time we had gotten to Tian'anmen Square.



We finished up the day by getting away from the symbols of Chinese imperial past (both old and new) by riding the metro over to the Wángfǔjǐng Snack Street 王府井小吃街. While the sea stars, seahorses and scorpions looked tempting, we ended up settling for boring old duck for dinner.



Amber finished the day off with a sweet strawberry flourish. To be continued...