Beijing

Beijing has changed a lot since my visit in 1996. There is a new international airport (desperately needed!) that could be like any in the West. The access road is the same, but new trees have been planted, and the toll gate was gussied up a bit. The roads seemed to flow a bit faster, too.

It was sunny and warm when we arrived, and we went straight to the Temple of Heaven. This is in a bit of park land, and was very crowded. The temple is where the Emperor would go to pray for a good harvest. The roof of the temple was blue, instead of the normal green.

We then went to check in to the St. Regis hotel, just a block away from the residential compound of the US Embassy. This is near embassy row for China, we passed embassies for Japan, Benin, Poland, and Greece, as well as some others. All guarded by the Chinese Army.

The St. Regis is a five star hotel on any continent, with a marble bathtub and all the amenities. They have Internet in the rooms, but I have been unable to get it to work with Linux.

We went to Qianman Qanjude for dinner. This is the place to go in Beijing for Beijing duck. They brought out a bunch of appetizers, but I was waiting for the main attraction: My third duck in four days! Finally, it came out, and I was ready. I warned Veronica that we'd need another duck, so a third duck was ordered. We polished off all three.

Came back to the St. Regis, ready for sleep.

Alas, no larium dreams.

The breakfast at the St. Regis was a rather varied buffet, but was primarily Western in its composition, with Japanese additions. I did not think much of the dim sum on offer, and there were no fried noodles. (They did have dan dan noodles on offer. Maybe tomorrow.)

The St. Regis is an interesting place. When George Bush was the diplomatic representative (I don't recall if he was a formal ambassador or not, as I don't recall when we formally recognized the People's Republic of China) he felt there ought to be a place where Westerners could go for business. The Beijing International Club was founded as a result, and the St. Regis is a direct result of the International Club, and is probably one of the finest hotels in Asia. Apparently, the current US Ambassador has opted to live here instead of inside the compound (?). Obviously, for the security of these representatives, details are sparse.

Sitting two tables away from me: Bill Gates, or someone who looked exactly like him. There is a Microsoft dinner in the St. Regis tonight, and I suppose he could be in town for that. He had three other people with him. It is interesting, because China has said they want to make some progress with Linux as they don't want their national computer systems tied to a foreign based multinational corporation: It is an insightful decision, since how often are regular Windows users burned by "upgrades" like my father was last year?

Anyway, just so you know where your Windows tax is going, this is also the most expensive hotel in Beijing, with personal butler service. The room rate is $275 per night.

Today was the expedition to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China. To quote Richard Nixon, "It is, indeed, a great wall." It is also a long drive from the center of town. In 1996, I visited the Badaling section, northwest of the city. Mutianyu is to the northeast, so we first headed over to the fourth ring road, and then went out of the city on the airport expressway. Along the way, we stopped at a cloisonné factory. This is the art of making copper vases with enamel surfaces. (Think Ming vases, if you are not familiar with the concept.) It is an interesting art, and is fairly expensive, although no where near as expensive as the silk embroidery or silk rugs.

Like all stops in China, this included a shopping stop. A large vase was something like $30,000. Smaller ones were considerably less, but one could easily drop thousands of dollars on these ornaments.

Thirty minutes beyond the factory was the wall. We had box lunches, sandwiches, pringles, cookies, fruit. Knowing I was about to go walking, I did not eat a lot of food.

We ascended to the wall on gondolas. First we climbed something like 100 feet to the station, then had four people per car going up. The station was about 30 feet below the wall, so we had a little bit more climbing to do before we were on the wall.

I called my father from the Great Wall of China. It was just after midnight in New Jersey, just after noon in Beijing. He expressed his jealousy; besides the photographs I took at the wall, this was the best way I could share the experience with him this time. I also tried to call my sister in San Francisco, but I just got her answering service. My mother was undoubtedly asleep.

The Great Wall	A fort
The Path	Through a Window
A very long wall

Click on any image to see a larger picture

This section of the wall was so much more interesting than Badaling, and a little bit less commercial. Yes, there were some hawkers up there trying to sell things near where you get on the wall, but once you walk a bit, they are no longer around.

The top of the wall is wide enough to fit four soldiers abreast, as this was how China was defended in the historical past. The wall follows the contours of the terrain at a fairly even height above the ground, with regular watch towers. This means the top of the wall is not level, but has lots of climbs and descents. We were given 2 hours on the wall to walk and explore.

While walking on the wall, I noticed first several gentlemen wearing kilts. This is not a normal sight for China. It turns out there is a charity walk on the wall, "Bravehearts in Beijing," raising money for the Scottish Society for Autism. They had over 80 people who were walking 100 kilometers of the Great Wall over 5 days. Each person had to raise at least £2500 for the cause, and over £250,000 is being raised. Very impressive, and a wonderful way to raise some money.

I first walked a couple watchtowers to the east, then turned west. I walked past several watchtowers to the base of the thousand steps. The thousand steps is the last section of the wall open to tourists in this area. I did not have the time this time for the thousand steps, but I went up part way before turning back.

It was something else to hear Scottish accents on the Great Wall.

It is difficult to describe my impressions on seeing the Great Wall. Nixon's comments are both accurate and inadequate. The scale of the wall is difficult to comprehend, we saw maybe a mile or two of the wall: less than one thousandth of the whole tamale. Yet that 0.1% was breathtaking.

Consider: Were the wall to be fully manned, with an archer at each arrow hole, the wall would need 2,000,000 archers alone for each watch. With four watches, that is 8,000,000 archers, and that doesn't take into account the men needed to support the archers. The construction effort must have been one of the greatest mobilizations of manpower in the history of civilization.

Even these words are inadequate. There's really only one word to describe the wall:

Awe.

If you think about it, the only reaction is gape-mouthed awe. You have to see it to believe it.

After taking the gondola back down from the wall, we drove back to Beijing. It was a fairly quiet ride, as I suspect my fellow travelers were coming to terms with their own experience of the wall. We got back at 4:15. I was covered with sweat after walking the wall, and it had dried, so I changed shirts.

During the drives around town, we learned a lot about the Cultural Revolution, and how it effected life. Many young people were sent from the schools to the countryside for "education by the peasantry." Families were forcibly separated. After ten years or so, the revolution ended, and people were required to return to their homes. But, during the time in the country, they may have met people and fallen in love. Some people even formed families. However, when people were returned home, these marriages were separated. People were assigned ration cards based on where they lived, and if one person returned to Beijing and the other stayed in the country, the marriage could not last.

Worse, now, these people are called the lost generation. Now that a market economy is starting to take over in China, employment is no longer secure. People get laid off, and the members of the lost generation have no education. They are among the first to be let go.

Some of the women formed a co-operative grocery store, the White Goatling. This chain has since grown in the Beijing area, and is seen to be a model to emulate for those laid off. Many, however, are unable to do this, and end up trying to sell post cards and the like to visiting tourists.

Veronica also told us about June 4, 1989. She was in her last year of prep school getting ready to take the college entrance exams. Some of her teachers encouraged their classes to visit the students at Tiananmen Square, and she did get to see the Beijing Spring first hand. The night of June 4 was horrible, though.

Beijing had previously outlawed fireworks, and the sounds of gunfire sounded like fireworks. The people of Beijing had never heard gunfire, as even in the liberation, Beijing changed hands peacefully.

The next day, Veronica went to school, and those teachers that had encouraged the students to visit the democracy movement had disappeared. Eventually, some came back, but they retired early and were not the same.

Since we were going to the opera at 6:45, the evening's dinner was on our own. I solicited Veronica's opinion for possibilities, and we settled on a hot pot restaurant near the hotel. Veronica's a Beijing native, so these are her old stomping grounds, and I trust her opinion. This restaurant is one where her friends took her to dinner before she last went to England. No one else joined us, so Veronica and I left at 5PM.

The hot pot is one where a stock is brought to boiling, and you place various meats and vegetables in the stock to cook, then fish them out to eat, dipped in a sesame sauce or an oil. We opted for a split pot, one hot and one very spicy. The mild pot had leeks and tomatoes in the stock, the spicy pot had a lot of little red Chinese chilies and the Sichuan numbing spices.

The numbing spice (Veronica was not aware of an English term for it) is a small, peppercorn sized spice that has some crunchy texture, and briefly numbs the mouth when eaten. It is an interesting sensation, but it did get a bit tiresome after a while.

We ordered lamb, beef, pork, shrimp, lettuce, bean curd, mushrooms, and potatoes for the hot pots. The broth was brought to a vigorous boil, and we started adding ingredients to our liking. We ordered an additional scallops and noodles a bit later in the meal. The food was delicious. The longer you leave the ingredients in the broth, the more flavor is absorbed. The food was quite filling, and a little bit messy.

Much to my surprise, Veronica paid. I offered, but since I paid for the Sichuan meal in Shanghai, and since Veronica enjoyed my company, she bought dinner.

It's almost too bad she's engaged... Her fiance in England is quite lucky.

We walked back and met up with the other travelers for the Beijing opera. We don't see a whole opera, that would take five hours. Instead, we get highlights from two operas. The first opera was the basis for the movie, "Farewell, my Concubine" and was set during the civil war following the Qin Dynasty. The Han have surrounded the general, who is with his concubine and pondering defeat. She dances a dance for him, and pleads to take her own life, as life without her general would not be worth living. For him, her life is too precious, and he refuses. She tricks him and steals his sword to take her own life.

The second was part of the adventure of the White snake. The green snake (the younger sister of the white snake) wants to steal the silver from the corrupt officials. She conspires with ghosts to steal the silver as the guards sleep. When the corrupt official realizes the silver is stolen, he sends his guards after the green snake. The battle that results is largely acrobatic, with the green snake fending off the guards. A lot of tossed and kicked weapons, as if in a circus. Very entertaining.

The woman playing the part of the green snake had a very bewitching smile.

After the opera, we returned to the hotel where I entered my journal and went to bed, dreaming of the Great Wall and the smile of the Green Snake.

Dreams of the Green Snake lead to a restless night, and eventually I gave up on trying to sleep at 3AM.

I went to the breakfast buffet at 7AM. The fried rice was replaced by steamed rice, oh well. Effectively a western breakfast buffet. A morning visit to the business center helped me to realize my home machine has gone down (or the connection is down.) Looks like I will need to quickly diagnose that when I get home. I'll also need to re-fire the mail connection before checking my e-mail. It was over 3500 messages when I checked in Xi'an.

A Panda

Our day was to start with a drive to the Beijing zoo to see the pandas. Apparently, this is a new addition to the R Crusoe itinerary, as the previous feedback had requested it. I have a good deal of respect for the preservation work performed by zoos, but am not happy seeing the animals in cages. The pandas were in cages. I took a few pictures. Fortunately, we didn't stay long.

The Summer Palace

Our next destination was the Summer Palace. This is where the emperors would spend the summers. The original Summer Palace was burned to the ground by the invading forces in the Second Opium War. Eventually, the Empress Dowager rebuilt the palace with money alleged to be spent on the Chinese Navy. She built a large lake around the palace.

We walked the long corridor (about a half mile long, really a covered walkway) and then sent for a 20 minute cruise on the lake. We did not get to climb into the palace.

Our next destination was Gongwangfu Sichuan restaurant. This was well over an hour away from the Summer Palace; it may have been a 90 minute drive through Beijing. Although the food was good, it was not really spicy the way I like it. We had dry fried beef, sizzling rice with chicken, sweet pork, stir fried pork and beef, roast duck, kung pao chicken, spicy bean curd, and Sichuan noodles. We finished with a soup. Very tasty, but was it worth the drive? I don't know.

Our next activity was a tour of the Hutongs. Hutong is a Mongolian word for alley, and is a traditional residence for people in Beijing. We were driven around on tricycle rickshaws, and were taken to visit a "normal" dwelling. This normal dwelling had some fairly expensive porcelain and cloisonné. Instead of four families in the courtyard, there was only one, and the daughter is wealthy enough for her family to fly to Malaysia for tourism. I don't think this is a typical Beijing hutong family.

To be honest, I could easily have done without this "tour." I'd have also changed the scheduled date for the Sichuan restaurant, and instead had more time at the Summer Palace.

We returned to the hotel and went to the Friendship Store. This is the big department store for foreigners, where you can get anything from tourist schlock to authentic Ming vases. I considered buying a terra cotta warrior for my father, but decided against it. After buying a few knickknacks for home, I returned to the hotel to relax and write my journal.

Dinner was at The Courtyard restaurant. This is a western restaurant with a view of the East Gate of the Forbidden City. We had to give our choice of main course two days previously, chicken with herbs or roast pork. The first course was a large green salad, which I skipped. The mushroom soup was pretty good. The main course, roast pork, came on a bed of couscous. It was fairly tasty, and this time it wasn't a small portion. I'm not sure I'd rate the restaurant very highly; then again I live near San Francisco which has many gourmet restaurants. My standards may be a bit higher.

Dessert was assorted fruit. We drove home through some heavy traffic, and I went to bed fairly soon thereafter.

Our last full day in China is scheduled for a visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Obviously the highlights of Beijing, these were scheduled for the last day.

I woke with some anticipation at 5:15. There was a discussion of tai chi scheduled for 6:45. I made it, and watched some tai chi. We had a tai chi master, who also works as an editor at the Chinese financial news, to go through some moves. Had I tried, the third stretching exercise would almost certainly have popped out my kneecap.

After the tai chi, we went for breakfast. They made some minor changes, including fried noodles and a country hash brown potato with onion. It was much better.

At 8:45, we left for the Forbidden City. Our first stop was Tiananmen Square, where we walked around for a bit. I played a game, "spot the secret security guards." You could tell, they were people who seemed to be much more intent on observing the crowd as opposed to the sights. There were several.

We walked from the Square to the Forbidden City. The basketball courts are still there! Although the courts are stone, I'd hate to dive for a ball on that surface. This time, the Forbidden City was very crowded. We had the standard tour, walking from the Hall of Supreme Harmony to the Imperial Throne, to different halls. When I was here in 1996, the place was deserted. (-14 degrees Celsius with a 40 MPH wind will do that for an outdoor site!) This time, the place was teeming with tourists. As I had seen it before, I did not fight the crowds to get to the different rooms, instead I had a conversation with George, the local guide, and Veronica. I did try again to call my sister, this time from the Forbidden City. Again, she was out on the town, and unavailable to take my phone call.

Our private R Crusoe tour was much more interesting. We went to see three buildings, one was a study where the Crown Prince greeted visitors, one was a study and one had a bed chamber. These were dustier, as they've not been cleaned up for the tourists, but they had a lot of interesting artifacts. Very nice.

After the Forbidden City, we climbed up Coal Hill. This is to the north of the Forbidden City and has come commanding views of Beijing. We could see all of the Forbidden City; it was quite impressive. The climb was up a 300 step staircase, and was fairly tiring. (The muscles on the sides of my knees hurt.) After the hill, we took the bus back to the hotel for lunch on our own.

I opted for the lunch at the Celestial Court, with one of my fellow travelers. The Celestial Court is the hotel restaurant. Some people went to the hot pot. I seriously considered it, but decided I wanted to see if the hotel had shark's fin soup. They did: I had Celestial Shark's Fin Soup, and a sauted beef in a potato basket. Excellent meal, but expensive.

Sitting at the next table was Sir Andrew Lloyd-Webber. A collection of songs from his shows is currently playing here in Beijing, and he was here for the opening. It goes to Shanghai shortly.

I spent the afternoon packing my bags. More a matter of re-organizing my things.

At 6:30, we left for the China Club for our farewell dinner. The China Club is an extremely exclusive organization. There are 24 separate banquet rooms, and membership is kept to businessmen and high party officials. Originally, it was a palace for an imperial prince. Based on the cars in the parking lot (number plates), two senior ministers were dining there that night. It could have been any of them, including Jiang Zimen, the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. It should be noted that while we were visiting Beijing, the government was holding its sessions in the Great Hall of the People.

We started with cocktails and cold appetizers. The chicken in sesame sauce was particularly tasty. Then, we started a nine course banquet. The first was sizzling rice with mixed meats. Next came kung pao chicken, then hot and sour shrimp soup. We had a sauted beef, sweet and sour pork, deep fried spring chicken, bean curd, string beans with minced meat, and fruit. It was delicious. After the meal, some of the people on the trip sang a song for Veronica. We also gave her a wedding card signed by all of us.

While I didn't sing, I'd say she was an excellent guide and a great traveling companion for China.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by Tiananmen Square at night. It is rather like Times Square in that it is a bustle of activity. People were flying kites and generally enjoying the night. A group of Chinese girls, probably teenagers, came up to me at one point and asked if I spoke English. I responded affirmatively, and they asked if they could take a picture with me. I asked, "Why?" and received an odd answer: "You look a good husband." I was a bit taken aback at this, and asked for some clarification, which had them a bit flustered. Eventually, one of the girls said that I looked like I was a nice person. I agreed to the picture, which seemed to get them quite excited.

Made it back to the hotel by 10PM, where I said good bye to Elinor Persky, and Steve & Louise Berry, and gave myself a 4:30 wake-up call.

I woke a little before 4:30 and showered. Psycho was on the television, the Anne Heche remake. At 6, I went for the buffet breakfast and the ride to the airport was at 6:45. Today, there were no Chinese selections I liked, so the buffet was entirely western for me.

The drive to the airport was fast, but checking in was a lot slower. First, we had to get a departure tax, then we entered the check-in area, having passed a verification of the tax. My bags had to go via the oversize luggage area, then the wait in line at emigration was about 20 minutes. This was followed by a ten minute wait at the security checkpoint.

Eventually, I was through. I bought myself some oolong tea, and tiger balm. While waiting in the business class lounge, I used my cell to call my parents; it was the first chance I had to talk to my mother since my arrival in Hong Kong. It was good to hear they are still planning on flying out on October 3, and were not intimidated by the terrorists.

The flight from Beijing to Narita was pretty quick, under 3 hours. We were served a brunch, I opted for the chicken and abalone in a soya sauce. It turns out two of my fellow travelers were in row 3. We arrived early, so I started to try to sort out my seating arrangements. I had booked seat 4-E three months in advance, but the boarding pass issued to me was for 3-B. It turns out they changed the equipment, and there was no 4-E. Since there was someone in 3-A, I switched to 4-J.

Not much time on the ground at Narita. I did pick up a newspaper and read that newspaper columnists were fired for criticizing the US government, and that a White House spokesman has said that Americans need "to watch what they say." That, to me, is even scarier than the terrorist attack. I said goodbye to Tom and Donna Lambert, and to Mike and Ruth Lamm.

The flight was not very full, so I switched seats to 1-J. 4-J did not fully recline, 1-J does, 1-K is vacant and 2-J is vacant, so when I recline, I will not be in someone's lap. For dinner, I had a pineapple-chili chicken. I watched "Bridget Jones' Diary" which was amusing. I also did a bit of typing for my journal.

We crossed the International date line at about 10:50 PM local time. It's yesterday! Woo Woo!

It should be noted that this is one of the rougher flights I can recall. While eating dinner, we were rocked by turbulence, and it seems every half hour or so the captain comes on to announce the seat belts again. I don't recall previous trans-Pacific flights being so rough.

Even with the turbulence, we've been making good time. We arrived 45 minutes early in San Francisco, so early that they weren't ready to unload the luggage.

An even bigger surprise: US Customs must have changed their search profile, as for only the second time in the last decade I wasn't searched by customs.

I called Tai to pick me up when I cleared customs, he was quick, and I got home to find the machine did not automatically reboot after another pathetic gap in electricity. Over 3500 messages were queued for me, I'll be going through them over the weekend.

Glad to be home, the cats are fine. I had a wonderful trip.

Beijing is a very different city from the one I visited in 1996. The air is cleaner, and they have done a lot to clean up the place. More to the point, though, the city I visited in 1996 was dark, dirty, and did not seem to show much life. Beijing in 2001 is a vibrant, exciting city; one where it seems the future is still ahead of it, and not a city living in the past.

I have seen this kind of thing happen before. London in the end of the Thatcher era had lost is quality, and only in the late 90's seems to have regained its charm.

While much of this has come about by the power of the Communist dictatorship, the results are an improved city. The cost, in terms of repression, is very steep. Veronica at one point mentioned the efficiency of the security police. Falun Gong wanted to unfurl a banner in Tiananmen Square once when she was giving a tour. Plain clothes security police descended on the protesters so quickly, and a van appeared to whisk the protesters away, before her tourists were aware it was even happening.

Pretty efficient, and pretty scary.