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| View from our hotel window |
We are now in Beijing, and are staying slightly outside of the
central area of the city (near the north side of the 4th Ring Road, for those familiar with
Beijing). We are near the site of the Beijing Olympics and there are lots of massive streets, tall apartment buildings with small shops
(including car repair, convenience stores, a near-by shopping mall and a few
walkable subway stops (about a 10-15 minute walk away-which is not bad in this immense
city.) We spent our first day orienting to the neighborhood and getting water and food supplies. Now that we are in China, my phone translation and Mandarin reading apps were essential
to any sort of communication - we don’t speak Mandarin (besides a few basic
words) and no one knows much English beyond saying 'Hello' and 'Good By'. I am very
appreciative of these apps on my phone and the technology behind it, without which it would be very
challenging to explore.
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| Family on subway |
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| Mom playing with child on the subway |
Our hotel is a newer "business hotel" and the
comparison with our Hong Kong hostel is stark. The room is smaller (despite HK being
a much more space-challenged city. Wifi is sporadic (even with a VPN to
get us through the Chinese cyber-wall). Furnishing are more 'opulent' with
shiny pillows and bed coverings and the room does not seem set up for people to
actually stay here (there is a refrigerator hidden in a small cubbard, a safe (that needed new batteries
to actually work), daily bottled water daily along with a tea kettle and a few tea bags, a narrow closet where hangers can only hang at an angle, and no place to
actually put clothing. The first night we discovered that lamps are placed near electric plugs, without much consideration for where light might be needed to read or see by. Luckily, heat is not a problem- in fact the daily
cleaning people like leaving a window open after they clean because the room gets so hot. (Temperature comparison between Beijing and Minnesota is that here outside
temps are around 30 degrees (F) and damp, while it is -13 to -33 wind chill in Minnesota.) Pollution also doesn’t seem too bad so
far although a friend gave us some face masks, in case. Yesterday was foggy until about midday, today it is sparklingly
clear.
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| Veggie market on a Saturday morning |
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| Entrance to Lama Temple |
The hotel neighborhood is not very crowded,
although it is a holiday or at least a weekend, so it’s hard to tell.
It seems to be a fairly middle class (to my
best guess) neighborhood. The nearby shopping center resembles a cross between
a maze-like Middle Eastern bazzar and a giant Target or CosCo. The mall also had two food markets- one a huge supermarket with international foods and then on a lower floor, a smaller fresh food old-time market with people, often men, milling around selecting cuts of meat, vegetables and fruit to put in their wheeled carts. On the corner of the block, a car wash/garage was filled with SUVs as well as BMWs, and Mercedes.
As we
wandered, people stare while a few small children say hello and then look
surprised (or confused) when we respond
Nie
Haow (hello in Mandarin). One older man wished
us “Happy New Year’ as he rushed by and we
often hear small children singing Christmas carols or “Auld Lang Syne’ as they
pass by.
(It is not yet clear what, if
anything happens on western New Year.. .but tonight is the night!!)
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| Outside the Lama Temple |
Yesterday we navigated to subway (easy to do and inexpensive) to
see the Lama Temple and also a nearby Confucian Temple and Imperial College.
The Lama Temple, supposedly the largest in China was filled with many people some
of whom were praying, some taking selfies and many doing both (juxtaposing secular and spiritual). While beautiful, it was also strangle/interesting/sad
to continually read the party-line about Tibet…basically, that they were being embraced into the arms of 'mother China' along with many ethnic minorities. While this is a familiar Chinese government perspective on Tibet, I couldn’t help
think of the many Tibetans who would have a very different story!!
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| Bruce and Confucian Temple Building |
When we got cold, we ducked into a store and had some
hot tea, along with some jujubes (red dates) and pumpkin seeds that we were shared with us. Then a quick
subway to the Oriental Plaza, a fancy up-scale group of shopping malls
(see Bruce's photos in our past blogs) and then jumped on the subway again
to the Capital Museum trying to arrive before closing time. This museum has a wonderful exhibit on
the history of Beijing and some other interesting exhibits that we didn’t have
time to view (hopefully we will return in the next day or so).
The building is, like so much in Beijing HUGE
with modern lines and massive rooms. But it was fun to see the exhibit and
families who were enjoying their Saturday as they celebrated Chinese culture.
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| Confucian Temple Gate |
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| Capital Museum Entry |
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| East/West Curiosity in Capital Museum |
This is getting long, so I will end with some thoughts from
my biased perspective as a westerner and American. For me being in Beijing is a wonderful
practice of not being in control and not getting too attached to plans or timing. (For those of you who
know me, this can sometimes be hard). There is a way that so much of China
seems simultaneously extremely bureaucratic and also completely disorganized. The day we arrived, I went
with my host (for the class I will be teaching) to purchase 2 local Chinese
phone cards.
We finally found a place to
get them and went through a long process of selecting numbers and picking
the plan I wanted. And then after about 20 minutes of checking and taking photos of IDs, it turns out that we could
only purchase one new number that day, not two new numbers. And since it was a
holiday weekend coming up, I would need to wait 3-days to purchase a second
number. When I pointed out that I need two, so Bruce and I could find each
other in case we got separated, a long conversation ensued. eventually I ended up being able to purchase a
second number, but it could only be with another, slower Chinese phone company. It
took about 30 minutes before I was able to walk out of the store with two new
local phone numbers.
Whew-quite the process !!
Another example of chaos and bureaucracy- we arrived at the Capital Museum
around 4 pm (I had checked on line and our guide book all of which said it closed at 5. While we knew were arrive late, we wanted to try to see at least a few things). We arrived to
discover that you can't actually enter after 4 pm. As we walked around the building to we saw another entrance. At this entrance, after some phone app interactions, the young woman motioned us to enter. I dont know why, and perhaps she was taking pity on two old, not too bright foreigners, but we were actually able to have an hour to view one of the exhibits. This patterns continues in so many ways, but things also
work out, which is often a delightful surprise.
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| Incense burning in front of the Lama Temple |
OK, for us it is New Year’s Eve. I am sending wishes and
hopes for a New Year that brings more enlightenment, justice, empathy and caring, as well as a hopes for a world that can honor and respect all the amazing ways we are so magnificently different. And while we are at it, let's figure out global warming
too.
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