Beijing Diary

The End

2006-07-28T22:00:00.000+08:00

Memories Will Fade

Qianmen

2006-07-27T22:00:00.000+08:00

Boarded-up Shops

Ramshackle Buildings

Excavation

Vision of the Future

Symbol of the Olympics

Changes

2006-07-24T22:00:00.000+08:00

This is our last week in Beijing, and as we pack up and get ready to leave it is feeling time to finish things up and ponder our time here.

I think the most striking feature of living in Beijing for 5 months has been the enormous rate of change. Even over this short period dramatic changes have taken place.

Demolished Canteen
The most dramatic changes, and the easiest to document, are the destruction. This is a picture of what used to be one of the student canteens on the BNU campus - the one where I used to enjoy having breakfast because one of the servers spoke English and could help me choose. This whole block of three canteens has now been demolished, and I now eat breakfast in the apartment!

Forlorn Pingpong Table
At the larger city scale thriving shopping streets are suddenly boarded up and whole neighborhoods of the old hutong areas disappear almost overnight, as I mentioned earlier and was also written about in the July 12 issue of the New York Times. (I plan to make one more visit to the Qianmen area to see how much of what we saw at the beginning of our stay remains.)

The destruction is easiest to notice since reconstruction is inevitably slower, and it remains to be seen whether the results are an improvement, an assessment that may well depend on who you are - a visiting tourist or a Beijing native.... But there have been remarkable changes that are clear improvements as well. A dirty channel full of debris and construction equipment at the beginning of our stay has miraculously turned into a river with green banks and lotus plants.

There is also clear progress in the renovation of many of the tourist attractions - the Temple of Heaven was recently reopened and the Summer Palace renovation seems nearly complete - compare these two photos:

Summer Palace in March

Summer Palace in July

The sky was bluer in July too, but unfortunately this doesn't seem to be a real trend!

Another change: probably half of the enormous bus fleet has been replaced with modern air-conditioned vehicles so that it is now much more pleasant to ride the buses. And while we were away in May the system for paying fares on the buses largely changed from getting a paper ticket from the conductor (or from one of up to 3 conductors on the double-length buses) to waving a card at an electronic reader. (The old paper ticket system is still allowed.) The subways are making a similar transition right now. Many new lines are being built too - another cause for the rash of building sites across the city.

Souvenir Shopping

2006-07-22T22:00:00.000+08:00

Since we leave China at the end of this week, we went hunting for souvenirs and gifts. We went back to Liulichangdong Street, with its refurbished Qing dynasty buildings, now mainly selling tourist items. The street is filled with the rickshaws looking for riders and salesmen pushing their wares that frequent this type of place, but at least today, the level of the sales-picthing was relatively mild. The part of the street to the west of Nan Xinhua is a little less intense, and we did most of our shopping here.

Decorated Store Front

Rickshaws and Tourists

A few doors down a back street right at the west end of the touristy part of Liulichangdong Street we wandered into a small shop which turned out to be the store of an artist who happily showed us his pieces and explained the stories behind the pictures. We swopped photo-rights: he took my picture and I took a picture of him and his wife.

Artist, Wife, and Paintings

Summer Palace - in Summer

2006-07-21T22:00:00.000+08:00

We visited the summer palace in winter when we first arrived in Beijing, and in spring when the trees and flowers were blooming, and I wanted to visit one more time in the eponymous season. After two weeks of depressing overcast, hot and thundery weather when Beijing has been sunk in a soup of haze and smog, today dawned with bright blue skies and a fresh wind, so I set off early to beat the rush hour traffic for a final visit.

Marble Boat Looking Grand in the Crisp Light
The Summer Palace is my favorite of the main tourist sites in Beijing. It has the grandeur of the historical context and does not (yet) feel over-restored; it is spacious enough that it never feels crowded despite the hoards of visitors; it has the appealing collection of morning activities, such as water calligraphy and impromptu singing groups; and it is a beautiful place on a bright sunny day.

Calligraphy

Giant Lotus

Yellow Flowers and Blue Sky
The lotus plants in Kunming Lake and some of the smaller lakes were blooming. The picture shows a giant lotus standing 4 or 5 feet tall, with leaves over a foot across and flowers almost as big. There weren't so many trees flowering as in spring, but these yellow flowers contrasted nicely with the bright blue sky.

Tower of the Fragrance of Buddha

Tiled Roof
The renovation work appears to be nearing completion. The centerpiece Tower of the Fragrance of Buddha has shed its scaffolding and sparkled with its fresh paint. The Long Corridor stretching along the lake side is still not finished though.

South Lake Island and Downtown Beijing from Longevity Hill

Sweeping

17 Arch Bridge
One of the nicest parts of the Summer Palace is the Garden of Harmonius Pleasure. (This is what it looked like in spring.) Now the lake is lush with lotus plants and green willow, and people were relaxing in the shady pavilions listening to the music groups.

Lotus in the Garden of Harmonius Pleasure

Pick-up Choir

Pavilion Roof

Table Tennis

2006-07-18T22:00:00.000+08:00

BNU Tabble Tennis Room
Table tennis, of course, is a popular sport in China. I played a lot as a teenager, but that was forty years ago, and I have only rarely picked up a bat since. But I couldn't leave China without playing again, so when some students in the group invited me to play, I happiily accepted. I was surprisingly good - many of my old good shots were still there, although there were also lots of new bad ones!

Speedboat Ride

2006-07-15T21:24:00.000+08:00

On our final day at the Wuling retreat the bus took us to a nearby lake where we went on a fast swooshy speedboat ride. We had seen such a ride at various other rivers and lakes, but never expected to participate!

Wulingshan

2006-07-14T22:00:00.000+08:00

Today the group planned to climb Wulingshan (Wuling Mountain) itself. "Wu" means foggy or misty, and the mountain lived up to its name!

The hike turned out to be a walk up about 1500ft through a pretty wooded valley with a stream at the bottom and, today, damp and mist.

Misty Forest
Chinese hiking trails tend to be very well constructed, with stone steps at the steep bits. Every pool and prominent rock is inscribed with characters either giving a poetic message or telling some history.

Inscribed Rock
After climbing 1500ft we came to a small cabin/restaurant, and it turned out we were to take a bus from there to the summit (which was still 3000ft higher). The summit, which is the highest point in Beijing, was shrouded in cloud, so we didn't get to see any view.

Halfway House

On the way down the brakes of the minibus started smoking, so we all jumped out and walked the last few hundred yards back through the village. This gave me the chance to photograph a mother dog with cute puppies and a little boy playing with them (as well as see a woman strangle a chicken and cut its throat to drain the blood onto at the side of the street - which I didn't photograph!).

Mother and Pups

Little Boy and Puppy

Wuling Excursion

2006-07-13T22:00:00.000+08:00

The BNU Physics department arranged a weekend retreat for its faculty, and kindly invited us along. The location was the Wuling Mountains, about a 3 1/2 hour drive, and right in the north-east corner of greater Beijing. In the afternoon we went on a short hike. The scenery is green mountainous with farms in the valleys and on terraces up the hillsides. The main crop seems to be corn, which surprised me since I don't see much corn being eaten. There are also some unreconstructed pieces of the Great Wall here.

Distant Great Wall

Farming Valley

Unreconstructed Great Wall

Arches and Wall

Colorful Butterfly

White Flower

Corn Terraces

Qiao Home and Zhenguo Temple

2006-07-10T22:00:00.000+08:00

On our last day in Ping Yao we hired a car to visit some more distant attractions. We first went to the Qiao Family Home, a courtyard estate of 313 rooms of a rich family built in the eighteenth century. A recent television series was filmed here, and so it was very crowded with Chinese tourists groups. The buildings were elaborately decorated with paintings and carving, but the most interesting part for me was the furnished interiors that gave some impression of what life was actually like in these old homes. Other buildings housed local museum pieces. The most interesting was a display of the instruments/noise makers that different salesmen used to announce their wares.

Interior

Nine Dragon Lamp

Roof Painting

Carving
After a lunch of local specialties in a restaurant definitely off the western-tourist track we visited Zhenguo Temple which has what is said to be the oldest wooden building in China. The umbrella roof was a very impressive layered structure of crisscrossing beams.

Wooden Roof

The halls housed various Buddhist sculptures and frescos, again with no photos allowed. Some of the outside paintings were good too.

Temple Paintings
This temple too seemed rather neglected, with many of the figures flaking straw from cracks and breakages. One of the side buildings was propped up in an alarming way.

Wall Struts

Xiaoqin's parents live at one of the city primary schools, itself converted long ago from a large courtyard house. School was out for the summer break, except for some surprisingly young children taking a computer class. Here are a few pictures of the school.

School Yard

Blackboard

Class is Out!

Shuanglin Temple and Ping Yao Streets

2006-07-09T22:00:00.000+08:00

We spent the morning relaxing in the hotel. In the afternoon we took a motorbike taxi to Shuanglin Temple a few kilometers outside of town. According to TravelChinaGuide.com the temple houses

"...more than 2,000 exceptional painted Buddhist terracotta and wood statues dating back to the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. They represent the best of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The figures are vivid and remarkably true to life, ranging from Buddha, Bodhisattva, Heavenly Kings, and supernatural beings, to all kinds of mortals from the human world. They are reputed to be a 'treasure reserve of oriental painted sculptures'."

The figures were indeed impressive, although access to see them was unnecessarily limited, and they seemed rather unloved and neglected like so many of China's historical relics. No pictures were allowed inside the halls, but the guards outside were quite impressive too:

Temple Guard
Back in Ping Yao we wandered around the attractive streets and visited a couple more of the old courtyard house museums.

West Street

City Tower

South Street from the City Tower

Ping Yao Sights

2006-07-08T22:00:00.000+08:00

An Old Fashioned Kang (not our one!)
After a good night's sleep on our kang we were ready for some serious sight-seeing on Saturday.

In the morning we went to the Ancient Government Building where the town magistrate lived and tried cases. The magistrate was an important person in the city, and lived well. The buildings now house many small museums such as displays of gruesome punishment implements as well as items from the life of the magistrate. A costume trial of a "bad son" who had kicked his father drew a large appreciative crowd.

Shackles

City Magistrate

After lunch we first visited the Qing Xu Guan Taoist Temple.

Taoist Temple

Roof Detail
Unlike at Buddhist temples there were no restrictions on taking photos, so here are some of the Gods we saw.

Gods
Inside the compound there was also a nice display of a collection of doll tableaux from Chinese Opera.

Opera Dolls

Outside some children were playing a jump-rope game, that I couldn't follow, but Xiaoqin insisted made sense.

Skipping Game

The Buddhist City God Temple had interesting blue and yellow tile roofs.

City God Temple

Temple Roofs

Ceramic Urn

Our final stopping point was the Confucian Temple.

Confucian Temple
The nationwide university entrance exam took place a few days ago, and this "temple of learning" is a good place to pray for the success of your student!

Good Luck Wishes

Ping Yao

2006-07-07T22:00:00.000+08:00

We took an overnight train with Xiaoqin to visit Ping Yao, her home town. Ping Yao is a famous old city with a complete city wall and many old buildings inside surviving from centuries ago. The main streets are spruced up old buildings, most converted into tourist shops and hotels, and there are also many grand courtyard houses, now serving as various museums.

Corner Tower, City Wall

City Street from the Wall

Back Street and Decorated Roofs

Boy "Driving" Tourist Cart
In the 18th and 19th centuries Ping Yao was a trade and banking center. The first bank in China, the Rishengchang Bank, was set up here, and the city was one of the richest in China until changes in the banking system and the end of the imperial system led to its decline. The bank buildig is now a museum describing this history.

Courtyard, Rishengchang Bank

Window Reflections
Away from the main streets is a city of dusty back streets and alleys where there is less influence of the tourist influx. Visiting Xiaoqin's parents gave us the opportunity of experiencing both aspects of the city life.

Back Street
Our hotel, the Yi De, is a charming old courtyard house, comfortably and carefully modernized. The room had a traditional style kang bed, a brick platform with padded mats, originally heated by an adjacent stove to keep warm in winter, although our one was not heated or maybe would be heated with hot water.

Yi De Hotel

Evening Snacks

2006-07-04T22:00:00.000+08:00

In the back street areas there are many small snack restaurants serving very cheap food. The place we went to this evening with a couple of Lynn's friends from Chinese school mainly served varieties of small meat kebabs - pork, chicken, chicken hearts and liver, etc. - for about 5 (US) cents each, together with vegetables and tofu cooked in spicy oil, and pickled cold vegetables (we had pickled fresh peanuts and soy beans).

Confucius Temple and Imperial College

2006-07-03T22:00:00.000+08:00

Biyong Hall, Imperial College
On the way back from Ditan Park on our tandem ride yesterday we visited the Confucius Temple and Imperial College. According to the People's Daily Online:

The Imperial College, "Guozijian" in Chinese, was built in early 14th century and served as the highest learning institution and educational administration during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (1271-1911). The Confucian Temple, adjacent to the Imperial College, has served as a place to worship ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius(551BC-479BC) since its establishment in 1302.

This was in an article describing the extensive renovations being done at the sites, and indeed almost all of the Confucius Temple, and some of the Imperial College was half knocked down and inaccessible! But the large old Biyong Hall where important addresses were given and the decorative gate in the Imperial College were both impressive. In both places were many steles (or stelae) - 8 foot high stone tablets with Chinese characters carved onto them, either commemorating success of candidates in the important exams or acting as a permanent library of classic literature. Inspite of all the mess, I enjoyed visiting these places. "Temples" to learning seem more dignified than the frantic Buddhist temples we have visited - or maybe it was just the absence of crowds!

Decorative Gate, Imperial College

Grounded Roof Decoration

Stele

Confucius (?) and the Great Books

Carved in Stone
Here are some pictures of the renovation efforts

Scaffolding

Roof Figures and Tiles

On Site Brick Factory

Shaping the Bricks, One by One

Ditan Park

2006-07-02T22:00:00.000+08:00

Ditan Park is the site of the Temple of Earth where the Emperor made sacrifices to the Earth, a counterpart to the Temple of Heaven. We rode our tandem there early Sunday morning, a pleasant time before it gets too hot and with less traffic on the roads. (There is a map here.) We arrived at about 8 o'clock, and the park was still full of Chinese people performing the enormous variety of morning activities that we have seen in ever park we have visited.

Park full of Dancers

Water Calligraphers

Calligraphy Brushes

Fan Dancers

"Walking" the Pet Bird
The temple plays a rather minor role in the park, and there was almost no-one there when we went in. There is a very large square "altar", signifying the Earth, where the emperor made the sacrifices (the Temple of Heaven has a round altar, signifying the Heavens). The nearby hall had a lovely old ceiling, and some interesting artifacts such as a large drum and some stone chimes.

Square Altar

Gateway to the Altar

Walls

Colorful Ceiling

Drum
As well as the ancient temple, the park has an amusement arcade in one corner

Sideshows

Three Pictures

2006-07-01T22:00:00.000+08:00

Yellow Building

Children's Bicycles

Beijing Capital Museum

Yandai Xijie

2006-06-30T22:00:00.000+08:00

The afternoon was nice and not too warm after another thundery night, so we went on a short tandem ride to Yandai Xijie in the Houhai district to restock our fresh coffee supply. It's only about three miles away, and a relatively nice bike ride past lakes Xihai and Houhai. Only the very busy junction of Xinjiekouwai Street and the Third Ring Road presents the problems of cycling on Beijing's busy streets.

The Lotus in Lake Xihai are beginning to bloom and look pretty

Lake Xihai

Lotus Blossom
Yandai Xijie is a little passageway of tourist shops and restaurants. A pair of young artists were painting the street.

Artists

The Real Thing
Unfortunately, there was nobody to sell us the coffee beans at the shop - a trio was playing cards on the balcony, and told us there was no-one from the shop there, although the door was open. So we rode around the back streets a little, and eventually refound the Passerby Bar and had some cold coffee.

Rainy Days

2006-06-29T22:58:00.000+08:00

Rainy Morning on BNU Campus

Umbrellas

2006-06-27T22:00:00.000+08:00

Umbrella Seller
What a change from when we first arrived at the beginning of March! The weather is now a mixture of sunny hot and rather humid days, getting up to 97F today for example, and heavy rain and thunder storms. This umbrella sales lady was opposite the kindergarten on campus, taking advantage of the market for protection against both rain and sun. Umbrellas are used a great deal for both purposes here, as you can see from the picture of the crowds waiting in the sun to enter the mausoleum of Mao Zedong from two weekends ago. And in both sun and rain you can see many people cycling along holding an umbrella in one hand. Another common sight is a man on the saddle, and a woman on the luggage rack behind, holding an umbrella over both of them.

The rain is certainly a nice change from the bone-dry weather of winter. Unfortunately one thing that is the same is that the air is almost never clear. Back then it was the dust from the winds. Now a combination of the humidity and presumably city smog means that, again, we don't see blue sky for days on end. Even looking across campus the haze is evident.

More Pictures from Cuandixia

2006-06-26T22:11:00.000+08:00

Door Screen

Dried Corn

Doorway

Stone Walls

Construction Worker

Stove

Wall Construction

Well

Child Playing

Cuandixia

2006-06-25T22:00:00.000+08:00

Chinese Character from Cuandixia
Cuandixia is a small village of old stone cottages about 60 miles from Beijing. It has been turned into a tourist attraction - you pay (20 yuan) to enter the village, and almost every house either is a little shop selling souvenirs, or will put visitors up overnight or serve meals. This sounds dreadful, but the village is actually very pleasant to visit - it does not have the Disneyland feel of artificial reconstruction that characterizes many of the historic attractions in China.

We spent several hours wandering around the narrow passageways and looking at the cottages, and ended up having lunch by ourselves in one of the homes. Many of the homes (including the one where we had lunch) are constructed as four tiny buildings around a central courtyard - I couldn't tell if this was for a single family or more.

Aerial View

Fields and Village

Rooftops

Courtyard Home

Precarious

Cute Dog

Colorful Screens

Doorway and Cottages

Fishing Lake Xihai

2006-06-24T22:00:00.000+08:00

Fishing is a popular pastime in China - maybe partly because fresh fish is an essential part of meals. Xihai lake in Beijing near the BNU campus seems to be a favorite place for this. The fish being caught were quite large - some enough to feed four I would guess. I don't know if the lake is stocked, or if the fish are natural.

At one end of the lake there is a small pool dammed off from the main lake. There were several people fishing there. The man in the black tee shirt caught about 10 fish for every one caught by all the others put together. He would through the hook in, and after a wait of typically 30 seconds would suddenly yank the rod and have a large fish attached. He must have had some secret!

Fishing

Got One!

Hauling in the Catch

Meet the Fish

This man had caught four, and was cleaning them in the lake.

Cleaning the Fish
All around the lake the bank was lined with fishermen...

Xihai Fishermen
....some with quite fancy equipment including very long poles (but they weren't catching nearly as many as the man in the black tee shirt!)

This spot looked very peaceful:

Winding Down

2006-06-23T22:02:00.000+08:00

Term is coming to an end here at BNU. Here are some pictures of end-of-term activities;

Lining Up for the Paperwork

Music School Students' Graduation Concert

Chinese Dulcimer (Yangqin)

Physics Masters Students Preparing for their Photo

Shipping Home

Dorm Sidewalk Sale

Picture Puzzle

2006-06-21T21:00:00.000+08:00

Here's a puzzle: What is this a picture of?

Another hint:

The answer....

.... a lacebark pine, in a grove on the BNU campus. The trunks are very pretty, even more so when they are wet from rain or sprinklers. Here's another example we saw in the Imperial Garden on our recent visit to the Forbidden City: