Grand Monuments and Great Moments

Our day started with a visit to one of the wonders of the world and ended with a wonderful bit of traveler's good fortune. We started the day at Tiananman Square before heading into the Forbidden City - the home of China's Emperors for over half a millenium. This jewel is located in the center of Beijing, because the "center" is always the best place to be if you are the Emperor. It has survived over 600 years of emperors, dynasties, wars, political movements and the elements. Recently renovated for the upcoming Olympics, this treasure literally sparkled. We have another fabulous guide named Joanna (Wang Meng) who really gets how we like to travel and is teaching us many fascinating things about the Ming and Qing dynasties and the more recent days of the Republic and the current leadership. Wang Men's husband is also into anime, so this makes her a big hit with Jesse! Our favorite story of the City is how the paranoid emperors built the brick city floor 15 layers deep (!) so enemies couldn't tunnel up to attack them from below! See some highlights from the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven here (includes a few photos from my last trip, which actually was a sunny day!).


After an amazing "imperial court" lunch (see favorite restaurants), we visited the equally beautifully restored Temple of Heaven that was completely overhauled by restoration experts all with graduate degrees (photo above). On the way out of the vast Temple park, we came across a caligrapher who was demonstrating the differences between traditional characters and new simplified ones by drawing on the sidewalk pavement with an oversized caligrapher's brush dipped in water. He seemed pretty excited to see our family and offered us an exchange. If we take a picture of him with our family and send it to him by e-mail, he will give us a stunning caligraphy of the character hu (tiger). We seal the deal and have a wonderful end to a historic day (or maybe a historic end to a wonderful day).

Ting Ting: Our New BFF

We have been fortunate to have a few great guides on our China journey, but the task in Xian may have been the most demanding. Xian (formerly Changan) is the cradle of Chinese civilization. Our amazingly learned, kind and funny guide Jessica (a.k.a. Ren Wen Tin or Ting Ting as her mother calls her) made our short trip to Xian feel like a journey all by itself.

She took us to the Wild Goose Pagoda, the Old City Wall (which the family is walking through in this photo), the Drum Tower, the Terra Cotta Warriors archaelogical site and the wonderful and comprehensive Xian museum. She taught us about every Chinese dynasty through 2500 years of history on the grand scale and current Chinese wedding traditions on the personal scale. She even gave us a very valuable Chinese expression that is roughly comparable to "so-so." It is "ma ma hu hu" (literally "horse, horse, tiger tiger.") Check here to see some of the amazing sites of Xian.

Most importantly, Jessica kept Taryn as cool as possible under her umbrella as Cookie was feeling a bit under the weather during a 96 degree day. Jessica is our new BFF (Best Friend Forever).

One Big Game of Chicken

OK, I mentioned the traffic in an earlier post but I don't think I gave a clear enough picture. Traffic here is downright scary. Until recently China was not a very wealthy country. Most people got around by bicycle. Many people are still on bicycles or scooters, but now there's a rapidly growing middle class and the first thing many people do to show off their new status is buy a car. Don't forget, this is a big place - the "smaller city" we visited had 6 million people. Now add all these new cars to the multitude of pedestrians, buses, and the construction that seems to be everywhere, and what you've got is a hot mess.

Being on the street is one big game of chicken. Scooter vs. bus, pedestrian vs. car, no one yields to anyone. They just keep going until one of them stops, usually before a collision, sometimes after. And the bit about pedestrians not having the right of way even on the sidewalk? Sometimes cars will ease up onto the sidewalk to get around traffic. And it's not unusual for a hotel or restaurant to have their parking spaces on the sidewalk in front of the building. So, not only is crossing the street an adventure, you can't even relax once you've successfully made it to the sidewalk.

I'm sure there are traffic regulations, but I think the philosophy is "just go!"

Heaven on Earth

The people of Hangzhou will tell you of the old Chinese saying, "In paradise there is heaven... on earth there is Hangzhou." Hangzhou's heart-beat is West Lake, a pearl of a lake that has long been the primary destination spot in China for young lovers, newlyweds and local tourists of all stripes. The country spent hundreds of millions of dollars renovating the lake-front when China's tourism industry suffered from the SARS epidemic and now it sparkles even more. It was a capital of the Song dynasty nearly 1,000 years ago and it's surprising the dynastic rulers ever left. The lake is surrounded by Chinese practicing Tai Chi, ball-room dancing, riding in dragon boats, enjoying tea, and taking pictures of their loved ones in front of monumental lotus flowers.

We had a wonderful guide named Joe for one of our two and a half days there and were able to enjoy our "vacation from our vacation" thanks to his great advice. Our adventures included: a powered boat ride around the lake as well as a self-powered row. We walked the lake (one of us even biked around part of it), explored the neighboring botanical garden, visited a nearby tea plantation, and watched an evening water-spectacle directed by China's premier film director Zhang Yimou. Parts of the show will be featured in the opening ceremonies in Beijing in just a few weeks. To catch a glimpse of what we saw around China's earth-bound piece of heaven, visit our West Lake slideshow on Flickr.

Traffic, Chicken, and More

WARNING!
Randomness ahead:

Traffic: Traffic in China is, in a word, beserk. Whether big city or smaller city, it's pretty crazy. Based on my observations, I'd say the rules of the road include:
* traffic lights are guidelines to be heeded at each driver's discretion
* right turns and left turns can be made from any lane on the road
* if riding a bicycle against traffic on a 4 lane road be sure to ride between the middle two lanes so everyone will see you
* pedestrians never have the right of way - not even on the sidewalk


Chicken: We've now had 3 meals with chicken dishes that included the head and feet. One is the Hangzhou traditional dish, Beggars Chicken, a whole chicken doused with chinese wine and stuffed with spices then wrapped in a lotus leaf and cooked for many hours. No, we did not eat the heads or feet, but the dishes sure were tasty.

Potato chips: Potato chips here are awesome. Forget the Vinegar and Salt or Sour Cream and Onion varieties. How about French Chicken, Italian Red Meat Sauce, Salty Prawn, Barbecued Steak, Braised Pork, or Red Wine Chicken? All are available in traditional style or Pringle style chips. No we did not eat these - the ingredient labels were in English, so given what we learned we decided against it. But, if I can figure out a way to get some home without having them end up pulverized, I'll invite any willing parties to a chip tasting festival.

Paparrazzi: I knew our family was likely to get a few looks around here, since I guess the local folks don't see an enormous number of visitors that look like us. But dang! People stop and stare, but they also lean out their car windows, follow us and take pictures. I guess it's some kind of weird karma given all the pictures we've taken of random people.

New City; Old City

China and Singapore have partnered to build a brand new city adjacent to the old city of Suzhou. The new city (which you can see pictured here from our hotel window) is comprised of high-rise after high-rise and multi-national factory after multi-national factory. The development actually reminded me of Singapore, because it was crisp, clean, and on a massive scale. It included many public spaces and giant whimsical sculptures. Shopping malls dot the spaces between the buildings with an array of restaurants from Thai to Korean to Japanese to many styles of Chinese. The buildings have been adorned with elaborate light systems to create psychedelic light shows after the sun goes down.

The old city, just a few minutes away is comprised mostly of old brick, stucco and tile-roofed structures. It is surrounded by a centuries-old moat and the government has maintained a ban on high-rises within the old city limits to maintain pristine views from the world famous gardens. Ten years ago, the new city didn't exist.

Suzhou is a smallish city by China standards with "only" 8 million people. In little over a decade, the city has constructed a massive new place for many hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of them to work and live. The construction crew lives on site and works well into the evening every day of the week. This is how the new China has come to be.

Bonus Post! Shanghai Acrobats

A few nights ago, we saw the Shanghai Acrobats. It was a Cirque du Soleil-esque performance, but less focus on artistry and more focus on insane acts.
There were two groups, a male group and a female group. The men did a lot of fast paced acts, such as jumping through hoops in ever-increasing intensity and hat juggling while stacked on each others shoulders. The acts the women did were slower, but (as anyone who's attempted similar feats would know) most likely more physically taxing. They performed things such as twirling plates on sticks while walking over each others heads, or holding themselves up by one arm and doing "aerial ballet."

And the grand finale:
THE BALL OF DEATH
So, to come up with that last act, the guy (or gal) pitching it must have sounded something like this:
"Y'know what's really freakin' cool? Motorcycles. You know what people love? HAMSTER WHEELS! Made of chainmail. That are actually spheres. And you know what's cooler than ONE motorcycle in a ball of death? FIVE MOTORCYCLES!!!
And to top it all off? The five are in the Olympic colors to advertise for the '08 Beijing Olympics. Pretty sick.