harimohans: Beijing Blues

The Air Asia flight to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur was a bit late

It was a big plane

Luckily we had taken hot seats right in front with plenty of space to stretch our legs as there were no seats in front of us.
There was a quiet zone and flat beds too ahead maybe next time.
One of the air hostesses a very sweet lady from Penang found us as a cute couple and by end of flight chatted a bit.
Beijing was humungous

The immigration went through without many issues and we collected our bags got out.

China here we come.

One of the oldest civilisations with a hoary history , reaching depths of spirituality in Buddhism , philosophy by Confucianism , monarchy by the long line of emperors of the Quing .Ming.Tan .Han dynasties .
It was known for communism

the great march of Mao Tse Tung and till today he still smiles in his embalmed box in Tiananmen square .

The very square which was the heart of protests by pro-democratic youngsters but quickly and effectively culled down by gunshots and bloodshed.

The leaders of China wanted communism as their partner while they played to game of capitalism like none had before .

China once again stunned the world by its magical transformation from a drab communist country where people had long faces and desperate needs to one with a facade of skyscrapers consumer excess, shiny cars and prosperity in a couple of decades standing today as an economic powerhouse , military upstart and industrial dynamo .

But it’s still behind a bamboo curtain as it lives in its own bubble with its people having versions of FB , WA ,and even Google as these are all banned .

Baidu .com was the king of net.

The world channel was the only English TV channel I found in hotels , rest were Chinese
In fact one almost feels one is verbally handicapped as even simple English words aren’t understood and one needs to carry Chinese words translated earlier to get things done by pointing to them in mobile .

For eg we point to pics in menu card written in Chinese only.

So as they lived and thrived in grand isolation insulated from the vagaries of the world thier country grew into what it is today.

In morning we reached the plaza hotel brought by our waiting driver but too early for a check in .
it was in a downtown location with plenty of small restaurants ,a KFC .MC Donald outlet each and a huge mall .
The roads were smooth big neat but traffic was of all types from thousands of bicycles to double storeyed buses .In distant we couild see a sleek train passing by on an overbridge ,the nearest metro station was Shillin ,Beijing had a vast network of metro about 15 lines !!!

The country has more than 89 bullet trains to whiz around
The infrastructure and connectivity is very good .
Traffic is another thing cars ,jostled with tiny contraptions more like a golf cart auto rickshaw combos ,pedestrians ,it was as bad as a medley as in Indian cities and message was anything goes here .
We did get an early check in at 11 am though we had lot of difficulty in making the receptionist girls understand we needed our room as they not only did not understand or speak English even thought in Chinese .There were a rare few who did know English including our guides

We had a brunch from a nearby Chinese food outlet
We first took a cabbage dumpling from a hole in wall outlet fresh hot from steam chamber succulent and filling
We then went into a nearby restaurant had a type of burger with two small nan like breads with pulverised shredded chicken and meat with onions etc
Then we ordered a huge bowl of chicken potatoes capsicum onions all making a huge meal

After sleeping till 3pm we got ready by 4pm to go to kung fu show in the famous Red theatre .

Started in 2004 this show is very popular.

.The team of actors including children women are all trained artistes and kung fu exponents some are with high degree of merit too .The show is produced by China Heaven Creation The story is about a small boy who is brought to an ancient monastery to learn kung fu and zen meditation .The first scene is when the mother who brings the boy parts from him after the master takes over the boy Chun yi is tearful to part from his mother who also is sad but tells him to go as he has a great future of becoming a zen master .The big monk asks two young students to take the boy inside and when they show him their agility and skills he gets impressed and willingly goes with them Second scene is his training from master taken very well where in a second the boy turns an young man highly proficient in kung fu he goes on to zen meditation and in higher levels succumbs to temptation from an illusion of a beautiful girl who tempts him to break his meditation vows That scene where the nubile lovers dance is a ballet piece Finally he realises his mistake and begs his master to forgive him which he does after hes punished physically Later he continues his meditation and attains wisdom In end the master makes him the abbot and leaves the world

After this we were taken by Allison our English speaking guide in a private car which had brought us from airport
Tomorrow the car would be different as Beijing has a system of even and odd numbers in cars alternating in the city to reduce traffic ,I think Delhi is having that now .
The city was vast brilliantly lit with skyscrapers shiny and resplendent
We were taken to an exclusive Indian restaurant for an excellent buffet
We then were taken back to our hotel
Tomorrow it’s the great wall of china for us to see

on 25^th September morning after our b fast in hotel plaza we were taken by Allison and sun our driver in the Volkswagen to an hour and half drive to great wall .

Later we came to know that the sleek car was a Chinese version of Volkswagen a brilliant copy !

The downtown area was heavy with Monday morning traffic which cleared once we got out of Beijing .The great wall has several places where one could see it .

We were going to juyongguan.

This was one of the three famous passes in great wall near Beijing and was 60 km from Beijing

Built between 770 to 456 BC Its surrounded by tall mountains, admission fee is around 45 Chinese Yuan ie around 500 Rs or around 8 US $

There are other areas where one can climb too and one place has chair lifts and once can tubaggo back

The great wall is a medley of many walls built from seventh century BC by successful dynasties as fortifications they were rebuilt joined manty times over the years .total length is more than 8000km but another survey says its more than 20000 km long

Though successive dynasties built and rebuilt the walls according to needs many withered over time and it was the Ming dynasty which built the strong walls seen today

Though the Arab traveller Ibn batuta had mentioned the great wall it was first mentioned by European travellers only by the sixteenth century

A misconception that Great wall can be seen from moon or mars do exist though, its barely seen from low orbit

Cheng Dalin is a famous photographer who specialised in great wall pictures for many years and has written photographic books of the same thought the number o expert books are less on it .

There are a dedicated group of great wal enthusiasts both Chinese and from other countries

David Spindler a lawyer from the US has now spent years of painstaking hiking across dangerous wilderness and steep fortifications across thorned bush forests in uncharted areas of the wall while reading thousands of original Ming manuscripts from across the world with no funding and little income living frugally and travelling in local mini vans with the locals who started knowing him and gave him cheap rides ,another Chinese policemen Hong Feng was also a great wall enthusiast who spend his spare time walking along the great wall and also forming a site with more than 5000 dedicated enthusiasts

Our portion of the wall was a steep climb of was pretty steep around 2000 mts ASL there were huge guardhouses in between but by the time we reached the top it was exhausting as some steps were quite steep and tall.

But the view was really worth the effort the guardhouse or tower was cool as winds grazed its windows we got down from the top

Next morning after breakfast at 9am we were picked up by our guide Alison and driver Leo
We were off to a packed day starting with temple of heaven.
This is a huge area filled with gardens and buildings
It was built by emperor of Ming and Quing dynasties for their prayers to heaven
It had a northern part semi-circular in shape thought to represent heaven with the tall stupa and a colonnaded terrace around it the real altar hall is filled with colourful tall pillars and kaleidoscopic ceilings
The surrounding lower portions are full of roses
There are other buildings too
The southern end was square as in Chinese mythology earth was thought to be square .
The two portions were connected by a long corridor.
Today these are full of senior citizens many playing cards Chinese checkers some bringing their grandchildren some knitting some chatting .
They have a season ticket to enter the temple.

We were off to the jade showroom

Amazing and artistic but expensive

We did buy the mandatory piece for memory.

We then were taken to an in house Chinese restaurant by our guide and had soya fried rice and steamed vegetables.

After this we were off to the Mings tombs the ancestral home of the dynasty and tombs 600 yrs old ,it had buried1 ming and 9 quing emeperors

We walked across the sprawling structures .

On way back we saw from outside Chinas Olympic village the iconic old birdo nest olympic birdo nest and the aquarium and also the huge hotel built for the Olympics stadium We have indian dinner and back to hotel

We then went to a quaint tea house with many antiques.
An young lady in Chinese traditional dress explained to us about Chinese tea making which is an art by itself.
Even the vessels used for making them or for taking them were many as per the type of tea.
The small glass was for smelling the flavour the bigger one for tasting it .
At first she made oolaf tea .she added the tea in a filter decotioning vessel poured boiling water over the tea kept in upper part.
Once it trickled down she transferred it to the smaller vessel and asked us to role it a bit and smell it .later she asked us to drink from longer glass
The same followed with other types like jasmine tea rose tea and finally fruit tea where only boiling water is poured over dry fruits no tea is used.
We went around brought a decoction vessel and came out.

We then went in car to the famous Tiananmen square which was a huge square with monuments statues buildings museum parliament etc around
Preparations were on for October 1st Chinese national day .
We then walked through the forbidden city alongside a huge lake in a willow lined pathway.
We reached the other far gate and entered a road full of heritage shops and restaurants.

We were finally going to take the most famous Peking roast duck .
The dish was for a long time only reserved for the imperial family and its secrets were never revealed .only in late 19 century roast duck was sold in eateries.
There were famous places in Beijing which made roast ducks
Since we had Allison our guide with us she had selected a homely place which was frequented by locals and not by tourists
Hence we were assured of its authenticity
After some wait for a table we moved in .
While our duck was being roasted we had a plate of bamboo shoots and mushrooms garnished in vegetable oil.
Our duck was being cut by chef in neat slices brought to us in a plate and the crisp skin in slices in another .
Several small plates of beetroot slices onions pickles soya sauce a fiery chilly mix sugar capsicum were kept around.
The way the Peking duck is taken is there was a thin wheat Chinese pan cake green coloured looking like a chapatti .
One had to take something from the plates the duck and the sauces put them in the pancake roll them like a spring roll and bite into.
The multiple tastes explode and flavour the roast duck which if taken alone was just well boiled meat
the crisp skin was to be taken with the sugar more like a dessert.
We came out happy with eating the legendary Peking roast duck.
We then went to pearl factory where we were told about how pearls are cultured from fresh water in china.
We then came back to the hotel

next day was free for us so we went to nearby antiques shopping complex and were amazed at the wonders on display but most items were so costly and big that we just could not think of buying anything these were for serious collectors but since viewing was free we spent more than an hour of browsing some of the finest pieces of art .

by evening we took the Beijing subway which was quite user friendly with English routes and maps and went up a line which we changed to another and reached the famous street food area of Beijing

a big street was full of all sorts of small snack places selling different varieties of food and drinks to eek y things like fried beetles and live scorpions waiting to be roasted were also seen

the area had a huge walking street with no traffic and plenty of upmarket boutique shops lined up on both sides