China 10/14/14

Tuesday 10/14/14 - Beijing: Forbidden City, Summer Palace, 798 Art District, Departure for the Great Wall

Craig didn't sleep very well, but we had to wake up early at 6:30 a.m. We took showers and packed up to check out. We would be staying at a hotel near the Great Wall tonight, and would be returning for another night at the Red Wall Garden tomorrow. We went to breakfast at 8:00. It was a nice buffet: shrimp dumplings, an omelet station, peach juice, orange juice, coffee, green tea, toast, breads, sponge cake, and watermelon.

The dining room had an adorable painting of stylized people with bare bums to indicate the location of the bathroom. We chatted with a friendly family from Nashville who are currently living in Tokyo. We finished breakfast at 8:30, made a quick stop back at the room, checked out, and were on the road shortly before 9 o'clock.

It was another sunny blue sky day with wonderful air quality. Alice couldn't believe it. We started our day at the Forbidden City. From the car, we could see the buildings peeking over the tall city walls. We got out of the car and approached the walled city on foot, walking down a concrete path in between the moat and the city walls. The moat is 52 meters wide and 6 meters deep, and the city walls are 7.9 meters tall.

I got a photo of a watchtower reflected in the moat water. Alice was impressed with "the double", as she called the reflection. She took a photo with her phone and said she had never thought to do that before. We assumed it was because the weather and air quality was not usually conducive to it. She would later post the photo to social media, and she got lots of positive comments from other guides who also were not used to seeing this. How are we getting so lucky with this weather?

We entered the Forbidden City through the Meridian Gate. We enjoyed the view of the complex while Alice purchased our tickets. There were so many Chinese tourists here, and also some westerners. There was scaffolding on some of the buildings near the entrance and workmen were doing construction. To enter, we had to put our bags through scanners and we had to walk through metal detectors before being allowed inside the complex.

The Forbidden City was built under the Yongle Emperor between 1406 and 1420, when he he moved the imperial capital from Nanjing to Beijing. It was the imperial residence as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. It is called the Forbidden City because the Emperor'e permission was required to enter or leave.

The complex is said to contain 9999 rooms (one fewer than heaven, and thus acceptable) spanning 980 buildings across 180 acres. This is actually smaller than the Temple of Heaven complex, as the Emperor was not allowed to build a private residence bigger than Heaven's residence on Earth. The Forbidden City was the home of 24 emperors in the Ming and Qing dynasties, ending with Pu Yi the Last Emperor, in 1912.

We went into the huge courtyard. There are no trees for several reasons: they feared assassins hiding in trees, and the Chinese word for tree resembles the word for difficult. The Emperors didn't want trees where they do business, fearing that their business would become difficult.

The courtyard floor itself is 15 layers of brick thick, so that nobody could tunnel their way in. Now that's security!

Alice taught us how to distinguish statues of male lions from females: the males are depicted playing with a ball while the females are depicted playing with a cub. Alice was great about getting photos of the two of us.

We noticed something that we haven't really seen before. Many tourists, both Chinese and western, attached their mobile phones to a telescoping metal pole so that they could extend it far enough in front of them to get a good selfie. This was our first introducton to the "selfie pole", which would soon gain popularity in the west as well.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony is the largest building in the Forbidden City. Emperors held their coronations and weddings in this hall. To this day, it is one of the largest wooden buildings in China. The eves of the buildings are decorated with Imperial roof-charms. These are yellow glazed statuettes. In the front is a man riding a Phoenix, and in the back is an Imperial dragon. In between them are a number of mythical beasts. The number connotes the importance of the building. The Hall of Supreme Harmony was the only building in the empire to be allowed to have ten: nine beasts plus an immortal guardian.

You could peek inside to see the Emperor's throne, but it was incredibly crowded. People were pushing and shoving to get a glimpse. It was difficult to see, even though I was significantly taller than most of the Chinese tourists. I snapped a few quick photos (none of which turned out anjy good at all, since it was so dark inside) and then made a hasty retreat. It felt quite odd to be so crowded and jostled in an overall place with so much space! An American film crew was standing off to the side and we heard them asking one another "Is it worth it?" to attempt to brave the mob scene to get a shot.

Thankfully, Alice knew the quieter spots to visit. For example, we avoided the center gate which all of the Chinese were compelled to walk through, and she brought us to an off-the-beaten path courtyard where we sat on some white marble steps and took a breather.

Then we continued our walk. We passed a carved stone grain measure from 1744. Its prominence in the Forbidden City signified the unified system of weights and measures across the empire.

The Hall of Mental Cultivation had served as the Emperor's office of sorts. It was built in 1537, and served as a place for the Emperor to meet with dignitaries. We were able to look inside, and Alice directed our attention to the silver spherical "eye" hanging from the elaborately carved ceiling. We don't know what it was for...maybe reflecting light, or as a surveillance mirror?

People can rent period costumes and dress up for photographs. They also offer silly videos of guests in period costume superimposed to be flying like superman over stock footage of the Forbidden City. Alice chatted with some costumed Chinese tourists and arranged for us to take photos with them. One woman had an adorable costumed baby and even offered to let me hold him for a photo (I politely declined because as much as I wanted to, we were afraid the baby would freak out upon being held by a western stranger).

The Imperial gardens were very nice and contained trees as well as rock formations. Sometimes the Emperor's concubines would get homesick for their home villages in the mountains, so the emperor commissioned the creation of a rock "mountain" in the garden. On 9/9 each year (an auspicious date because 9 is a good luck number), the concubines would climb this mountain and feel less homesick.

Next to the gardens was the "English Teacher's House", a quaint residence from which Sir Reginald Johnston gave English lessons to Last Emperor Pu Yi.

We told Alice that we would like to purchase a book about the Forbidden City, as there was no way that we could retain all of the information that she had told us. She advised us to bargain with the sellers once we exited the city. She told us that they would try to get 100 yuan, but that we should pay no more than 30. She told us to have only 30 in our pocket so they wouldn't know that we had more money. She also said to use exact change as counterfeit change can be a big problem.

We always have a mentally difficult time with bargaining. It seems unnatural to us. We are much more comfortable with fixed prices. It's the culture we come from. But it is the culture in many places to inflate the prices for tourists, with bargaining expected to bring it back down to the fair market value. Overpaying doesn't do anyone any favors, and causes prices to go up for locals as well.

We trusted that Alice wouldn't steer us wrong, and as a guide, she certainly knows the "real" price of these ubiquitous guidebooks. The bargaining process went down exactly the way she said it would, ansd lo and behold we were able to purchase the book for 30 yuan. Alice is extremely helpful, and has saved us time and money by sharing her knowledge with us.

We met Mr. Chou and drove past some venues that we recognized from watching the 2008 Summer Olympics: the Water Cube (Beijing National Aquatics Center) and the Bird's Nest (Beijing National Stadium). We could also seen the broadcast towers (Olympic Park Observation Tower) peeking out from behind office buildings. Even though we just got a drive-by glimpse of these modern architectural wonders, it was humbling to see them in person. It was obvious just how massive the Bird's Nest is; we hadn't gotten an accurate sense of scale from seeing in on TV.

During the 2008 Olympics, it held 91,000 people! Since our visit, it has been announced that Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics. Ceremonies will be held once again at the Bird's Nest, which will make it the only stadium which has hosted both summer and winter Olympics.

We ate lunch at a local place in a business district not far from the Bird's Nest. Alice ordered for us from an extensive menu with large color photographs of all of the delicious-looking fare. We ate together with her and Mr. Chou. We enjoyed scallion pancakes, noodles, chicken with peanuts, garlic, and scallions, sweet and sour tempura pork, broccoli with garlic, and a sizzling wok of potatoes, onions, and peppers served over a sterno flame. We had Sprite and jasmine tea to drink. We all ate together, including Mr. Chou.

At 1 o'clock, we left for the Summer Palace. It was not as far outside the city center as I had pictured (only 15 km away). We waited near a pretty topiary of a phoenix and a statue of a lion while Alice bought our tickets.

A family with a baby asked to have their picture taken with us, and when people saw that we happily agreed, we ended up being photographed with several different families. (The babies often wear pants which are split up the crotch. Most times a diaper sticks out. When we looked at the photos later, there was one with a diaperless baby boy on full display. We hadn't even noticed at the time!) Whenever we would run into these families while touring the complex, they would smile and wave to us. It was a very friendly interaction.

The palace grounds cover 2.9 square kilometers, including the waters of Kungming Lake. The weather was still gorgeous (sun and clear blue skies) and there was a nice breeze. It must have been a nice retreat for the emperors during the heat of the summer. The complex contains over 3,000 man-made ancient structures: halls, pavilions, and temples. The buildings are Imperial Gardens were founded by Qing emperor Qianlong in 1750.

Much of the complex was destroyed during the Second Opium War of the 1850s, but was restored by Empress Dowager Cixi in the late 1800's.

Men were writing poems in ancient characters on the paving stones with water, much like we had seen at the Temple of Heaven yesterday.

We walked part of the Long Corridor. This outdoor covered corridor was originally built in 1750 by Emperor Qianlong, so that his mother could enjoy walking in the gardens during any weather conditions. It stretches east to west across the gardens for 728 meters. The original corridor was burned down by Anglo-French Allies in 1860. It was rebuilt in 1886, and contains over 8000 paintings, depicting history, myth (The Journey to the West), landscapes, flora and fauna.

In addition to these paintings, every architectural beam used in construction was decorated in what is known as the "Su style" (named for its origination in Suzhou, Hangzhou). There are over 14,000 Su-style paintings covering every surface in thick, bright paint. It reminded us of buildings we had visited in Bhutan.

We went into a gift shop and bought a Beijing Opera doll for Craig's mom. We always used to buy dolls for Craig's grandmother when we traveled. When she passed, Craig's mother inherited the collection, and she enjoys them just as much as Nanie did.

We gazed out over the blue waters of the lake, noticing Seventeen Arch Bridge, an aesthetically pretty bridge which is 150 meters long and 8 meters wide. It dates back to the mid-18th century. We walked to the foot of 200-foot-high Longevity Hill. The Tower of Buddhist Incense overlooked the lake. Empress Dowager Cixi would go there to pray and burn incense on the first day and fifteenth day of each lunar month.

Then we arrived at the Marble Boat. The 96 meter long Marble Boat was originally built in 1755 as a platform for a wooden pavilion shaped like a sailboat. In 1860, the pavilion burned down, leaving only the hull of the boat remaining. In 1893, Empress Dowager Cixi had the boat restored, using funding which she embezzled from the Chinese navy. The boat was rebuilt in a western design, however the facade was inlaid with stones in the piedra dura technique that we had seen in Agra, India. In fact, the marble boat itself really reminded us of Jag Mandir in Udaipur. The boat contained mirrors which would reflect the lovely scenery, allowing it to envelope Cixi as she enjoyed tea on the boat. Ho

As the Chinese military was trying to defend against the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War, the dowager empress diverted more of their budget into the restoration of the entire Summer Palace complex in advance of her 60th birthday celebration. As a result of her priorities, the Chinese navy was defeated in 1895, forcing the cessation of Taiwan.

People were enjoying the lake on pedal-boats, and people were taking advantage of the breeze to fly very modern kites. We could have spent all day at the Summer Palace exploring, but we had to make the visit relatively brief due to the shuffling of the itinerary due to closures, etc. Rather than walk back to the car, we decided to take a dragon boat on Kunming Lake. The late afternoon light was lovely, and the sun reflected off the surface of the lake. We looked up at the Tower of Buddhist Incense towering above us. Its golden accents glinted in the sun against a brilliant blue sky.

After disembarking from the boat, we met up with Mr. Chou. We drove back downtown to Beijing, passing the Bird's Nest and the cool, IBM "Dragon" building on our way to 798, a subversive arts district in an old industrial zone in Dashanzi. It was very cool, and not at all something we expected to see in China. In the midst of ghostly old factories, smokestacks, and near an old train station, there were indoor and outdoor art galleries, as well as artisans creating and selling their wares.

There were piles of shipping containers that were decorated with graffiti art. Graffiti-style murals adorned the building exteriors depicting subjects as diverse as Albert Einstein, Israel, Russia, Grumpy Cat, guns, video cameras, and zombies.

Outdoor statues were also diverse - made from a variety of media. One looked to be made of stone, and looked like some kind of Chinese mummy. There was a headless military man, and a disembodied fist. A fiberglass toothy grinning pink cartoon character stood with hands in his undies. THere were also some very creepy anthropomorpic red statues with their mouths open. I couldn't tell if they were supposed to be singing or screaming, though I suspect they were screaming (they reminded me of a technicolor version of that screaming face from Pink Floyd's The Wall). And there was a larger than life chrome statue that looked like some sort of combination of a moose and plumbing pipes. A giant blue rabbit looked like you could follow it down to Wonderland. Everything was very modern and interesting in style.

We passed a seller on the sidewalk who was selling little hemp purses with irreverent sayings (one said "money for call girls"). One artist set up on the sidewalk was making black and white fingerpantings of tradiitional style Chinese landscapes. Another was doing reverse glass painting inside of small gass bottles with an extremely fine-tipped brush. His work was phenomenal.

There were corridors and alleyways to explore. We went into one shop which sold leather articulated shadow puppets. They were very intricate and some were multicolored. The prices were very reasonable (around $10). We bought one for ourselves, and we bought a small framed one for Steve.

Next we went into very subversive store. It reminded us of a Chinese Newbury Comics. There were all sorts of weird toys, including a rubber Obama doll in red white and blue boxers. There were also penis shaped pens. In the back room were all kinds of pop culture postcards...various western public figures dressed as Chinese soldiers: Obama, Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga, Elvis Presley, John Lennon. We bought a Lady Gaga one for Jared and Dave which says "What can change the world? not war but fashion". There were also postcards from western movies: Trainspotting, A Clockwork Orange, etc. We bought our friend Steve a postcard of Chairman Mao by Andy Warhol.

Next we went into an ex- East German electronics factory which has been converted into gallery space (Yang Gallery) which was currently showing an exhibit on Neo-Moroism. The high ceilings make for perfect art display space, and they kept some of the old machinery, such as drill presses, etc.

The whole complex had a very cool vibe. It was very industrial and funky. It was edgy and unexpected based on our western preconceptions of China. Definitely a highlight, annd shouldn't be missed by art and pop culture lovers. We went into a few more shops, walked past cafes, etc., until the sun was setting and it was time to head out of Beijing.

We drove toward the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, which is 70 km from the city center. The Badaling section is closer to downtown Beijing, but that means that it is incredibly crowded. Mutianyu was suggested as a slightly more off the beaten path alternative. It got dark as we drove. We went through a toll booth on the expressway that looked like some of the traditional architecture we had seen at the Forbidden City and Summer Palace.

Alice called the Xiao Long Pu restaurant and asked them to stay open late especially for us, even though it was only 6:45-ish. It is a restaurant frequented by tourists visiting the Great Wall, and as such, follows its schedule. They were nice enough to remain open to feed us. Craig had a Yanjing Beer ("super refreshing", as advertised) and we had Sprite and jasmine tea. We enjoyed the meal of eggplant, sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, green beans with chilies, and rainbow trout.

We then headed to the Brickyard Hotel. Neither Alice nor Mr. Chou had been there before, and we got lost trying to find it in the small dimly-lit village. The GPS was no help. Alice called the hotel, but the desk clerk was from India and didn't know the local area enough to be able to direct us from our current location.

As we drove along, Mr. Chou spotted a friend/colleague sitting by the road, and the man kindly got his motorbike and led us there. The hotel was gorgeous, and gets its theme/name from its location on the site of a former brickmaking complex which actually produced bricks for the Great Wall. We checked in said goodnight to Alice. She and Mr. Chou still needed to find an inexpensive place to stay.

The Indian man showed us to our room. He rattled off a list of amenities including a gym and jacuzzi. It all sounded great, but we were tired and we knew after our Wall visit in the morning, we would be heading straight back to Beijing, so most likely we would not get a chance to enjoy them.

The room was very modern and had an open concept layout (the bathroom was not separate from the bedroom). The walls and accents were all brick in keeping with the theme. There was an entire wall of windows through which he assured us that we would be able to see the Great Wall from bed in the morning. Really? We had no idea we were that close. It was so dark now it was impossible to tell, and it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere.

Part of the wall of windows has no curtains to optimize the view, so they provide complimentary eye masks in case the sun and/or moon would disturb your sleep. They also provide souvenir woven grass slippers handmade by local villagers. Very cool high end amenities.

It was very comfortable. We were in for a big day tomorrow, so we pretty much went straight to sleep. We texted Steve, downloaded our pictures from the day, wrote in the journal, and were in bed by 9:30 p.m.

There was a skylight in the room, and when we got up to use the bathroom during the night, we could see the nearly full moon shining down into our room.

Forbidden City

Summer Palace

798 Art District