Earthquake Addition.
Before you read the narrative below let me answer the questions I have been receiving concerning the recent earthquake. First the orphanage that Elizabeth came from in Wuxi was far from the earthquake zone thus suffered no damage. Second is how can you help? David and Rachel’s adoption agency, Homeland out of New York has identified two foundations, the first is The Amity Foundation, http://www.fccny.org. for further information. The second is, The Our Chinese Daughter’s Foundation at http://www.ocdf.org. Both of these organizations work directly with orphanages in China.)
Our prayers go out to all of the people in China as they work through this terrible disaster.
This is a story about a family traveling to China to adopt a baby girl. The adoption process started almost three years prior to the trip and during this time contacts had been made within China. Traveling from Milwaukee, Wi, are Rachel and David the parents to be with their six-year-old son Sammy. Joining them are the grandparents and parents of Rachel, Kent and Fran. I am Grandpa Kent, the writer and teller of stories on this trip. Elizabeth Rose is our new granddaughter, she was born just after Christmas a year earlier and has lived her first year in an orphanage in Wuxi, China. We meet Elizabeth in Nanjing which is the second stop on our trip. We begin in Beijing for a week of sight seeing then fly to Nanjing, and later take a bus to Wuxi to visit the orphanage. Guangzhou is the final stop on our trip and that is where the U.S. consulate processes all of the foreign adoptions before returning to the United States. Fran and I spent a lot of time with Sammy sight seeing while the parents had formal appointments and paperwork to complete. A special treat on this trip was seeing this country through a six-year-old’s eyes.
The trip begins at 6:00A.M when the airport van picks us up to drive us to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. Rachel and David had been given frequent flyer mileage on American Airlines by two separate donors which was going to cover our airfare to and from China. I was assigned the task of travel co-ordinator and had the responsibility of booking all of our airline tickets, hotel rooms, and airport transfers. I was given less than two weeks to pull it all off, although I did have more than two and a half years to plan. We had gotten the last four seats available on Japan Airlines to Beijing and they had allowed one extra so all of us could fly together. Easter Sunday was the only day with available seats and I had known this for quite sometime but had kept it quiet since the kids had no control over the date they were to be in China. Births, adoptions, babies, they are all miracles and this was too be a miracle trip and the first miracle was the date which allowed us to travel on Easter Sunday, the second being Japan Airlines making the fifth seat available. I was happy to see the airport van for at least the first part of the trip I had planned had worked. When we got to O’Hare the ticket agent was able to move us all to the upper bulkhead seats which meant David and I would have more leg room and Sammy would have a place to lie down and sleep. The seats were great except they were made for Japanese bodies which are slightly smaller than mine. We actually had the entire front of the upper level to ourselves the few other passengers seated there opted to move away. It took sixteen hours to fly to Tokyo and there we had a two and half hour layover. After eating an ice cream cone and walking the length of Tokyo’s International Airport Terminal I feel I really know that country and will list it as a place I have visited. Soon we were in the air again on our way to Beijing.
The plane came in for a rocky landing at the Beijing airport but we made it safely. It was nighttime and our driver at the met us at the airport. He was accompanied by two friends and none of them would allow us to touch a suitcase, bag, or purse from the moment they met us. They were intent on bringing us to our hostel in style. We were so exhausted from the 24 hours of traveling we could not fully enjoy this good service. I began to explore Beijing through blurry eyes riding in the dark in our Chinese-made van. My first impression of Beijing is that it is big, big. Bigger than anything I have ever seen before, bigger than Mexico City, bigger than any two cities U.S. cities put together, it is just big. It is also under construction, on our drive from the airport to the hotels I saw more construction cranes putting up new buildings than I imagine we have buildings in the entire downtown Milwaukee and I had just seen a small portion of the city
We arrived at our hotel and it was everything I expected and hoped for. The hotel, actually called a hostel is located down an ancient Hutong. For those of you not familiar with Beijing these are tiny little streets, we may call them alleys but at one time they crisscrossed the entire city housing the population and commerce. They date back to the Yuan Dynasty and the time of the Mongol invasion of Genghis Khan and his grandson Khublai Khan who moved the capital city to what is now Beijing. This was during the 1270's. The city started at the Bell and Drum Towers which were the axis points. The Bell and Drum Tower were a short distance from our hostel which means we were staying in one of the original Hutongs with buildings dating back to the 1200's. In Beijing today that is a hard thing to find since they seem intent to tear down anything old and replace it with something new. The width of a Hutong is barely the width of an auto, although they do drive up and down the Hutongs. The Hutongs have there own vendors selling food freshly prepared on the small woks or grills. In the morning there are dumpling makers preparing dumplings for those in a rush to get to work. Behind the weathered grey brick fronts are the homes and occasionally we caught a glance into a courtyard just inside a doorway from these glances another meaning of Hutong could be, tiny. The Hutong Inn where we stayed is an example of how an entrepreneur bought up many little buildings, tore them down and replaced them with an inn. The advantage to the location is the history and being down a real Hutong, I guess the disadvantage is that the airport van is too large to drive down with your luggage so someone had to drag it up the Hutong and cab drivers are reluctant to venture down preferring to drop you off at the main street. I could think of no better location and immediately became enthraled with the life on our Hutong. There was the crow in a cage down the way and the pigeons being kept on a rooftop. You could always see bikes pedaling along. Each morning there was a Grandmother greeting Sammy with a pinch to his cheek. Unlike other Hutongs in the area ours had very little commerce, it was residential with a lot of people. On the surface it may appear a little dusty and grubby but one had to remember these buildings were more than 730 years old. This was not a gentrified or modernized Hutong but one that people had lived and worked in for centuries. Each night a crew swept the street and curbs and the area by the public bathroom was mopped frequently. Most homes in a Hutong have no plumbing or kitchens. There are many tiny eateries along the Hutongs and ours was no exception. The other method of food preparation was your doorway, just simply set up a wok and start to cook. Fresh ingredients are available just down the Hutong in any direction. The smells were delicious, most of the time. Sadly we only had a week to get to know our Hutong and the short glimpse made me eager for more.
The first day in Beijing started out with a walk to the bank to change money. The people in Beijing travel by foot, bicycle and public transportation. Each day, so they say another thousand cars are registered and the traffic is horrendous. The law appears to favor whoever has the most nerve or is the most aggressive, certainly this is not a place for the timid. Bicycles are used for everything from transportation to hauling just about anything. One day we actually saw six sheets of 5/8 inch four by eight plywood loaded on the back of a bicycle and it was being pedaled by a woman. You think you have bad days at work. Next time think of her. Bricks, produce, chickens, cast-iron drain pipes, junk, garbage, inflated balloons, you name it they transport it by bicycle. The next use of that bike is for commuting to and from somewhere. Bikes do have special lanes to ride in but at intersections it s every wheeled vehicle for itself. The word yield is not in the Chinese dictionary you just keep pedaling, driving or walking but never stop or hesitate because if you do the tiny spot you had occupied will be taken away. You would think we saw many accidents and the cars are all dented and smashed but that is not the case the opposite is true. Very few cars had any dents at all and we saw just one accident the entire time in Beijing. There was almost a bike pedestrian accident when I stepped in front of a bike and the poor fellow actually had to use his brakes probably for the first time in years, they did squeak. We survived the first leg of our walk and arrived at the bank.
China appears to have a "no rush" policy on just about anything you want to do. We are here to pick up our granddaughter who took two and a half years to process the paper work so why was I surprised that it would take hours to cash some travelers checks? We took a number and waited, then when it was our turn I filled out several forms while the clerk did the same. He then made a few phone calls, brought over several other people and examined each check under a special light. After this step he walked away to a different counter and began filling out more forms, on his return he began stamping all of these forms in various places with big, small and a very tiny stamp. I then had more forms to sign and he had more to stamp. After he had used up the resources of several good size trees and my hand began to tire from signing those former towering timbers he actually gave me my money. Then it was Fran’s turn and Rachel and David’s turn. We had now spent our first morning in China at the bank
The plan for this morning was to take the subway to the zoo to see the pandas and we were now quite a distance from the subway station which we had directions from. So we consulted our tourist map and decided we were within easy walking distance from the Forbidden City so we started walking with a few million other Beijingnites in the direction of the Forbidden City. After about thirty minutes of walking along this street and crossing at several intersections we began to get the knack of walking in this city. You might remember when I said that at intersections the bicycles were mixed in with the cars and trucks, well I forgot to mention that people are also added into that mix and they too have no apparent right of way. Here are the full directions for crossing any street in Beijing. #1- Do not look left or right keep your eyes straight ahead in other word’s never make eye contact with anyone or anything which may cause you harm. #2. Do glance quickly on a 45-degree angle to your right since traffic turning from the right does not stop on a red. #3. If a vehicle of any sort is speeding toward you hurry to step out in front of it so the driver can either speed up to pass the collision area before striking you or swerve out of your way. #4. Never pause or hesitate once you leave the curve, this could be deadly since a driver expects you to walk in front and will be swerving to where you may be stopping. #5 Don’t think you have made it across when pass the car lanes you must still navigate the bike lane. #6 Bikes carrying a load cannot stop and if they do will often attract people to push them to help get them started again, avoid them at all cost. #7. Pray, before, during and after you cross the street. Your first prayer will be for mercy the second for guidance and the third for thanks. I have used this method for many crossing of Beijing streets and guarantee it will work for you.
We eventually began to walk around these large red walls which we took to be the walls around the Forbidden City, soon we became hungry and had our first meal experience. We stopped at a small restaurant on the street and some how they immediately picked us out to be tourists, maybe they only have regular customers and they did not recognize us. A large group of wait staff gave us a table in the middle of the room so all could watch us eat or better yet order our food. Two menus appeared on the table, one very large menu which was all in Chinese and a small one written in a form of English which after some close examination we began to understand what was written on the page. Basically it was the same name found in any of our local Chinese restaurants at home so we picked out several items and hoped for the best. The food began to arrive and we picked up our chop sticks and Fran got out her Eddie Bauer collapsible silver ware set. All eyes in the place were upon us and we began to eat, slopping the food into our mouths and enjoying each mouthful. Ordering Sprite was another matter. If only my daughter could be satisfied with 7-up or any other lemon lime carbonated drink but to her there is just one and that is Sprite, so at each meal we went through this pantomime of dance to order a Sprite until she finally thought to tear off a label and bring it with. I will not even go into the Pepsi versus Coke debate just build this mental image of a grown woman trying to explain brand loyalty to another grown woman and neither of them can understand a word they are saying. Meal time became a high point during our trip and each city we visited had their own special happiness involved which I will cover as we travel to those cities.
After we finished our walk we found a gate into the large red walls but then found it was not the Forbidden City but Jingshan Park. We are close to the Forbidden City since this park was shaped from the earth excavated to create the moat for the Forbidden City. The hill is to protect the palace from the evil spirits but better served to protect it from the dust storm s which come out of the North. Did I mention how incredibly flat Beijing is? There is a reason so many bicycles are in use in this city and that is there are no hills, this city is as flat as a pancake dinner in West Texas. So in the middle of this enormous flat city is this great big hill and on top of the hill is a Buddha in a temple. But there is also a very impressive view of the city of Beijing along with the entire Forbidden City which lies just to the South. I tried to snap some pictures of the red tiled roofs but was swarmed over by a group of Japanese tourists. These are the yellow flagged led people with red baseball caps who overtake anything in their path and leave no survivors. We first encountered this species of tourist in London and have been attacked by them in such places as Chicago, Wisconsin Dells, Niagra Falls, and now China. Let me warn you that if you see them swarming toward you get out of the way quickly for if they engulf you in their ranks chances of survival are slim to none. So being the savvy-experienced traveler that I am I deftly sidestepped the Japanese Tourist swarm and found refuge inside the temple with the Buddha. There will be more about my developing relationship with my buddy Buddha later but suffice it to say now, the jolly fat guy spared me this time. Other interests on top of this hill were young ladies dressing up in ancient clothing and having their pictures taken on a wedding throne. I tried to ask if I too could take their picture and since they could not understand what I was saying nor me what they were saying I interpreted their laughter to be a yes in any case they did not take away my camera. We strolled the grounds of the park for a while and then decided to take a cab to the zoo and do the Forbidden City another day. We left the park and approached a long line of cabs and none of them would let us in or take to the zoo. However, there were many rickshaw drivers annoying us to ride in their rickshaw and see the Hutongs. One man offered to help us get a cab and when we said we wanted to go to the zoo he told us the zoo was closed but he had a rickshaw ride for us. We ran from that spot down to the corner crossed the street and turned left walked down this street and found a cab. Fifteen minutes later we were at the zoo.
The Beijing zoo has breeding pairs of pandas and beyond that not much more. We all wanted to see the Pandas so we paid the 30 yuan and walked in. This zoo is the pits with animals caged in wire enclosures or behind archaic iron bars. We rushed past these exhibits to see the pandas. The panda is the country’s national treasure. When China "lends" a panda to a foreign country’s zoo there are very strict guidelines to be followed as to how they are to be kept and cared for obviously these guide lines do not apply to Chinese zoos. Here it is the Capitol city’s zoo and the panda exhibit is three dirty enclosures with filthy glass windows for viewing. The only greenery was half-eaten bamboo and some phony plants haphazardly thrown around. They stuck poles into the ground to resemble trees and put in some concrete rocks. The outdoor viewing area was no better albeit the phony trees were a tad bit larger. One poor panda had climbed into one of these phony trees and somehow perched itself on the top like a flag pole sitter. Another was pacing along a badly paint-peeled wall. The rut beneath its feet told the tale of how long this animal has been pacing this short path. Regardless of the sad conditions it was exciting to see these incredible looking animals. I can only imagine how exciting it would be to see one still in the wild if wild still exists in this country. We spent as much time as we could in the panda exhibit and since there was no where else any of us wanted to go in this zoo we decided to leave and explore what appeared to be a shopping mall across the street. However, before I leave the zoo I need to discuss the Chinese and their non- ability to queue.
Actually I don’t know if the term non- ability is correct or not they can queue if they want to but they just simply don’t seem to want to line up for anything. At first we though they were just being rude while we stood back waiting our turn for something n we soon realized our turn would never come unless we too began to push in just like th rest of them. They were not just pushing us out of the way but everyone else, young, old, aged, sick, pregnant, with a baby, holding packages, with a cane, it made no difference all were fair game in this rush to get in front for whatever we were waiting for. Waiting in line was like crossing the street. So why is this coming up right now? Well why trying to look at the Pandas there was only so much room to see them at our zoo the people watch for a while and then move away and will always move so the kids can move in to see the animals. Not in China. Here the folks shove everyone away to be right in front so they could be the ones looking. They had little regard for those being pushed away, even little children or older people were shoved out of the way. This did not seem top be a rudeness but just a common way of acting in a crowd. We learned not to be patient and to do a little shoving of our own,
Now on to the shopping mall across the street. This building was filled with about seven floors of small stalls of clothing stores, Each store had a small inventory of goods they were selling, it quite resembled a flea market and we were very much afraid to make a purchase since we did not understand anything about the stores so we walked around and looked and were looked at. Later in the week we were taken to a similar market called the Silk market with a Chinese guide but more on that later. We took a cab back to our Hutong and got ready for dinner, our first in Beijing.
Right down from our Hutong was a busy street with many restaurants. While walking down the street we met the young man who had picked us up from the airport. We began talking and arranged with him a tour of the Great Wall the next day and he recommended a restaurant just down the block. A young lady opened the door for us and showed us to a large round table with a lazy susan in the middle. She gave us a menu with close to 30 pages of food items, many pictures and English descriptions, well-sort of. We put together a list of dishes which did not sound too frightening and I added an Ox Penis Soup, when in Rome do as the Roman’s do or try eating as the Chinese. On this menu was dog, eels, fish heads, camel feet, and other penises besides an ox. The Chinese appear to eat everything but the table legs. Besides the ox penis which tasted like a gelatinous paste and was not a favorite of ours our meal that night consisted of a wonderful dish of sweet sour beef ribs, broccoli, a candied sweet corn, a pork dish and noodles. What surprised us at almost every meal is that we were not served rice. Here in Northern China noodles were supreme along with dumplings as we traveled further south rice was more available but we had to ask for it.
Our third day in China started off with yet another meal adventure. This morning we decided to eat breakfast at a dumpling shop and not the hotel. Down the block we found a shop which was part of a chain in Beijing. You walk in and pay the cashier fore the number of dumplings you want and get a receipt which you take to the cooks who then give you your dumplings. Since we had this little problem of a language barrier, we did not know what kind of dumpling we ordered. So we took our plates of surprise dumplings to the tiny tables and took a bench. Being the only Anglos in the place we were also the morning’s entertainment and I am certain we did not disappoint the locals. The dumplings were great ands we all had a fun time working them down with our chop sticks.
This is also the Great Wall day and our private guide and van was at the hotel waiting for us when we returned from the dumping shop. This being my third day in China I was still not savvy as to the ways of the Chinese people so I asked the guide if he wouldn’t mind stopping on the way so I could get a cup of coffee to go. The dumpling shop did not serve coffee, imagine that? The guide, Jackay, agreed to stop and told the driver something in Chinese. We piled into the van and began to drive through the streets of Beijing. This was the first time we had driven in daylight any distance in Beijing. Our cab rides had all been short rides and we were crammed into a small car unable to fully appreciate the sights or better yet the erratic traffic and the take your life into your hands type of driving which was going on. Our driver was a magician who could turn any two lane roads into three-lane roads, nothing was off limits to him and we never waited in a turning lane, never got caught behind a slow-moving vehicle or a stopped vehicle. He would maneuver the van through the tightest spots which sometimes even did not exist. I am not certain of this but I would not doubt that we drove on the sidewalk at times. What about my coffee? Well here’s what happened. I thought we would just stop at a close by McDonald’s but no we drove clear across Beijing to this special coffee shop and when we parked Jackay asked how many were coming in for coffee? I replied just me and I would take it with me. Then I saw a McDonald’s and said to him I would just run in there and get a cup. He said OK. Later that day I found out he had taken me to his coffee shop and was going to show us his new American coffee shop but I spoiled it by saying I would just go into McDonald’s, he said nothing to me at the time.
So now with my McDonald’s coffee in hand and an hour of our trip gone we start off for the Great Wall. Jackay had said he would take us to a less developed and crowded area of the wall. The ride out was most entertaining. We saw so much of Beijing and then the countryside. We even got to see communal farms and villages as we drove out to the Wall. Our driver never stopped to amaze me with his ability to shift through traffic. I felt totally safe with him even though he was doing things I thought I would never see a driver attempt. Strange as it sounds some of the maneuvers needed to be done just to be safe sort of like the rules of crossing the street, driving here is not for the meek.
We arrived at the wall, Mutianyu Pass and had our choice of riding a cable car up or walking. Fran was a little frightened of the cable car so we decided to walk and walk we did. Walk is not the correct word we climbed. The Great Wall is on top of a mountain pass. The state had installed stairs to climb, hundreds, maybe thousands of stairs who knows after an hour or so of climbing them you loose count. The scenery was spectacular. The air was getting thinner and much cleaner. We could see far off in the distance. Sammy with his short little six year old legs actually ran up the steps. He was so excited to get to the top Rachel and David could not keep him back. Fran and I took it a little slower with our nice guide Jackay. About halfway we found an older woman with a refreshment stand set up. She used a donkey to carry her goods up the mountain each day. Eventually we reached the top and what a view it was. Right there on top of this ancient oedipus built by the early Chinese Emperors hundreds of years ago was a boy wearing a Green Bay Packer T-Shirt
The Great Wall of China is actually a series of several walls built during the dynasties. The Mutianyu Pass part of the wall was started in Qi Dynasty about 550 A.D. and rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty about 1400 A.D. This particular part was strategically located to protect the city of Peking and the imperial palace which was built there. Here the wall is built from granite so it has survived very well. It contains some of the most unique architecture among any sections of the wall and they are its three main watch towers spanning the ends and the middle of the pass. These towers are multi storied and are actually connected to each other through the inside of the wall. There are twenty two-watch towers in all along the 1.4 mile length and not all are located on the wall. Some are clustered along the next ridge and can be seen in the Northern distance. Another unique feature at this part of the wall is that it could be defended on both sides. There are crenelated bow and arrow slots facing both ways along the entire length of this part of the wall. The sides are 25 to 30 feet high and the top is 12 to 15 feet wide. The story is that they built it wide enough to ride four horse abreast at a full gallop along the top of the wall. The hills which the wall sits on top are approximately three thousand to thirty-five hundred feet high. Now that does not sound high but the geography of this area is such that there was no foothills or area which gently sloped up to these hills the terrain was flat right up to the base of these hills and then they went directly upwards.
We had two choices upon reaching the wall since we were about in the middle of this section. One, we could walk down toward the cable car operating at the lower end or we could climb even higher toward the cable car operating at yet even a higher elevation. You might have guessed which way Sammy was running? Straight up. We followed stopping at each watch tower to marvel at the skill and pure determination of the builders who brought the stone up the steep mountain and built this marvelous structure. I have stood and marveled at the Eiffel tower, St. Paul’s in London and the Washington Monument. All places which I had read and seen in photos over many years and never thought I would actually have the chance to see in person and now here I was standing on the Great Wall of China. I was also reminded of a remark supposedly made by Ghengis Khan as he stood on this very same pass, he was reported to say: "Great Wall? There is nothing great about it, look at me, I am standing behind it." So true, he was a Mongol invader who was not even slightly deterred by this wall which was to defend China from an invasion from the North. So why was the wall built? We can only conjecture a guess. Mine is that the emperors had a large pool of labor which they needed to keep busy and what way was better than to give them a sense of security? Have them build a wall to protect themselves against the enemy from far away. Walls are like this; same as the wall we are now building along our Southern border with Mexico, it does nothing to protect us against an enemy but does give a false sense of security to some.
We were about two weeks early for a real display of greenery and flowers along this section of the wall. The view below was one of some heavily wooded, forested areas. We could see one small village which appeared to be totally isolated between the two mountain ridges. I’ll leave that village for another trip. There were blossoms on the trees ready to burst into color and I could only imagine the beauty of the view in just a few days. Surprisingly we could see no smokestacks, no factories, no power plants or signs of industry. Aside from the small village there were no other signs of population visible. This is the only time during the three weeks we spent in China which I felt alone. This stretch of the wall was indeed less visited than what we were led to believe other areas were. We walked up to the cable car entrance and our guide found the ticket taker. A short aside here, I would strongly suggest for anyone planning a China trip to arrange a private guide for the Great Wall. Stay away from the large tours and the bus rides. Jackay charged us 700 RMB which is about $100.00 U.S. That included the van, driver, and his guide services. There is no tipping in China but we did make up a gift bag for him and the driver. There were five us on the trip so that means we paid $20.00 a head for a one day tour. A half day bus tour would cost twice that and you would not get to see half of what we did. We have Jackay’s phone number and will gladly give it out to anyone who wants his services.
OK back to the story, David and I took the first cable car and there was a plaque which read: Prime Minister Major took this cable car in 1991 but the girls had the really famous car, it read: President William Clinton took this cable car in 1992. The ride down was spectacular even though we were in just the prime minister’s car.
When we hit the bottom, we were assaulted by a gaggle of souvenir sellers who all had the same garbage and all claimed to have the best price. Rachel got scooped in on a $1.00 T-shirt deal only to find out that the woman switched the shirts at the end and demanded a higher amount of money. Jackay came to our rescue and said he would take us to the Silk market where the vendors were honest and we could buy what we wanted. We agreed and gladly left the gaggle of hawkers behind. The only purchase I made at the wall was a $5.00 bottle of water on top of the wall from an older gentleman who had hauled the water up on his donkey. Fran also bought postcards from him at a drastically inflated price. Jackay did nothing to protect or stop us from buying from this gentleman and later said quietly that, "the old man needs to earn money." The water tasted really good and the postcards will look fine in Fran’s scrap book.
We left the Great Wall area and drove back into Beijing. Jackay took us to one of his favorite restaurants after we assured him we like Chinese food and are open to eating almost anything. We feasted on many dishes which Jackay ordered and a couple that we added like vegetables. During the meal Jackay informed me in a polite joking manner that I used my chop sticks like a child, I was later to be told this several more times. This seemed to delight the Chinese more than if I were to use a fork and spoon. Here’s the scoop. When they are little, the kids hold the chop sticks close to the eating end but as they grow older they move their had up the chop sticks to eventually hold them all the way at the top. I was taught how to use chop sticks by a Japanese girl and she held them like I do so I never changed and tried as I may can never master the more mature way of eating. Fran on the other hand did not know how to use chop sticks at all and had come to China with two complete sets of Eddie Bauer collapsible silverware and quickly lost both forks in some restaurant. Having only a spoon to eat with she decided to learn chop sticks and became quite proficient and looked very mature. Toward the end of our trip she was picking up peanuts, rice, and small bits of fish with her chop sticks properly held as an adult. I continued to eat like a child.
After our lunch the driver took us to the Olympic Village site and allowed us time to walk around the chaos of building and take some pictures. He was obviously very proud of this site and the achievement of the Olympics. Jackay appeared to be somewhat neutral toward the buildings and when I suggested they would never finish on time he had a long talk with the driver and then assured me they would indeed finish not only on time but one month before the opening ceremonies. I could not help but think of the three million residents who were displaced to build this Olympic village. (The government puts the number at a much lower figure.) But regardless once this was a bustling part of the city filled with people earning a wage with shops and homes and some century’s old tradition. Now it is a steel and glass enclosure soon to be landscaped with keep off the grass signs, which are everywhere else there is grass in Beijing, surrounded by new hotels and shiny massive office and apartment buildings One office building has the world’s largest computer display its side, they were testing it the day we were there. Another has a strange look like two upside down boots colliding in midair. None had the look of lasting more than a few years before reaching obsolescence. The army was everywhere, security was very tight and no where else in Beijing did we see so many armed guards. Next the driver took us to a Chinese Cultural Museum which was just down the block and newly built. Sadly, it was also closed but he wanted us to get out and take pictures. Here they had re-created a small part of what was torn down to build the Olympic village. Behind the locked gates was a newly built Hutong for people to stroll down and see for when the last real Hutong is destroyed in this city at least this replica will exist.
Our next and final stop for the day was the silk market. Before we entered, Jackay instructed us on how to bargain and advised us if we needed help he would be close by. The silk market used to be an outdoors market but is now housed in a modern building with many floors. It comprises hundreds of stalls selling clothing, dry goods, jewelry, electronics, leather goods, house hold items, and toys, really a great big department store with no set prices and everyone is yelling at you to come in and shop. Walking by one stall a young lady pulled me in and held onto my arm while she tried to convince me she had my size in a pair of designer jeans. Another one told me I would look great in an Armani jacket. I could not help but laugh at their attempts to entice me into their stalls. Fran, Rachel and David stopped at a stall on the second floor to look at clothes for the kids. I stopped and bought a tie for my son Nigel at one stall and loitered around another. The young lady was quite pleasant and did not try and sell me anything. She asked where I was from and other friendly questions. I asked about her English which was very good and she explained how she learned. She then introduced herself as Lisa and gave me her card which said she was the manager of this particular stall. When the family caught up to me I introduced them to my new friend Lisa and encouraged them to buy something from her which they did. I said good bye happy to have made a new friend here in China. Around the corner Fran was trying to buy a scarf and I stepped in to help bargain and then Jackay stepped in and gave us the value of the scarf. During the bargaining the girl mentioned that her name was Lisa and I thought wow what a coincidence. Then I stopped at another stall to get Nigel a second tie. The girl introduced herself as Lisa and gave me the exact same card I already had from the first girl. So I step next door and say to the girl there: "I am looking for Lisa," and she replies, "That’s I, I am Lisa." I was shattered, here I thought I had made a friend only to find that every girl in the place is called Lisa. The other thing I realized in this market is that all of these girls were well educated and spoke perfect English but this was the job they were given to do. There were no men to be seen anywhere selling in these stalls. Equality of the sexes may be spoken here but I do not think it is being practiced here.
We had our fill of shopping and finally were headed back to the hotel. We had been gone for more than 12 hours and were hungry and tired. After dropping our parcels in the hotel we regrouped and went in search of a restaurant for the nights adventure in dining. We were not to be denied the adventure. We entered a hot pot restaurant where the food is cooked on the table and then eaten from the pot it was cooked in. OK sounds easy enough if only someone could explain the rules to us first. We had a menu and the waitress pointed to a page we were to order from so we piked a couple things which looked tame, then she turned the page and we repeated the exercise and she turned the page again and we chose the noodles, then she left. When she returned, she put everything on the end of the table and chopped them up. Next she placed a pot on a hot plate and poured in some oil turned on the hot plate and saw it did not work. Soon she was under the table at between my feet plugging the hot plate in. I was very cautious as to where I put my feet from that point on. The oil was soon sizzling and she poured everything in and left. We stared at this pot not knowing whether it was our job to stir it or whether she would return but we did know the food would soon be burned to a crisp if someone did not do something. We were saved when David kicked out the plug and soon the waitress came back dives down between my feet and plugged us back in. To our relief, when she returned topside she also stirred the pot. After waiting for the food to burn one more time she returned again, this time she removed the cover and stirred the pot, turned the heat down and took the cover away. We felt this was the universal sign of the food was ready to eat so we began to dip our chop sticks into the pot. Whatever we had ordered was not the best tasting stuff we had eaten but then again it was not the worse, remember we had had ox penis soup. Next they delivered a plate of wonderful looking fresh greens and a pile of noodles in the middle. I was drooling after the lettuce craving a salad
David wanted the noodles and scooped some on his plate. Soon we had the entire wait staff around our table yelling for him to stop and here he was with a noodle hanging from his mouth in mid chew. He stopped and they grabbed the noodles from him even saving that one hanging from his jaw. They placed the noodles back on the side table and left. We were speechless, well OK it is hard to talk when you are giggling. Soon the wait staff returned with a pitcher of hot water. One dove between my feet to assure the plug was tight in its socket and another turned the hot plate on high while a third poured in the water and a fourth put in the noodles and a fifth stirred the pot. The noodles were raw and how were we supposed to know that? We finished this meal with no further faux pax. When we left, we could swear we heard a sigh of relief from the staff.
While we were in Beijing we only ate at the hotel breakfast buffet the first morning the rest of the time we ate at street vendors or the dumpling shop. Yes, there was one morning we ate at McDonald’s which I have tried to forget. The midday meal was our big meal which is traditional in Beijing and then we had a lite late supper. Most of the time we stuck to the traditional foods but we did stray a few times and tried some of the local favorites. We sampled a bar-b-que donkey which was very good; shrimp with their heads still on, too much work; fish heads, and cheeks, not enough meat; and a bowl of unidentifiable chicken parts with a taste that will not be described here. We ordered Peking Duck one day and maybe it was this restaurant but the duck was not very good. The best part was a bowl filled with parts, bones, and skin, breaded and fried, it had little meat but loads of flavor. We found that the Chinese ate the cuts of meat we would throw away and threw away the cuts we would eat. A lean piece of meat is not to their liking but a piece with an inch of fat attached is a delicacy. Any meat attached to a bone is not to be thrown out but saved and prepared. The entire animal is consumed. With our duck we were served a platter of the breast meat sliced; the gizzards and innards in a soup; the bones and skin breaded and fried. I also would not be surprised if the feet and some other extras were not thrown in somewhere. The only parts I could not identify were the feathers. Aside from the high rate of smoking related heart disease this country has a low rate of cardio- vascular disease and I can only attribute that to the small quantities they eat at each meal. We Americans gorge ourselves while they eat several small meals. They also eat slower. A meal in China is a big affair. Each table in the restaurants were large and full of people having a good time. The noise level in these restaurants would never be tolerated in this county only in the bars or designated family styles restaurants. We did our best to add to the entertainment in each place we ate. With just a very few exceptions we were greeted with smiles and laughter as we did our ordering and fumbled with the chop sticks. The most fun were the places with no English on the menus. I carried a "Learn Chinese in 15 Minutes" book which had a list of the foods and we ordered by going down the list and finding out what they offered and we would like to eat. Sammy would take over the drink ordering by leading the waitresses by hand to the coolers and pointing to what we wanted. David and I learned the word for beer on the first day and had that with each meal. The beers were served in these giant bottles and poured into a tiny glass. One bottle was more than enough for the two of us. This is the national drink, next to tea and almost every table had a bottle or two of "Pi jiu" on it. We learned that the alcohol content was very low, 1% to 3% on average so that might account for the big bottle. We also used the beer to "sterilize the chop sticks if they were not wrapped. Tipping is not the custom in China and they will refuse a tip if you try and give them one. We carried a supply of Milwaukee postcards which the people loved to get as gifts and we would give these to the waitresses. One night the waitress was so attentive and so helpful I could not resist tipping her. I first handed her the tip and she refused but smiled so I then stuck it into her apron pocket and she thanked me. I later learned that I may have doubled her weekly salary with that tip.
The street vendors offered a whole new type of food for us. First there was the food on a stick. They would put just about anything on a stick and fry or grill it. Then there were the candied fruits which consisted of strawberries, melons, crabapples, oranges, and other fruits we never identified. We also ate fried bread made in an ancient wok by a woman who could have told us the history of Beijing for the past 90 years. Our favorite were hot pockets found in the Hutong and sold as a breakfast food. They contained vegetables and meat and could be eaten as you commuted to work. And we thought McDonald’s invented the breakfast sandwich. The one big disappointment for street vendors was the DongHuaMen Market. We had seen this featured on the History Channel’s TV show "Bizarre Foods" and made a point to go there. The stands and vendors reminded me of a state fair and the food was no more exotic than what you might find at a state fair. This is the only time any one of us got sick. Rachel had some undercooked lamb on a stick and she needed Cipro that night. The restaurants we were eating at offered far more exotic foods than what this sterilized, chrome and plastic food fair offered. This was also the only night we had trouble finding a cab.
Originally we had planned to use public transportation such as the busses and subways to get around the cities. However, after we took one look at the busses and how crowded they were we ruled them out. Then we found we could all ride in a cab for about $4.00 and agreed that was cheap enough for us. Now these cabs were not very big so David squeezed into the front seat. Fran would crawl over to the far side of the back seat with Rachel in the middle. Sammy climbed on Rachel’s lap and I pried myself into the space which was left. There was a Korean model along with a Chinese model which we preferred to the VW Jettas if they were available but we could not be choosey since the law said only four to a cab and we were five. Some driver’s did refuse to let us in. We solved the language problem by using the guide books and having the desk clerks at the hotel write out in Chinese where we were going, and we always carried a card that had the name of the hotel and map written on it. The cabbies drove with total disregard to any object moving or stationary which was or could get in their way. The only time they used their brake was at a stop light and that was when more than two cars were stopped in front of them and they could not squeeze between them or another cab was already squeezing between the cars stopped at the light and they had to wait until that cab had squeezed through. Next to the gas pedal the horn was the most used and never did I see a turn signal used or a glance at a rear view mirror. A left turn may be started a half block before the intersection if there are cars ahead of them and it is possible to have several cabs driving abreast of each other in the oncoming lane all trying to turn left at the same time with traffic coming at them Did I forget to mention the bicycles and pedestrians? One cab driver actually pulled on the right side of a bus and through a crowd of people trying to get onto a bus. We did not give many post cards to the cab drivers but a few of them did shine. Funny thing is that we never saw any cabs with dents or scratches on them. We never saw an accident and obviously we made it safely through many cab rides. There was only the one night we had a problem getting a cab and that was after visiting the disappointing food market. To make the situation worse it was also raining and we could not find a cab to stop for us. There were many other people on the streets also looking for cabs so we began to walk towards the hotel thinking we might have to walk the entire distance. After about an hour walk in the rain and having two cabs turn us down we did eventually find one who took us to the hotel.
The following morning we had a marvelous street vender breakfast of hot pockets which David and Sam found by exploring a new part of the Hutong. The city soot was giving us some trouble with our camera lens so I planned to stop at a Cannon shop to pick up a lens filter on the way to Tiananmen Square this morning. Further this would be a real test of my cab skills, asking the cab to wait while I ran into the shop. I had the Hotel desk clerk write out #1 camera shop. #2 Tiananmen Square. Then in my guide book I had memorized a phrase: "please wait." We had passed the camera shop on our walks so knew where it was and pointed it out to the cab driver and he stopped, I tried my phrase and he did not have a clue what I was saying, to him maybe I was saying: "I walk a dog with horns" because he just stared at me with a strange look. So I pulled out the book and showed him the phrase and then he smiled. I ran into the store and explained the problem with the camera to the gentleman who spoke no English but appeared to understand since he said: "No Buy, I fix" He then took my 35MM digital camera with the expensive lens on it and began to take it apart. Took the lens to a grinding wheel and polished and cleaned it so the surface sparkled. I offered to pay and he shook his head no. I ran out of the store and to my relief the cab was still there. Here's a tip to those of you using a 35MM camera in China. We found that hand satirizer worked the best to clean the soot off the lens, anything else left a film.
Our driver dropped us at a little used gate for Tiananmen Square and we were thankful for this consideration since there was quite a crowd lined up at the other gates to get in. Security was beginning to get strict due to the unrest in Tibet and the upcoming Olympics, most people were being checked but we were waved through. The crowds in Tiananmen square a mixture of outside tourists like us and Chinese tourists. We obviously stood out as non-Chinese but it was our grandson who attracted the most attention. He is a cute blonde headed six years old all American boy. As his grandfather he always gets my attention but here were strangers pointing at him and taking his picture. There were older women coming up and patting him on the head and middle-aged men beaming smiles toward him. At first Sammy was taken aback at all this attention but then he began to take on the role of celebrity and ham it up.
One reason for the large number of Chinese tourist in Tiananmen Square is that Mausoleum of Mao Zedong is located here. One other reason and I have no proof of this, it is only my conjecture and that is this ground at one time was off limits to the common people. During the various Emperors this was a walled courtyard filled that housed the official offices of government bureaus and ministries most despised by the common people, like the tax collectors, and those charged with keeping order. Occupying foreign powers were next to inhabit the square during the Qing Dynasty in the late 1800's. The British set up housekeeping, quartering their horses and flying the Union Jack. This had to be a great embarrassment to the Chinese. Finally Mao Zedong stood on a balcony overlooking the square and declared a new China, he opened the area up, paved it and created the largest open air urban square in the world. This is the "people’s square" it is a symbol of what Mao Zedong did for the common people of China. I stood still and watched hundreds of Chinese proudly walking on this square. I watched older people. Some supported by their younger companions just standing with misty eyes staring at the openness. My eyes misted as I watched an older couple standing by the statue to the working people. He was dressed in the traditional 1950's blue Mao jacket, blue pants and cap, she in plain dress. He stood at rigid attention while his picture was being taken. How I wish I could have sat and talked with him for a few hours, what stories were in his eyes. Then standing next to this couple was the other side of Tiananmen Square. She was a young Chinese girl in tight western jeans, holding a Chinese flag in one hand and a stick of candied fruit in the other. The two Chinas side by side and I am here for just a few days without enough time to understand either one of them.
Mao Zedong’s Mausoleum was on my must see list and David and Sammy wanted to join me. We gave our bags and cameras to the girls since these items were not allowed inside and joined the queue. This was the only time during our trip in China did I observe the people respecting a queue. In fact the line was very solemn. Our fellow visitors were almost all Chinese we saw only one other Western family. The queue moved very fast. We entered a security area and went through metal detectors. Inside was a courtyard where people could buy flowers to lay at the feet of a statue of Mao inside the entrance. I was taken aback by the statue. Here was Mao Zedong sitting on this white marble chair posed ever so much like Abraham Lincoln is in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The pile of flowers was huge and I could not help but think that they took these flowers back to the shop and resold them during the day. The atmosphere was somber much like a funeral but we moved quickly to the next room where Mao’s body was on display as it has been since 1976. Each day he is raised from a vault below and lowered back down at night. He is the only permanent resident in Tiananmen Square. He looked surprisingly well for being dead for 32 years. The body was raised in a glass enclosure which made him appear very large. A little research tells me he had a physique similar to mine. He was 5'10" tall with broad shoulders, a big belly and feet. On display as he was, he appeared much bigger. We had formed two very strict lines and I was in the back line with David and Sam. When the guards saw Sammy, they immediately pulled him into the front line so he could get a better view. I paused to get a better look and was quickly told to move on. The atmosphere was one of extreme reverence and I could not get it out of my mind that here laid a man who was responsible for the brutal murder of fifty million people but so admired and so respected by his people. We immediately left the hall which held Mao’s body and were ushered through a hall which displayed relics of other revolutionary leaders and then into a gift shop. One could tell the tour was ended since any sense of a queue was over and the noise level increased to China deafening. It has always been a rule of mine to purchase my souvenirs at these shops attached to the attraction or museum so I was ready to shop and began my pushing to the counter. There was an interesting array of bookmarks, knickknacks, books, all in Chinese, and medallions. I wanted to buy a guide book but none were available in English so settled for a couple sets of bookmarks, a wood cut and a great medallion which says: "We Love Mao Zedong" in English with his likeness engraved on the front. We found the girls at the exit and convinced them to take the tour which they did while David, Sammy and I went in search of a bathroom.
So everyone who goes to China comes back with their favorite china bathroom tale and I will not disappoint you. In China there is little privacy and no such thing as "space" this is particularly true when it comes to public bathrooms. The word public takes on a whole new meaning in China when applied to a bathroom. The "public" bathroom we found across the street from Tiananmen square was inside an arcade playing videos of the Chinese army marching, pressed into this arcade was a huge mass of people watching the video and enjoying the blaring military music. To get to the bathroom’s open doors you had to press yourself through this crowd eventually bursting onto a stall lined wall. You then fought your way back to the common men/women shared sinks to wash your hands shaking off the excess water while fighting your way again through the video watchers and the waiting relatively empty sidewalk of only a few hundred people walking each direction. I admit the girls had it much rougher and since our plumbing allows us to stand us guys really have little to complain about but there will be more toilet stories to follow.
This is the day of our disappointing duck dinner but it was saved by some great noodles which I never got to taste and only heard about. After lunch David and Sammy joined a game of hacky sack which was going on in front of a store in the Hutong we were in. It is possible that one reason we did not find the best duck is that once again we were off of the beaten track for tourism and more into a residential area. We had walked away from Tiananmen Square for several blocks and then into the Hutongs. What we did find are some interesting shops without the proprietors trying to haul us in and shove things down our throats. Instead the people were friendly and happy to have the guys join their game of hacky sack. We eventually walked out onto a row of music shops which sold many of the ancient Chinese instruments and we enjoyed going through these shops. We eventually hailed a cab and returned to our little Hutong and a quiet night.
The following day found us at the Forbidden City. This is also the day that Sammy achieved full rock start status. When we arrived at the gate to the Forbidden City there were several tours of Red Hat Yellow Flag Japanese Tourists assembling and before they formed their pods a couple of the men came over to have their picture taken with Sammy. Next was an entire High School class of Chinese girls who each wanted a picture with Sam and he ate it up as one by one they put their arms around him and their friends took the picture. Eventually we were able to begin our tour of the Forbidden City. I rented the self guided earphones and map which David took over and he became our tour guide. We soon realized that we were starting from the back door and moving to the front so we had to play the tape backwards. We were also dodging the red hatted pods who had by this time had organized and were on the move. There were a few other tours going through and the mix of languages was quite entertaining almost like being in the Tower of Babel.
What amazed me the most about the Forbidden City is that it still existed. Somehow during the reign of terror called the Cultural Revolution when anything old and historical was being destroyed this was saved. Someone had the foresight to realize that someday this would be a big tourist draw. After I got over that thought I could not get over the idea that this 600-year old complex of 9,999 buildings which covers about 190 acres complete with a moat, numerous gates, gardens, and courtyards, was built to protect its inhabitants from their public. The moat is almost 20' deep and if that was not enough there is also the 32' wall which encloses the entire complex with doors which are a massive ten feet thick and twenty feet high. No one gets in here without an invitation. We did not get inside all 9,999 buildings but we did go inside a few which were open. One building held a tiny display of artifacts from the Ming Dynasty and the rest was filled with poorly done replicas and cardboard cutouts of various ancient scenes. There was also an exhibit of replicated brocade and silk garments. Where are the originals?
Walking through the Forbidden City, it was hard to imagine how life was during the time of the emperors. Certainly there were not several thousand people walking everywhere over the grounds, peering into doorways, crowding the hallways, and jamming the gate openings. I do think we walked under or through or by, or near some very significant things but never saw them due to the crowds. When we had reached the halfway mark, our intention was no longer on seeing each of the important sites within but simply getting through without being crushed. We always chose the least traveled path and eventually we were pushed through the last gate and left the Forbidden City. I bought a guide book and will read it leisurely this summer while camping in the quiet of a state park deep in the woods.
We had been in Beijing for almost a week and by now we were cab savvy and smartly ignored the tempting line of cabs sitting in front of the Forbidden City. We walked down to a side street and through a lovely city park which we would have enjoyed much more if it had not been raining. We were now far enough from the Forbidden City to hail a cab which we did and we soon found ourselves by the gate to the Temple of Heaven. This was Rachel’s choice of a place to see. A friend had told her this was a must see while in Beijing and I cannot remember why. I do remember that it was raining and the rain did not deter the crowds of red hatted yellow flagged pods who, like us were trying to walk on the rain slickened marble walks and stairs. During one downpour as I tried to keep my balance Rachel did mention something about blue roofs which indeed all the buildings did have, blue roofs. We purchased tickets that allowed us to get the full effect of every blue roof and ducked our heads under umbrellas to scamper off to the first of these wonders. In order to be fair to the Temple of Heaven somewhere along the route I purchased a guide book which I will read this summer when I finish the book on the Forbidden City. When I complete the guide book maybe I will know what I missed right Now all that remains in my memory are slippery wet marble steps under foot and cold wet rain hitting my bald head. There is one memorable moment here and that is the cup of coffee I purchased. Normally I avoid the coffee shops since I prefer good old plain coffee black and at room temperature but I was cold and could not resist the temptation. I ordered a cup of plain black coffee at this coffee shop situated inside the 600-year-old Temple of Heaven. Two young ladies spent almost ten minutes making this 3-ounce cup of coffee which cost me 40 RMB or more than $5.00 which tasted like it was brewed from 600 years old floor sweepings. So much for the Temple of Heaven, we found a cab and went back to the hotel to dry off.
Our final day in Beijing had arrived. A couple days earlier we had left some laundry with the hotel to be washed and it had been hanging on a line out back ever since and this may be a good time to talk about the pollution in Beijing. I had read so much about the bad air and how the Olympic athletes would not be able to compete due to the air quality that I was expecting something much worse than what we encountered. Yes, the air was bad but not as bad as I thought it would be. I had been to Mexico City and that air is bad. When it was not raining, we had clear blue skies, and the times we were able to stand on a vista and look out over the city we did not see a noticeable haze. The most common smell in the city was construction dust and vehicle exhaust. Maybe we were there on clean days but I have smelled worse air in Milwaukee. However, when we did get our clothes back, they had a definite smell to them which was not a freshly washed smell.
We spent our last morning in Beijing by exploring the Hutong, eating breakfast at a hot pocket stand and finding a Porcelain Museum. Inside the museum they had replicas of vases from each dynasty but even better was a display of just how the porcelain was made. In anther room two ladies were hand painting tea cups. Eventually we were lead into a large gallery where we could purchase items made here, imagine that. However, the items were beautiful and Fran and I did buy a plate plus a dish for Rachel’s upcoming birthday.
Jackay met us at the hotel to drive us to the airport and soon we were leaving Beijing. Jackay’s airport shuttle service included him walking us inside the airport and to the proper line at Air China. Only after he was assured we were getting on the correct plane did he leave us. It would have been nice to have had him with us the entire trip and we were sad to say a good-bye to him. Beijing had just opened this terminal two days prior and it was spectacular. This is a showcase to be used for the visitors coming to the Olympics and they did not hold back on the glitz. There was a choice of many restaurants and we chose the ever famous Chinese icon, Kenny Rodgers Chicken. The waitresses were outfitted with cowboy hats and numbered name tags. Ours was: Trainee #00453, she looked more like a #00578 but who am I to say. The food was palatable and we were soon at the gate waiting to fly on to Nanjing.
