From Our Farm To Theirs: The first few days in Beijing

I'm sitting here in a hotel room in Nanjing and Liz is reading to me from the Mandarin Phrase Book published by Lonely Planet. Those folks must cater to some crazy world travelers. Its Wednesday the 24th, and we arrived on Saturday afternoon.

We were met at the train station by Mr. Bai (our driver) and Ms. Fan (Peggy). They took us to our hotel and we got ourselves checked in. The Beijing Wangfujing Hilton is a very nice hotel.

Our first impression of Beijing - I've never seen a city this large that was this new. Everything is new. The buildings, the roads, the train station, the street signs . . . everything. China had something to prove to the world at the Olympics, and while many complained about the air, I think they proved it - China is ready to compete with the world. But its interesting going and round and talking to people. People in government, academia, and average citizens - they all don't want to "compete." They just want to be. They want to work, to build things, to travel, get educated, and do well for their country, but they do not see themselves as a people who are trying to compete. It's like they actually listened to that coach we all had in school who used to say that winning wasn't important, it was the fun of being out there and working together that brought us all to the field. It is certainly different than many Americans imagine it to be. Its a desire not to be the best, but a desire to bring themselves up to be on par with Europe, America, Japan, and other developed country. I traveled here once in 1995 for just a few days. When I was here it was dirty, and everything was under construction, but nothing was finished. There seemed to be virtually nothing new and pristine. Now, while much is under construction still, there is so much that is new and pristine.

We were a little drained by our train ride so we decided to take a short rest in our room, and then just be lame tourists and go check out the mall adjacent to our hotel. We looked for some food and settled on sushi. It was one of those take the plates off the moving conveyor deals. We ate our fill for around $35 total. The next day we were headed out into the country for to celebrate Eisenhower Day of Fellowship with the Chinese Fellows.

Sunday morning we got up, packed a bag, and with the CEAIE (an organization designated by the government as the official entity that coordinates all international educational exchanges between China and the world) staff, we headed about two hours north of Beijing. We passed the great wall around Bandaling and nestled between the Taihang and Yan mountain ranges we found something very interesting . . . Jackson Hole. A resort village/development of 850 homes all modeled after those in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The streets, the fixtures, the attire of the staff, the design of the houses . . . odd, but interesting. It was the weekend home of Dr. Xiaoliang Ding, a very smart, kind, and gracious host. He took us on a tour of the surrounding area, including the wetlands and reservoir system that acts as the principle water source for all of Beijing. It was amazing to see such a large natural ecosystem so close to a city of 13 million people. It was however a dreary, rainy day, and was initially intended to be an overnight trip became a single day event, with two large, very casual meals and five Fellows discussing international politics, educational systems, technology imports, and the image of China in America and America in China. I'll try to add a picture when I get a copy.

Monday, which was originally going to be part of the Fellowship day was now free to us in Beijing. It was nice since the next day we would be leaving for Nanjng after my meetings, and it was the only chance that Liz and I would have in Beijing together. When we leave Guangzhou, she flies to Beijing, then on to Newark and Hartford. I go on to Hubei, Sichuan, Shanxi, Beijing, and then on to the Philippines. So it was nice to spend a day seeing just a small part of China's amazing capital. The Olympics made China an easy place for English speakers. Most street signs have English version, and while we didn't try them out, I hear the buses all have English translations of the stops. We wanted to get a good mix of China, so we did two tourist things, but at the extremes. We visited the Forbidden City and the Silk Street Market.

Hall of Supreme Harmony

There were two cute, pure white cats
just chillin' at the
Hall of Art and Calligraphy

There were many, many of these cast
iron, and some bronze pots around -
old fashion fire extinguishers.

Built in the early 1400's, the Forbidden City served as the home of emperors and the head of the government for 500 years and has almost 1,000 buildings on over 180 acres. It was busy. We were there on a "slow" day, and there were thousands upon thousands. On a "busy" day, there will be over 100,000 tourists there all at once.

Every surface of every building
was painted

We then walked back to the hotel, took a short break, grabbed lunch, and then took a cab to the market.

I had given her a little bit of a heads up, but I think Liz didn't get how it would be different shopping at a market like this in China. Every store is piled on top of the other, and it has 2 or 3 staff either just in the doorway, or in front of the shop attempting to do anything they can to get you to come in the store. If you pause for a half a second to look in a store, you are accosted with short phrases asking if you like anything, asking what you like, wanting to know what you are looking for, and resorting to just saying "hey Lady, come in here, hey lady, hey lady, hey lady, come in!" The trick is to just tune it all out, stop if you want, keep going if you don't. Don't answer the questions, just keep going. But by the end she got the hang of it. Enough to pick up a few scarfs and to get a few paintings with me. Some good deals in the end.