It's good to be king

Today Charlie and I went out early to get our breakfast at the jian bing stand and then made our way down the block (or a few blocks) to a gigantic antique market that was just barely opening.  We were led in by one of the shop owners, who proceeded to unlock and usher us into his store.  As we looked around, other shop owners nearby started opening.  So as we walked out of his shop we were guided into the neighboring shop, and then the next after that.  This went on for about half a dozen shops, each owner following us closely and trying to get us to buy anything we glanced at for more than two seconds.  We soon decided it was too high-pressure shopping and that we really didn't know anything about the quality of the items we were looking at (or even what they were at times), so we left and headed back to the apartment to wait for Tony.

Having taken a half day off to hang out with us, Tony acted as our afternoon guide through the Summer Palace, the relaxing getaway of Chinese royalty back in the day. This particular version of it (number two) was built in 1886. All I can really say was that it was beautiful, so I will mostly let the pictures and videos speak for themselves.  It was a warm, sunny day and the air was clear. As we went through it I eventually decided that if I ever have the means I'd like to have a place like this (perhaps not as ridiculously large, but as stylized and lovely).

Phoenix and dragon statues at the entrance gate

Paddle boats floating on a man-made lake with a tall pagoda and the Western Hills in the distance

Blooming lilacs juxtaposed with rock formations

Painting detail on the ceiling of a covered walkway

My favorite kind of tree in China

Tony and Charlie take in the scenery

Covered patio in the theatre courtyard

Outdoor wall décor

The theatre

Close-up of the stage with a rack of bells (left) and a horizontal harp (center bottom)

We lingered in this lovely courtyard for a while knowing that a short performance of the kind of thing you would have seen here once upon a time was about to start.  I made this video to give you a better idea of the layout of the area that cannot really be captured without a panoramic camera and an unattainable vantage point.

The first performers to go on stage treated us some traditional Chinese music.

Then we were subjected to a performance by half a dozen young ladies doing some sort of out-of-sync pantomime walking dance while waiving little handkerchiefs around. The song playing while they did this was almost unbearable.  Tony said the words would translate approximately to "these boots were made for walking..."  I did not photograph or video that performance and you should be thanking your lucky stars.

Next up were the Peking Opera actors:

And here is some info about the performance you are about to watch (so that you sort of understand what's going on):  

Divergence  (Sanchakou)
In the early Song Dynasty, Jiao Zan, the senior general of the imperial government being framed and declared guilty, was banished to a desert island. Yang Yanzhao particularly sent Ren Tanghui to protect Jiao secretly on his way to the island in fear that he might encounter dangers and mishaps. When arriving at Sanchakou, Jiao lodged at a tavern ran by Liu Lihua, where Ren chose to stay and rest later. Being heroic and warm-hearted people in grass roots, Liu and his wife determined to safeguard Jiao at the tavern. However, not knowing each other, Liu and Ren harbored suspicion towards each other, and mistakenly believe that the other person involved intended to hurt Jiao. The misunderstanding provoked a fight between them in darkness. Fortunately Liu's wife and Jiao arrived in time, stopping the fight and clearing up the misunderstanding.

Apparently, much of the choreography from this type of performance has strongly influenced combat choreography in kung fu movies.

We then made our way out of the housing complex and into the wooded grounds surrounding it where everything seemed to be blooming. 

At the top of the gradual hill we climbed was this building:

We didn't go all the way up because I was trying to preserve what little strength my feet have for our next excursion to the Great Wall.  We did, however, climb about half way up the hill and happened upon a lovely temple surrounding by bright red buildings.

Huge bird's nests could be seen at the tops of the some of the still leafless trees

My homeboy chillin' in the temple

Buddha's posse (only 3 out of 24 or so).  Don't mess with this guy OR his cat.

The temple was quiet, dimly lit and pleasantly cool so we didn't mind waiting there out of the sun for a few minutes while Tony bought some souvenirs.  Our jaunt near its end, we exited Buddha's refuge and made our way back through the crowds, pausing on a white stone bridge to snap these last two photos:

We then hopped in a taxi and made our way back to the other side of Beijing, where we would meet up with Elena and venture out again shortly thereafter, this time for Shanghainese food at a restaurant in the neighborhood.

Our appetizers: Savory gluten (bottom left), fresh bamboo shoots (bottom right), spicy mushrooms (top right) and aspic with goose liver (top center).  The last one is basically foie gras in a jello casing.

Beggars chicken: wrapped in leaves and then packed with mud and baked.

"Squirrel Fish": Crisscut deep fried fish in a sweet and sour sauce.  Steamed pea shoots in the upper left corner.

Sorry, but I can't be bothered to write a clever ending for this entry.  I'm full and tired and have to get up early to go see the Great Wall.  Poor me.

Way to go, Beavis!

On Thursday, Charlie and I were hoping to travel by train to Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius.  At some point we also had Shaolin, home of the kung fu monks, on the itinerary, but that was cut when we realized we had a bit of a time constraint.  We didn't really care whether we went to Qufu or Shaolin or anywhere else for that matter; we just wanted to take a train to see China from the ground.  Tony put me in contact with a travel agent named Bevis (not a joke) to help with arranging the train travel and hotel accommodations since Charlie and I are completely Mandarin challenged and would have had a hell of a time with any of this.  Even the train schedule website is completely in Chinese with no English option. I guess it would have paid to study a little more Mandarin before I came. Anyway, I got an e-mail from Bevis early Thursday morning telling me that the hotel is no problem but that train tickets needed to be booked 10 days in advance.  That pretty much blows the trip out the window.

Instead, Charlie and I made our way down to Lady's Street.  No, this is not Beijing's red light district. We have yet to stumble upon that jewel, if it even exists.  Lady's Street is a gigantic market full of everything you can imagine - clothes, electronics, housewares, plants, pet fish, etc. - but it is laid out like Pike Place in Seattle.  Part of it is on the street, part of it is underground, and it extends a couple blocks in every direction. On our way there we passed by the U.S. embassy, which had a line out the door and down the block for visa appointments, and found an opportunistic street vendor selling jian bing.  Charlie has been looking for jian bing ever since we arrived in China and it turns out it has been a block away from our house the whole time.

Jian bing is kind of like a crepe.  It is made by pouring an eggy batter onto a griddle, on top of which is spread a thick, salty soy-flavored sauce, followed by some thin sheets of crunchy tofu and a little bit of cilantro.  Then it is folded up like an envelope and served hot.  They were huge and filling (I think I'll get one for breakfast tomorrow) and only cost about $0.50 USD.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.

A boy and his jian bing

We continued on to Lady's Street, which was just opening at that time, and wandered around for a while.

 Main entrance

We were on a mission to find some large, deep noodle bowls, similar to the asymmetrical ones we used in Luoyang, but none of the hundreds we looked at met our specifications.  Instead, we bought some thick, colorful glasses that I will hopefully not be able to break (unlike the ones they are replacing).

My favorite part of Lady's Street were all the pet stalls.  They apparently specialize in just a few types of adorable baby animals: turtles and other small lizards, bunnies, chicks, ducklings, and hamsters.  I wanted to adopt them all.  There were several types of other small birds and one robin-sized black bird with a long orange beak that said "ni hao!" when we approached.

Having seen enough, we headed back home to try to figure out how to get to one of the wet markets nearby.  At first, Charlie ventured out on his own, my feet too pissed off to participate, but he took a long detour to a cigar store across town and then came right back.  Luckily, that gave me some time to actually figure out where we should go and find it on the map.  We chose a wet market (an open food market with fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, fish and other goods) that was fairly close to home and walked there, braving the traffic on one of the busiest roads in the city.  When we arrived I was reminded of just how much I love this sort of thing.  There was dead animal carcass everywhere, yet somehow it smelled great and looked scrumptious.  The fruits and veggies were brightly colored and stacked to the ceiling.  There were fresh noodles and Chinese pastries, spices, nuts, a whole stall devoted solely to mushrooms, and some of the freshest seafood you could ever ask for (some of it was still alive!)

We did a quick walk-through to scope out everything that was available and get some ideas, as Charlie had been put in charge of dinner for the evening.  We decided to go with a fresh shrimp pasta with veggies and a salad and strawberries for dessert.  As we passed by each stall, the vendors would shout a friendly "ni hao" at us and try to offer us various items on display in their stall.  We made one lady's day by buying a grocery bag full of vegetables from her and then continued on to pick up noodles, fruit, eggs and some giant prawns from a few other folks.  When all was said and done, we had spent about ¥150 (about $20) and had several pounds of produce and a couple pounds of fresh shrimp.  If only food could be so fresh and so cheap in the States!

Once we had finished, we grabbed a taxi home and found ourselves with one of the funniest taxi drivers ever.  Once we had established that there was no way we were going to understand each other using spoken language, he began to communicate with long, sing-song hmmmmmms interspersed with snippets of Mandarin and would give us a thumbs up and a smile in the rear view mirror to say he understood.  So far, he is the only driver who has ever managed to actually get us all the way back to our building without considerable confusion.  As we exited the taxi, we gave him a nice tip and expressed our gratitude using the few Mandarin phrases we knew, to which he responded "Thank you!" in English.

We hauled our edible bounty up to the apartment and Chef Charlie set to the task of making dinner.

Working on a sweet and tangy reduction for the strawberry dessert

After a wonderful meal of salad with quail eggs, a kind of shrimp primavera (except with Chinese noodles), and strawberries with a sweet, balsamic glaze, we headed out to Gingko Restaurant and Bar for NUKABB's open mic night. NUKABB stands for "North America and UK Association of Blacks in Beijing" and they organize many cultural events around the city.

Once we arrived at the restaurant, we were greeted by Tony's colleague, Kathy, with whom we had had dinner at Pure Lotus a couple nights ago.  We all made our way to the upper floor so that we could smoke cigars without pissing too many people off.  This also proved to be a great vantage point for people watching.

I just wanted to share the sign that they have posted in one of the stalls in the ladies room:

You might think these things are just common sense.  But trust me, after seeing a few of the public toilets here in China, these instructions are VERY necessary.

These are two of my favorite performances of the evening:

Kevin "K.O." Olusola, an American student studying in Beijing, who also happens to be a master cellist.

Kevin performs with Kor Element, another American performer living in Beijing.

Check these guys out.  They really were fantastic.

Kevin "K.O." Olusola on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kevin-KO-Olusola/231020898282?v=wall#!/pages/Kevin-KO-Olusola/231020898282

Kor Element: http://www.reverbnation.com/korelement

Charlie said I should call this one "Insert Pithy Quip Here"

Today Charlie and I ventured out alone again.  We caught a taxi from our home base and were driven through one of the coolest neighborhoods I have seen in Beijing so far.  There was an absolute absence of the high-rises that seem to be everywhere else.  The store fronts were decorated by rows of red lanterns, strung from the buildings to the trees along the edge of the sidewalk, creating a sort of canopy over anyone walking by.

Our destinations today were the Lama Temple, followed by the Confucius Temple, in the Dongcheng District in the northeastern part of Beijing.   The Lama Temple, also known as Yonghe Temple, the "Palace of Peace and Harmony Lama Temple" or the "Yonghe Lamasery", is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism and is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. (Thanks, Wikipedia)

Did I mention I LOVE Buddhist temples?  Well, I do, and this one was no exception, being one of the most beautiful that I have seen. The architecture was astounding and the statues were either moving or terrifying, many being in the style of Thangka. Here are some shots of the exterior of the temple halls:

Worshipers line up to make incense offerings to the Buddha figure inside.

That's him.

There were gorgeous trees everywhere.

This one came with a warning.  What I think they mean to say is that if you see lightning you probably shouldn't stand under the tree.

The sign says, "Do not throw incenses or coins," which is exactly what these people are doing.

Spinning the prayer wheel.

I have no idea what this figure is actually called, so I just referred to it as "the big kitty". People stroked his big snout and stuffed money into his mouth and nose.

As we made our way through the temple complex we could hear drumming and loud horns playing in one of the central halls.  It was closed off to the public, as it appeared the lamas were doing some kind of religious ceremony.  At one point several worshipers seemed to have taken it upon themselves to enter the hall anyway, so we managed to peek in while two security guards attempted to hold the crowd back while the people inside took their time to exit.  All I could really see were rows of monks sitting on the floor but I couldn't really tell what they were doing.

The Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses contains an 18m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single piece of White Sandalwood.

If this was carved of a single piece of wood, that was a damn big tree!

Charlie getting his daily dose of enlightenment.

This big kitty (lion) is serious about guarding his ball of yarn.

After leaving the Lama Temple, we strolled through the neighborhood just hoping we were going the right direction.  We knew the Confucius Temple was somewhere nearby and luckily took the correct street to get to it. The thing that surprised me most about this temple was that it was nearly empty.  The only other people we saw were a couple of what appeared to be student tourist groups wandering around and taking pictures like us.  I only saw one worshiper offering incense at the main altar.  It made me a little sad that no one seemed to care about this temple, but at the same time I really enjoyed the peacefulness of it.

The temple entrance

Pathway leading into the main hall.  Notice there is only one dude in sight.

Dragon carvings on the stairway

The entrance to the main hall.  Only two dudes in sight... and I think the one in green works there.

The altar

Surrounding the altar in the main hall were several types of old musical instruments, including zithers, drums, bells, and a sort of xylophone - slabs of stone suspended from ropes tied to a free-standing rack.

We continued around the grounds, pausing to use the cleanest public toilets we have seen so far, and then happened upon this gigantic warehouse full of stone tablets that were being restored.  Some were obviously much older than others, the Chinese writing carved into them barely readable.  We were lucky enough to catch a couple of guys in the middle of restoration work as well.

Tablets galore

Carving detail

Next we happened upon what I think was some kind of "school of Confucius" attached to the temple grounds.  We found the largest crowd at the whole site here at the front gate.

Close-up

We then approached what was referred to as a lecture hall, surrounded by this giant moat.

Hall interior

We then found our way out of the large temple complex and headed out into the neighborhood in search of food.  There were restaurants everywhere, but we were hesitant to go into any of them, knowing that an utterly awkward experience awaited us there.  After some wandering, we settled on a humbow joint.  If you are unfamiliar with humbow, they are fluffy white steamed buns filled with meat or vegetable mixtures such as barbecue pork.  Much to our delight, the man at the counter spoke beautiful English, gave us an English menu, helped us select a few things, and showed us where to load up on condiments.  We ordered a dozen of them and it only cost something like $4.

Satisfied with our successful lunch, we headed back home to wait for Tony, with whom we were to go explore one of the nearby hutongs and have dinner in the neighborhood.  Hutongs are lovely - they are old neighborhoods that used to be largely residential but many have been restored and now contain little trinket shops and restaurants. It was a bit touristy, but picturesque nonetheless. If you peek down into the narrow alleys and open doorways you can catch a glimpse of the how the average Beijing resident once lived and in some cases, still does.

We stopped into a few shops along the way and I picked up a handsome new tote for my computer:

It says "Serve the People" in Mao's handwriting.

We were also lucky enough to happen upon a silk shop where silk was actually being processed and textiles were being made on site.  This woman is separating the silk from the silkworms (little pile of brown bean-like things in the lower right corner).

We found our way into a little restaurant nearby for dinner that advertised hotpot on the exterior.  We came to find out that it wasn't actually hotpot, but a kind of Mongolian barbecue style cuisine where you select various ingredients and they throw them together for you in a wok.  It was spicy and wonderful.  

Just as we were finishing our meal, I began to hear Chinese music on some kind of stringed instrument outside.  Through the dirty window I watched this blind musician pass by, playing sweetly, with a bucket hanging around his neck for donations.  Behind him was a woman with her hand on his shoulder, guiding him along down the narrow street.

After dinner, my feet were absolutely killing me so we returned home for some R&R. Later that evening I asked Tony why the Confucius Temple should be so empty.  He said that Confucianism is more of a philosophy than a religion and that people tend to worship there on special days only, like his birthday or other national holidays, or two make offerings when they are about to do something related to studies or knowledge, such as taking a test.

And thus, Wednesday was done.