How do you say "Stephen Hawking" in Chinese?

Today is Friday in Beijing and it is our last full day here.  We took the opportunity to finally see the much anticipated Beijing Ancient Observatory which is said to have been completed in 1442.  I have borrowed some information from Wikipedia for this post and linked to the original article as well, since I have no idea how to explain some of these instruments, or even what some of them were called.

Exiting the apartment building, we hailed a cab.  As the cab slowed and stopped in the middle of the street instead of pulling over to the side as appears to be the usual protocol, we realized the driver was a woman.  I had seen a couple of female cab drivers, but they are few and far between.  This particular woman was probably in her 40s and looked like a force to be reckoned with, as I imagine any woman employed as a cab driver would have to be.  She had a serious expression on her face and was smoking a cigarette when we got in, something I knew was more or less allowed but had not seen yet.  We showed her our taxi book and she seemed unsure about where the observatory was, but proceeded anyway.  After a few moments she said something to us in Mandarin that we didn't understand and did our best to let her know.  She asked us where we were from in English and we replied, "Mei gua ryen" (American).  She repeated our response and then nodded, smiling slightly.  About half way through the very calm cab ride through heavy traffic, she pulled out her pack of cigarettes and offered us a smoke.  We declined, so she asked via gestures whether it was okay with us if she smoked.  We said yes, of course.  I was surprised she asked, really.  She seemed like one tough cookie who wouldn't give a damn whether or not anyone minded if she smoked.  Her cab was a mess, the dirtiest one I have seen.  The seat covers were askew and her long jacket was thrown carelessly over the back of her seat, infringing on anyone sitting in the back.  She did not move her seat up to give us space when we got in either, as most drivers do.  I loved her.

Making some short cuts through a few side streets to get us through the heavy traffic, our cabbie got us to the observatory without any issues.  We paid her, thanked her and were on our way.  It was not immediately obvious where one would buy tickets because there was no long line as with many of the other attractions we had seen.  Charlie approached what appeared to be an uninhabited ticket window (there were no lights on inside), and an elderly woman waived from the other side of the dark glass to let us know she was there.  We bought our tickets and walked through the main archway.  We were a good 30-feet into the observatory grounds when an elderly man who was sweeping outside hollered something in Mandarin into the ticket office, after which a middle-aged man came running out to tear our ticket stubs.  The place was dead silent and appeared empty.

The observatory part of the site looks like a small fortress, tall and narrow, built with gray stone.

Rather than ascending the tower right away we took a stroll through a well-manicured garden area filled with many types of astronomical instruments made of bronze and stone, along with busts of the scientists credited with making advancements in astronomy (for example, coming up with the 365.2425 day-long year).

It was peaceful, pretty and interesting.

Shen Kuo or Shen Gua (Chinese: 沈括; pinyin: Shěn Kuò; Wade-Giles: Shen K'uo) (1031–1095), was the first to describe the magnetic needle compass, which would be used for navigation. Shen discovered the concept of true north in terms of magnetic declination towards the north pole.

Wikipedia says: An "armillary sphere is an instrument used to measure the coordinates of the celestial bodies. This instrument is constructed of two bronze disks--one being known as the ecliptic armillary (for tracking the sun), and the other deemed the equatorial armillary (tracks bodies that are not the sun)."

Um... I dunno.

Guo Shoujing (Chinese: 郭守敬; pinyin: Guō Shǒujìng; Wade-Giles: Kuo Shou-ching, 1231–1316), was a Chinese astronomer, engineer, and mathematician. The tools he invented for astronomy allowed him to calculate the near exact time of the year; 301 years before the Gregorian calendar. All of his work in hydraulics allowed communities throughout China to flourish and China moved forward as an economic power. Guo’s work in mathematics was regarded as the most highly knowledgeable mathematics in China for 400 years.

Batman saves the world. 

(This appeared to be some kind of celestial map, but all the descriptions on it were in Chinese.)

See?

"Nice knockers," says Charlie. (These were on a door behind the base of the globe)

A sundial that actually works and is accurate.

This thingy is like a calendar.  You can tell what time of year it is by how the shadow of the vertical piece is cast on the horizontal piece.

The observatory and its instruments can be seen in the distance.

My favorite kind of tree in China.

Nature was purty here today.

It was a warm, windy day.

I was sad that this place was empty, because by many standards, it was way cooler than a lot of the stuff I have seen here.  Sure, the big palaces are nice, but this stuff is way more important than some rich dead guy's house.  Charlie pointed out that the only Chinese people here were nerds, like us.

The instruments themselves and the landscaping were well-maintained, but some of the other buildings looked pretty broken down. 

After our little traipse around the garden, we made our way to the actual observatory and were greeted by these excellent statues:

Then we climbed the long-ass stairway.

That wasn't even the top.  It just turned right and kept going... well, okay, it wasn't really that bad.

When we got to the top, there was a man just closing and locking up a little building with a sign over the door that said "Information".  So we wandered around and looked at the small but impressive, intricate and beautiful collection of ancient astronomical instruments.

According to the sign below it: New Armilla - Made in 1744 for the purpose of determining true solar time as well as the right ascension difference and declination of celestial bodies.

Quadrant (left): Made in 1673, used for astronomical measurements, notably determining the altitude of celestial objects. It could be used to measure the angular distance between any two celestial objects. Off to the right is another armillary sphere.

Another celestial globe.

A sextant: Made in 1673 for the purpose of measuring the angular distance between any two stars less than 60º apart, as well as the angular diameters of the sun and the moon.

After we had finished looking at the collection, we peeked through the window of the "Information" building and saw what looked to be a dilapidated little gift shop.  As we stood there with our faces pressed to the window, coveting the little scientific objects inside, the man we had seen locking the door earlier came up behind us, keys in hand, eager to show us whatever we wanted to see.

If the lack of visitors wasn't enough to tell us that the observatory didn't get many visitors, the gift shop made it blatantly obvious.  Most of the shelves were empty, as there has not been much of a need to restock for a while. The little metal instruments in the glass case, along with everything else in the room, were dusty and some of them were starting to rust.  The man who opened the door for us, in charming broken English, excitedly demonstrated the various instruments and tried his best to explain what they were used for.  We were smitten.  We dropped $100 and left with a bag full of new treasures.

We descended back down the long stone stairway and found another pretty courtyard with a couple of dim, sad little exhibition halls. 

 

The exhibitions themselves were pretty interesting, as far as I could tell (a lot of the information was untranslated), but we were the only people in them.  The most activity in the whole place was the bustling going on to spruce up one of the other larger halls for what appeared to be some kind of watch-selling event.

As we walked around, I heard a familiar sound (MEOW!) and looked over to see a man leaning over a stocky orange and white kitty that seemed rather annoyed that he should try to pet her.  After he walked away, I approached to take her picture.  She was very dirty and had apparently just had kittens.  

This is the only kitty I have seen in China.

We left the little observatory, tummies grumbling, and caught a cab over to Wangfujing (where Charlie ate the scorpions) to have a cheap lunch.  This was the only time I have been in a car in China where I felt I might actually want to put on my seat belt.  The guy drove really fast, even if it was only for a short distance at a time until he hit more traffic, took corners at 30 mph and honked the horn every few seconds to tell others to get the hell out of his way.  It was frightening and fun and the fastest cab ride I have ever taken.

He let us out as close to the closed street as he could and we wandered in to find our food.  On the way there, Charlie had debated eating one of the big black scorpions, but later changed his mind.  Instead, we got some salty noodles, crabs on a stick and little battered friend prawns.  Charlie had also picked up a couple skewers of mystery meat, which I'm pretty sure was pork, but still had a hard time eating because it could have been dog, cat, or just about anything else.  At least with the whole animals/bugs on a stick you know what you're getting.

We sat on a curb and ate lunch, which cost us a measly $10, and then headed back home via the slowest, most lost cab driver in Beijing.  He consulted our taxi book and his map of Beijing several times, and then finally stopped, got out of his cab and consulted another cabbie for directions.  That guy didn't seem to be much help either, but at least steered him in the right direction until we knew where we were and could talk him through it.  Sheesh!

When Tony and Elena got home, we headed out to Chef Too: A New York Grill to have dinner because Tony knew the chef.  The food was great, although I was a little embarrassed about not knowing how to get the meat out of my semi-shelled lobster when it came.  After dinner, we caught the worst cab ever back to the apartment.  Not only did he have a bit of a 'tude, but this idiot started driving away before Charlie was all the way in the car, nearly drove into oncoming traffic twice and obviously didn't know how to drive a stick because the gears were grinding and the car nearly stalled at every turn.  Then, just as we pulled into the hotel's driveway, he came inches from colliding with a cyclist who had to try very hard to get out of his way.  We all held our breath for a moment and then thanked our lucky stars when we arrived in one piece.

Now Charlie and I are sitting on the balcony looking at the Beijing night skyline one last time before we head out tomorrow morning.  Goodnight.