Beguiled and Bewildered in Beijing

In September 2012 Karen Patrick walked part of the Great Wall of China for Dementia Care.

Her story is related in her book 'Scaling the Dragon's Back' which is available from Amazon for Kindle, Barnes and Noble for Nook, on Kobo and on all other formats from theendlessbookcase.co.uk

Her book is sold in support of Dementia Care. 

Beijing - The Lake at the Summer Palace, rare space.

We arrived in Beijing finding it humid and sunless, grey skies greeting our arrival.  This was my first experience of the fog like pollution haze I had read so much about and which frequently hangs over the city given its poor air quality.   The pollution is caused in large part by the volume of traffic on Beijing’s roads.  We were told by our Chinese Trek guide Joe, his adopted English name, there are 5 million cars in the city serving a population of 20.8 million people, and rising.  A further 3 million commuting into the city each day to work.  Beijing as I was to learn is huge, 26 miles across it fills 25 ordinance survey maps, compare this to London’s 8.  London has one ring road the M25 Beijing has 6...

To the north and west Beijing is surrounded by mountains, I would soon be walking along the Great Wall in these mountains.  The natural contours of the land restrict Beijing’s future expansion, with the mountains preventing further building in the north of the city, which is therefore being expanded to the east...  Viewed from the coach en route from the airport, Beijing seemed a sprawl of high rise buildings with little or no evidence of town planning... Those living in Beijing rarely move out of the familiarity of their districts given the city is so big. Shopping on the internet was a big thing for obvious reasons: ease and convenience.  A  Chinese friend who studied in Beijing for several years told me she often still gets lost in the city...  I was to conclude later during my visit that Beijing is just too big and yet it is not the largest city in China.  Guangzou is the most populous followed by Shanghai, with Beijing third...

On the coach journey through the outskirts of the city,... I couldn’t help but notice the amount of rubbish littering the streets of the suburbs and the open sewers... We also passed unsightly shanty towns beside the expressway.  I had read about the thousands of migrant workers living in primitive conditions like these who are unable to afford the skyrocketing house prices and rents in the city. The average wage in Beijing is 2,000 Yuan (which is around £200) a month, although some workers earn more much more.  Many migrant workers earn significantly less, working long hours in manufacturing and assembly. They live in poor housing and loose their welfare benefits if they work outside their household registration area.  A registration system which is known as Hukou.  The cost of a 70 square metre flat in Beijing in 2006 was 1 million Yuan.  Since then the price of housing has risen rapidly, with prices today closer to 2.1 million Yuan. The result is that many families cannot afford to buy a new city property.  It takes years just to afford the down payment on a Beijing apartment...

The Forbidden City

The huge Tiananmen Gate is the main entrance to the Forbidden City.  A giant picture of Chairman Mao looks out from the gate across the Tainanmen Square to the mausoleum building where his body lies. The Forbidden City was the next stop of our day’s sightseeing.

Beijing - Entrance to the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is so called because for 500 years only the Emperor’s and their households were allowed to enter the City boundaries.  The Forbidden City was the political and ceremonial centre of the imperial Chinese government, but only the thousands of tourists who flock to the attraction every day give it life now.  The Forbidden City is one of only a few historic buildings preserved as a memory of China’s imperial past.  I had wanted to visit since I saw the film The Last Emperor at the cinema back in the 1980's... We entered the Forbidden City through the Meridian Gate which is located at the Southern end of the complex accessed from Tiananmen Square.   What greets you is a colossal courtyard that could hold imperial audiences of up to 100,000 people.  There are five bridges which stretch over the Golden Water. Joe told us the five bridges represent the five Confucian virtues of humanity, integrity, wisdom, altruism and propriety.

Beijing - Forbidden City, Dragon Symbolism

I was struck by two things on entering the Forbidden City, the amazing architecture and the sheer size of the place, the biggest palatial complex in the world. Wandering through the complex I noticed there were many pairs of lions, one male and beside it a female.  Joe explained the male lion always has his right paw raised and holds a pomegranate, a symbol of power. The female lion always holds a lion cub under her left paw.  Symbolism is everywhere in Chinese architecture. Red is the predominant colour of the Forbidden City, the symbolic colour of imperial power.  The doors are decorated with nine rows and nine columns of nails because nine was considered a lucky number by the imperial dynasties.  In fact the Forbidden City is said to have 9,999 rooms.  I didn’t count!  And the Emperor was rumoured to have had 900 concubines; imagine! The dragon which traditionally symbolises imperial power also appears throughout the Forbidden City.  The roofs of the buildings are adorned with dragons. The number of dragons on a roof determines the importance of a building so, for example, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the most important ceremonial building in the Forbidden City, has 12 dragons on the roof. 

Yellow was the colour of the emperor so nearly all the buildings have yellow tiled roofs.  I was particularly struck by the panels of intricately carved marble walk ways and ramps.  Apparently the Emperor would have been carried over these in his sedan chair...

It was in the Forbidden City that we were introduced today to ‘windy pants’...

Olympic Park and Bird’s Nest Stadium

The park is Beijing’s largest public space, a vast 135 hectares, and is home to the National Stadium post 2008 Olympic Games now better known as the Bird’s Nest Stadium, The National Aquatic Centre and the International Broadcasting and Television Centre. On the day we visited the Bird’s Nest preparations were well under way for the imminent national holiday celebrations...  The Bird’s Nest up close is a very impressive structure as indeed it had appeared from TV coverage of the 2008 games.  It did not disappoint.  The stadium is inspiring, an architectural triumph.  You get quite a different perspective when viewing it from inside. 

Beijing - Inside the Birds Nest Stadium

The Olympic Park was built to be an eco-friendly urban space complete with water recycling, the use of green power, and an early warning intelligence system to warn of thunder and lightning...  Contrary to the impression given by the success of China at sports and the country’s medal haul at Olympic Games the Chinese people are not sporty preferring to stay indoors, to quote Joe “talking with friends, drinking and playing mah-jong.” 

Back in Beijing strolling around the Olympic Village it was very noticeable that the pollution haze which had hung over the city on the day of our arrival had gone.  The high winds and heavy rains of previous days which we had experienced on the Wall had cleared the air, sweeping the polluted air out to sea.  Under clear blue skies the city looked completely different, altogether more appealing.  Vicky, a Chinese friend who studied in and originates from just outside Beijing, says the city should really be seen at night when it is at its best. I would have to agree with her assessment. Tiananmen Square when it is lit up at night really is quite a sight.

 

Beijing - The Summer Palace, haven of tranquility

Summer Palace
...The journey took 2 hours, during which time we travelled bumper to bumper through the morning traffic.  Incredibly given the local driving we only saw 2 accidents. Our taxi was almost a victim of the driving mayhem, having a near miss when a car cut in sharply from the left hand side, almost taking out the front of the taxi.  Obviously indicators are not used much in China...you could easily spend the day here as it is an oasis of calm and a welcome escape from the chaos that is Beijing.  Throughout the Palace we came across locals, mainly musicians, playing their instruments be it saxophone or violin, I imagine they valued the space and tranquility the Summer Palace offered. I was reminded that traditionally the Chinese do not have a sweet tooth by the vendors who were selling sweetcorn and melon.  In the west, of course, they would have sold ice cream, candy floss and toffee apples.
 

The Summer Palace was built by the Emperor for his enjoyment to replicate the beautiful gardens of southern China.  The Palace is a huge complex of ornately decorated buildings, pavilions and covered walkways overlooking a lake. The Summer Palace had been rebuilt by the Empress Dowager in the 19th century.  Situated on the lake is a large marble replica of a junk boat, specially built, where the Empress Dowager would take afternoon tea in private... After a leisurely walk around...we took a boat ride across the lake...we returned to Beijing, making the equally tedious return journey in the traffic.  

The Lama Temple and Hutong District
What stood out for me from the visit was a huge statue of a Buddha in one of the Temples that had been carved from an 80 foot tree.  It was a spectacular feat of workmanship... Without Joe I became aware of what a daunting and disorientating place Beijing was, indeed anywhere in China is, when one cannot read written Chinese characters (hanzi) or speak Mandarin.  I was taken by a view of the skyline which contrasted the beautifully ornate and detailed old style architectural buildings of the Lama Temple with the modern grey utilitarian buildings which now surrounded the Temple... 

Beijing - The Lama Temple

New buildings are replacing the Hutong and with them the traditional way of living which is unique to China and goes back 800 years.  Living in the Hutong, a Mongolian word meaning “water well”, people had a sense of community with everyone knowing one another and several families sharing the courtyard houses with other families.  The new modern apartments which replace the Hutong, are in comparison soulless places, uniform and small, on average 100 square metres.  We followed our visit to the Lama Temple with a short walk around the Hutongs, a district of which is situated just across the road from the Temple.  Here a few streets and alleyways are which depict the old style communal living...

Beijing - crowds of commuters build up as the national holiday begins

Negotiating the Beijing underground... was a memorable experience but for all the wrong reasons.  Our journey to and from the a show via the underground coincided with the start of the October National Holiday and so it was especially crowded, gridlocked in fact with crowds jostling for position.  The Beijing underground is very big and very confusing.  Fortunately stops are now written on signs and announced in English. The trains were smelly from the sweating mass of humanity crammed into each carriage, the delightful odour from sweaty arm pits, and the lack of fresh air making me feel lightheaded.  The scene was very reminiscent of London Underground in the rush hour only more crowded if that can possibly be imagined... 

 ...I was very pleased to have seen and experienced Beijing, a vast city teeming with too many people and too many cars.  Despite this it is an interesting place.  I shall always remember the images of men in streets collecting water bottles for money and of tricycles piled high with rubbish, clothes and produce.  How the drivers of those vehicles can see where they are going on the roads will remain a mystery to me.  

Extracts taken from my ebook 'Scaling The Dragon's Back', sold in support of dementia care.

Available from:   Amazon for Kindle; Barnes and Noble for Nook; all other ebook formats from  http://theendlessbookcase.com/ebooks/scaling-the-dragons-back/   

See reviews for 'Scaling The Dragon's Back' at http://kephr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/reviews-for-scaling-dragons-back.html

Read my blog on my personal reflections of my visit to China http://kephr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/personal-reflections-on-visiting-china.html

25 years on Tiananmen Square remembered  http://kephr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/tiananmen-square-remembered-25-years-on.html 
 
http://kephr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/post-trek-completing-my-visit-to-china.html