2009 Asia Travelogue: Mainland China

May 25, 2009 Lijiang, Yunnan Province China

This is a travel day! We left our Hotel in Hong Kong and made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We past funny signs on the freeway: in addition to the airplane symbol indicating the direction of the airport, they had one with 3 circles- indicating Disneyland!

Our trip to Kunming was uneventful until arrival. We all thought we were getting up and off the plane but then learned the medics were coming onto the plane to check us out! Everyone had their temperature taken (with a wonderful gadget that is put near our heads. While I was immediately relieved that we “passed” it occurred to me that I was hearing how planes of people had been quarantined because some on the plane was sick. So we waited to see if we could disembark. Finally, we did. After going through several passport inspections to come into the country (since Hong Kong is a separate government), we then found our way to pick up our bags and check into our next flight. This airport is the most colorful I have ever seen with many people in costume and colorful stores and signs, etc.

We found our way to the check in and were surprised at people pushing their way in front of us. We finally got our bags checked in and received our boarding passes and headed for our gate. As I looked carefully at the boarding pass, it had the flight information and destination that I had, but the time was 90 minutes later than the information we were given by the tour company. After we went through security and found our gate we checked further and sure enough, we had been given the correct flight number, but the time for the earlier flight. We could have made this flight with plenty of time. So we are now awaiting our later flight at the outer reaches of the airport. A bit frustrating! So we are due to arrive in Lijiang close to 8PM at this rate.

Sunshine!! We are finally seeing sunshine here at the airport. We have missed it.

Zen Garden Hotel, Lijiang
As we flew toward Lijiang, we saw mountains, and more mountains, range after range. My heart went flip flop for some reason as we approached Lijiang. I felt a definite connection to this region. The air was clear, sun was shining and the airport was in sight!

Our lovely guide, Jesse met us at the Lijiang Airport. She took us to the minivan and introduced us to our driver, Leo. Leo doesn't speak English and Leo is his last name, but easier for us to manage. Jesse is 27 years old, studied in Beijing and came to Lijiang to live with her sister. She is very bright and knowledgeable and very sweet and solicitous. As we drove the 35 minutes to town, she began orienting us. She explained that 93% of the terrain in this region is mountain; only 7 percent flat. Yunnan has a high percentage of China's ethnic groups because of the mountains: it was difficult for groups to pass across the mountains so they established their own cultures in towns around the different ranges. The Naxi are the predominant group here, (pronounced Nashee) and their tribal wear is quite colorful.

The Naxi are a matriarcal culture originating from Tibet. Here women exclusively keep and manage the family money and elder daughters are the ones to inherit the family's assets. The women also did most of the hard labor. A common scene witnessed here in previous years was a group of men gambling and smoking while the women work in from the fields with a pile of hay five times their size tied to their backs. However, Jessie claims this began changing with the Revolution in 1949.

The Dongba, Naxi shamans or priests were the only people to be able to transmit their religious doctine. The religion is an almalgam of Tibetan Buddhism, Islam, and Taoism, created more than a thousand years ago with a written language consisting of more than 1300 pictographs. It is the only hieroglyphic language still in use anywhere.

Naxi symbol for family painted on a wall

This region has many flowers and much agriculture: we saw rice fields, wheat and corn. But tourism has become a major source of economic development. This began in 1998, and after an earthquake of 7.0 on the richter scale, much foreign assistance came in to rebuilt the town. They have two golf courses (Jack is ready to come back and try them out).

We drove past the old town and into the new; we drove up a hill and came to our charming hotel. It seems to be a very small hotel and had a lovely enclosed courtyard with water features, koi, wood and stone carvings, etc.
Zen Garden Hotel Entry

Our room is multi-level with a bed that is on a platform and surrounded with beautiful wood and carvings on 3 sides and partially closed on the fourth side.

Our bed! Beautiful.... and hard. Sitting Room

Up a few steps takes us to a sitting room for tea.

Close in view from sitting room

We are above the rebuilt downtown area that has live and loud music going on for another hour. This place is hopping! Mostly filled with Chinese tourists-many young, but of all ages. The shops have arts and crafts, jewelry and foods, weavings and carvings, jewelry and yak meat, tree fossils and tiny silver spoons with which to clean out your ears!! We walked across the canal on small bridges and the area was filled with decorative lights.


Lijiang at night near famous waterwheels Old town canals and bridges
We went for a wonderful dinner of vegetables and beef, rice, Chinese cabbage, onions and local bacon, potato pancake, eggs and tomatoes.
It was all quite delicious. Our guide had pre-arranged the locale and menu and we had a pretty private room for our dinner. After dinner we walked around town and saw the center of town with an incongruous pillar with video screens on it-constructed in honor of the Olympic flame coming through town last June.

I asked Jesse about the fact that she is one of two daughters. She said she was fortunate to have been born just before the one-child law was enacted. However, the government gave people in the country a plot of land when the first child was born, but not the second. So she noted, she did not get one-only her sister did. Her older sister has a shop doing manicures and pedicures in the new part of town.

More about Lijiang in the next installment!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 Lijiang
What a wonderful city!
We had a breakfast in our restaurant and Jessie picked us up at 8am to walk to the town market. We walked through the area that was teeming with people last night and found it quiet-only a few stores open and the nightife was gone. However, as we reached the town market, that was another story! This old town market was full of the sounds, sights and smells of markets all over the world (below).

Naxi Pictogram wishing peace on earth for all Creatures and Abundance for all

We passed by the complex that was the royal palace for 22 kings of the Naxi people for 470 years. We went back and toured it later. Meanwhile, Leo, our driver met us and we headed out for the Naxi Dungba Cultural museum and Black Dragon Pool. This was an area rich in scenic beauty and cultural preservation.

Display of traditional clothing Current Dungba-16th generation

Naxi Dungba Scripture in pictograms

The Black Dragon Lake was quite beautiful. There were many memorials on one section to people buried there; students studying, families picnicing and tourists visitin
Entrance to Black Dragon Pond Local enjoying the park
This area is also called Jade Spring Garden and is known for the clear lake water. The clean spring water runs from between the rocks and forms a 40, 000 spare meters lake that is surrounded by undulating green hills. We saw people taking water from falls into the lake and putting it in bottles to take home. Among the green hills, one sees lots of typical ancient Chinese architectures such as pavilions and rostrums. The garden was first set up in the second year of Emperor Qianlong's Reign, or 1737 A. D. and two renovations was recorded respectively in the 60th year of Emperor Qianlong and the 18th year of Emperor Guangxu. Originally called Jade Spring Temple of the Dragon King, the garden was renamed Black Dragon because the Dragon King in it was entitled by emperors Jaijing and Guangxu as the God of Dragon.

One building, the 5-Phoenix Hall, had pieces of the original Mu Palace (the 4 lions) and housed a tribute to a Naxi leader who became an influential provincial president. The building also housed the Buddhist Association and we were able to watch part of a ceremony.

Another area had a building, the former temple, where ladies doing embroidery; Some of it was amazing: two sided screens such that you could not see the "back" but only two sets of designs. We then went to the research center and school for preservation of the Naxi Dungba traditions. 5 of the Dongba shamen are teaching at this center. A student there taught us some about the culture and religious traditions and showed us the ancient art of paper making that they continue. We met one of his teacher/shamen and he created a blessing for us and for the work I do: wishing harmony in the families I serve as they work together throughout their lives. He invoked the blessings of the 5 directions on Jack and me for a life of health and well-being. Very special.
Dongba teacher creating Naxi blessing for us

From there we went to a local restaurant for lunch and out to the home of Joseph Rock who came to Lijiang in the 1920s to find plants and ended up finding the Naxi people and become the representative for National Geographic in the region and documented their culture-in essence saving it.

Joseph Rock's Compound His Neighborhood
His home has become a small museum of photos and artifacts from his life and times. It was also fascinating to see the old and new in his “neighborhood:”-new construction and autos, along side a woman carrying water in buckets hung on a pole on her shoulders-stopping to answer her cell phone and we passed by a guy with a donkey carrying wheat. We drove past horses for tourists and cows for locals and wheat being harvested by hand.
85 Year old Naxi Lady

Then we drove past the luxury resort-Banyan Tree and into town via a different route. We stopped at the hotel to get a fresh battery for my camera and headed to the royal complex-The royal palace was supposed based on a similar plan as the Forbidden City in Beijing. It is referred to as “Chief Mu's Mansion” in the English translation of the entry ticket and was built originally in Yuan and Ming dynasties through Qing Dynasty. Much of it was destroyed through wars, earthquakes, fires and the Cultural Revolution. Following the 1996 earthquake the world bank helped fund its renovation as well as the development of the entire town.

Plan of Mu's Complex

Walking into the complex, one passed beautiful gates and 4 lions. There are also 4 animals up on top of a gate: two facing in and two facing out. The two facing out are a reminder to the king to be mindful of his people in the community. The two facing in are to remind the king when he is out and about not to forget his responsibility to govern. One nust first pass a wall that is there to keep out evil spirits. Then one can see the parade grounds.

Parade Grounds and First Bldg.

There were a series of 5 buildings within the complex including a library/school with only a few tables for the students and teachers and two for King and Queen to observe the classes and to take in a little information as well. Another was the royal reception hall with a throne-like chair covered with tiger skin. Overhead is a painting of the water dragon surrounded by two symbols of women (out of respect for the industriousness of women. Another building was the repository of the king's pronouncements. Finally there was a building where music was performed and could be seen from the building of pronouncements.

The family Court was the most fascinating building in that it was there to assure Family Court: ancester shrine &bench for beating that people, particularly the royal family complied with expectations. There were three pillows in front of a family shrine. The individual who is charged with a crime kneels to ask for forgiveness. Then there is a bench on which he lies to received blows from sticks that are positioned in a rack nearby. A soldier trained in martial arts then hits the individual with an intensity gauged to the crime. This was a governance system to assure compliance with family rules.
Family Court

The local kings were very powerful, and the spiritual leaders (Dungba) served them. However, the kings did seek spiritual protection via ceremony by the Dungba. We wondered through the commercial "old town" had dinner in a courtyard and headed to bed after a full day. Off to Shangri La tomorrow!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 En Route to Shangri La
At 7:30 we were out of Zen Garden Hotel and off to Shangri La. Our journey takes us up several thousand feet in elevation, through farm lands and down to the Golden Sands River where we see the deepest gorge in China: Leaping Tiger Gorge. It is named such since legend has it that a tiger was being chased by a hunter and leaped across the gorge, stepping on a stone in the river and crossing the river to safety. Following our walk along the river and back we drove up and up and up to Shangri La. There was a lot of construction and some significant traffic from time to time.

Mountains and villages we passed Our driver, Leo

We are going up in elevation and driving through fairly dry mountains with farming plateaus where corn and potatoes are grown, honey produced and around Lake Lashi there were peppers, wheat and fruit. We saw Golden Sands River, part of the Yangstse with the Snow Mountains near by. The road we traveled is the national road which ultimately leads to Lhasa.

One of the highlights of the trip was stopping at a farming village in the area called Small Dragon Pond. The town or farm was called Xiag Luo. We provided some amusement for the townspeople as we walked around taking pictures. In addition to rice, wheat, strawberries and vegetables, they grow tobacco and we saw a building where it was cured.

the Village Solar heating of water

Working in the fields Drying the Grain

Farm Friends Plowing the Fields

As we drove along the river, we had the Haba Snow Mountains on one side and Jade Dragon Snow Mountains on the other. Some of these mountains top 18,000 feet! The walk we took to Tiger Leaping Gorge took about an hour or so each way and was quite beautiful. The rock on both sides of the gorge (the deepest in China at 3900 meters from the water to the top of the surrounding land) was beautifully and naturally carved-some of it white marble.

Scenes of Tiger Leaping Gorge

As we drove north, it got higher and higher, more dense forestation and cooler. Interestingly, there were large areas that were deforested when people had no other source of income, but lumber. We were told that the young trees Jack noticed were planted at the “request” of the government about 10 years ago. Further, when the central government was asked for permission to change the name of the town of Zhongdian to Shangra La, it was hoped that the locals there would be able to support themselves with tourism and less from the lumber proceeds.

By late afternoon, we arrived in Shangri La, checked into the hotel, the Gyalthang Dzong Hotel and checked out the amazing Songzanlin monastery. Stay tuned!
Sitting room, Gyalthang Dzong Hotel


Wednesday, May 27, 2009 Zhongdian…..Shangri La
The story of Shangri-La itself is a modern one, told by the English novelist James Hilton in his novel Lost Horizon (1933). Set in the troubled years before World War Two, the book tells of a community in a lamasery (a monastery for Tibetan lamas), in the lost Tibetan valley of Shangri-La, cut off from the world and from time. All the wisdom of the human race is contained in this place, in the cultural treasures stored, and in the minds of the people who have gathered here in the face of an imminent catastrophe. Hilton's tale struck a chord. The book enjoyed great popularity, and even the retreat of the US president at Camp David was called Shangri-La, after the paradise described in it. And when the novel was turned into a Hollywood movie by Frank Capra, it was an instant success. These days, the name is part of the language, used everywhere from Nepali airlines and Chinese hotel chains to holiday cottages in Florida and Torquay. Lost Horizon was a tale for its times. In the increasingly pessimistic 1930s, when Western civilisation seemed bent on a path to self-destruction - and when, as Carl Jung put it, 'the smell of burning was in the air' - the story of a kind of earthly paradise had an irresistible appeal. And Tibet in the 1930s was still a land of mystery, one of the last unmapped places, a forbidden and insular country. Nowadays, of course, the choice of the location of the tale seems all the more poignant, given what happened in Tibet some years after the book was published, with the Chinese invasion of 1949, and the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. Several years ago, in an effort to attrac more tourism, the Government of Zhongdian appealed to the national government to change its name to Shangri La and so it is today.

Interesting, our guide told us that Joseph Rock, in his explorations of China “discovered” Shangri La. The author of Lost Horizon took his description of the area from Joseph Rock's descriptions. As I may have noted elsewhere, the government apparently hoped that if the name change helped promote tourism, perhaps locals would be less likely to cut trees down for lumber. We did see some areas that were clear cut, and others where trees had been newly planted.

Our initial impression of the area was disappointing. As you drive into the city, it is filled with new uninteresting tall buildings, not quaint, colorful buildings backing up to beautiful trees and waterfalls. This doesn't look like one's fantasy of Shangri La. But it turns out to be a very interesting region and one we enjoyed visiting. After checking into the hotel, we headed off to the Songzanlin Monastery.
Songzanlin Monastery

When we saw the Songzanlin Monastery in the distance, we could see how this area might have been seen as the Shangri-La of stories. Yes, much of the buildings have been or are being restored by the government, but the huge complex was a center-and is a center-of Buddhist studies. Perhaps 600 monks study here and live here. When I asked our guide why the government and Communist party now support religion when it was banned during the cultural revolution and frowned upon even after she replied that there is an acknowledgement that religion is important to many people and rather than fight it, support it and that will encourage cooperation from all peoples. For this area, it is part of what people come to see as tourists and pilgrims.

The Monastery was huge, with many buildings. There are a number of different sanctuaries, shops, living quarters, etc. As we are near Tibet (this is called the autonomous Tibetan prefecture) the Tibetan form of Buddhism is very strong here. We saw traditional prayer flags, Tibetan style Buddhas and Stupas but rarely a public photo of the Dalai Lama. We did see one monk that held his photo in his room...

.Songzanlin Monastery in the distance Architectural detail of entry gate

Yi Tribal Woman Girls Outside Monastery Buddhist Monk

After visiting the Monastery and paying our respects to the Buddhas and Lamas, we headed back to downtown Shangri La. There are two parts of town: what they refer to as "Old Town" which is the reconstructed original town and the "New Town" which is where residents work, eat and shop.
Old Town Shangri La
We walked around old town, had a coffee at a European style cafe owned by a Singapore family and staffed by people from all over the world. Then we headed to a restaurant that serves a range of foods from Chinese to Italian to American. We had some sechwan style Chinese food and spoke in French to a couple from Paris who have been traveling in the Middle East and Asia for 5 months. We walked back to the square to watch traditional dancing. That was great fun! Another night here and I might have been joining in. Some of the steps almost looked like the "electric slide" and/or other folk dances.

Townspeople and some brave visitors dancing in Shangri La Elder women watching and gossiping

It turns out that our hotel is working on being a resort and has a small (2 room) spa. The prices for massages were very reasonable and we decided that our tired bodies could do with a nice massage so we booked massages at 9:00 and returned from the town dancing just in time to indulge in relaxation--and fall into bed almost next door to the spa. What a treat!

Thursday, Dragon Boat Festival day.

We continued our pattern of finding ourselves in towns during festivals. This weekend was a 3-day festival called the “Dragon Boat Festival.” Since the area we were visiting does not have major bodies of water, they celebrate with horse races! We were uncertain about the schedule but wanted to participate if we could. Our guide did some research and we adjusted our schedule to be part of this festival.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a significant holiday celebrated in China, and the one with the longest history. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Competing teams row their boats forward to a drumbeat racing to reach the finish end first. On Chinese TV we saw a feature on the boat builder who has created the boat that has won one of the big races for the last several years: a great honor.

The holiday was founded to honor the patriotic poet Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. The best-known traditional story holds that the festival commemorates the death of poet Chu Yuan (c. 340 BC - 277 BC) of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty] A descendant of the Chu royal house, he served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Chu was banished for opposing the alliance. Chu Yuan was accused of treason. During his exile Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the Chu capital. In despair, Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month.
Special dish: rice inside of the leaves

It is said that the local people, who admired him, threw food into the river to feed the fish so that they would not eat Chu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats, either to scare the fish away or to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing .. Some towns celebrate by hanging herbs on doors and wearing woven bracelets for the next 6 weeks (we bought a couple of those in Lijiang). We actually saw some of the boat races on the lake outside my cousin's house in Beijing when we arrived there on Friday.

Our first excursion, however, was to a small Tibetan village to the northwest of Shangri La. We drove further up into the mountains for 40 minutes to this village. Along the way we past a very unusual sight: a skiing center! We saw Tibetan Buddhist Stupas of various types, (below) stone quarries and finally came to the village, Nixi, where we met with the family of a master potter Sun Luo Qui lin.
Potter's Village
He is 60 years old and began making pottery at the age of 11. He has been honored in China and his work is in museums in China. His eldest son is his successor. The next son is a Lama who stodied in Tibet and has a small Buddhist center in their home. The next son is a carpenter and there is a younger son still in school.


The master making a pot. Wife serving Yak Butter Tea

We saw the master, his eldest son and a student working on pottery. The son explained that their unique black pottery was produced through one firing. The pot is placed in a fire created right on the ground within sticks of wood. When it is finished but hot, the pot is covered with sawdust and it turns black. I have never heard of this method. (Later that day we saw a shop in the Old Town of Shangri La that featured the “master's” pots.)

The mother is a weaver and works in wool. The blankets and rugs she makes are very thick pile. She served us Yak Butter Tea, a flat corn bread with Yak butter and Yak Yogurt in their new living room. She does have some modern conveniences like a blender with which to mix the tea, rather than spinning it by hand as she used to do. She also wanted us to try their homemade barley alcohol (at 11 in the morning). We took a taste to be polite, but hesitated to imbibe that early!

The lama who lived there was away in the mountains making a request for rain since the area needed it. The family proudly showed us his shrine and his private room-that had many books in his library, a private shrine and a photo of the Dalai Lama. This is the first image of the Dalai Lama we had seen in China. Our guide had shared the “party line” that the Dalai Lama had incited the recent riots. We thought this lama was courageous to display the photo. Incidentally, as we were leaving the next day, it was raining, so we decided our host's son was a powerful lama Buddhist shrine in their house. Lama's room Study with Dalai Lama photo

We found it interesting to wander around this small village of a couple of hundred people. Most of the houses were made of mud bricks/plaster, rocks and some wood. There were outside lofts were corn and wheat were dried. The road had just been paved in the last few months. There were cows, dogs and roosters milling about.

rammed earth or mud house, local stupa, pork stored upstairs and rock wall with natural "barbed wire"

We returned to Shangri La for lunch at a restaurant that serves more locals than visitors. There, we ate the sticky rice wrapped in leaves that are part of the festival (ours had a date past inside). From there, we went to the horse races to see the celebration of Dragon Boat Festival. The downtown seemed deserted that day and we later found out why: everyone was at the festival!

Waiting for business in Shangri La
Jack's now favorite coffee place was closed and gone to the races. The Handicrafts center we wanted to visit was closed for the day and most schools closed as well. Everyone was at the festival and the races. The streets leading up to the location of the celebrations were crowded. The morning “opening” ceremonies were limited in who could attend but were described as boring proclimation reading.

Varied costumes on the people headed to the races
As we walked up to the horse races (the first I have ever attended anywhere!) we walked by booths selling beer, sodas, cotton candy, cell phones and Red Bull! People were winning stuffed animals at games of skill (knocking things down, shooting at a target) and much advertising was happening. There was a colorful mix of costumes there from various Chinese minorities and the crowd was interspersed with policemen and military personnel.

Getting ready to win a "cupie doll"

We walked up to the horses waiting to race (or having finished racing) and looked at their costumes-especially their blankets that I hoped to find! Then walked into the stadium (that is also used for soccer and track races) and grabbed seats to watch what looked more like harness racing gait than anything else we could describe.

Horse dressed and ready to run Spectator at horse race

Horse race

From there we returned to town and went to the old temple and to dinner where we had fried carp and an assortment of other dishes. We retired early to get packed only to find the power went off in the hotel and we had to try to pack by candle light. Towns peaople leaving the races on main street

View from below of Shangrila temple and prayer wheel

Our lovely visit to Shangri La ended when Jessie, our guide and Leo our driver picked us up at 7:30 to take us to the local airport for our flight back to Kunming and then on to Beijing. Before we knew it, we were magically transported from the far reaches of Tibetan plateau to one of the largest cities in the world with over 14 million people: Beijing.

Coincidentally, I just found out that National Geographic had a feature article on Shangri La in the May 2009 issue! It is on line at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/05/parallel-rivers/jenkins-text. I found it an interesting article that went into greater depth in some of the issues we touched upon.

June 3, 2009 En route to Honolulu, Hawaii from Beijing: Reflecting Back on Beijing

As our plane lifts off from Beijing Airport, we realize how quickly our frame of reference has already shifted. The Beijing International Wing is quite new, clean, elegant and pretty empty. It is a stark contrast to the bustling city of 14+ Million people. We sit on the airplane in comfortable seats, quiet and spacious and realize that we have started the transition out of our tourist eyes and hustle that characterized the last nearly 4 weeks as we tried to see and experience everything, navigating through new towns, cities, regions and countries. What an adventure it has been!

Our life in Beijing over the past 5 days was yet another different experience. We stayed with my cousin, Lisa and her husband Herve. They first came to China in the 1970s when China was first opened to the west. They returned 3 and a half years ago and renewed many friendships of 30 years ago. Herve noted that while the friendships renewed it was almost like coming to a totally different country that they knew for over 6 years in the 1980s. Our second night there, we went along with them to a party that a friend from the old days was hosting for those who had been there 30 years ago. There were many interesting stories about how China has changed and the differing experiences of ex patriots from the 70s and early 80s to now. Given we were staying with “locals” we had a life at home rather than in hotels and access to information from westerners who are fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

It is also interesting to note that we are departing Beijing on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the student “uprising” and slaughter at Tiananmen Square. We visited there during our several days of touring in Beijing. We read in the international press on the plane editorials (including one by the young man considered the leader of the student revolt who recently completed his PhD at Harvard while in exile) about the need for China to change its governance to allow for freedom of speech, greater human rights (e.g. not to have property or liberty taken away arbitrarily) and release or return of those politically persecuted. Interestingly, many young people are ignorant about the events of 20 years ago and about the tragedies of the cultural revolution or are just plain complacent.

So, now to try to remember all that we experienced in those 5 days!! Our flights to Beijing (two) were not quite as pleasant as the one we are on now…they were crowded, noisy and bumpy. Arriving in Beijing, however, we were met by my cousin's driver (who doesn't speak English) and escorted to his car and to her home. That made the transition oh so much easier!

Next door: home of famous politician's daughter
Friday May 29th, 2009
We arrived at the Pauze's home after traveling on big highways, surrounded by trees, through small streets and allies congested with small shops, cars, bicycles, motorized bikes, pedestrians and pedicabs. The Pauzes live in a complex of courtyard homes that are very special. The building is on a lake and is an historic building of which there are not too many left. There are 3 or 4 families in the one story building. You walk through a locked gate way into a walkway and past the double doors onto other people's courtyard homes before reaching our home-away from home. We are greated by our cousin Herve after their two dogs, Afu and Joey announced our arrival. We walked into a courtyard with many potted plants and a planted tree or two. The courtyard is surrounded on 3 sides by the rooms of the house. This gives you the feeling that you could be in the country rather than in a middle of a city where most people live in HUGE apartment complexes.

Lake across the street from their home

My cousins are gracious hosts and so two of their friends from the states who are visiting as well. Coincidentally, I visited the Pauzes in Avignon France 7 years ago with this same couple! The 6 of us had a glass of good red wine (something we haven't had in a long time!) and walked to a French/Vietnamese restaurant a mile or so away. There we sat on the roof and enjoyed dinner and a visit.

Leslie in front of Patio Doors Mary, Blair and cousin Lisa waiting for car after Dirt Market

Saturday May 30th Beijing
Today is the 4th anniversary of Jack and my wedding and one of the occasions for this trip. After breakfast in the courtyard, we headed out to one of the most fun activities of Beijing: a trip to the “Dirt Market.” This is a flea market like you have never seen. My aunt Betty (Lisa's mother and my folk art mentor) was definitely with us in spirit on this day!! I could have spent the entire weekend here among the ceramics, metals, fabrics, stone and bejeweled treasures from olden days and new. Having Lisa there to negotiate for us in Chinese probably saved us a ton of money!! Only the limitations of time, space and money kept me from going totally crazy there. Our southwest house could easily have taken on a whole new look had the distance not been so cumbersome. I was so overwhelmed! Meanwhile, Jack was a bit bored, so he went back to the house to hang out with Herve! Blair, the other guy, was quite interested in the artifacts of the Cultural Revolution and “Mao stuff” so he hung in there.

A previous engagement for lunch with a business acquaintance I had made in Hong Kong is the only thing that made us leave when we did. We headed over to another part of town (an artsy area) for lunch with Mr. Wang and his family. That was quite delightful.

Rather than explore more here, we headed home to relax a bit before going out to dinner. Only Lisa wanted to take us to a great shop with local designer's clothing…just for a minute. The 3 of us tried almost everything on in the shop! I ended up with one Jacket-they each got several things. Then we went home for an hour or so before the evening's activities!

As I mentioned earlier the 30 people or so who gathered for the party (in the courtyard of a major business center) were mostly old friends who had experienced the ex-patriot life over the last 30 years. There was one gentleman there who was visiting as a student from the Philippines when Marcos took over and he could not return to the Philippines! He had no passport. He was there throughout the cultural revolution and stayed to this day. He is a reporter for CNN now. Another fellow was there with his family from Britain. His parents were intellectuals (they taught English) who were sent to the country for “re-education” and he and his younger brother (young teens) were left on their own! He has seen many changes over the years as well. Others were bankers, writers, businesspeople and arts managers. They spoke of the use of telex rather than internet; going through multiple operators to try to get a call out rather than cell phones and living in hotels having their lives carefully monitored. Fascinating.

Sunday May 31, 2009 Beijing

View of neighborhood and Beijing from the Bell Tower

My cousins asked what we wanted to do for the day and we supported the notion that it would be nice to “hang out” and not have such a busy time. Their friends left early to fly on to their next stop and we went to a local café for a coffee with the dogs in tow. As seemed to be typical for them, they ran into a friend (a former journalist for the NY Times) having coffee and discussed his life in retirement, book-writing and occasional teaching.

Bell Tower Bell

We were right near the drum tower and bell tower: both famous Beijing landmarks so we went to visit them. When Beijing was first built, the entire place was on north/south and east west axis. The Forbidden City was “ground zero.” So the two towers I have just mentioned were directly north of the Forbidden City. The Drum and Bell towers were used to communicate when it was time to wake up, to go to work, to leave the part of the city in which you didn't belong, and to mark the various parts of the night. Unfortunately the drum tower was under renovation so we couldn't visit it. However we walked up (and down) the very steep steps in the bell tower (which was originally built in 1272!) and saw not only a huge bell, but a great view of this part of Beijing.

The bell was tremendous: the height of the body of the bell is 5.5 meters (close to 20 feet tall); 3.4 meters in diameter and weighs 63 tons! Across the street from the Bell Tower was a Porcelain "Museum" (i.e. shop and studio). We walked through and watched porcelain being made and some beautiful pieces sold. Outside, were models of the clay warriors that we missed seeing because we didn't get to that part of the country--so we had our substitute!

We met Lisa's boss and his daughter for lunch at “the mall.” This truly could have been a mall anywhere in the US with an Apple Store, Cold Stone Creamery, Starbucks, Esprit, Columbia Sports, Addidas, Nike, Puma, etc etc. We had lunch and went to what looked like a department store so I could have a Chinese coat custom made (in two days!). While it looked like a department store with various areas selling different products, it was different in several ways: first the prices on the items were only “starting prices;” and the sales girls haggled over the prices and followed after you to try to get you to buy. Very annoying. I picked out the fabric, got measured and made my “appointment” to come the next day for a fitting (since it turns out their measurements weren't too accurate, it was a good thing there was a fitting!!).

We stopped by Lisa's favorite temple on the way home: The Confucian Temple, built in 1302. We understood why it was her favorite: the complex is like a park with a number of interesting buildings and a very serene atmosphere.

Confucian Temple 700 year old Cyprus!
I loved many of the quotes I read while visiting there. I need to study Confucious' philosophy again soon. We walked down a lovely tree lined street with trendy stores and cafes and stopped in one that was founded by a classmate of my cousin's daughter. We headed home where we had the great pleasure of making dinner at home!!

Neighborhood of Confucian Temple

June 1, 2009 Beijing

I thought I would look into the life of Confucious-someone who had incredible influence over billions of people by this time. Here is one account:

Confucius, or Kung Fu Tzu, (born Kong Qiu, styled Zhong Ni) was born in the village of Zou in the country of Lu in 551 B.C., a poor descendant of a deposed noble family. Confucius (or Kung Fu Tzu)His original name was K'ung Ch'iu. His father, commander of a district in Lu, died three years after Confucius was born, leaving the family in poverty; but Confucius nevertheless received a fine education. He was married at the age of 19 and had one son and two daughters.

As a child, he held make-believe temple rituals. Later on, he worked as a keeper of a market. Then he was a farm worker who took care of parks and farm animals. When he was 20, he worked for the governor of his district. As a young adult, he quickly earned a reputation for fairness, politeness and love of learning, and he was reputed to be quite tall. His mother died in 527 BC, and after a period of mourning he began his career as a teacher, usually traveling about and instructing the small body of disciples that had gathered around him. Living as he did in the second half of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty (1027-256 BC), when feudalism degenerated in China and intrigue and vice were rampant, Confucius deplored the contemporary disorder and lack of moral standards. He came to believe that the only remedy was to convert people once more to the principles and precepts of the sages of antiquity. He therefore lectured to his pupils on the ancient classics. His fame as a man of learning and character and his reverence for Chinese ideals and customs soon spread through the principality of Lu.

Confucius is famous for his philosophy because he made many wise sayings in ancient China that helped many people learn about nature, the world, and the human behavior. He also helped the government and the emperor by teaching them lessons on how the emperor should rule his kingdom successfully. He traveled extensively and studied at the imperial capital, Zhou, where he met and spoke with Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism.

Upon his return to Lu, he gained renown as a teacher, but when he was 35, Duke Zhao of Lu led his country to war, was routed and fled to the neighboring country of Qi; in the disorder following the battle, Confucius followed. Duke Zhao frequently came to him for advice, but upon counsel of one of his ministers, he decided against granting land to Confucius and gradually stopped seeking his counsel. When other nobles began plotting against Confucius' position, Duke Zhao refused to intervene, and Confucius returned to Lu. But conditions there were no better than before, and Confucius retired from public life to concentrate on teaching and studying.

At age 50, he was approached by the Baron of Qi to help defend against a rebellion, but he declined. He was later made a city magistrate by the new Duke of Lu, and under his administration the city flourished; he was promoted several times, eventually becoming Grand Secretary of Justice and, at age 56, Chief Minister of Lu. His administration was successful; reforms were introduced, justice was fairly dispensed, and crime was almost eliminated. Neighboring countries began to worry that Lu would become too powerful, and they sent messengers with gifts and dancers to distract the duke during a sacrifice holiday. When the duke abandoned his duties to receive the messengers, Confucius resigned and left the country. Confucius left his office in 496 BC, traveling about and teaching, vainly hoping that some other prince would allow him to undertake measures of reform. In 484 BC, after a fruitless search for an ideal ruler, he returned for the last time to Lu.

Confucius spent the five years wandering China with his disciples, finding that his presence at royal courts was rarely tolerated for long before nobles would begin plotting to drive him out or have him killed. He was arrested once and jailed for five days, and at 62 he was pursued, along with his disciples, into the countryside by a band of soldiers sent by jealous nobles, until he was able to send a messenger to the sympathetic king of a nearby country, who sent his own soldiers to rescue them. Once again, Confucius was to be given land but was denied it upon counsel of another high minister. After further wanderings, he eventually returned to Lu at age 67. Although he was welcomed there and chose to remain, he was not offered public office again, nor did he seek it. Instead he spent the rest of his years teaching and, finally, writing. He died at 72.

After Confucius died, he was buried in a grave in the city of Ch'uFu, Shandong. Today the site of his final resting place is the beautiful K'ung Forest.

Yet, when the philosopher died, many people honored all of Confucius' work by building temples in every city in China to honor Confucius. Since Confucius' teachings and philosophy was so advanced, it was the education for China for 2,000 years. It is called Confucianism.

Confucius did not put into writing the principles of his philosophy; these were handed down only through his disciples.

Amazing that from the time he was a child, he was drawn to ritual. He was known from a young age to be fair and polite. And later dispensed such wisdom that many leaders were drawn to him and his wisdom guides people 2000 years later! Some examples of his quotes:

ο “Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.”

ο “A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it, is committing another mistake.”

ο “Study the past if you would define the future.”

ο And last but not least---a comment on our persistent travel on now weary feet:
“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”

Well, we did move slowly, but persistently through Beijing on our last days there. We traveled with another wonderful guide from Wild China, a 28 year old man who is planning to get married in the next year and shared the concerns of an only child that I'm sure are shared by many in the country of the single-child policy: who will take care of his parents and in-laws-no one else but the two of them.

He met us along with our driver at the house and we headed down to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. From there we had lunch and traveled on to the Summer Palace. Finally, we went to the mall for a fitting on my coat and then back to the house for a dinner on another rooftop not far from their neighborhood.

As we noted before, visiting Tiananman Square close to the 20th anniversary of the Democracy Demonstration was powerful. As we watched the news from Honolulu about the anniversary, we saw evidence of the lack of free speech that continues: camera men being blocked, blogs and other internet access interrupted, tv stations broadcasts interrupted. Very sad.

Tiananman Square

Forbidden City contains many interesting buildings, ceremonial and otherwise, that cover a period of 600 years (during the Ming Dynasty). The names defy what we have heard about the history: The Hall of Central Harmony, The name comes from the following quote:
"When we handle matters properly and harmoniously without leaning to either side, all things on earth will flourish." (from the Book of Rites). Another is the "Hall of Preserved Harmony"

Southern Entrance, Forbidden City

We saw a very long (almost 17 meters) stone carving that went between stairs that weighed more than 200 tons ""Large Stone Carving"). The patterns were of of lotus flowers, waves and dragons in clouds. Two interesting facts about the stone: (l) it came from a quarry in the suburbs of Beijing called the Dashiwo Quarry (my chinese name???) and (2) because it was quarried in the 15th century and weighed so much, it was difficult to transport. They supposedly sprinkled water on the ground, waited for it to freeze and pulled the stone for miles and miles!

Large Stone Carving Jack and Leslie at Forbidden City

Forbidden City Roof Tile with Maximum Number of Animal Carvings Allowed:


After our tour of the square and the city, we went for a decadent lunch graciously hosted by our tour company.

Jack and Fred, our guide, at lunch

That rest allowed us the energy to head to the Summer Palace. The Forbidden City is hot--so one must head to the "country" if one is royalty and cool off. There were many interesting stories about this summer palace especially about the Empress Dowager Cixi who held her son and later her nephew under house arrest so she could control the empire. There are conflicting reports about her-some have her as a very scheming woman; the other a puppet for other evil powers who wanted that control. In any event she reputedly kept her son captive in a small part of this Palace and kept him apart from the Pearl Concubine whom he loved.

The Empress Dowager Cixi

This palace was beautiful-on a lake with wonderful forrests, hills and islands. We took a short boat trip across the lake on a Dragon Boat (I wonder if those were the type that race during Dragon Boat Festival???).


Tuesday, June 2
Our final full day in China and we visited two of the most famous sites of China: the Great Wall and Temple of Heaven. We completed the tourist experience by going to a “Duck” restaurant and having Peking Duck.

We drove with Mr. Liu to a section of the Great Wall called Mutianyu which is in the Huairou DIstrict of Beijing. It took us about 90 minutes, and was further than we might have gone to see the wall. However, it is less crowded here. There are many places we could have seen the wall since it is over 2400 miles long! There are several watchtowers which we visited and you can see in the photo below. The mountains are quite high and rugged here-hard to imagine they needed the walls for protection in any event!

Mountains Behind the Great Wall

The Great Wall

There is a tradition that couples getting married rent their wedding garments on two occasions: first to do their wedding pictures at great sites around Beijing and then for their weddings. We kept running into these folks where ever we went:


Wedding photo at the Great Wall................and at the Temple of Heaven...for just two examples

The drive to the Great Wall took us past some of the venues for the 2008 Olympics, through farm land, across canals and rivers, through small towns, areas with new apartment buildings, and major fruit growing areas.. Quite interesting.

2008 Olympic Venue Entering Land of Fruit Growing

We had lunch at a cute little complex not far from the entry to the Wall at a place called the "School House." It was a lovely patio restaurant that had a glass blowing studio downstairs. It appeared that it was a place where interns from around the world studying tourism came to do their internships. After dealing with "hole in the floor" toilets through much of our trip, we were ready to give this place a "5-star rating" for their bathrooms--beautifully tiled, clean, "western toilets" with lovely glass bowl sinks...and toilet paper and towels!!! You may laugh at the rating system, but at the Forbidden City, they actually had a bathroom with a sign outside "4 Star Bathroom!"

Our next stop was back to the main area of Beijing for a visit to the Temple of Heaven. This complex includes an amazing park with many old trees. There are many buildings here that served as support to the main temple, including the building where the archives of the ancestors are kept, a building where food is prepared, where the Emperor would dress and prepare to pray for his ancestors, etc. There was a major corridor for processions, and other facilities. What we loved about this venue was the fact that the locals fully used it as a community center. In one area, people there was music plasting from large speaker and middle-aged people were dancing. Along the aforementioned corridor, people were playing cards or singing Karioki. Elsewhere, people play traditional musical instruments and still others where people sang from sheet music accompanied by an accordian. It was a very lively spot. The buildings were beautiful as well!

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, with the roof of the outer building and gate showing
in the foreground. I loved the colorful tile we saw throughout China and Japan.

This temple was originally built in 1420, but like so many buildings, burned down and was rebuilt. The hall has huge, beautiful pillars holding the roof, symbolizing the 4 seasons, the 12 months, the 12 divisions of the day and all the constellations. In its current form it is the last surviving example of the Ming Tang architectural style.

Card players Dancers

After walking the wall and the park, we were not looking forward to walking the mall! But walk we must to pick up the coat I had made. We got their earlier than the promised time in the hopes of going home early and relaxing a bit. It wasn't done so we walked more and finally tried it on and it fit (well, it will fit even better when I drop the weight we gained on the trip!!). So one more trip with Mr. Liu for the day through rush hour traffic. We returned to our sanctuary in time for a shower and a walk around the lake to the Duck restaurant. The excursion was fun as the quieter end of the lake where LIsa and Herve live is quite different than the other side: full of restaurants, bars, discoteques and cafes and again, people dancing to music outdoors. The lake had boats with lanterns and the restaurants were lit up with bright lights so the area looked very romantic...albeit still crowded.

We entered Herve's favorite Duck restaurant and found they had some live entertainment with acrobats and magicians, etc. But the real act came when the carver presented our duck and carved it table-side. Naturally, it was served with the very thin Chinese pancakes, plum sauce and an assortment of vegetables. Herve demonstrated how a pro prepares and consumes his favorite meal! We stopped by the ubiquitous Starbucks for our expresso and walked the rest of the way around the lake home.


Expert Duck Carver Herve, expert at eating Peking Duck

The problem with having waited several days to record my observations and learnings is that I have lost much of the content! I know that the stories we heard, the history we learned, the impressions we collected will become an important part of us as we move into the future. Many of the "old timers" in Beijing asked us our impression of China. I found it to be a very complex world. Much more so than Japan. Japan feels calmer than China to me..
China feels like a massive organism that continues to struggle between grace and progress; chaos and control, strident belief systems and pragmatism, growth and containment, beauty and grime, inclusiveness and barriers, ambition and fatalism. The intensity of this world is, nonetheless, very compelling. I can see how foreigners can be drawn into the intrigue.

We left Beijing Wednesday late afternoon, changed planes in Tokyo, and arrived the same day in the morning in Honolulu. I wish I could operate all my days like that...I'd get a lot more done! After settling into the hotel, I headed to work and a lovely dinner afterwards with Jack and clients. We had no problems going to sleep after that long day! Today we met with prospective clients and basked in the trade winds of Hawaii. Yes, this environment feels soothing after the hustle bustle of Japan and China. And a final flight to get us back home. 3 more hours and we should be there. It will be nice to not only hear English, but wander in the familiar surroundings, folk art, gardens and architecture of our own home.

Thanks for joining us on this latest adventure!


Leslie