I travelled with a most energetic group of 44 Mayo teachers on a golfing holiday at Easter to China. This was a short stay confined to Beijing, Shenzhen, in South China and Hong Kong. In a short stay you come away with only an impression of a complex country like China. It is a mixture of old, quaint and spectacular buildings, very clean, orderly with large shopping malls, markets, expensive designer shops and friendly helpful people, willing to go out of their way to make your stay a pleasant one. Everything appears grand on the surface but I got a distinct feeling from our gracious guides Nancy and Tacy that you hear what the authorities want you to hear.
The authorities have tightened control on the media in this, the 60th anniversary of the revolution that brought the Communist Party to power and the 20th anniversary of the 1989 massacre of pro democracy demonstrations in Tinananmen Square. You Tube is not accessible in China because footage broadcast during the beating of the protesters by the Chinese police during last year’s riots in Tibet appeared on it.
Doing my bit for international understanding between the nations!!Here I am on the Great Wall extending the hand of friendship with a Korean student.
Tiananmen Square
This square is the heart and soul of China and is situated in Beijing, formerly known as Peking. It is the largest city square in the world approximately 100 acres in total. There are several important monuments in the square all presided over by a large photo of their former ruler Chairman Mao. We passed a silent dignified queue of thousands of Chinese who queue from 3-4 hours to view the mummified corpse of Chairman Mao, in a crystal cabinet. The body is decomposing despite the daily attempts to preserve it. Each evening the casket is lowered into a refrigerator where it rests along the wax version, leaving many visitors to wonder which Mao they are actually viewing! Chinese revere the former general and travel from remote regions of this vast country of 1.3billion people to engage with their past. The people queuing, in general, were low in stature, very slight build, and wore very dark old-fashioned clothing of navy, black and dark brown. They were excited to mingle with our large colourful white skinned group and were delighted when we joined them in numerous photos. Some of the older generation from the remote villages would never have seen white people before.
The square serves as the site for grand assemblies on important occasions.
The Forbidden City
We visited the Palace Museum formerly known as the Forbidden City as it was off limits for 500 years. It was the
Imperial Palace during the Ming and Ding dynasties. It is the largest and most complete complex of ancient palatial structures and globally noted for its magnificence – a treasure house of culture and art. Many of the buildings were restored for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Red, blue and gold leaf are the predominate colours used on the wooden structures with their angular tiled roofs adorned by numerous animal figures. It was built 1401-1420 by a million labourers and its 3000 rooms were home to emperors, servants, concubines and eunuchs until 1925.
Temple of Heaven Park
This was my favourite site as it is in daily use by the people. Hundreds of retired couples come to this park with its large gardens and complex corridors, with their picnics, crochet, knitting and musical instruments everyday. They play cards and a game like draughts to while away the hours. Men retire at 60 and women at 55. It is the law.
In this temple the Emperors offered sacrifices and prayed for good harvests and sought divine atonement in the “Hall of Prayer” for the sins of the people. The emperor was obliged to come here, fast and remain chaste for three days. Some emperors found this difficult being used to the services of several concubines. The Empress was only obliged to stay with the Emperor for three days after their marriage. They lived in separate quarters.
The Great “Pall” of China
I was never so relieved after any trip abroad to come home and to breath fresh air, look at a clear blue sky, appreciate green fields, open spaces and the fragrance of white thorn and cherry blossoms in full bloom. The pall of smog of high levels of nitrogen and carbon dioxide contribute to the city’s awful air. Health experts warn that breathing Beijing air could be the equivalent of smoking 70 cigarettes a day. Visibility is much reduced and we viewed the famous Olympic athletic stadium known as the ‘Bird’s Nest’ and the Olympic Aquatic Centre known as the ‘Ice Cube” because it is shaped like an ice cube, in a thick haze.
Housing
All the apartments built for the Olympics are sold but the 5 star hotels have many vacant rooms as they are too expensive.
The government control house prices. Most of the people live in confined spaces in high-rise apartments. You retain ownership of your home for just 75 years when it is then knocked down and replaced. You are compensated but not enough. The government own the land and you are obliged to leave when ordered to do so.
In this city of 14 million people there are 9 million bicycles. People are consciously exercising on a regular basis. We saw groups of transport workers working out before work. Taichi, which imitates the natural motions of birds and animals, is practiced in the parks as a daily routine before work. Chinese are usually very slim and graceful in their movements
Houtongs
We travelled in rickshaws to visit the hutongs. Many of the city’s delightful hutongs were demolished before the Olympics Games 2008 by road widening schemes and estate developers. They are charming alleyways, one-storey, ramshackle dwellings and historic courtyard homes
. Inside the courtyard trees soar aloft providing shade and nesting ground for birds. The courtyard is surrounded by several rooms – rooms for parents, grandparents, boys, girls, kitchen and living room. There are no toilets or bathrooms so the occupants must use public facilities. They pay rent for gas and electricity.
This is a mother with her Beijing Baby - cute isn't she !
Food
The Chinese love their food. They eat up to six meals a day and one of the delights of our trip was sharing meals and sampling the various dishes, drinking herbal tea and lots of local beer and wine. To the Chinese food is, life, health and good fortune. The dishes of rice, noodles vegetables, fish and meat appealed to our sense of smell, sight, taste and touch. The unusual dishes I tasted were noodle soup with sliced ham and a fried egg all served in one bowl, shark fin soup, rabbit vol-u-vent, chicken feet salad, delicious Peking duck and a red meat dish with red chili that nearly burnt the mouth of me. Stir frying in a wok and steaming seemed to be the preferred method of cooking in the fast food outlets in the bustling night markets and street stalls. Hygiene is a problem for westerners as we saw huge amounts of food uncovered in the humid smog. Street snacks include dumplings stuffed with meat and spring onion, fried tofu, baked sweet potatoes, grilled corn, octopus, seahorse, scorpions, eel, pigs feet, dead silk worms which tasted like peanuts etc. We did eat some red meat dishes but we are not sure if it was dog, cat, raccoon, monkey or lizard meat. I think it was best not to know!!
Shopping
Shopping
Shopping for some of my fellow travellers was a major part of the trip. Yashow clothing market will not be the same without the Irish shoppers. This is 5 storeys of shopping insanity with corridor after corridor of stalls selling ceramics, curios, wigs, pirated designer clothing, t-shirts, sweat shirts, jackets etc, pirated DVDs, knockoff handbags, watches and glasses. Here you haggle to get ‘Best Price’. We also visited the recognized Government shops selling silk, jade and pearls. The goods are authentic and keenly priced.
Cultural sites and the Great Wall
This is the Lama Temple.
We visited the Ming Tombs, The Summer Palace, The Lama Temple, Behai Park where the White Pagoda occupies the site of the legendary Kublai Khan’s palace – all worth a visit but the high light was the hours spent at The Great Wall.
The wall is 5,660km in length. It represents the wonder of ancient China built over 2,700 years ago to protect their territory. The wall never really performed its function as an impenetrable line of defense. Genghis Khan said, “The strength of the wall depends on the courage of those defending it.” It was a highway for transporting people and equipment across mountainous terrain. Thousands died building it, which makes it the longest tomb in the world. Hundreds of watchtowers at 500 intervals along the route, used smoke signals, generated by burning wolves’ dung, to transmit quickly, news of enemy movements back to the capital Beijing. Many sections have been restored and the scenery from where I walked yielded choice views of fields of white thorn in bloom and the wall snaking archetypally into the distance over undulating hills like a giant dragon. The splendor and charm of this wall is a masterpiece of man’s great creativity. The wall belongs not only to China but to all mankind.
Mary Kyne
April 2009
