Beijing Part I

It is Saturday night of the National Holiday, which has been going on for seven days now. Tomorrow is the last day, and then it is back to work. I don't really know what is meant by a national holiday, but all schools are off, as are many businesses. When we got back to Changzhou yesterday, it was pretty slow, mostly because everyone travels to the larger cities such as Beijing. Not wanting to buck the trend, we decided to go to Beijing as well. (It is our largest break of the semester, and Beijing was one of the must see sights. Especially right now because of the Olympics; it might be the most "happening" city on the planet.) We tried to have our contact person at the school set up our train, but she constantly said that everything was sold out; "Everyone travels during that week," she said. Jane did not accept this answer, and she went herself to the train station one morning. When she arrived back at home, she had four tickets to Beijing, one for her, one for me, one for Danny, and one for our nanny, Jui Jie. The girls got to ride for free, and we later found out that Dan could have as well. My happiness that she was able to find tickets soon turned to concern, as I found out that she was able to get tickets because she booked us for the long train, meaning it took longer. Our train left Changzhou at 11:30 p.m. Saturday night, and arrived Sunday at 3:00 p.m., 15 and a half hours later. I expected it to be a total nightmare, but we headed off. Here are the kids on the train. Holding Etain in the back is Jiu Jie, in one of the rare moments in which she was caught on camera. (She does not like having her picture taken. I heard that long ago the Chinese thought that a photograph stole your soul out of your body, but I don't think this is her reason.) The train that we were on was a "hard sleeper", meaning that it had beds that were much like hard cots that had thin cushions on them. There were six sleepers per compartment, stacked three high. On the way there, we had four sleepers on the ground floor, in two consecutive compartments. This was nice, because we did not have to worry about kids rolling out of bed and falling 5 or 8 feet. We were also able to pull our double stroller into one of the compartments. (When you have the ground level, you are pretty much in control of the ground floor of the compartment. People above have to work around you.) Here is a picture of Dan standing outside our compartment, which is just to Dan's left. As you can see, there is a long hall, with a few seats, with all of the compartments lined up on one side. It is actually a pretty neat set up; people really do a lot of hanging out in the hallway and on the cots of the lower level.

As expected, our cots were pretty popular places. When Jane and I were carrying the stroller down the stairs onto the boarding platform, one young attendant was pointing at us and excitedly screaming to another attendant. We looked at our tickets, and it worked out that we were set to board on her car of the train. When she saw us pull up, she started screaming and jumping up and down. For the first hour or so of the trip, she sat on one of the beds and played with Dan. All of the other attendants stopped for a few minutes as well. It is fun to have that happen to you, but there does come a point where you have to tell people to please leave. When the girls started getting fussy at 1:00 a.m., everyone got the clue, and they turned off all of the lights to the train (Not just for us, it was standard procedure). Everyone slept pretty well and through the night. The next morning was spent playing and watching DVDs on our portable DVD player. Here are Evelyn and Dan drawing in one of the compartments.

There was a very nice couple above us (in the middle row) in one of the cots. The husband laid in the cot most of the day and teased Dan for not knowing Chinese. Despite this, they managed to talk for about an hour, each of them having no idea what the other was saying. We taught Dan how to say "Wo ting bu dong" (I know I am not actually spelling this correctly, I am spelling it how it sounds in English. This means "I don't understand". The man would say something, Dan would say "wo ting bu dong," and this took place over and over. Eventually, the guy started saying "Wo ting bu dong" constantly as well. It was pretty funny and Dan was enjoying himself. Here is a picture of Dan and the man's wife, who peeled fruit and broke apart sunflower seeds for about two hours. She tried to teach Dan how to crack the sunflower seeds with his teeth, but he could not get it very well. As a result, she cracked the shells, and Dan ate the seeds, until after about 1000 seeds, she packed them up and called it quits. She was very nice and thought all of the kids were great, which they were. This picture points out something interesting that I learned over the train ride: In China, there is no such thing as "personal space". One of the first phrases that I learned was "Due bu chi" (pronounced dway boo chee), which means excuse me. I was constantly saying it, because you are constantly bumping into people on buses and on crowded streets. I learned later, though, that I was using it inappropriately. It more exactly means "excuse me for the harm I inflicted", as opposed to the casual "pardon me". So it is appropriate to use it if you knock someone down or something, but not just to let them know you are trying to get through a door. Here, if you need to nudge someone to get in a door, you just go ahead and nudge them; they, most likely, will not care. This is evident when exiting and entering buses; it is every man for himself. When I am trying to get off with a double stroller, I think surely people will let me get off before they get on. This is rarely the case; it is the culture to take care of yourself. As I say this though, there have been plenty of instances where I have seen younger people give up bus seats for older people or for women, and Jane has been offered many seats when she is holding Etain.

Getting back to the picture after my long tangent, you can see that the lady is in the bottom bunk, rather than on her middle bunk. She was actually sitting on Jiu Jie's bed, dropping shells of sunflower seeds all over the place. Having not known better, I would have expected Jiu Jie to come in and tell her to get the $@#& out of her bed. However, when Jiu Jie entered, they calmly came to a solution. She could continue to sit there if Jiu Jie could lay next to her and use her leg as a pillow. This seemed insane to me, but everyone else was happy with it. It just confirms that there is no such thing as "my space". This is why everyone tries to pick up our kids and why there is no chance to get a break from a crowd when outside your house. Though it has drawbacks, it is also very neat. It was interesting to see that people are so comfortable next to each other, and because of this, they talk with one another. Resultantly, to an extent, the train ride was like one big party, everyone just hung out in the hallways and talked.

Alas, the train ride had to come to an end. I was actually surprised that it ended so soon. When we got to the Beijing train station, we only had a small map as to where our place was, and it was not to scale. From the map, it seemed as if we were only staying a few blocks away. However, we took a cab. The driver had no idea where he was going, and he ended up getting on the highway, going about 5 miles, only to do a u-turn into bumper to bumper traffic. We stayed in the car with screaming girls, passed the train station a second time, and finally came to our place. The cab ride took about 45 minutes, when it should have taken 10.

But, we were there and we were pleased with our place. Another concern of mine about the trip was that Jane booked us in a hostel. Having never traveled abroad, I pictured a hostel being full of people who looked and smelled as if they toured with the Greatful Dead. I expected the place to be dirty, and I was fully expecting to need to turn right around and find an expensive hotel. To my amazement, the hostel was amazingly clean and well run. We had a single room with four beds in it, and a baby bed for Etain. The staff was nice, the rooms were clean, it was located in a great central location, and it was very cheap (about 1/10th the price of a hotel). Here is a pic of Dan in the hostel's lobby, in front of their fish tank.

I just realized that I am about 1/10th of the way through the pictures, and I have been working on this blog for a few hours already. I am going to do a bit less blabbing as a result.

Regardless, we got to the hostel at about 4:00 p.m. We went to a small streetside restaurant for dinner, and then Jiu Jie and the kids went to bed. Jane and I went to the lobby and had a beer and talked about our itinerary (actually Jane's itinerary, I was just along for the ride). She specifically wanted to get a picture of the kids in front of the entrance to the forbidden city, and she wanted to do it as early as possible to beat the crowds. She found out that we were actually only about 12 blocks from the entrance, so we went for a walk that night. It was very nice: we checked out small souvenir shops, had beers at bars with the tables on the sidewalk, and snacked on street food. When we turned the corner off of our small street, this was the image immediately to our right:

It is the entrance to the Forbidden City, and it was very cool. The gardens, the fountains and the lighting were great. Also neat to see were thousands and thousands of Chinese citizens posturing to get a good photo of the building. Here are Jane and I at the gate, with Mao Tse Tung looking over us in the background.

At this point, I don't know much about Chinese political and social history. But it is interesting to know that this entrance to the Forbidden City has been around for centuries. For centuries, the emperor lived inside the gate, and it was believed that he was a direct descendant of god. All of a sudden, along comes Mao, a single guy who rose through the ranks changed all of this, and now this centuries old building has a picture of him on it. This aspect is what makes being there much more interesting than just a picture can portray.

When we woke up the next morning, we quickly got dressed and set off. Here is a picture of the small street outside our hostel, which is the grey and brick striped building in the left-hand background. We stayed in one of the last remaining Hutongs (ancient Beijing neighborhoods made up of winding alleyways).

Here are Dan an I at one of the doors on the street leading to a person's residence. The red door is good fungshue (spelling?), which will bring wealth to the family (This is why we painted our front door red in Jefferson City). Also, you can see the semi-garden that exists, with gourds and melons growing from wherever possible.

After getting some boudzas (sausage filled doughballs) for breakfast (which we did every day), we arrived at the entrance. It was a madhouse when we got there at 7:30 a.m., so camera time was at a premium. Of the minute or so we had to get pictures, here is one of the better ones of the kids. Here are the kids, with a rare photo of Jiu Jie. Dan is doing his salute, which has been his pose of choice as of late.

One of the difficulties of getting a good picture is that everyone else wants to get a picture with our kids as well. Here is a moment of glory for Dan, with Evelyn acceptingly waiting nearby.
After getting our picture with Mao, we entered the Forbidden City. This is an entire campus where past emperors lived, the entirety of it being closed off to the public until just a few decades ago. Here is the family with one of the large dragon-lions that protected the emperor's compound.

Here is Danny-boy inside the Forbidden City. To grasp its size, the large building in the background is the first of three main buildings, all equally spaced from one another. Also, along the perimeter walls are tons of smaller, though no less elaborate buildings, which were full of artifacts. It was all very interesting, especially given the extremely long history of the place.

Jane and Evelyn in the Forbidden City:

Evelyn walking along the perimeter of the Forbidden City:
Dan reading his Little Red Book (Quotations of Mao), along the perimeter:

Here is a picture of one of the staircases going up to a main building. The stairs are on the left and right, and believe me, it is no picnic getting a double stroller full of kids, snacks, diapers, jackets, blankets, etc. up and down them. Anyway, here, between the steps is a single stone carving which spans the entire length of the stairway (about 1/3 of it is in the picture). It is one of, if not the, largest stone carvings in the world, and it is thousands of years old. It shows what is amazing about the places we visited; you try to picture people working on it thousands of years ago, probably working night and day, with minuscule tools, and doing the work for someone they think is a Deity on Earth. This carving was moved to this place from a neighboring city in Winter, by sprinkling water on the ground, letting it freeze, and then sliding the stone over the ice. Pretty amazing...
Here is Dan at one of the doors of the Forbidden City. Only about 1/2 of the door made it into the picture.

Here is Jane trying to rev up the kids for pictures outside of the Forbidden City. It is possible that more pictures were take of our kids than of Mao himself. This is where herd mentality really comes into effect. Someone will ask if their kid can get her picture taken with our kids. We do our best to say OK, and we try to get our kids looking happy in the pictures, often despite their missing naps, being hungry, etc. The kids are troopers; Evelyn is the easiest. If you tell her that you will give her fruit snacks, she will snap to and take great pictures with anyone. The problem with taking pictures, though, is that once one family gets their picture taken, five other family see it and come over hoping to get their picture taken. After a few minutes you get a crowd of 50, and eventually you have to just cut it off. While this particular session was going on, a photographer from Europe snapped pictures of the crowd taking pictures of us, laughing hysterically the entire time of the craziness of it all.

Here is a picture of goldfish in a large pond outside the Forbidden City, which I thought was pretty cool.
After we left the Forbidden City, we didnt have exact plans. We stopped at a hotel and ate their buffet lunch, which seemed to give us all a boost of energy. Though we had planned it for another day, we decided to see the Olympic sights the first afternoon. So we hopped on a bus and headed towards the Water Cube and the Birds Nest. It was about a 25 minute bus ride, but it was cool to see the two structures once you made it over a bridge to where they were. Here is Dan in front of the Water Cube on the left, with the Bird's Nest way in the back on the right. (I had a better picture of the Water Cube at this point in the blog, but I accidently erased it. I am way too tired right now to go in and try to get it back. I will randomly put it in a future blog.) Dan, again, is doing his salute.

Here are Jane and Etain in the same spot:

Here are Evelyn and me:

Seeing the structures alone was very cool. There were people outside selling tickets to get in, but they were ridiculously overpriced. We could have gotten into Olympic village, where all of the tents and vendors were, but by that time of the day, I think everyon was pretty tired. So, we decided to board the bus and head out of time. This time there were hundreds of people in line to get on the bus, with the line being more of an uncontrolled mob. I thought we would never make it on with the stroller. Luckily, one of the directors of the place saw us, told everyone else to get out of the way, and let us on the bus early. We were feeling pretty special. The Bird's Nest was not easy to get to, and it was hard to get a good picture of it. Here is a picture of it taken from the bus, though.
Here is a picture of the Olympic hotel across the street from the Water Cube, complete with a 6-story LCD monitor:

When we were on the bus heading home, traffic was horrible. At one point, we were at a dead stop for about 10 minutes. So, we decided to get off early and walk home, thinking that fresh air would do the kids well. It seemed to work, as the 45 minute walk home was quite enjoyable, as we were able to see parks, small shops, street foods, etc. Here we are on that walk, Evelyn is enjoyoing a candied fruit stick:

About half way through our walk, Dan broke down. He had done about 8 hours of sight-seeing, walking maybe 7-8 miles, with no nap. At one point, he stopped walking, sat on a post, and told us that he was through. He was trying to act grumpy, but everyone around thought what he was doing was so funny. We had to snap this picture of the Angry-Dan. After a minute, he realized that he couldnt fake it any more, and he started cracking up. From that point on, he was slap-happy, laughing constantly at everthing.

When we got home, we got the kids fed and in bed. Jane and I had initially planned on going out, but we were so tired, we told Jiu Jie that she could go out if she wanted. We were all in bed by 8:00 p.m., resting up for our trip to the Great Wall the next day, which will be in a blog written in a day or so. No more for now, I'm going to bed.