China 2 -- Xi'an

A few early anecdotes...

We took an overnight train to Xi'an and were greeted at the station by our new tour guide, Robin. I really liked Robin and had a chance to ask him over the course of our stay about his wife and her pregnancy as well as how the naming process takes place in China. Apparently it is seen as disrespectful to name your child after someone like your parents. I can understand the logic, although considering I'm named after my grandmother ... Well, what he explained was that it would be seen as calling your father your son, for example. What is more common is for the grandparents to name the child themselves.

It was interesting to see how the personality differences between my Danish professor and the Chinese tour guides meshed. The Danish are much more direct people, blunt and not afraid to speak their minds. This is not necessarily what you will find in a typical Chinese person, especially not one working for the government. One good example was during the day of our big mountain climb Line had decided that we would take one of the last cable cars down and that the half hour window between meeting with the whole group and the last car would be enough time. Robin didn't agree but went so far as to make up a story that one of the conductors had told him that it may not be enough time to get down and that it was likely we would miss the last car (first hand account). He was so indirect that he when she disagreed he just decided to go along with her and not put up much more of a fight.


Back to what happened along the way!

Our first stop after checking into our hotel (which was right in the city center & shopping district ... think Chanel and Prada) was to bike around the old city wall. I found Xi'an to be very manageable and the city layout makes it nearly impossible to be lost within the old wall limits. This is in stark comparison to Beijing in which I felt as if I could walk around for miles and not know where I was.

The bike ride was a great way to be out in the fresh air and beautiful sunshine as well as to feel out the city with a bird's eye view. I took my time and took lots of pictures of the development and the neighborhoods which are working to keep up with the rapid industrialization.





























Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly... One-third of the world's cranes are currently in China. The majority of which are in Beijing and Shanghai but there is new development everywhere.












It is hard to make out from this picture but one of the things that I enjoyed most about the bike ride was looking over the ledge onto community parks and events taking place. You can see that the tradition and collectivism do exist and will continue to shape the future generations in China... even as big business knocks on it's door (skyscrapers in the background).
















The following day we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda Buddhist temple & monastery (say that 5 times fast). During this visit I couldn't get my head wrapped around the fact that this working monastery had become such a tourist stop. To me the idea of finding everlasting nirvana would seem to be disrupted by the teenage westerner snapping photos of your prayer rituals. I suppose that they need a way to support the temple and monastery and have found a way to supply that need... oh, business.


















This sign reads: "PROTECT THE RELICS"
A bit of a paradox? Sounds like China.































































Outside the temple there were dozens of families outside flying kites. Kite flying is huge in China as is the selling of kites to tourists. I didn't come back with any kits, but this cute picture of these boys (trying to get close to Brittany, the blonde in our group) was more than enough : )


















Every night in Xi'an there is a fountain light show that happens twice for twenty minutes. It was really impressive and amazing to see how many people were there to watch the show! A few thousand people, and mostly locals! The one thing that kept going through my mind was whether or not this was a particularly good way to use the fresh water resources in China ...
































A delicious meal of dumplings : ) yummm.
During this meal we were supposed to have sat on one of the higher floors which would have meant "VIP" treatment. Which probably doesn't mean much difference besides not sitting alongside locals and eating what would be typically served. Line made sure that we got onto the first floor and although we had some fancy looking dumplings we were able to do lots of people watching and PLENTY of eating!














Making our soup!!














Huashan Mountain (one of the five Taoists mountains in China) was quite an experience. Our tour guide hadn't taken other groups before and claimed that it was dangerous. Well, there were steps and it wasn't particularly dangerous. There were a few really narrow steps but to put it into perspective there were Chinese tourists hiking around in three piece suits and high-heeled shoes on the women! I probably looked more ridiculous wearing clothes that were suitable for hiking than I would have had I worn jeans and a cute top.

My favorite part of this mountain was that there is a tradition for people to come up to the top of the mountain, put a lock along one of the chain hand rails and throw the key over the side of the mountain. Ok, I agree ... the lead poison flowing downstream from the ravene at the bottom of this mountain is less than ideal (totally made that up ... but possible). The act of locking and throwing away the key is to wish for good luck, health and fortune and is most often done with couples and newleyweds.



















Steep steps!



















Some of the sillier signs we saw in China ... "No Striding" ... off the cliff?































Slippery when wet

















The cable car lines ... I most definitely did not look down! The highest peak is about 2,200 meters high and this cable car took us to around 1,400 meters in seven minutes which is basically just straight up. Yikes.


















An evening out in the Muslim quarter was nice, having had a reflexogical body massage after our mountain trek was nicer.

We ate a lot of food off the street while we were in China. It is perfectly safe and usually incredibly delicious. Once or twice I got food on my own and it usually involved pointing and using of fingers but it always worked out and there were always smiles

: )













Another academic visit, this time to Xian Jiansen Pharamaceuticals. A less than stellar presentation, especially after the experience I had with Bayer Schering in Berlin but it was interesting to sit and have lunch with the employees and take a walk around the premises.














Market shopping around our hotel. This is two blocks from the Louis Vutton & Chanel shops. These open air shopping stalls had a lot more to offer, especially to a backpackers budget!


















Terracotta museum -- the Qin dynasty

The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by several local farmers near the Mausoleum of the First Emperor. Isn't that just absolutely crazy? Over 2000 years passed before one day a few farmers were trying to build a well and they stumble upon these amazing historic relics. What was really amazing was that at the museum gift shop one of the farmers was there signing books that were written about the history and discovery. Of course considering the government seized his land ... ... I guess signing books for tourists is a nice alternative.

Emperor Qin believed in the afterlife and put to work 700,000 men to construct his army for eternal protection. Current estimates put the number of soldiers at 7,000 along with hundreds of horses and chariots. Each one of the soldiers is different, and the distinctive ranks are realized with the dress and hairstyle.

Early after the burial of the soldiers there was a raid on the pits and this caused destruction to many of the soldiers and since the finding it has been determined that the soldiers were at one time colorful! There are very few still preserved in their entirety and those are not on display to the general public.

I most definitely cannot do this history justice ... Wikipedia has more : )

















The museum is basically laid out around four different pits. Each varying in size (this, pit 1, being the largest) and construction. It turns out that it is still a "working" museum but that there is not enough money to fund further excavation. I enjoyed learning about the history and how amazing a discovery this was for Chinese history, but I felt that the museum did not do a very good job portraying the soldiers very well at all. A classmate had seen 20 soldiers on display at the British Museum in London and could tell me more about them than we could have read at the museum in Xi'an. It seemed a bit silly to have such poor exhibits but after having also visited the Shanghai museum I think it is maybe something that China just doesn't do very well (of course two museums isn't a very fair sample size).















































Going out in Xi'an was quite the experience ... We saw what a club is like in China and the next picture can basically sum it up ... over stimulating.

China 1 -- Beijing

The only possible way to write about this trip is to break it up by city. Each city was an entirely different experience and explaining each on their own is the only way to do them each justice.

So! Beijing! A city which is at the center of politics and is excitedly preparing for the Olympics. Heading to Beijing as the current situation in Tibet was escalating and calls from countries such as France to boycott the opening ceremony made our six days in Beijing incredibly interesting.

The nine hours we were trapped in Munich on our way to Beijing seemed to fly by ... having spent most of the time eating and taking leisurely strolls around terminal G ... before we knew it we were on our way to China!

Flying in we had one of the biggest surprises of the trip. We looked out our windows as we approached Beijing and we saw a BROWN sky. Literally brown. I was thinking to myself that there was no way that the pollution could be so bad. Luckily (or not so luckily) it turned out to be a sandstorm! We flew into Beijing during a sandstorm. Once we got out of the airport and took a look around it was clear that we weren't facing mortal peril but that the air was just a bit hazy and gritty.

In every city we were assigned a guide from the governmental office of tourism. This is pretty standard for groups spending time in China and for our group it was more to insure safety at all times. Our group leaders, Line and Brad from DIS, had everything mapped out to the tiniest details and more than anything the tourism guides tended to get in the way. I did like chatting with them to find out how frequently they took groups to do the things we had done (never was the response I got most frequently).

Driving from the airport into the city was an experience in itself to try and fathom the amount of construction that is happening in Beijing. In the last five years the city has grown at an astronomical rate and the developments continue past the airport which lies nearly an hour from the city center (with traffic).

We got our first quick peek at the Olympic structures for opening ceremonies, swimming and the journalist dormitories but only as seen from the bus. The amount of security and preventative barriers outside of the Olympic structures make it impossible to get near to them. This is why my picture of the Bird's Nest is from the bus.


The Bird's Nest - Olympic Stadium












Our first tour guide - Shirley


















Of course getting off the flight we were all extremely tired and the schedule didn't include much of a "rest" time. In retrospect I wouldn't have wanted time away from the things we saw but it was hard to have the energy for it. We went straight to the Summer Palace and enjoyed our first Chinese meal, walked around and took in the beautiful structures and the lake and then found our way to Peking University.
















Summer Palace















That evening we had an amazing dinner hosted by Peking University DIS Alumni. It was neat to talk to them about Copenhagen, their experiences and what they missed as well as how their lives had changed since being abroad.

One student that I spoke with told me that she was graduating from the Media and Communications school but would be going into a different field because she wasn't interested in working for CCTV, the government censored media unit. Wow, how completely honest! It was unreal to hear from a student my age about how the government censorship affects her life.

Of course the delicious Peking Duck and other assortment of Chinese delicacies (I accidently tried pig's ear :( ) made the dinner especially enjoyable and one of my favorites from the trip.

The next morning we had a lecture at Peking with a professor from the Journalism and Media school and I was eager to ask him about what the student had told me the night before. He was incredibly open to our questions and spoke very truthfully about the past and what the current situation within China entails. When I asked him about whether or not his students saw a future in media considering the governmental censorship he said that most will find a way to work within the system but that there are others who won't be happy in the stringent environment. My favorite part of the lecture was when he spoke candidly about the Culture Revolution and what it meant for Universities across China. I had read very detailed descriptions in Jung Chang's "Wild Swans ..." (which I highly recommend) but wasn't sure if that was perhaps a slanted view on what really happened. The professor told us about the reality which existed at Peking University during those times, that students would fight their students outside the classrooms and go so far as to lock them into rooms rather than sit through a class.

The lecture made for a good warm-up to what we had for the afternoon which was a trip to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City. We felt an increased police presence on the square which may have been associated with the ongoing riots in Tibet or just additional measures with the Olympics on the way.

It was pretty surreal to have been walking on the square and to just nearly grasp how important of a space it really is. To see Mao Zedong's mausoleum and to see the lines sectioning off space for those who wait hours to get in to see his body was to understand that there are still hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people in China who worship him and his legacy.














The Mao portrait is absolutely GIGANTIC (30 feet high?).
Flanking his portrait are the words "Unity of China, Unity of the world".













Countdown to the Olympics!!



















The Mao-soleum














Chinese are quite superstitious, especially when it comes to wishing for good luck and fortune.














Part of what we learned over the course of the trip is that everything is as it is for a reason. For example in the next picture you can see that there are 9 of these knobs on the door in the same amount of rows. This is because the number 9 is used for the Emperor and as we were at the Fobidden city (home of the Emperor) it only made sense. Other examples would be the number of animals guarding the tops of buildings and the lions guarding the front of a structure.


















Part of the Forbidden City was under construction, more than likely they are sprucing it up in order to have the best look for the Olympic telecast : )



































Bird's eye view of the Forbidden city. It is amazing how central this is to the city. Well, we learned that there is really no center to Beijing. This is the original city center but as the city has grown and expanded it is considered to have about 10 districts each with their own "downtowns".














We had an academic visit to CTR Market Research which was a lot of insight into what the working environment in China was like. I didn't leave feeling I had learned much about what market research was like in China but that I understood a bit more of the presentation styles and daily work life of the "white collared" Chinese.

Our afternoon included a trip to the Hu Tong district of Beijing. This was interesting to see as it includes a part of the city which has been shrinking as the government moves residents outside of the city to make way for (money making) development projects. We had lunch at the home of a Hu Tong resident who has had her home renovated by the government and creates income by parterning with the tourism bureau and bringing guests into her home for lunch four times a week.














Hoi Hai Park which surrounds the Hu tong neighborhood













The day of the Great Wall was one of the longest days of the trip for me. I was having a lot of internal dialogue and self relfection. I think it took the first few days for me to realize that, "Hey I'm in China". The sheer scale of the Wall and history of it makes it such an amazing thing to experience. Our group was also very fortunate to have traveled far enough outside Beijing (you can access the wall in many different locations) to be without many other tourists and to really experience it through the guise of a historical relic not of a tourist trap.

Line, my DIS leader, decided on a pit-stop ... basically we ran across the freeway and explored around a little village. The dogs were not pleased to have strangers wandering around.












































As this was not a section very near to the tourism scene you can see that it has yet to be restored or renovated and the crumbling bits continue to crumble.














The same day we had dinner with students at the Beijing Language and culture University and I jumped in a taxi by myself in order to get back to the Peking campus for a phone interview! The taxi ride was fun and my driver serendaded me a bit while I asked in the best Chinese I could muster "What is your name?" ok, that was all I could come up with along with "I am from USA".

I hadn't had time to be nervous about the interview and was only a bit fearful that they wouldn't get through to me. I had to schedule it with a 12 hour time difference in mind. Legg Mason was calling me from Baltimore and I chatted with two HR directors for an hour. The second diretor I spoke with was a DIS student in 1973!! The interview went great and I am now just waiting to hear back (fingers crossed).

One afternoon we spent a few hours shopping in a "market" ... well we knew it would be basically the counterfeit mecca ... but we didn't think it would be department store style. It was overwhelming and even as a seasoned shopper I couldn't handle it! The moment you looked at a product (bags in my case) they grabbed hold (literally in most instances) and started in on price negotiations. The crazy part was seeing the amount of electronics that they had there. My roommate on the trip even bought and ipod nano for 8 US dollars. Crazy! I couldn't bring myself to look at those kind of products because you never know what sort of work went into the manufacturing and I feel like they just undermine the work that goes into the real things.

Our evening trip to the Peking Opera was also an experience. The translations were funny at times but the costumes and performances were absolutely amazing. A friend of mine said that "It's something you see once" and that was exactly how I felt about it after the fact.



















That same evening we had a night out at Hoi Hai park. It was really kind of bizarre to return after having our Hu Tong lunch and rickshaw ride around the same area and to see it transformed into a bar and club scene. I took the opportunity to meet up with some fellow GW students and alumni who are currently expats in Beijing. We went to a really great jazz club which once the music started turned into standing room only and chatted about the realities of living in Beijing, the media coverage surrounding Tibet and what it was like navigating the city. As much as it was great to have Line who has lived in Beijing before it was totally different to be able to speak to four people my age who are living there now and are experiencing the city's transformation as the Olympic games near.

My favorite part of the Beijing trip!! We spent our last morning at the Temple of Heaven enjoying both the beauty of the Temple structures but more importantly the communal exercises and activities of the local people. We arrived to the park before 8am and it was already full of people on the outdoor gym equipment, dance classes and groups of tai chi. Just observing was enough to put into reality what we had spoken about concerning the collectivism of Chinese culture. What was really great was when we joined in on the action.


















My new favorite hobby! Tai Chi ball : ) I bought a set at the park after playing a bit and then decided to join in on the lesson. That turned into a group of women coming over and helping me through the motions and taking pictures of me in the back row. It was such a great experience and they were so eager to help us learn.


















looking ridiculous with my new tai chi ball : )














Beautiful ribbon dancers! My second favorite activity!














Something for everyone at the Temple of Heaven














A stroll through a market ... eeeh...














The Chinese food we had was always delicious and amazingly fresh ... these markets help explain how they do it!



















The last few hours before we took the night train to Xi'an I walked around the streets near our hotel in the Hu Tong district with my roommate, Alex, and took in the people and the street action. We walked into a caligraphy shop and found a bunch of neat scrolls and basic sketches. I decided to take one of the prints home and hopefully (if it makes it all the way back to DC) have it framed. The man in the shop was very kind (spoke no english of course) and gave us a good price via his calculator (a must have for every shop). The last picture is just something that caught my attention inside the shop. A little shrine. They love their incense.