Jilin, Harbin, Changchun, and back.

Kim and I decided to take a weekend excursion to visit Harbin for The Ninth Harhin Ice and Snow World. What we did not anticipate (though we should have) was the huge crowd of Chinese people also travelling to Harbin for the same reason. Train stations were littered with them like a colony of maggots festering on a dead animal's carcass, and as a result, we had to contend with queuing in long lines and hoping for the best where ever we went. To aggravate the matter, you can't purchase train tickets online, nor can you buy them all at once or check for seat availability for your return trip. You can count on the Chinese to find the most inefficient way to do anything.



By the time we got to the ticketing window, no direct trains to Harbin were available anymore, so instead, we bought a ticket to Jilin which is roughly the half way point from Beijing to Harbin. From Jilin, we queued in line again and found ourselves on a train bound for Harbin at last.

Fortunately. the Harbin Ice and Snow World made up for the trouble of getting to Harbin. I had never seen anything like it in my life! These sculptures were massive in scale, some towering at twenty-feet high! There were many recognisable structures replicated in the form of ice such as the Arc d'Triumphe, the Parthenon, and the Forbidden City.



At temperatures dipping below -20ºC, not only were our hands and faces freezing stiff, the camera and mobile phone battery kept dying as well. I had to take it out periodically, cup it with my hands, and breathe into it to warm it up to continue taking pictures. As for sending SMS messages on my mobile, it was as slow as watching molasses drip. The menus faded slowly in and out of each other like a trippy transition!

Midnight rolled around and any warmth from the sun that had blessed us during the day was now gone. We walked all over Harbin and found another attraction worth visiting: The church of St. Sofia. This Byzantine-styled church clearly has its Russian influence on Harbin.



Changchun had nothing much to offer except for Puppet Emperor's Palace, which was very impressive. Pu Yi, China's last emperor, lived an interesting life here during an uproarious period in China's history. This palace is now a museum to which I had thoroughly enjoyed my visit, but I would have had a greater appreciation and understanding if I had watched Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor beforehand.



Here's an excerpt from my DK Eyewitness Guide:


The Last Emperor

Aisin Gioro or Pu Yi ascended the Qing throne at the age of three in 1908 after the death of his uncle, the Guangxu emperor. His brief reign as the Xuantong emperor was brought to an end on February 12, 1912, when he abdicated the throne in the Forbidden City to make way for the new Republican government. The powerless Pu Yi continued to live in the palace until 1924, before furtively escaping to live in the Japanese concession in Tianjin. He was later installed as the Japanese puppet emperor of Manchukuo, residing in his palace in Changchun. At the end of World War II, he was arrested and handed over to the Chinese Communists, who imprisoned him in 1950. In 1959, Mao granted him amnesty. Pu Yi never returned to the Forbidden City, and he died of cancer, childless and anonymous, in 1967, after working for seven years as a gardener at the Beijing Botanical Gardens.

Goodbye and Hello.

2007 ended with a delicious dinner at what is quickly becoming our favourite hot pot restaurant: Little Sheep. The food was great, and so was the company I was in.



We moved on to Kokomo's as the final hour of the year drew closer and closer. As the minutes moved along, we grew even more excited. Sparklers and cocktails in hand, we counted down the remaining seconds in chorus and reigned the new year in. This is the year we've all been looking forward to and now we're finally in it. Big talks about how 2008 is going to change China forever is at it's loudest and hopes and ambitions are growing with intensity. It's all happening this year. Will this prophecy live up to its hype? Only time will tell...

New Year '08 at Kokomo.

Xi'an - The Former Capital.

During the later half of the Festivus which was still going strong at my apartment, Marion, Corina, and I were whisked away to the Beijing railway station and found ourselves on the sleeper train for a 12-hour journey to Xi'an.



It was rather muggy out when we checked into the Bell Tower Youth Hostel upon arrival the next morning. The hostel walls were adorned with tags, illustrations, and country flags of the people who had stayed here.



As the name would imply, the hostel was right at the centre of Xi'an, across from the Drum & Bell Tower, so we ventured out to discover it for ourselves. To our surprise, these towers were more impressive than the ones in Beijing in that they were restored to its former glory with drum and bell performances throughout the day. We met up with a few friends we met here in Beijing to take part in the delightful concerts.



The Great Mosque was another attraction in Xi'an which was also walking distance from our hostel. Friends have told me that the food found in restaurants along the Beiyuanmen Islamic street are not to be missed, and they were right! We indulged in lamb kebabs, among other things, by the mouthful and returned to this Muslim quarter time after time for more great eats. The streets were also bustling with vendors hawking everything from t-shirts, trinkets, toys, fake goods, art, and novelty gifts. One of the more interesting things I found here was a traditional flute called Tao Xun, a bulb-shaped instrument made of pottery clay with small holes placed at the front and back of it, with a larger hole (the mouth piece) at the top. These flutes had various designs etched on the front of it. I bought one with a beautiful motif of a panda eating bamboo, another of a lotus leaf, and yet another one with cherry blossoms on it, all for only five kuai each! The other treasure I found was that of a beautiful woodcut print depicting an image of a man irrigating in a tall bamboo forest at night with another man holding up a lantern assisting him. This woodcut print stood out among all the rest when I walked into the shop owned by Professor Ding Ji Tang and his daughter. Marion, Corina, and I were drawn to his works of art and were further intrigued in his history in China as an art professor. This elder gentleman spoke in broken English about his post at the Chinese Ministry of Culture during Mao's Cultural Revolution and showed us newspaper and magazine clippings to paint a picture. We listened with fascination.



Our trip in Xi'an wouldn't have been nearly as fun as it was without the local CSers we met there. LEOYE and TONYART filled our evenings with dinner gatherings and several nights of clubbing with their friends and took us to their favourite restaurants and clubs in the city. Along with more pork and lamb kebabs, we also tried something called Belt Noodle, a wide and long noodle resembling a belt in a big bowl of spicy soup, which required some skill to pick up with a chopstick as it was heavy as well. Our three nights of drinking and clubbing carried on into the wee hours of the morning so we had to be considerate of our dorm-mates being as quiet as a mouse when returning to our beds at the hostel. As a result, we never really got to know the five other guests we shared the room with as they would leave for their own excursions just a few hours after our return.



We had one exception, however, with a friendly guy from India named Chou. A professional photographer here for only one night, we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors together. Seeing firsthand the rows of these soldiers, all of which had individual faces, was quite a sight.



From the Huaqing Hot Springs we visited afterwards to the Stone Tablet Forest and Xi'an History Museum on another day, not to mention the Big Goose Pagoda where monks were seen walking around with mobile phones to their ears, Xi'an offered us so much that we went back to the railway station to extend our stay from four to five nights! Much thanks to the Singaporean bar owner we befriended at one of the bars along the bar street for the round of beers on the house!

Needless to say, Marion, Corina, and I had the time of our lives. Xi'an, we miss you!

Tao Xun Performance.

Hawkerbots.

Twisting Tongue.

A Festivus for the Rest of Us.

I was rather disappointed by the fact that no one was taking the initiative to celebrate this holiday season. I pulled off a fantabulous party last year which included an authentic roast turkey from Paul's Steak & Eggs and had hoped that someone else in the community would reciprocate this year. Clearly, something had to be done, so several core members of CS got together to brainstorm. I pulled it off once again: a successful all-inclusive Festivus for close friends, CouchSurfers, and everyone else who could come. Despite the fact that I had a train to Xi'an to catch at night, I accommodated and made arrangements with friends to 'close up' for me. Thanks meldymel and affeegon for all your help!











The invitation was then posted on the CS Beijing forum as follows:

So it would appear that no one is doing anything special this holiday season, or at least not taking the initiative to start something up and be inclusive of ALL, leaving expats and visitors with nothing to look forward to but reminisce in fond memories of what used to be back home.

From the desperate cries left by the few on the forum, and as the time draws nearer, it was made quite clear that something needed to be rectified.

For those of you not attending extravagant private dinner parties at the Hilton, swishing copious amounts of Champagne with your noses high up in the air, and conforming to oppressive dress codes, I open my doors to you:











A Festivus for the Rest of Us

You are cordially invited to petshopboy's flat on Tuesday, December twenty-fifth, two-thousand-seven, at sixteen-hundred hours, for a low key celebration to what was, what is, and what will be.

Please bring your own plates, cups, and utensils (preferably an environmentally friendly, non disposable kind), a wrapped gift valuing between 30 - 40 RMB (we'll be playing Secret Santa), and enough food for yourself as a contribution to the pot-luck dinner (something home made is always best, but take-away and store-bought food and alcohol will be accepted as well).

Address:
DongWangZhuang
Building 26, Unit 6, Suite 301
Wudaokou

A 10 minute walk north from the Wudaokou subway station.

For assistance, please call any one of the core group members of CS Beijing:

petshopboy - 133.nine.one.nine.eight.6290
ranran-bj - 132.four.one.four.three.5456
meldymel - 158.one.zero.nine.six.3549
leoloso - 131.four.six.eight.four.0684

So there you have it. Because I try hard to be accommodating, I had to make a compromise. I've got a train to catch right after the party, so I'm afraid I'll have to say good night to you all at 1900.

Peace, love, and joy to you all!


Aside from having one unfortunate incident involving a local CSer (couplewang) and his Chinese entourage using my gathering as a platform for him to advertise his money-making enterprise, the Festivus went very well, indeed. People came in from the woodwork with gifts, food, and drinks and were having a merry time.

Festivus '07.

Shanhaiguan.

Kim and I took yet another weekend excursion today, though this time, we went to visit Shanghaiguan.

We got up super early this morning and caught the 0750 train from the Beijing Railway Station, about an hour away from Wudaokou. My eyes were still bloodshot from the lack of sleep, but I'm crazy this way. It was around 1100 when we reached Beidaihe and the afternoon sun was shining down on us. After batting away the ruthless Chinese "entrepreneurs" who are all too ubiquitous around train stations and airports offering to be your personal driver for an extravagant amount of money, we boarded the local bus which took us to Shanhaiguan city centre. From here, we took a cab to the actual part of the Great Wall we wanted to see, the Old Dragon's Head (Laolongtou), where the Wall actually begins. As you could see from the pictures, this section of the wall got its name from the design of the watchtower, looking like a head of a dragon drinking water from the ocean.

It was refreshing to be by the seaside again as Beijing is just a dust ball of a city in a desert.

One Night in Beijing Launch party.

From the people who brought us The Insiders Guide to Beijing and Mandarin Phrasebook, a new book called One Night in Beijing came off the press and was given a lavish launch party at Block 8 tonight. I, along with BARRYFUN and a few of my students I'd invited came along with me for a spectacular evening of social mingling with drinks on the house.

As I was flipping through one of many copies of One Night in Beijing around the bar, I was somewhat disappointed with the photographs within it. The ones I liked were the ones which I'd already seen in That's Beijing magazine as selected previews of this photo album. And at a 150 RMB per copy (120 RMB launch party special), it made owning one even less desirable.

I was fortunate to have met Walk Hall, one of the honoured photographers sitting across from me at the bar. While I was deeply engrossed with the book and pointing out the merits of certain photographs with a student of mine, he had broken my concentration and introduced himself to me with a name card. He was the photographer mentioned in That's Beijing magazine and again in a toast at tonight's party for his unrivalled contribution to the book, the photographer who scampered from sunset at Gulou to shoot at the Forbidden City, then popped into a CCTV editing studio, before blazing out to the Marco Polo Bridge in Fengtai District. From there he ventured to Zhongnanhai, and then to an early morning flower market, before catching sunrise over the Ming Dynasty City Wall Ruins. One night, seven locations... no sleep. Quoted straight from the magazine.

What was even more interesting was that he spoke German! We both had a lot to talk about.


If you're interested in the book, check out Amazon.com. You can even search inside!

Publishers excerpt:

16 million people. 35 photographers. One extraordinary night. From dusk to dawn on August 8-9 2007, exactly one year before the start of the 2008 Olympic Games, 35 of Beijing's most talented photographers fanned out across the city. Their mission: To create a composite portrait of the buzzing metropolis and its incomparable residents. Collected in this handsome book, their photographs capture the beauty, energy, faces, and fleeting possibilities of one night in Beijing: from the official 'festival of jubilation' in Tian'anmen Square to a gathering in an old courtyard home, and from late night in a tattoo parlor to breakfast in a Buddhist nunnery. From place to place, moment to moment, photographer to photographer immerse yourself in the colors, character and élan of One Night in Beijing.