China Update 6

Dear all,

I am sure I made mention of this in my last update, but it truly is amazing how time flies.  November is already halfway through and Thanksgiving is fast approaching; and I’m sure the many lights as well as red and green decorations are already surfacing in America, though in China the only hint of Christmas appears in the festive banners on my Barnes & Noble emails.  Nevertheless, despite the cold of Beijing, the winter season is always exciting as a token of new beginnings, and though I’ll miss sharing in the family-fun and butter-horn-roll-glory of Thanksgiving (a Thanksgiving without butter horn rolls–inconceivable!), I look forward to Christmas.  In fact, while part of me can’t wait to return to America to share in the love of one’s family and the omnipresence of toilet paper and soap, another part of me doesn’t want to leave Beijing and the many wonders it holds.  I guess I’ll have to cram in as much sightseeing as I can in my last five weeks–some of which I accomplished just since spring break.

For the second half of the semester our class topics have finally moved away from liberal propaganda to something  much more interesting: Chinese history/culture (you’d think they would have started with these topics).  My one-on-one class this semester has primarily discussed Chinese history, which means that I’m a leg up on the material for our other classes, and I have a little more free time.  On my first weekend back in Beijing (11/6), some of the Chinese roommates organized activities for the foreign students, and the activity in which I participated was touring Beijing Capital Museum.  We saw many artifacts, writings, vessels, and various items from thousands of years ago (China has a long history), including some sacrificial vessels called ding (yes, this is a stereotypical Chinese syllable, and yes it’s pronounced like the ‘ding’ of ‘ding-dong,’ though with a little more drop in the voice) from the Zhou dynasty, which was in power from 1046 – 221 B.C.  Of course, we saw many statues of Buddhas and other Buddhist images (I need to study up on Buddhism more, since it has such a crucial place in Chinese history) as well as the traditional Chinese landscape paintings that Chesterton would most assuredly discredit.  We also saw some old books (like Marco Polo’s!) from that period in China that would correspond to the medieval period in Europe, as well as some Qing dynasty (1644-1911) artifacts, such as the clothing they wore during this time period (and up until 1911, which really wasn’t that long ago if you think about it–the China of today looks almost nothing like the China of 100 years ago).  [You can see pictures of these things on my website].

The next day (11/7) Xu Moyi, Xu Moyi’s classmate, Zachary (an American), and I went back to the hutongs near Houhai and did some shopping around.  While there we also drank/ate some famous Beijing cheese (I’m not sure if it was really cheese though, it was almost more like a custard, but apparently it was famous at any rate).  In addition, I ate McDonald’s for the first time in China–not much different from America, including the prices, which for China are rather high.  It was a lot of fun and I hope to be able to go back again.  I actually asked Xu Moyi how much it would cost to live in one of the hutongs in that (Houhai) district–contemplating the possibility of residing in Beijing in the future–and he said it was cost as much as ¥100,000,000, which is more than $15 million… wow!  If I lived in China I most definitely wouldn’t live in a hutong anyway (an apartment would be more likely), but still, it’s amazing how much a house that small and that poor quality can cost.

I had made it my goal since returning to Beijing to explore more of the city and not be such of a 宅男 (someone who stays home all the time / doesn’t really get out).  So on Tuesday (11/9) I planned on going to the new CCTV headquarters building, but my friend Jesse said he’d like to go with me but didn’t have time; so we went the next day.  So instead of going to the CCTV building on Tuesday, I went by myself to Peking University (PKU) just to look around the campus.  It was actually quite pretty: the architecture was primarily brick made to look like stone (stone-colored anyway) while the roofs/eaves were of the traditional Chinese style, with curved bracket-set roofs covered with red glazed tile.  Of course I didn’t have time to see the whole campus, since the campus is so large, but judging from the portions I was able to see, the campus is amply vegetated, with many trees (unlike the rest of Beijing).  There was also a lake–enhanced by the autumn colors of the surrounding trees–as well as an old (early 1900s) water tower built in the traditional stupa style, a prominent landmark on the campus.  I also saw a door that looked like a hobbit hole with inscription 洞天 written above.  I didn’t try the door, but I later thought to myself that had I tried the door I might have stumbled across Narnia or Middle-Earth, and that I might have missed a lifetime opportunity to find the entrance to fairyland, which I later discovered was the meaning of 洞天.

The next day (11/10) my friends Jesse, Xie Jingjing, and I went to see the new CCTV headquarters building (built 2008) at Jintaixizhao.  I wasn’t able to get a really good picture of it because only workers are allowed in the complex and Communist guards with large coats block the entrance, but the structure is a testament to China’s entrance into modernity as well as to its developing technology: I can’t say the building looks very pretty, but it is indeed very large, and very modern.  The locals nickname it 大裤衩 (dà kùchǎ), which basically means “big boxer shorts”–you can see pictures of it on my site, or better yet on Google Images, to see why.  That night we three went to Weigongcun for dinner.  Xie Jingjing showed us a really cool place to eat, called 鑫百万 (Xin Baiwan).  It was so good!  We had kebabs galore, as well as a host of other tasty items (many of which I can’t remember now, but fried apples was one of them).  Once we got back to the dorm, I worked out and then Jesse, Bao Xin, and I played ping pong (until the ball broke).  I was surprised at how well I played, since I hadn’t played in a long time, but there were also some French students playing too, including a 12-year old who made us look like beginners.  But it was fun nonetheless.

Thursday (11/11) all participating students went to Luoyang for the weekend as a historical trip.  Luoyang is a city in Henan province that’s about a 7-hour train ride away from Beijing.  It was one of the first capitals of China, first the capital of China in the Zhou dynasty (1046-221 B.C.) and thus has a lot of history.  The overnight trip to Luoyang was my first train experience in China, and a rather unique one.  It was incredibly cramped with a small hallway offset by small niches, each with two sets of three beds stacked one on the other, with just enough room for sleeping (and really not much else).  We arrived early in Luoyang on Friday morning (11/12) and checked in at our hotel (a 4-star hotel and a very nice one, to my surprise) and then set out for the day’s activities.  We first went to the Longmen Grottoes, which contains more than 2,100 niches and over 100,000 statues of Buddhas and other Buddhist-inspired architecture.  The first grottoes were constructed in the Sui dynasty (A.D. 581-618), though most were built in the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907).  The site, which sits on the Yi River, contains all kinds of Buddhist statues and carvings, from 4-cm high Buddhas to one that stands over 20 meters high.  That afternoon, we visited White Horse Temple, which was supposedly the first Buddhist temple built in China, established in A.D. 68.  The temple that stands there now is almost entirely (if not entirely) comprised of different structures than the original, due to damage and reconstruction,  but the temple is set up almost like a park, intended to be very peaceful.  Nevertheless I had kind of a weird feeling while in the temple complex, seeing so many large, golden Buddha statues and watching people bow down to them.  Earlier at the Longmen Grottoes I had been reminded about what the Bible says about idols, and as I stared up at the 20-m Buddha statue towering over me, I got a clearer sense of what it means when we say “x is a big idol in my life.”  Here I saw several very literal examples of idol worship, and couldn’t help but think about what idols I have in my own life… what is so important in my life that it towers over me like a smiling Buddha?  I appreciated the history of this ancient architecture, but at the same time I was grateful for the Christian architecture we find in Europe and to some extend in America (which, rather unfortunately, is quickly being replaced by modern architecture).

That night we had some free time, and most of the students went to Laocheng (“Old City”) district for dinner.  The restaurant we went to was a traditional Luoyang restaurant–there were twelve of us or so, and yet we couldn’t eat all the food they prepared for us!  There must have been 25 or more dishes served, with everything from tofu and beef to pig ears and alcoholic soup.  After a full dinner, we walked around the city some, eventually stumbling across a small artist’s workshop, where he was selling his own artwork as well others’ artwork.  He kindly gave us a tour of his store, showing us various paintings and the different styles/forms used in each one.  There was one painting that looked like a plant/flower on the surface but was actually entirely composed of Chinese characters–very cool!

The next morning (11/13) we headed to the nearby city of Zhengzhou (the capital of Henan province) which houses the famous Shaolin Temple, set in the midst of the Songshan Mountains.  Shaolin Temple is a Buddhist temple associated with martial arts, and is (I believe) one of the premier kung fu academies in China (Bruce Lee and Jet Li are among their graduates).  We saw a kung fu performance, where martial artists showed off their skills with flexibility, balance, power, various weapons (swords, whips), and of course the traditional breaking of wooden planks with one’s head.  Much of their performance was similar to several gymnastics moves–but I have to say, their form was rather lacking, and they rarely stuck their landings :).  We then walked around the complex and saw more Buddha statues and worshippers: the complex was very pretty, though the aura was still somewhat unsettling.  That night we took a train back to Beijing, this time not an overnight train.  The train was actually set up rather like a plane, and actually wasn’t different from a plane at all except that the bathroom was bigger and we weren’t flying–but they even handed out airsickness bags! (which I found rather amusing, since we couldn’t have been going more than 60 mph at any one point in the trip).  We arrived back in Beijing exhausted but also pleased with this opportunity to venture outside the bounds of Beijing.

And so my fortnight comes to and end and material for China update 7 will commence tomorrow–and not many updates are left!  I find that I’m increasingly interested in Chinese history and culture but find also that a non-Christian culture produces so much fewer historical figures and great works of art, music, literature, and architecture than does a Christian civilization.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that Europe is better than China in anyway, simply that European history is often more exciting.  Due to the conformist worldview that China embodies, there’s not much room for diversity–despite having one of the longest continuous cultural tradition of any nation, China nevertheless has produced relatively little in the way of the arts (I can respect the serenity and halcyon nature of the Chinese landscape painting and even enjoy it, but to be quite honest, almost all these paintings are basically the same).  Of course, I still find China fascinating–I could probably study China my whole life and not get bored.  Anyway, this was kind of a ramble that was meant to be more of a concise conclusion, so let me conclude now… As I learn more about China, I find just how much more there is to learn.  I think I may indeed miss China when I return to the states, especially speaking the language… But just one butter horn roll may be all it takes.  And there’s no Chinese word for butter horn roll.

Wishing you a happy feast of the fire chicken,
James

P.S. Check out my new pics! (wow, I feel like an advertisement): Capital Museum, Yandaixiejie, Peking University, CCTV Building, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Random, and Chingrish…  And yes, the Chinese word for ‘turkey’ literally means ‘fire chicken.’