Another Post from Beijing

We flew from Shanghai to Beijing on a full flight (primarily young Chinese children who are on school break). About 20 minutes outside Beijing the air got very turbulent (due to low-rise mountains in the neighborhood), and each time the plane lurched, the kids would all scream like they were on a roller coaster.

Beijing (formerly Peking)

Never have I been so surprised by a city. Shanghai is all glitz, glamour, and the high economic life; Beijing, a city of 17M people, is a more sedate, really beautiful world class travel destination. Our Tucson group leader, who has been to China five times, says Beijing was beautiful even before the 2008 Olympics rehab. Shanghai is a very dense, high-rise city with very little vegetation; Beijing, by contrast, is a lower-rise city that covers a much larger area. Beijing has beautiful tree lined streets and is the center of culture and politics in China.

Today it was 100 degrees, and the sky was as blue as the best Tucson day. There was no smog. Beijing is a complete homerun on a day like this (I spent four days here and every day was just as nice). During the Olympics, local residents could drive their cars into the city only every other day. Now each car is prohibited from driving into the city one day a week (based on license plate number). The locals love this blue sky that the Olympic rules brought them, and they are determined to hang on to some of it. Naturally, it's not always so blue and beautiful. Only about one-third of the days of the year are like this.

Another plus in Beijing -- the traffic here, while intense, operates in a very sane manner. Drivers stay in their own lanes, and there are few close calls.

We are staying in a splendid 5-star hotel right near the Olympic venue. I walked a few blocks to Baskin Robbins after dinner and I could see the Olympic "bird's nest" while I ate my ice cream. The headline in yesterday's China News: "Downturn, flu take heavy toll on big hotels." Occupancy has gone from 90% to 45% because of the recession and the Chinese perceptions of H1N1. They believe (thanks to CNN and the BBC) that the flu is rampant in Mexico, the U.S. and Japan. They do not believe us when we say it was something of a non-event in the U.S. (with no disrespect to those who have been ill). China has only about 750 cases and no deaths. [16 of our teachers will be quarantined for six days when they arrive this weekend. None of them is sick. They are quarantined because they have not been in China for at least a week before starting this teaching job. It's a political matter really.] This means that the rest of us will have classes with far more students than anticipated. This will be difficult in classes that are interactive in nature. In addition, we brought teaching materials for fewer students. Nonetheless, we are a hardy and willing bunch and will do our best.

Even in a super hotel like this one, there is a conspicuous sign telling guests not to drink the tap water. Local residents do not drink tap water either. Apparently, no one drinks Beijing water which is in short supply anyway. We drink TsingTao or Snow beer which is tasty but usually warm. If you're into diet drinks (called "light" in China), forget it. They are hard to come by in restaurants. Chinese people are uniformly slim. I doubt there is a Chinese character for "diet."

We spent the entire 100 degree day today (with the help of sun umbrellas from the hotel) visiting the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. The entire complex is about 200 acres and 900 or so pavillions. Although it appeared beautifully restored to us, the artisans are only five years into a 17 year restoration project. One of the very noticeable attributes of the Chinese is a high tolerance for long-term projects -- 5 years, 20 years, 200 years (the Great Wall took 300 years). They are blessed with amazing patience and the ability to take the long-view. China is not so interested in the current quarterly results.

Normally the Forbidden City would be crawling with foreign tourists. Not so this year. Most of the tourists are Chinese. Many were taking pictures of us, not the other way around. Many women walk right up to me (because I am tall and blonde), and put their arms around me so their husbands can take pictures of us together.

Well, we learned a lot today about all those emperors and dynasties. When you have a 5,000+ year history, there is a lot to talk about. Those Emperors aren't too different from many of our politicians. They just operated on a much bigger scale. As many as 1,000,000 slaves plus 100,000 artisans worked to build the Forbidden City complex. The Emperors were so very fond of their concubines. Only the most beautiful and talented girls were chosen from all over China. Some Emperors had as many as 3,000 concubines, some of whom they never even met. The last Emperor, just prior to 1911 (the end of the Emperors and the beginning of the Republic of China) had 56 concubines. The girls represented a considerable expense, so upon the death of the Emperor, the concubines were sometimes buried alive with the Emperor or forced to commit suicide.

The complex is called the Forbidden City because the average citizen wasn't allowed to enter. If he did, he was summarily executed. Only the Emperor, his family and entourage, the eunuchs who served the Emperor, and the top generals went to the Forbidden City. Today it is called the Palace Museum. It is a truly world class museum, housing China's five top treasures and a million or so antiquities, most one-of-a-kind and some "priceless." The top price ever received for a Chinese porcelain at Christy's auction house was $30,000,000.

Treasures to an American might be gold or diamonds. To the Chinese, the top treasures are jade, porcelain, and sandalwood (jade being the most precious). The very best jade actually comes from Burma (now Myanmar). In Beijing our guide Scott (most Chinese choose an English name, in addition to their Chinese names) is married to a Burmese radio personality. They have gone into Burma to buy jade and smuggled it out. The Burmese charge extravagant customs duties when jade is taken out of the country, so the Chinese try to avoid these taxes. Chinese people say there are three illegal activities in Burma: the green, the white, and the black, i.e., jade, drugs, and gun powder.

Scott is an interesting fellow. His parents are both professors at Peking (Beijing) University, the Harvard of China. There are ten top universities in China, four in Beijing, one in Shanghai and five others throughout the country. Some 400,000 students each year pass the qualifying exams for the top universities. Scott easily passed and was qualified for Peking University. However, just passing the exams and having sufficient money to attend does not guarantee you a place. You also need "guanxi." It is pronounced "guan zhi" which in American parlance means "connections." The Chinese would call it "relationship." Because Scott's parents have money and teach at the University, he was able to get his degree in urban planning.

Scott describes his family as "middle class," but it seems clear that they are upper middle class by our standards. Scott has a five bedroom condo (unheard of in these parts), and he has traveled all over the world, including the U.S. and Europe. He speaks English fluently. However, the most interesting thing about him is that he was part of the group of college students who staged the protest and hunger strike in Tian na men Square 20 years ago. The protest began at Peking University, and Scott and Mao's grandson were among the 30 or so students at the heart of the protest. He told us his story before we entered the Square today. Thousands of Chinese were lined up to see the crystal coffin containing the body of Mao. The body has decayed by now, so what they are seeing is, in part, a wax figure. Many Chinese carry beautiful pastel sun umbrellas, so the sight of thousands of colored umbrellas was quite spectacular. They wait two or more hours in the hot sun to see Mao.

Tian an men Square is paved with concrete pavers, each of which will accomodate two people standing shoulder to shoulder. The entire square will hold 1.2 M people. It is the largest public square in the world.