BOCOG, or the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, set up a three day tour for all of the American journalism students who will be media volunteers. On the first day we visited the Beijing Water Purification Plant and a "New Culture Village" called Xiang Tang as an example of a model village for the future. It was dubbed the "Propaganda Tour" by some students because it seemed like they were trying to prove something to us, specifically that they are not the backward-thinking country we might have thought they were.
The purification plant was basically a lot of water, filters and large equipment that we didn't fully understand. Basically what I understood is that they use some of the reclaimed water for tasks such as washing cars and streets, and purified water for drinking.
The afternoon proved quite interesting if just to show the lengths to which the government will go to protect and mollify its American visitors. First off we had a police escort for our bus caravan from our lunch restaurant to the village which is quite a ways outside the center of Beijing. It was actually on the way to the Badaling Great Wall section where we would head the next day. The village is a mixture of low to high income housing, with some people getting free housing because their original homes were destroyed to make way for all the Olympic buildings. The low income area looks like a lot of the hutongs in Beijing - trash and dirt most everywhere. The high income housing has supposedly attracted many celebrities to the area and looks like an American suburban housing development. We also visited a temple that was supposedly taken down from somewhere else and rebuilt there. Finally we visited a calligraphy school in the town and saw a calligrapher at work and got to try some ourselves. We also got to imitate some tai chi done by some of the townspeople. We also got to visit a home for the elderly, and met a woman who was 101 years old. She said she was so proud because she had cleaned the room herself! After a long ride back in the middle of rush hour traffic to Beijing, we at a restaurant famous for its Peking duck called Quanjude.
This brings me to one of my major problems here - finding food that a celiac can eat! Another girl in my group, Ellie, has the same problem so it is nice to be able to band together on this, but even then it is difficult to communicate the importance of our problem. I have a card that describes the issue in Mandarin, but even then a lot of waitresses/servers have no idea what it means. Since a lot of dishes are either smothered in soy sauce or have noodles, or even better no tell-tale signs of gluten in the dish, we were at the mercy of our BOCOG designated Chinese guide/translator who dubbed me "no-flour girl." My home is near where flower children originated, but here I am the exact opposite! We could not eat any of the dishes at Quanjude except for rice and some Peking duck, even though our guide had told us that every dish but two did not contain wheat, and obviously it was the exact opposite! In general over the next few days of touring we had a tough time, and both of us got sick in some form from the hidden gluten in certain dishes. I have found some dishes at the university canteens that I have been assured are gluten-free, and since I haven't gotten sick, I think I'll be sticking to those!
The following day we made the trip out to the Badaling section of the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. The Badaling section is the most visited section of the wall by tourists, so I guess it was no surprise that a famous visitor from out of the country would be taken here by the Chinese government. That is exactly what we got with Mexican president Felipe Calderon. He and his large entourage decided to make a visit just as we were about to walk through the main entrance which was then consequently blocked of from us non-VIPs. We had to wait about 45 minutes in the blistering sun (luckily I had my wide brimmed hat with SPF on me!) only to wind up in the hordes pushing through an alternative and much smaller entrance to the wall. After being swallowed by the crowd, we finally were able to walk up a much less crowded side of the wall. It was less crowded for a reason - it was a lot steeper than the other side and therefore much more difficult to climb! I made it up about two-thirds of the way as combination of nausea and exhaustion got the best of me. Since the wall was meant to keep out invaders, it wasn't exactly like the builders were going to make it easy for them, and consequentially it is very difficult for us! I was rewarded with spectacular views which can be seen on my photo page. It is a breathtaking sight for the eyes to behold, and makes you feel rather small in the face of human history. It is amazing to think something so large was created without the help of modern machinery, but at the same time rather humbling to realize something so gigantic took away so many lives to protect those of so many others. It is said that generations were born, lived, worked and died helping to build it.
At lunch time the "no-flour" girls were segregated into another room, alongside the nut-allergy sufferer and vegetarians. Even when we were told the dishes were fine, both Ellie and I felt sick later that afternoon on our way to and at the Ming Tombs. Frankly I was expecting to be just as awestruck with the immense size and number of the tombs as I was at the Great Wall, but since we only got to visit only one tomb, it did not come across that way. The underground section of the tomb we visited had all of its valuables removed for preservation, so it was difficult to understand how grand these tombs really were in their heyday. It was dominated by cold, grey concrete and some sacrificial altars with lots of paper money to appease the spirits of the dead for disrupting their sanctuary. From the temple above ground we were able to get a view of the vast expanse of tombs that cover the area. I had hoped that we would be able to see some more examples of tombs because of some of which my LP guidebook had described, but because we were rushed to keep to the official BOCOG schedule, we didn't have time.
We were excited because we had heard we were having dinner near or in the Bird's Nest, or National Stadium. Unfortunately we didn't have a view of the stadium from our restaurant, but instead were entertained with a rather kitschy show of dances from different regions of China.
The last day of BOCOG tours were dedicated to the Summer Palace and Winter Palace (note: called Old Summer Palace by my LP guidebook, hmmm...). The Summer Palace is dominated by Kunming Lake, which takes up two-thirds of the whole palace area, and Longevity Hill, which was created from all the dirt dug up to create the lake, and has various temples. Other noted items are the Long Corridor, which is supposed to be the longest corridor in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records, and a marble boat that the Dowager Empress Cixi used to take trips around the lake. An interesting side note is the story of how the dowager empress, who spent her summer retreat here, was able to gain power. Her son, the Tongzhi Emperor, became ill at age 20 and died. She then named her nephew the Guangxu emperor at age 4 and essentially kept him under house arrest so she could stay the de facto ruler from 1861 to 1908. She made him call her his "biological father" to reinforce her position of male prominence in the household. She got quite far considering her original position as a concubine of the emperors!
After lunch at the restaurant that was the empress's favorite (because it served her 128 dishes at each meal, and not even all for eating!), we headed to the Winter Palace which was mostly destroyed during the Second Opium War in the 1860s which has left behind mostly ruins. It is interesting because of its combination of Western architecture and Chinese gardens that were designed by two Jesuit missionaries in the late 18th century. It had originally been designed in the early 1700s but completely changed shape with Emperor Qianlong who asked the Jesuits to transform it due to his admiration for Western style buildings. There are lots of ruins to climb over for modern day visitors, as well as a garden maze and a lotus flower garden. Again, a rather rushed time there as we had to eat dinner before we headed to the Beijing Opera for a performance. At dinner yet again I did not get my gluten-free food not because it wasn't created, but because it was sent to the wrong table!
The opera was quite interesting for those of us that are used to European style ones. I had been to the Vienna Opera with my parents before I came to China, and they employed rather modern sets and technology with the superior singing abilities of the performers. Here the singing is not as melodic per se and seems more out of tune - one main character had such a piercing voice it was hard to listen! The costumes were amazingly decorated, and the use of some translation helped us understand the story and some of the humor that was being used.
Overall the tour provided us with a nice overview of China's historically and in the modern day. Our tour guide did make some comments that were very revealing about both of those periods and were an interesting combination of fact and opinion. I don't know how much of what she said was planned or on a whim, but it seemed like not all of her words were her own, if you get my drift.
Most importantly I was glad to go back to being able to eat food that I selected for myself!
1 comment:
Yes, Chinese opera is a whole different art form. Not sure I can fully appreciate it, but it's cool that you got to go!
I miss you, "No-Flour Girl!"
Keep the posts coming, I love reading them.
Lots of love,
Steph
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