Another Historic Site, Another Visit To Shuang An
Hello, everyone. Today, I went to Yuanming Yuan with Xuanying, Huizhen, Olov, and Said, an Uzbeki classmate of ours. Before I report on that, however, I have a few updates on a couple of things upon which I have previously reported.
Update#1: Plastic Bottles
When I first reported that I met Ali, I mentioned that an old woman seemed to be looking for water. I have since discovered (a long time ago, in fact) that this woman actually wanted the empty bottle. All around, especially on my campus, elderly folk can be seen rooting through garbage cans for recyclable bottles which they are able to return for a refund. The food service persons who clean the tables in the cafeteria lurk almost as vultures, waiting for the last few drops from a two-litre bottle of tea or pop to be drained, after which they ask 'do you want to keep that?'. Bizarre.
Update #2: The Lady In Pink
I went yesterday to meet Ali where I have customarily met him since we both arrived in Beijing. I arrived early, partly because I wished to ensure that I would arrive on-time (the walk to this meeting place takes approximately forty minutes, and I had planned a route which was new to me), but I also wanted to scout the area, and perhaps either write some post cards or do some studying. Because I forgot my post cards in my dorm room, I was reduced to studying and studying the local fauna.
Lo and behold, I saw again the Lady In Pink (another part of my entry regarding my first meeting in Beijing with Ali). She was still wearing pink (different clothing this time) and still asking something of almost exclusively individual women. This time, I saw that some persons did speak to her, and she handed each of them either a business card, a small flyer of some sort, or both. I saw exclusively one man speak to her, and the rest were women walking individually.
The Lady In Pink seems to have confederates of some sort. When I first saw her a month ago, she seemed to be working alone. I saw her speak to another woman, who I saw speak to another woman, in turn. The other two women approached both individuals and groups, but all who were approached are women. In fact, no foreign-looking persons were approached, although I have to admit that I don't remember seeing any foreign-looking women travelling singly. As previously, she simply disappeared at 17:30. This merits further investigation, I think.
Basketball
I forgot to tell all y'all exactly how much basketball is loved on this campus. When I first arrived, the sound of bouncing basketballs could be heard from my room from 6:00 until after midnight. Now that the evenings are becoming cooler, one may hear them now only until 23:30.
Shopping With The Girls
Another thing which I forgot to mention is that I went shopping with Cheryl and Courtney last week, on Wednesday. After most of our shopping was done (I served again as a man-bag/purse), we had pedicures. I am secure enough in my masculinity to tell you that my feet have not looked better, except as a newborn. :)
Trip To Wal-Mart
On my way to meeting Ali, I stumbled upon one of Beijing's two Wal-Mart outlets. Apart from the absence of McDonald's, it really does look like Wal-Mart in North America.
Gift From Florence
Before she went to Taiwan and Japan for a World Youth Conference for the Buddha's Light Youths, I asked Florence to purchase on my behalf, in Japan, some maccha. Maccha is a powdered tea, but it is most definitely not an instant tea. The powder is made by roasting tea leaves and then grinding them into an incredibly fine powder. To prepare the tea, one adds really hot water and whisks the powder so that the tea is a suspension. Yum yum! :D Anyway, Florence forgot to bring the tea with her from Mississauga when she and others visited me in Waterloo shortly before I left town. Typically of Florence, she refused to take any money for it, and instead turned it into a gift for my birthday. She sent it to me here on-campus; I'm pleased to report that it arrived safely. I haven't yet had a chance to prepare any yet, but I shall do so soon.
Mark 'Dashan' Rowswell
A poster featuring the most famous Canadian in China, Mark Rowswell, caught my eye and lured my into an electronics cum book store. He's currently hawking some sort of electronic PDA and multilingual dictionary. Dashan's got a really interesting signature which is a play on the 'shan' part of his Chinese name ('shan' is 'mountain'). I'm quite interested in meeting him some time, although I suspect that I'm not currently important enough to do so. :D
After browsing the electronics, I went to look at the books. Many of the books were for preparing for various English examinations. One section in the area on computers caught my eye: 'Assembly Language And Compile The Principle'. One of the sections in 'Science' was 'Biosciuence'; this word had manifold reproductions.
Yuanming Yuan
As I mentioned previously, five of us went today to Yuanming Yuan. As with Yihe Yuan, we took the 726 bus, which passes right by our campus, and costs 2 kuai to ride (approximately 28 Canadian cents). Silly me, I thought to economise on what I was bringing, so I left my bag in my dorm room. As a result, I forgot the colour checker. I guess I'm going to have to return to Yuanming Yuan.
Five adventurers: Huizhen, Olov, Xuanying, Said, and me
I love willows
Nice bridge
Cool stone stairs
After making the mistake early in our trip of going to a place at which Chinese painting and calligraphy were being 'exhibited' (see an earlier post), we hired a boat to take us to another part of the Park. The Park itself is composed of three historically separate parks.
The type of boat upon which we rode
The architecture of the parks was designed in the fashion of many different styles of architecture, from all around the world. One of the designers was Jesuit Castiglione, who was played on television by Mark 'Dashan' Rowswell. The collection of architectures there is reputed to have been unrivalled in all the world.
During the Second Opium War, all of the parks were destroyed by the united European forces in order to demonstrate that China really had no choice about entering the 19th century. All of the parks are now collectively known by the name Yuanming Yuan, which was originally the name of one of the three.
While we were travelling on our hired boat, I was hit by a wave of melancholy and I pondered how far we've really come as a species. I couldn't help but think of all of the wonderful works, which took decades to create, and how little time (a couple of days) we took to destroy them. Victor Hugo reportedly described it as one of the greatest tragedies in history. I'm reminded of Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'Ozymandias'.
'My name is Ozymandias, King Of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair'
I have decided to call this Travesty #1.
Travesty #1, part 1
Travesty #1, part 2
According to Frommer's Beijing, the government is being stymied by locals who don't want a full restoration of the garden. One of the things the park has now is the feel of an amusement park. Some of the boats on the water remove the feel of whatever majesty was left in the park, and have replaced it with cheap plastic. I call this Travesty #2.
Travesty #2, part 1
Travesty #2, part 2
The name says it all
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
posted by Jean-Guy! at 10/05/2006 05:41:00 AM
5 Comments:
I used to be annoyed that Dashan was Canada's representative in China. But I've accepted it now.
One night, in Beijings DongHuaMen Night market, not hungry but wanting to practice my "zhe shi shenme", one vendor, hearing I'm from Canada says "ah JiaNaDa.. Dashan shi ni de ge ya!".
"Dui ah!" I reply.
Sure, he's too commercial, he wears too much makeup, but he's my brother and I'm proud.
S2, the plastic bottle thing becomes obvious if you realize that there's a recycling/reclamation fee paid per bottle. I noticed on this trip that people were collecting bottles at train stations and elsewhere. Well, when I head to SF I see the same thing. In a place like China where garbage is strewn everywhere, the only possible explanation to explain people hankering for bottle with some semi-dried Coca Cola sludge and a dab of HSV1 would be the profit motive.
About Da Shan, when I travelled with Gui in China and it was learned that I was Canadian the name that was invariably invoked was Bai Qiu En, Norman Bethune. One guy even asked Gui up front if I was Canadian before we even spoke. He said I was the spitting image of the good doctor. We suspect he saw some resemblance to one of the actors who has played him over the years.
Hello, Shanmao.
About the bottle thing, it was not obvious when I first saw that woman because she was asking for bottles with liquid still in them. The fact that a deposit is charged is also not immediately obvious; I still don't know what the deposit is for each type of bottle. Soon as I ate in the cafeteria, though, I figured-it-out.
With respect to Norman Bethune, I think I should give a short exposition on the good doctor. He ws a Canadian medical doctor, born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, and educated at McGill, in Montreal. While he had a practice in Montreal, he travelled abroad and became a member of the Communist Party. He helped the communists in Spain during the Spanish Civil war, and then joined the communists in China as a field surgeon during China's resistance to the Japanese in World War II. While he was in the field he died from a disease (I don't remember which). He was an acquaintance of Mao's, who required everyone in the country to memorise 'Memorial To Norman Bethune', regardless of level of literacy of the person who memorised it. During the hard-line era of communnist China, Bethune was definitely Canada's best good-will ambassador to China. The younger generation has heard of Norman Bethune, but not many know anything about him, hence my statement about Dashan's relative popularity in China. I missed the movie, starring Donald Sutherland as Bethune, when it played on the History Channel when I lived in Ottawa in 1997-1998. I believe that the film was made by the National Film Board of Canada.
Recycling for money. I remember my grandparents saving up on all those newspapers for recycling. There used to be someone coming around all the residential places and calling out for recycled goods, and people would bring their stuff to trade for cash.
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