Beijing Day 2

We woke up early to go to Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and explore a hutong near our hostel. The previous night, we ended up eating in a place near Happy Dragon which didn’t have a menu in English or doesn’t even have pictures. So I just ordered what the people in the next table are eating. Since it was already 11pm, only guys drinking beer were left in the place. So I just pointed at the guys’ pulutan or sumsuman. I told my companions to just point at anything. So they randomly pointed on an item on the menu. The randomly pointed dishes turned out good ones, representative of Beijing local food, spicy and oily. I liked the extra spicy vegetables served with beef. If only the guy on the other table stopped spitting on the floor, it would’ve been a really nice meal.

In the second morning, we had breakfast at the place near Happy Dragon. It’s a small eatery where old Chinese folks have their breakfast. They were only serving porridge and an assorted array of fried dough plus hardboiled egg. Each of us had porridge, a hardboiled egg and the fried dough and total cost was just P60. A P20 breakfast!

We then took a train in Line 1 and got off Tiananmen West station, one of the two stations (Tiananmen East) adjacent to the famous square. Since this is one of Beijing’s top attractions, I was expecting throngs of tourists and I wasn’t disappointed. Aside from tourists, the place was also sprawling of soldiers doing drills. It was one of the many grand production numbers Beijing has prepared for its visitors.

After walking around the square, we went to the Forbidden City or the Palace Museum which is just at the back of the square. The palace museum is composed of several palace-like (!) structures, which were used by the Emperor and his family. It is called Forbidden City because before only the emperor, his family and his close minions can live in the city.

The entrance to the city was intimidating. I felt like an intruder. The movie “Last Emperor” was filmed in this city. The entire complex is huge and it took almost two hours for us to get to the other side of the city without even lingering too much. After getting our fill of palaces (after a while everything looked the same), we decided to look for the Hutong where we’re going to stay for our third night. The place is called “Sitting on the City Walls”, a courtyard house in the middle of a hutong. It was adjudged as one of the best hostels in Beijing in 2008 and 2009.

But there was one complication; I forgot the map with directions to “City Walls”. Good thing, I was able to study the map before and somehow I had an idea of the general direction of the place coming from the Forbidden City. So we decided to explore the small streets behind the gugong, and fortunately we saw a tourist information center. We asked for directions from the friendly girls in the counter and fortunately they know where it is. The entrance to the hutong is a small alleyway beside a sports center where people play ping pong and some play some sort of checkers (probably Chinese!). The hutong is a maze of traditional Chinese houses. We ended up walking into a dead end with no signs of the City Walls. Then my companion found an arrow with a sign that says City Walls. The sign was so high up (probably two stories high) that you probably cant see it unless you were watching out for something to fall from the sky. I guess part of the place’s charm is getting lost in a hutong and exploring one of Beijing’s fast disappearing gems, the hutong.

It was Rick the owner of City Walls who gave us an orientation of the place and nearby sites. He gave us helpful tips where to go and eat. Since it was already our second day on the city, I was half-listening.

We decided to walk in the direction of Happy Dragon to get our bags. And all around, we saw parts of hutongs being demolished to give way to high-rise buildings. We had our linner (lunch and dinner) of mostly Cantonese cuisine in Nanluoguxiang, a quaint little street (over a kilometer long) is packed with bars, cafes, restaurants. What stood out are the very dusty tables in the restaurant, which turned out to be my first encounter with the dust from Gobi desert. Beijing suffers periodically from dust from the nearby Gobi desert. (And I thought the ladies were just too lazy to wipe the tables)

Upon leaving Nanluoguxiang, the weather turned nasty cold. So it was an afternoon of Gobi dust and Siberian breeze. We rushed to the nearest bus stop to take a bus to Happy Dragon. But alas, the signs were all in Chinese. Even the bus numbers were in Chinese. But a group of friendly non-English locals helped us. At first it was just the elderly traffic aide then a bunch of elderly folks and finally a young couple whose English vocabulary was limited to “Follow” and then several minutes after “Take Bus”. In the span of twenty minutes, only three words were uttered but those were enough.

They even accompanied us to our bus stop even if they were going towards a different direction. Thank God for friendly people randomly scattered in the streets. The couple's small act of kindness was the highlight is this day.  

At night, we explored The Egg (National Center for the Performing Arts)  and Qianmen St. The walk towards Qianmen also allowed us a night view of Tiananmen Square without the throng of tourists and soldiers.

Day Two was again an affirmation, every place you visit might have the best sights but at the end of the day, it's the people you meet along the way that makes a place more special. Random strangers with their acts of kindness.

 

Mike and the Mechanics

Lyrics from the band's song "All I Need is a Miracle"

I said "go if you wanna go,
Stay if you wanna stay"
I didn't care if you hung around me
I didn't care if you went away
And I know you were never right
I'll admit I was never wrong
I could never make up my mind
I made it up as I went along
And though I treated you like a child
I'm gonna miss you for the rest of my life

Bei Jing

Beijing is about 17,000 sq km (Manila is only about 636 sq km) with 13.9 million people. A couple of travel friends invited me to go with them to one of asia's megacities. I would've wanted to go to China longer but beggars can't be choosers. (We got really cheap tickets!) So three of us, off we went to conquer Beijing for four days.

This is my detailed account of Day One.

First impression, this city is huge, dusty and cold. I was prepared for tolerable cold weather. I saw the weather forecast, temperatures ranged from 10 to 23 degrees Celsius. I asked a friend who was based there and he told me to bring a light jacket. So I did bring one light jacket. (turned out it was not enough to ward off the cold cold spring in Beijing)

We knew it was going to get cold. But it was already spring so I anticipated Baguio-like temperatures. but I didn't expect the windchill that felt like cold cold winds of Siberia blowing. Seriously, it felt like winds coming from melting ice blowing on my entire body.

We were picked up from the airport by our hostel taxi. I reserved accomodations at Happy Dragon Hostel, which had good reviews in Trip Advisor and Pinoy Exchange. When we got out of the airport, there was a guy holding a placard with my name on it. He was standing just outside Terminal 2 so it was hard to miss him. We managed to get to our hostel solely by using sign language with our driver.

My first night at the hostel didn't go well. Despite having made reservations in Happy Dragon but we were informed that we are "temporarily booked" at their sister hotel.

The sister hotel wasn't at all nice. It was old and there were all sorts of clutter in the corridor. I could've given them an earful but it was at 2am and I was too tired to argue and I just wanted to sleep.

So we slept in their sister hotel and got picked up the following day to transfer to Happy Dragon.

Happy Dragon turned out to be quaint backpackers' place with character. There were writings on the wall. And the rooms were tidy and they have clean bathrooms.

So we just dropped our bags in Happy Dragon and zoomed our way to the nearest train station, Dongsi.

We bought train cards which was quite a challenge to look for.

What I discovered and liked about Beijing trains is no matter where or how far your destination is, you'll just pay 2 yuan or around 14 pesos.

So off to yuyuantan park we go, to see the cherry blossoms. People usually flock to Japan to see these elusive flowers but in this small park in Beijing, they were abundant too. The trees were actually a gift from the people of Nihon.

There were only a few tourists in the park. Most were Chinese walking around and hangin out in the park. Once we felt hungry pangs, we ate at the food booth in the middle of the park. We shared fried crabs, dumplings and chicken or something that resembled chicken.

After getting our fill of the rare blosoms, we proceeded to the Summer Palace. We had a hard time figuring out the summer palace's entrance since it was so huge. Once we got in, I borrowed an audio guide which was gps-controlled. It activates once I go near a landmark.

Summer Palace was huge. Most of the big palace structures are overlooking the huge body of water. We also climbed a hill to one of the huge structures. Afterwhich we walked a very long corridor with ceiling and columns filled with paintings with very intricate details. The corridor was almost a kilometer long. (They say this is the longest corridor in the world)

After leaving Summer Palace, we decided not to take a rickshaw with the word Subway on it just outside the exit. Instead, we walked for a half a kilometer in a street where we were the only ones walking. After asking a chestnuts vendor where the nearest train station is (thanks to BB translate), we figured we were walking in the correct direction. Then we transferred train lines several times to get to the Olympic Village (to see the nest and the cube). Despite transferring train lines countless times, we only paid 6 yuan for a journey that lasted for more than an hour.

While we were marvelling at the bubbles of the water cube, we met a photographer from National Geographic. After chatting with John for a bit, we called it a night.

Meeting John was a nice day to cap day one in Beijing.

Capacitance Factor

"The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering."- Ben Okri

Land of the Rising Sun

After watching dozens of videos, devouring news articles and looking at several pictures, eventually my interest on the devastation of the March 11 quake and tsunami will wane. I’d check out the news every now and then. But for the hundreds of thousands who lost their homes and for the victims’ families, the 9.0 magnitude Tohoku  earthquake altered them, altered the course of a nation already badly battered by the recent recession.

In a July 2010 issue of Time magazine’s titled Japan’s Tough Climb, it tells of a country grappling its way through a recession with national debt almost 200% of its GDP. The article showed the many closed shops in Sendai, the capital of Miyagi prefecture. When I saw the Sendai airport being pummel led by the raging waters, I felt that the name Sendai rang a bell. I had to look for my Time issue to confirm. And it is indeed Sendai, the city pictured to be a city in a pitiful state even before the quake.  

That Friday night, I was glued to the TV. They say that this is the most well-documented earthquake and tsunami, complete with aerial footages and tons of amateur videos of the rampaging waters swallowing huge buildings, houses, cars, fields, and people.

I have never been to Northeast of the Honshu island. They say there are a lot of retirant communities in this area. I could just imagine elderly folks fighting for their lives as nature’s fury assert its mighty power on these helpless individuals.  

This tragedy again is a reality check, it reminds us of our mortality, our vulnerability.  In the end, we are at the mercy of Him who brought us here.

P.S. Despite the darkness enveloping it now, I know and believe it is still the land of the rising sun.

Forest for the Trees

"Can't see the forest for the trees" I remembered this one from school. Was it an engineering subject or a philosophy course? I'm thinking engineering. Anyway, this has taken a new meaning to me.

I have been caught up with work and moving recently  that it has overwhelmed me. I didn't realize that work can take so much of anyone's waking time. But silly me, I seem to savoring this moment in the "storm". Too caught up that I didn't have time to update my corner .

Am I not seeing the forest already? I think I need to start cutting some trees soon.  

318

Whenever it's departure time from a place I'm temporarily occupying, I always fancy myself a captain of a ship who's always the last to leave. I remember back in college I stayed until after the dorm has already closed. As a resident assistant, I requested my dorm parent to grant my request to stay even if the dorm is closed officially for the school year. It was eerie walking through the corridor of about forty empty rooms. I ran whenever I go to the bathroom because I was scared.I felt like several eyes were watching me as I go the bathroom at the end of the hall. So much for being the "captain".

And now I'll be leaving the place I called home for six years. Surreal. Call it melodramatic but somehow leaving makes the words to flow freely.

318 and I had our moments.  This is where I spent the night when I found out my Dad died. This is where I dumped my bag when I was denied boarding on that first trip outside the country with my brother. This is where I spent several nights listening to my sister while she battles the demons within. This is where I also spent nights wandering in my own self-made abyss.On a lighter note, this is where the water turned green while I was taking a shower. This is where also a lot of wonderful memories have been made. 

318 is just a number of a place.  It doesn't have life. As I move away from 318 and move to 332... it is a natural progression of things to advance even numerically.  Too much attachment to anything takes away that opportunity to try something new or to begin anew. 

A captain maybe the last to leave but that doesn't necessarily mean that the ship he's abandoning is sinking. It could be that an island has been sighted.