Beijing Vignettes (10 to 15 Sept 2010)

Adjacent to our table, a couple was arguing on whether to order the chicken or beef. The old guy across the table was tapping his cigarette ash on the floor. Dr s pointed to the tissue papers and cigarettes butts strewn all over the floor. The waitress left us the order sheet and asked us to just write down what we wanted, and went out to cut up a watermelon. Behind Dr s loomed this huge communist propaganda poster. We had originally planned to have dinner elsewhere but most were already closed by 10 pm. So we ended up in this neighborhood eatery a few minutes walk from the Hutong we were staying in. At another instance, I'd dragged Dr s out as soon as I saw the old man squat on the chair instead of sitting, but we were hungry so we persisted. It was obviously where people in the neighborhood had their dinner and everybody seemed to know each other. The food turned out to be better than I expected. In fact, it was one of the best we had in Beijing that we went back one more time.

I imagine Beijing as some sort of duck Auschwitz.. At night, ducks from the countryside would quack somberly among themselves inquiring on their destination. As they are herded into trucks, they are told they are going to a better place, and told to leave all their belongings. Of course all of them end up being dressed and roasted to a delectable crisp - to be served in the millions of restaurants in Beijing.

For a place that's called the Forbidden City, it certainly didn't deter the crowds, especially the Chinese crowd (China does not need foreign tourists, tourism will survive on just the locals). The place is huge but the crowds were bigger. Truth be told, the place is falling into pieces. I certainly don't understand how the interiors are left out to the elements to gather dust (literally). The building that housed the imperial throne is dark, dusty and have lost any semblance of past splendor. In contrast, the modern Capital Museum is air-conditioned, well lighted and well maintained. Just like most of Beijing, the old is left to decay in favour of the new. Nouveau riche mentality is everywhere in Beijing.  

A young day guide who took us around Beijing haven't heard of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre or the iconic tank man. It's obviously not in the textbooks and the government continues to take extreme efforts to delete that embarassing incident from memory. Saddening. Those students died for nothing.

Whoever thought of installing those sleds for tourists at the Great Wall is a genius. On the way up, you take the cable car. On the way down, you take this sled where you can speed down the mountain. It was a fun experience as the awe you feel at seeing and walking down the Great Wall wears off after walking for an hour under the blazing noon sun. I actually got an unwanted tan.

Books at hand while in Beijing: Ma Jian's excellent "Beijing Coma" - an account of the Tiananmen massacre through the eyes of the students and Jia Yinghua and Sun Haichen's "The last Eunuch of China" - who knew the last emperor was gay?