Beijing Continued

Here we have a few pictures of the forbidden city and the temple of heaven as well as the imperial garden. The Forbidden city was a the imperial court built in the Ming dynasty. Its built on 15 layers of bricks to prevent enemy armies from tunneling under and its several walls deep. In other words, its secure. The Emperor would rule here with his 1000 concubines, each hand picked in a special chamber in the back of the palace. Some of the stone carvings present in the city were moved in the dead of winter on roads of ice made by servants who sprinkled water ahead of the caravan.

The temple of heaven was a special ceremonial ground that animals would be sacrificed to in order to produce a plentiful following season. Inside the main atrium four pillars stand to represent the seasons as the foundations of the earth.

Oh and that one picture of me is in front of the forbidden city with the iconic Mao portrait in Tianemen square. By the way, LOTS of cops strolling around there. Armed as well. Its an odd little area. But all in all the trip to Beijing was spectacular and very worth while. So adios amigos, I'll see you in the funny papers.

北京欢迎你! (Or Beijing welcomes you)

Well, I just arrived back in Shanghai from a four day trip to Beijing. Lovely city, much more historical and traditional than Shanghai. We hired a tour guide and visited four of the biggest tourist sites in Beijing: The Ming Tombs, The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, and The Temple of Heaven. I've included pictures of each plus a sweet picture of me on top of the great wall. We stayed in a nice international hostel that had, oh be still my beating heart, a Western Style breakfast. Scrambled Eggs, Ham, Hash browns, Toast, and good old fashioned black coffee. I may as well have been draped in the American flag, singing the national anthem. As an added bonus, I got to spend a substantial amount of time watching Chinese Television. There is no better way to interpret a culture than by what they watch. And this culture, HATES modernity. God as my witness, 50% of the shows on t.v. were period dramas of some sort set in China's far distant past. It's as if deep down every Chinese wants to be sitting around in silk robes, practicing calligraphy and dropping dudes with gnarly swords. That's as maybe, it was still entertaining.

The Ming Tombs were uncovered in an archaeological expedition in the 50's. The portion we visited consisted of an underground palace made of marble and stone that housed the Emperor and his two wifes. Pretty lush abode for a dead guy. The tomb wasn't explicitly lavish but beautifully constructed and sculpted. Amidst his burial grounds, the emperor lays below earth that houses trees that are over 500 years old. Its pretty remarkable to view a tree that has outlived empires.

As for China's ubiquitous Great Wall, that superlative is not hyperbole. This structure is, in the truest sense of the word, awesome. Its maintenance and construction has been a primary charge of emperors since the Qin dynasty, the first dynasty in Chinese history. It spans well over 6000 Kilometers or for those using imperial measurements, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 miles. It is a sight to behold. Good old Mao once said, as translated by myself, "If you don't reach the top of the great wall, you're not a real man." SO we trekked for about an hour up to the highest point we could see from our portion of the wall. Plenty of Chinese asked to take pictures with us so we obliged them as much we could. After one hell of a climb we visited an overpriced jade market and we home for the day.

I'm writing this entry rather late so I think I'll retire to more comfortable accommodations and regale you, my faithful readers, with tales of the forbidden city and other such marvels tomorrow.

Quick Update

Hey all, so we just beat ECNU in the traditional ECNU (the university I'm at) vs. CIEE (the program I am studying with) 5 on 5 basketball game. 48 to 40. Admittedly, while everyone here thinks I'm some sort of phenom, I'm actually not very good. But victory was attained none the less. By the by, the freaking love basketball here. Basically everyone's first question to me is do I play basketball. Well today I did and today we won. I'll upload photos from the game later.

Alright yeah, I'm running behind

Sorry about the lack of updates. In all honesty there hasn't really been much to blog about. Still going to various restaraunts, still burden with a ton of work. Although yesterday I went with my Chinese class to a KTV bar or Karaoke bar. That was pretty fun. They rent out little suites that are about the size of a hotel room. It was pretty packed in there. I don't really understand the fixation Asians seem to have with Karaoke. Back in the states, a ton of my Asian buddies and their parents love Karaoke. Oh well ce la vie.

I've finished making the preparations for a little excursion up to Beijing during our study break. We'll be taking a night train and staying in a hostel. Most of the people in the program will be going so that will be fun. I'll get to see all of the ubiqittous Chinese tourist sites like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

Being on the ground here has proven to me that China has a long way to go before it overtakes the economy of the United States, if ever. 700 million people in this country only make a dollar a day. The majority of the populus is still tied to the land, making their living on rice paddies. Oh sure there is plenty of money to be made here. This will be the next great burgeoning market. But for all of China's talk about its long history and long term views, their development strategies are remarkably short sighted. The stock market here is still piss poor. The Shanghai Stock Exchange looks like a tomb. And a wanton disregard for social infrastructure does not breed financial success. Not to mention the remarkable cultural barriers that stand between China's rise to modernity and its current, essentially third world, state. I mean I've seen guys on bicycles delivering goods that no one would dream of transporting in any but a truck in the states. Obviously I'm no great scholar of economics but I certainely know the basic. This market is still in its infancy. There is money to be made here but that money goes to overseas coffers. Hell their GNP is a 1/10 of their GDP. So let the reactionaries spout all they want about how you have 7 years to learn mandarin. A country that can't keep the sewers from overflowing when it rains (yes it stinks and yes it is disgusting) has a few issues to solve before it can become a global hegemon.

We hold these truths to be self evident

Firstly, for those of you not living in a commie country, happy forth of July. My apologies about the lack of updates but the work load has been both harrowing and consistent throughout the week. Rather than post several pictures about one topic I'm going to give you five slices of my previous week. We had an exam on friday which is updates have been few and far between.

On Sunday I visited a church within the consult section of Shanghai. Several of my friends here wanted to go to church so I decided to tag along and see what I could glean from a sermon. In order to enter the church, the Chinese government requires a foreign passport; no passport, no entry. Although we weren't checked for our passports at the door here, I've heard that in Beijing they will not admit you without you first showing your papers. The church itself looked to be catholic in origin, my personal guess is it was founded by Jesuits. The service appeared to be denominationally indifferent but the pastor has had some seminary training. Very ecclectic blend of people due to the internationalized location of the church. There were Africans, Asians, and Whites all gathered there. The experience was quite interesting.

We also went to the Urban Planning Museum. Now while that sounds about as interesting as watching paint dry, it was really cool. The museum lays out what Shanghai will look in the next 20 to 30 years. There were several maticulously crafted miniature versions of the city outlining Shanghai's future. The was also a vomit inducing 3D tour of Shanghai where you stand in a room filled with panoramic projectors as you fly through Shanghai. Yes, it is nauseating and your head will hurt, but it was pretty sweet as well.

Lastly this weekend we took a weekend trip to the city of Nanjing which is about a 3 hour bus ride. We got to see several pretty sweet sights. First we took a trip to the former presidential palace, founded when Nanjing was still the capital and China was a republic. The picture I'm including is a picture of Chiang Kai Shek's office within the palace. The whole place was maintained in the same art deco style that it was created in. While we were there we saw many military people touring the site. My guess is its part of some cadet program the Chinese military has, that they have their newest or in training soldiers tour the palace. Next we saw where Sun Yatsen, the founder of the Nationalist Party and the first president of china, is intured. As far as places to be buried go, Sun has a pretty sweet setup. His tomb rests upon the Purple Mountain within an elaborate Temple structure. Lastly we saw the defensive wall the surronds the city and visited a master painters shop within the fortifications. He creates these beautiful paintings within crystal spheres. They are absolutely beautiful.

Well, apart from mountains of work, that was pretty much my week. Now it's time for me to start studying but I bid you, my faithful readers, adieu.

P.S.
I have eaten the most disgusting thing I could imagine a deranged chef coming up with. Congealed Duck Blood. Let me tell you it tastes just like it sounds like it would.

That show was FREAKING SWEET

Man that was a blast. We got to sit up in the very front row. It was a stupendous time. I bought the dvd of the show for a 100 kuai or 14 dollars American. I realize that I have already expounded on this fact but everything is so damn cheap here, its wonderful. Each one of their acts came out and performed to some sort of appropriate music. There was one where somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 girls rode one bike to the William Tell Overture. There was also some funny vaudeville sort of acts that also performed. I'll post some pictures. One of my favorites was this straw hat dance they did to the tune of the Cantina music from Star Wars.

I also went looking for clothes with couple of friends at that labyrinthine mall. Basically, good luck finding anything in a store here if you are tall. Or have big feet. And common male waist sizes here are like 28 and below. Although a friend of mine told me about the fabric district where tailors will custom make shirts and suits for a song. She said that you can get a suit for 300 kuai which is essentially 42 bucks. I need to become a business man who travels between Shanghai and America and gets paid in dollars, considering the per capita GDP here is 1500 American. Ok well much love as always and harken back dear reader for more adventures.

My brain hurts

We started our language class on Thursday. Each class session is entirely in Chinese which, let me tell you, is pretty damn intense. But I feel like I'm not totally lost so I suppose thats a good thing. The last couple of days were filled with work. I realize that that's why we are here but it was still kind of a shock to start working in terms of academics again.

One aspect of this culture that I completely can not relate to is the innate reverance towards authority and age. I suppose as an American I'm taught from an early age that I'm independant and unique and while we were also taught that one should respect authority we also learn to question it. I A good example of this is what my one friend said her teacher said in her class. Her teacher mentioned that chicken skin was good for your skin but could not give any evidence to the fact other than princess in ancient china used to eat it. Personally authority means nothing to me except that they happen to be holding the biggest stick. For all the talk about the utilitarianism of China they are astonishingly withdrawn from logic. They are an anarchornistic people. Trapped somewhere between their western future and eastern heritage.

Anyway I'm getting ready to go to an acrobatic show so I'll have some sweet pictures next time I post.