Our Trip                                                      

November 23, 2001 - Day Six: Acclimation

click HERE for Day Six Photos

Questions for Ms. Foster's Classroom: How many people in the class ride
bicycles? When and how did you learn to ride a bike? Did one of your parents
teach you or did you learn yourself

Paige’s Comments:

Finally I think that we both have begun to shake the lethargy of jet lag. I’d
forced myself to sleep on the plane and during the day in LA, just to prep me
for it, and I was affected, but not too much. Ann on the other hand, got NAILED.
But we both went to sleep last night at 9 pm and slept in spurts all night,
waking up at 6 am and I think we’re past it and ready to do some tourism.

It’s kind of a trip to watch the traffic below from our 11th floor room at the
Radisson. I get chest pains watching it. We’d driven around Sao Paulo, which is
“exciting”, but in China you need to factor in a couple of elements that don’t
come into play in other, “heavy traffic” cities: pedestrians and bicycles.

Imagine 100,000 people on bikes, and people walking and pulling carts, casually
walking out into the traffic on the 101, or on 35 W in south Minneapolis. We saw
our first car vs. bike accident today, but it’s nothing short of miraculous that
the streets aren’t littered with casualties. It seems that the drivers and the
bikers/walkers have entered into a symbiotic relationship that everyone
understands. We’ll attach a photo of the intersection below our window. It’s
basically the confluence of 4 streets, with NO metering. And yet everyone walks
and peddles away in one piece.

The one thing that I don’t think either of us were prepared for was the air
pollution. It’s bad. Like nothing I’ve ever witnessed. When we landed in Seoul
on Wednesday, the airport was shrouded in fog (it’s about a quarter mile from
the West Sea.) When we landed here, I thought, “Wow. More fog.” Nope. It stings
your eyes and you have a constant sore throat. We’re renting bikes this
afternoon and I can imagine what our lungs are going to be like when we get back
to the Radisson. Beijing makes Los Angeles on a hot August afternoon feel like a
weekend in Yosemite.

One of the things that they prepped us for is that the Chinese love children.
And that when we’re out in public with Sophia, we’ll have people walk up and
start playing with her. There are so-called “Mothers Brigades” of older women
who will come over, and without asking, start undressing her, clucking over her
clothes and making sure that we’ve dressed her warmly. When they’re satisfied
that we’re taking care of her, then they’ll smile and play with her.

I saw this first-hand at one of the temples we toured this morning. There were
nine or ten Italian couples who had obviously just received their daughters and
they were all out in strollers taking the tour. They were the center of
attention at this major tourist destination. One Italian mother was trying to
shield her daughter from the attention, but the Chinese women basically
shouldered her aside, grabbed the kid out of the stroller and started passing
her around. Do that in any American city and you’ll end up in an ER.

This afternoon we’re going biking, resting, using the fitness facilities and
pool, and greeting the 16 jet-lagged couples who are arriving on a non-stop
flight from Chicago. Twenty four hours here and we’re the old pros. We’ll show
them where to buy the bottled water, which is key. Tap water here is un-safe.
When showering you have to close your eyes and mouth. It’s that serious. This is
a 1st Class international hotel and they have notes in the bathroom advising you
to avoid the tap water. Thus the bottled water we’re using for shaving, brushing
out teeth, and washing.

Tomorrow we hit the Great Wall and Tianamen Square.

Ann’s Comments:

Today we immersed ourselves as much we could in Chinese culture. After having
breakfast at the hotel, we rented a taxi for half the day to visit three
temples: Yonghe Gong, Kong Miao, and Tiantan Gongyuan.

Yonghe Gong is the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple in China (outside Tibet
itself). It was built in the 1700s, but it wasn’t until 1949 that it was
declared protected as a major historical relic. It was the most colorful of the
temples we saw. What stands out most about this one is the amount of incense
that people would light, place in front of them or over their heads and pray,
and then place in big iron containers in front of each building.

They would enter the building and there would be HUGE statues. There were
offerings in front of each one – with the most common two being oranges and
unburned incense. There were kneeling pillows in front of each of the statues.

The other thing that I found fascinating was this old bell that had thousands of
Chinese characters inscribed on it -–from the top to the bottom. The level of
detail is representative of the art/décor of each building within Yonghe Gong.

Kong Miao was just around the corner from Yonghe Gong and it is the Confucian
Temple and Imperial College. It is the second largest Confucian temple in
China.
Immediately when you enter Kong Miao, there are huge rectangular pillars which
represent the names of those successful in the civil service examinations of the
imperial court.

The thing that stands out about this one are the musical instruments that were
in the far building. There were huge drums, different guitar-type instruments,
and lots of flutes. There were even five stone drums inscribed with Chinese
characters.

Last, was Tiantan Gongyuan – or Temple of Heaven Park. The park/temple
originally served as a stage for rites performed by the Son of Heaven who came
here to pray for good harvests, seek divine clearance, and atone for the sins of
the people.

The temples are all round and the bases are square. This represents the Chinese
belief that heaven is round and the earth is square.

What stands out most about this temple/park is that attention to detail and
focus on the number nine. On one circular area we walked on, there were three
sets of steps – each having nine steps. Odd numbers are considered heavenly,
and nine is the largest single-digit odd number. The top tier, thought to
symbolize heaven, has nine rings of stones, each composed of multiples of nine
stones, so that the ninth ring has 81 stones.

We came back to the hotel, and ate lunch at the Chinese restaurant (we were the
only non-Chinese there). The food was GREAT – and we’re both getting better
with eating with chopsticks.

Relaxed for a bit and then we headed over to the fitness club to rent bikes.
Went for an energizing bike ride along the streets and highways of Beijing. We
rode along buses and taxis that don’t follow any logical rules…and avoided and
darted between other bikers – just like we do in traffic on a highway. Everyone
seems to watch out for bikers, though, and that gave us enough confidence to
cross a couple major intersections – despite taxis that came within a few inches
of us.

Finished the afternoon with a sauna and we should be meeting the rest of our
tour group shortly. They will have just arrived in Beijing after a really long
flight.

We both had a great day, and are so happy that we have extra time in Beijing to
experience the city and people. Later tonight we’re going to the market
again…now that we understand the system.

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