Farewell China

I definitely fell in love with China in a way I didn't expect...Despite the terrible traffic & general confusion, it is a very impressive country that is at once traditional (Chinese Medicine, Taoism, body work, cuisine) & at the same time cutting edge (art, design, fashion, business). Drenched in historical significance, China took a global back seat in the Mao times & is again booming with prosperity & vibrancy. Definitely on the upswing, it was a fun place to visit is the midst of such drastic development.

On one of our final days we flew to Xi'an to see the Terracotta Warriors, a collection of terracotta sculptures, each individual, life size figures, depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife, and to make sure that he had people to rule over. It consists of 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits (wikipedia).

The warriors were discovered in 1974 by this gentleman above. He found one while digging a well & was awarded 300 RMB (approx $50) by the government (which he handed back). He now works at the gift shop on site & signs books.

As you can see they are still located below ground where discovered, most of the warriors have not been excavated because once they are exposed to oxygen, their painted exterior, still colorful after 2,200 years, vanishes within 5 minutes. They are waiting for more "modern technology" to remove the others safely.

Guy bun heaven.

The TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) class turned out to be very interesting. Alex only uses herbs when he has a cold & he doesn't believe that either the new Eastern or Western medicine stresses enough the importance of preventative rather than symptom based medicine. He discussed diet as a key tool to mental and physical well being.

SNACK STREET: a very crowded street with Chinese delicacies, such as sheep penis, tarantula, stomach & silk worm cocoons.

"Stinky tofu", restaurants have private rooms for guests to indulge in this popular dish.

Read closely.

Clearly this was one of my favorite places.

Dessert.

Yummy cricket.

Grace I will miss the most.

Dinner at Made In China - Super Potato designed restaurant.

A little after hours lounge music, pop songs played on traditional instruments (sounds cooler than it was).

Old Beijing : Walking Tour

We started our day at the Lama Temple, walking over to Guozijian - the boutique Lost + Found (near the Confucius Universities), up to the newly gentrified Hutong area Wudaoying (a horrible lunch at hip vegan restaurant: Veggie Table), to the Hou Hai Lake District, Nanluoguxiang (NLGX) for souvenirs and a well deserved foot massage, then to Dali Courtyard for dinner.

Lama Temple, built in 1694. 18M high sandlewood Buddah.

 

Traditional Chinese Courtyard.

Guozijian, Confucius area.

Walking into the Wudaoying I had my favorite street food of the whole trip, pancake type dumplings filled with leeks, cabbage or minced meat with onions. TDF.

Hutongs are a type of narrow streets or alleys, most commonly associated with Beijing, China. In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighbourhoods. Since the mid-20th century, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history. (wikipedia)

"Chipsters" : Chinese Hipsters.

We walked around the Hou Hai, the back lakes adjacent to the Forbidden City: this area of Beijing contains some of the most extensive old Hutong neighborhoods and the three lakes of Xihai, Houhai and Oianhai.

Men gathered around a heated game of Chinese Chess.

Street Food. 

Purse Man.

Ping Pong in the park.

Construction Site.

In the old days, because of its proximity, those working at the Forbidden City had their homes on the Hou Hai (back lakes), much like those who worked in Hollywood lived in Beverly Hills (as explained to me by my Chinese guide book).

The Great Wall of China

Seeing the Great Wall of China was a spectacular experience, not only because it is one of the great wonders of the world, but the dramatic conditions in which we climbed the wall made it even more memorable. The weather in China hasn't been great since we have arrived, a couple of "sunny" days, but we definitely picked the worst day to go to the Great Wall, constant rain. Unfortunately it was the only day that we could go so we decided to drive the 1.5 hours outside of Beijing to Mutianyu, to see if it was raining there..it was...so then we decided to wait it out...no luck...alas we embarked on the Great Wall with half massed determination, dressed in soldiers ponchos & myself an umbrella that turned inside out once we hit the elements surrounding the steep hillside. Invigorated by the mysterious serenity of the stormy day, we climbed & climbed & climbed some more - far beyond the point in which tourists were suppose to stop - to the end of the road where the wall went from an orderly arrangement of bricks to a mess of rocks & dirt. It was very steep in some parts (we had to use all four limbs to climb up) & extremely slippery in others (I managed to almost kill myself, flinging on for dear life to the crenelations of the wall). The rain turned out to add to the experience because there were very few tourists up there, thus it was that much easier to let your imagination take you back to the 7th century when it was used to keep intruders out of China. We ended the day freezing and exhausted...but we still managed to make it out to dinner.  

The Schoolhouse at Mutianyu...soaked with rain, a very cool place.

www.theschoolhouseatmutianyu.com/

 We held a little drawing salon while waiting for the rain to stop.

 Ascending on the Great Wall.

Nunny Boy in his poncho.

 A dry moment looking out over the cherry blossoms.

 Safe House.

 I won! JR finished second.

 The end of the road.

 Grace was less than thrilled to keep hiking but once we reached the top she was very happy!

The yummiest dinner at Dali Courtyard (our second time in one week).

More Photos : HERE


Beijing : 798, Caochangdi & beyond.

Great day in Beijing, the day of the big party!! Rob Minkoff (actually his Chinese American wife, Crystal) threw a big party for the kickoff of the Beijing Film festival. They have had an apartment in Beijing for five years & Rob has become a fixture in the film industry here. Crystal's brother (both of them from LA) moved here in '97 & has become a Chinese pop star of sorts, so we have met some very interesting people over the last week. We spent the majority of the day in 798, the place to go to see Chinese Contemporary Art, comparable to Soho. It is a very polished version of Caochangdi, which we went to later in the day to see the month long photo exhibit that just started. Caochangdi is a small village a little farther out than 798, you have to walk through very confusing streets to finally find this modern art mecca buried in the nucleus of old Chinese culture. Awesome. We left mid afternoon to go back & get ready for the party. One of the best things about China is how cheap the services are, so I was able to have a facialist come to the room, get my hair blown out & then my make up done...I felt like a real woman!! I could get use to it here...The party was very cool in an old China, 1920's sort of way, with many Asian movie stars, models dressed up in ball gowns with masks, cotton candy & far too many "Minkoff's", champagne with vodka & lime (a good drink btw)! To top the night off we ended up at Spark to see Lil John perform, a very random & amazing experience to have in China. To read the LA Times article about the party, click: HERE.

798.

Art Center with crazy Gu Dexin exhibit (more images at link below).

I guess it is normal here to get dressed up in communist garbe for your wedding photos...

Cookie cutter man.

Caochangdi Art Center. 

I like this photo.

Boy playing with tadpoles.

Caochangdi dogs coming to attack.

Before the party.

Yes, cotton candy & a Minkoff.

 Lil John.

More photos : HERE