2013.11.22-24. A weekend in Beijing

My 2nd trip this month to Beijing, China. Tiring. Again, Air Canada with Costco instant noodles! I arrived on 21st Thursday eve. Good that I had almost a weekend for sightseeing in the city, before I had to get to Suzhou where our SMT house is located. Friday night, after work, all of us who traveled (including one from Shanghai) went to 后海 for dinner. 4 (who are leaving tomorrow) went bar hopping afterwards. I was by then too tired, so packed into a taxi with the other three back to the hotel.

11/23, Saturday. I joined a group of ~100 people to 天漠, a natural sand dune north of Beijing. (￥106) Well organized. A printout of the route was distributed, and money was collected on the bus. The guide talked about her other trips better than most advertisements. The gathering site was about 15 minute walk from my hotel. The drive was almost 2 hours. On the way, we passed by the Great Wall 八达岭长城. The dune was managed by Beijing Film factory. The local villagers clean and collect entrance fee. Funny to see dune this close to a big reservoir 宫厅水库. Lots of movie props. The historic attraction is the badly eroded ancient 燕长城 Great Wall (predates Qing). Now just a dirt mount. But you can see them rising on the mountain ridge.
Lunch is in 柳沟, a 40 minutes drive. This small town built restaurants and lodges amidst corn fields, caters to Beijing crowd. Only ￥26 (included in the package), we ate over a dozen hot dishes and some cold ones. Many made by tofu. A little meat and fish. Soy milk is fresh and hot. The problem is way too many people coming at the same time. The poor servers had trouble parry incessant demanding hands. There're always unsatisfied customers. After the lunch, we continued east to village of 永定 with some 2-300 year old houses lining the only street, a pagoda, and a Catholic cathedral completely out of place.

11/24. Sunday. Walked to the Lama Temple. 雍和宫 ¥25. YongHeGong Lama Temple is the biggest Tibetan lamasery in China outside of Tibet. Buit in 1694 for Prince Yong before he came to the throne as Emperor YongZhen 雍正.
In 1744, it was changed into a Tibetan lama temple. Symmetric layout. Signed in 4 languages: Manchu, Han, Tibetan and Mongolian. The 3 major treasures are: an 18 meter tall Maitreya Buddha 弥勒佛 (8m extra below ground) carved out of a single white sandalwood 白檀 (a Guinness record, a 3 level home was built to shelter it); the Niche of Buddha made of phoebe nanmu 金丝楠木 with 3 layers of filigree; the 500-Arhat-Mountain made of red sandalwood 紫檀. I like one large painting made entirely of colored sand.

国子监 Guozijian & 文庙 Confucius Temple ¥30. Same entrance. Free frequent guided tour in Chinese. Nice brochure in both English and Chinese. 8:30 - 17:00. Confucius Temple, built in 1306, has many old trees, statues to honor Confucius, monuments to commemorate the works done to restore/renovate the temple. You can buy small wishing plaques to tie next to the statues for good luck in academia. Next door is the imperial academy, where, since 元 Yuan dynasty, imperial exams (every 3 years) were taken. Built in 1308. The lecture hall is quite impressive: no vertical beam in the large hall offers unobstructed view of the emperor who sits in the middle. According to our guide, it was designed by 和绅，the biggest corrupted official of his era. The hall sits in the middle of a square lot surrounded by a circular moat with white alabaster bridges, so called 方圆. Here, you can find some famous names, on 198 stone tablets, among over 50000 进士 (passed the exam) carved names.

Before going back to the hotel, I walked further to Nanluogu Alley 南锣鼓巷. Bustling with lunch crowd. Small eateries, mostly snacks. Very crowded and noisy. I didn't like it. Hopped on a bus back to hotel, picked up my luggage, and headed over to the south train station 北京南站, so I can reconvene with the other 3 in the factories tomorrow. ￥2 unlimited change. My route is about 1 hour, using 3 subway lines. Line 4 exits right inside the train station. Very convenient. The ride to Suzhou is about 5.5 hours, and ￥523. This is one of the many high speed trains, runs up to ~300km/s. My line has 7-8 stops, so not too fast.

2013.11.16. Oregon Symphony

Saturday 7:30. I decided to rest this weekend, because I have a cold and was sleep deprived for the past 2 weeks. Armed with caugh drops, I attended a Oregon Symphony concert, curtesey of work.
• Justin Brown, conductor
• Inon Barnatan, piano

Verdi: Macbeth ballet music
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet, orchestral excerpts

2013/11/5-7 PingYao 平遥

平遥 is a completely walled city. The train station is a 15 min walk NW outside of the wall. Most houses are 100-500 years old (明清). Well preserved, or renovated. UNESCO listed. This was once a town of banks and traders. Some old homes are converted to museums. For ¥120, you can buy a ticket to most these sites, valid in 3 days. But you can just stay here. Very pretty, enough though a bit too touristy. Many hotels or homes renting out rooms. Some are very pretty with a couple of inner courtyards, ancient trees. Not enough tourists in this chilly November. Prices are slashed in half. I settled into a home close to the north gate (closer to both the train and the bus depot).

I enjoy walking in the old town. Happened to see a wedding procession today. Visited many museums which require this ticket. Pretty soon, I couldn't tell one from the other. Some big ones have guides and group tours, whom I can listen to. 日升昌票号, 雷履泰故居, 蔚泰厚(票号博物馆), 百川通(三晋大财东家私博物馆),中国镖局博物馆, 蔚盛长(珍藏博物馆), 平遥古城清凉寺, 城隍庙, 古县衙, 文庙. I like 文庙 (Confucius Temple) the most: no hords of tour groups. At least visit one bank (each has a cryptic language to document the amount and transaction time), one home, the old town government site (with prison and court), the main temple. The two main streets are very lively and full of shops and restaurants in lovely old buildings, selling things twice as much as outside. Still fun to browse. If you wonder off the main commercial street, you get to see what it looks like without restoration. Another must do is walking on the city wall. Make sure to use the toilet before you go up. You can only go up at the north and south gate, and you can only descend at the east, west gate and next the Confucius Temple (close to the south gate). I saw less than 10 people while on the wall for at least half an hour. Great big wall. The gates are elaborate with multiple gates and guard houses between inner and outer parts.

王家大院 ¥66 (35km south) Wang's Estate is reachable by public transportation. Train to 介休 Jiexiu (I highly recommend the 8:45am slow train 普客 ¥3, very empty, 28 min). There, take bus #11 (¥5/人) every 20 min, 40 min ride. Passing 介子堆's home near 绵山. Home of a wealthy merchant (venith in the 18th century). Very impressive. HUGE: 0.15 km². It's worth tagging along a guide, who will describe the meaning of each carving/painting (in the first few buildings). Walking along the wall provides a bird's eye view of ~1000 houses inside, and Mt Mian Shan 绵山 beyond to the south.

From 介休, I took another bus (every 30 min) to 张壁 ¥60/50 winter. A ghost town with dilapidated buildings hoping to become a tourist attraction. It also has a mud wall, but not complete. There's tunnel, being excavated. I walked in part of it, not sure what it is for. Quite long and well constructed. The problem of coming here in low season, is that there's no bus leaving in the afternoon. I waited in vain for half an hour, and decided to walk to the next town for 4km, and there, I caught the 4:30 pm bus. The train I took back to Pingyao was so crowded, and it costs ¥9, because it is non-stop. Right, saves 1 minute.

镇国寺 ZhengGuo Temple ¥24/18 is 12km NE. Bus # on the main street north of the wall. ~30 min. Not a whole lot to see. I was the only one while I was there. Only when I left, saw another tourist coming. The main shrine 万佛寺 Wangfo is the oldest wooden structure in China, dates to 五代. Looks pretty good to me. I took a photo of this buddha who sits in a non-conventional way.

Next time if I come to Shanxi 山西, I have to visit 双林寺 ShuanLin Temple, 6km SW. It's reputed to have the most colorful statues. Well, next time. Also I have to go visit 乔家大院 Qiao's Estate, setting for movie Raise the Red Lantern.

I took a slow train to Taiyuan 太原, the capital. There I was able to take money out of the ATM. There're a couple of banks next to the big train station. Opposite a Spar supermarket called Meetall 美特好, where I had dinner, and bought some cookies for my coworkers back in Oregon.

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11/8 Friday, my evening train is to arrive in Shanghai ~9am. Walking around the town in heavy smog. Had dinner at my uncle's. Met my cousin and his new wife and baby.

11/9. Friends.

On Sunday 11/10, I visited Shanghai Museum, before heading to the airport for my 6pm flight. The museum is free (30 minutes in queue), and well worth a few hours. Crowded, yet orderly. There happened to be a French impressionist exhibit from Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. I enjoyed it very much.

2013.11.3-4 Datong 大同

Practicality: $1 ~= ¥6. China is a cash society. ATM in major cities accept foreign bank cards. Student (undergrad and lower) pays 50% discount at most parks. If you are above 60, or at some places 70, you can get in for free.

Nov. 3rd. Sunday
Arrived at Datong before 7am. Chilly. I checked into the government hotel (¥128 a private room: 2 twin beds, shower without curtain, toilet, hot water dispenser, thermo, minor stain on bedsheet) next to the train station, run by China Railways. A lot of hustlers elicited passengers emerging from the exit door. I was tailed by a taxi driver. Eventually, I gave in and agreed on ¥120 for the transportation to 恒山 & 悬空寺. He was selling me to a small van going there. I was supposed to meet the van in the city center at 8:30 am. Since it was still early, he went for breakfast and took me with. It's a small eatery of hand shaving noodles 刀削面. ￥5~6 (~$1) a hearty bowl of steaming noodles, some indiscernible topping (minced meat? chopped veggie? definitely soy based). I added ￥1 for an egg, and ￥0.5 for a piece of bean curd. My driver also took some salty cured turnip. We sat down to eat, and he chatted with the neighboring clients. Some wait, and the van showed up, already packed with 2 Japanese girls, 2 Chinese girls, all college kids from Beijing, a business man from the south. It turned out that the 4 girls at the same hotel chartered the "bus" for ￥300.

Mt. Heng 恒山 (¥55, ¥20 if not visiting the temples) is northern one of the five notable mountains 五岳 in China. 2nd tallest. All the Chinese in my small van hiked to the 2016m summit. Not steep, just many steps. There's a small monument there. Not particular interesting. I took the cable car down ¥25. The cable car station is about half way. Arid, even though there's a reservoir below. Lots of Buddhist temples as early as in 6th century. Legend has it that one of the 8 Taoist immortals 張果老 retired here. He rode a donkey backwards. There's a tree, which you can see a mark "made" by his donkey startled by a white tiger. Next to the tree, there're dark red spots on the flat grayish rock -- legend calls blood. We hired a guide for ¥50, and he walked up with us relating stories.

悬空寺 = Hanging Temple, a series of worshiping structures build on a cliff about 1600 years ago 北魏末. ¥150 (¥130 winter fare). It's on the opposite side of Mount Heng, on the way. A huge parking lot is built next to the dam. The temple itself is limited to 80 visitors at a time. Now it's the low season, don't have to worry about queuing. This is truly amazing: entirely wood! and the way it stands. Throughout the years, restoration has been applied to the temple, and enough ink has lauded over it. The rickety structure on wooden stilts still look scary. The supporting poles look half rotten to me, and when I pushed one a little bit, I saw it shaking!

We returned early enough (even though 64km took over an hour), that I had time to check out the town. HuaYan Temple 华严寺, named after 华严经=Avatamsaka Sutra (¥60/40). The large complex sits in the city center, walled off, on this Sunday afternoon, provides some solitude. I don't particularly like the music (chanting of scripture) played through the loudspeakers installed every 10m. The center temple is said to be the largest surviving wooden temple in China. Dates to 1038. I like the tower, where you can walk up for a fine view of the town (see the first image of this blog). It's said to be the only wooden structure survived from 辽. And it's in good standing.

ChunYang Temple 纯阳宫 is a Taoist (全真派）temple complex. ¥30. much smaller. Almost no one inside. They have repainted some cabinet doors, and lay them over walkways to dry out.

It was almost 6pm when I entered the Big Mosque 大清真寺. They were preparing for the evening prayer. I had to knock on doors to pay my ¥10. Then I was let loose. The complex is small, but I couldn't find where people were. Some pamphlet on the wall about why they don't eat pork, and about the Muslin population in the city.

The last site of my day is 九龙壁 (1392-1396) ¥10. It is just one court yard. 45m x 8m ceramic / mosaic wall. The 9 dragons are splendid, vivid. I need to come back for a better light. Lights were up on the streets and in stores. But the big lights at the foot of this wall stayed shut.

Datong city looks quite pretty. In the center of the town, some nice new homes are built with traditional looks. Yes, old homes are vacated or demolished. A few sections of the old rampart have been restored, and the light houses look serious and ancient. Outside of the city walls, highrises are every where. Looks indistinguishable from another Chinese city. Tried rabbit head for dinner (a local specialty), before heading back to my hotel. On the way, I asked a couple of locals for direction. Both were dismayed at a female walking alone in the evening (about 7:30pm). One I had hard time understanding his dialect. Tried 3 banks' ATMs today, couldn't get cash from my US debit card.

Nov. 4th. Monday
Yungang Caves 云冈石窟 ¥120 is easy to get to. Just a ¥1.5 30 min bus (#3) ride from 新开里 bus depot at the west end of town. To get to the bus depot from the train station, take bus #4. ¥1 (with travel card 0.65). 30 min. Bus #3 passes a couple of coal mining towns, and the last stop is in front of the giant elaborated gate. Even though the new construction is overshadowing the essence of this place: Buddhas in caves. Still worth the trip. ¥150, 8:30-17:00. I also bought a ¥5 map. Capital of North Wei 北魏 was initially set here (平城). For almost 50 years in the late 400s, encouraged or even organized by the court, as many as 40,000 worked in digging the sandstones. A UNESCO heritage. Buddhas, giant and small, with facial/clothing features morphing from Indian, MidEast to Han Chinese. Most notable is the colorful painting on some Buddhas and cave walls. However, cave #9-14, probably the most colorful, are closed for renovation. Cave #6 has carvings illustrate the life of Shakyamuni. It would be good to eavesdrop a guide here.

I like the architectural aspects of its modern museum. Not a whole lot things inside. The newly built island of Linyan Temple 灵岩寺 on the island is quite nice. There is a performance hall (closed), a puppet theatre, and a memorial hall to Premier Zhou 周恩来 for his initiative of restoring the site. At the exit, shops and stalls in newly made old-looking houses.

My train tonight is at 23:17, and is scheduled to arrive at Pingyao 平遥 at 06:22. Seat/berth/cabin: ¥61/122/¥186.

2013.11.2. Hike in Beijing

I went to Beijing on business for the week of 10/28-11/1. Then I took a week of vacation (the most my manager would allow at this busy time).

First of all, don't fly Air Canada. Its customer service is a joke! During the 11 hour flight, we were served 2 small meals, and a bowl of instant noodle! No hot water for noodles towards the back of the plane. Hot tea/coffee and alcohol was offered with one meal only. When I went and asked for an extra piece of bread, I was told that there was none left. On my flight back, my first leg was one hour late. When I raised my concern about my connecting flight, I was told that I didn't need worry because there is an Alaska Air flight one hour later at 3pm. Well, I ran through another security check and US immigration, and made to my gate 10 minutes before departure. But I was denied entry because my luggage hadn't made it. The gate agent changed my boarding pass to the 6pm Air Canada flight. When I requested to be put on Alaska Air, she said I need to buy my own ticket, and be responsible to get my luggage transferred, because Air Canada would do nothing. No apologies, no attempt to try to talk to Alaska Air. Not a penny, and no access to lounge because my ticket is in economy class. I should say that the lady at the lounge was nice, but she would not let me in because it was against the policy.

11/2. Saturday. I joined a bunch of (~25) local, hiked the back of Fragrance Hill (香山). Fragrance Hill is reputed to have the best fall color in Beijing. Well, far duller compared to the color in US.

Early ~7am, subway + bus to YangJiaZhuang 杨家庄 station northwest of Beijing (北京), meeting at 8am. Started walking over some residential area, then up a hill, down a hill, up another hill... Passed some old walkways, on the backside of Fragrance Hill, eventually at its top (more people). We continued to YangTuo 杨陀, a small town next to a big elaborated cemetery. There's a spring, its water is fed through pipes and taps for free by the cemetery. My hiking group dispersed at the bus station there shortly before 3pm. The whole trail is about 800m accumulated gain, and 15km.

Took 2 buses (¥1 each. 0.4 with travel card) to get to a subway stop. 1.5 hours later, we arrived at one of the train stations to buy tickets for my upcoming short trips. Some night trains are in high demand. I bought the very last ticket that evening for 山西 Shanxi, even though there are 2 trains within 1 hour of each other. Then we went to visit Beijing University. On the way, I sampled the creamy plain yogurt in small ceramic pots on a street. After a YunNan 云南 style dinner in the neighborhood (I liked the pineapple conge, pork rib soup in bamboo), we went for a foot massage. ¥60 for 50 minutes. Not bad, could be cheaper. They turned the TV on as soon as we walked into our "room". A young man was assigned to me, and a young lady was assigned to my friend. I guess the girl's hands are lighter, my friend fell asleep. I got bored (I turned the TV off to charge my phone), so chatted with these two migrant workers. At about 9pm, we emerged with relaxed muscles, and parted our ways. I headed to the West Train Station dragging my luggage for my train at 0:35am, which will arrive ~6:50am.

You need to show ID and ticket in order to enter the train station. It is BIG. Over a dozen big waiting rooms on both sides of the main hall, with restaurants and the like. Each waiting area has its bathrooms, a hot water dispenser, a long washing sink with 3-4 taps, a long counter that sells snacks, a charging station for ¥1 (otherwise, no outlet). There're always someone smoking under the non-smoking sign. ~30 minutes before departure, they check the ticket and ID again, before you can get to the platform. My train is ¥53.5 for a seat, ¥107.5 for a general sleeper (3 levels, the bottom bed is slightly more expensive), and ¥158.5 for a sleeper in a 4 person cabin. For the other tickets I bought, I had to pay ¥5 extra each, because the train doesn't start here.