Day 3 - I paid 60 quai to get into summer

  Beijing, China
Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Day 3 - I paid 60 quai to get into summer

Well, originally the plan was to get up at the crack of dawn and head out to the summer palace, another of the Beijing cultural landmarks. But we were both recovering from the energy spent the day before at Forbidden City, Silk Market and everything else. So we agreed that we would take a more easy-going morning and visit some of her friends at Beida University (Where Rebecca was studying this summer) and hit the summer palace in the evening.

Once we got outside, we were hit by a blinding brilliance of sunlight. It wasn't really that long since I was basking in some of the wonderful Oregon summer. But for Rebecca, it has been months, and it was a little hard for her to process. Honestly, it was even a little hard for me to process. There is just something about the air here.... I think they call it "fatally toxic pollution"... which makes the very air glow when it's sunny. And even when it's not sunny. I noticed it when I was at the Forbidden City yesterday. About how you walk out from the subway station and it feels like that air is glowing. There is so much particulate crap in the air that the sun is 100% diffused. No joke, there are a lot of times you care stare directly at it and all you see is an amber colored blob... And that's if you're lucky that day. If you aren't, you don't see anything at all... The whole sky is kind of a dirty brown color. But it's not dark! Things are kind of illuminated from all sides when it gets like that. And when I was at the Frobidden City, I kept thinking about just how patient a photographer would have to be to get a good shot that has the slightest bit of contrast to it. I can take a moment here to rave about the new camera I got. It has several presets that control contrast, saturation, exposure time and flash settings, and any of the good shots I got while in the forbidden city are only because of the brilliant abilities of this little gizmo. I'm really quite happy with it.

Anyway... Back to Rebecca and her sunglasses.
We walked out of the hotel into a rarity in Beijing life: A sunny day. And because of the latent pollution and the aforementioned effect, it seemed even brighter than normal. We both left our sunglasses in the room. We both thought we could stick it out, but we make it about 15 steps away from the door (literally) and we turned right around, tromped up the four flights of stairs to our room and found our sunglasses. Once we were back out, we caught a cab to Beida university.
I took a picture of the blue sky since Becca said it was such a rarity. I also saw another typical Beijing sight: A delivery truck with the back door wide open and dudes sitting in the back just chilling. I'm not sure what they were doing back there, but it looked like they were workers of some sort and they were on their way to another job. But the image struck me because it was something we would never see in the states. "You can't ride in the back of moving vehicle!" they would say... Or "You can't start the car until all the doors and windows are closed."

And then it struck me:
Liability means nothing in this country.

One country, about a fifth of the worlds population and there seems to be concept of "Liability". That thing that in the United States you get your ability to drive taken away if you don't pay for it every month. That thing that puts doctors out of business. That thing that makes insurance executives rich beyond all reason. It is something is that is woven into the very fabric of our culture. Well, I'm sure it wasn't always that way, and my guess is that here I'm looking at a very substantial portion of the world which has a culture that has developed without it. I'd also guess that is has something to do with the communist doctrine. If the government will always take care of you, then why would you need about liability. Because in the end, the government will be there for everybody...

...right?...

...anybody?...

...anybody?...

...Beuler?...

Right now, I'm not sure what I think about this idea. I'm going to need to cogitate on this for a couple of days. It's like there are some ideas forming in my head that haven't quite made it to completion yet.

Back to the events of the day:
We went to Beida university, and Rebecca dropped some stuff of with one of her friends named Mazee. She's from Hawaii I guess, and her parent's are chinese. She's a sweetie and been one of Rebecca's good friends while she's been here. She wanted to meet me and I wanted to meet her, so we planned on lunch together today.

Rebecca showed me the local university market which has a little bit of everything. DVD's, clothing, gorceries, a bakery, imitation tennis shoes, luggage and lots more I'm sure I can't remember. The place was a little crazy. It was like crossing the UO bookstore with a payless from the 70's. Then shoving it 50 feet underground and making you walk through a latrine to get there. Yeah... I'd say that's pretty close. It was still a very useful thing to have near campus, get just about anything at dirt cheap prices, and the people are nice. But buying something was weird. Somebody shadows you all around the store to "help" you get what you need. Then you pick something, and they either escort you to a... Uh... I don't know what to call them... An "attendant" I guess? or they take the item from you and you follow them to the attendant and then attendant looks it over, sometimes reads the name off the item and asks you if that is what you really want. You say "yes" and then they write you a hand-written receipt. Then either they, or usually your escort-person, takes that receipt and the item over to the nearest cashier, who takes your money and stamps the receipt. At this point, the escort is usually gone. And you think you are done, right? But no, if you try to leave they chase you down and show you how you need to take the receipt back to the "attendant" person who wrote the receipt in the first place. They pretty much just take it from you, stab it onto one of these desktop note-keeper thingies that Harrison Ford always uses in the last second to gouge-out the eyeball of the bad guy while wrestling on his corporate desk. After the fatal stabbing, they simply dismiss you.

At first, I'm thinking "this is crazy!" but then it dawns on me: I look around and see how many people this little system has employed, and I see the sick wisdom of it. And I realize that China kicks America's ass in one category: employment. China sure knows how to employ people. I'm not saying they are good jobs, satisfying jobs or "living wage" jobs... But they are jobs and people are employed. And even if it is the most menial task, and employed person behaves differently than an unemployed one.

After the store experience, we meet Becca's friend and go to lunch at "The medecine house." My first real dose of "good" chinese food in China. Sure enough, the food was great. I had this chicken and fried peanuts thing, along with a couple of others. We ate with Mazee, who I already mentioned, but she's been fighting this nasty cold for a long time. Maybe it's just the "Beijing Cough" or maybe it's something else. I didn't really think about it much at the time, since it didn't really seem like we were directly sharing any food, but immediately after the meal I felt a sore throat and the beginnings of a cold. But I also shared with Rebecca and Eddy, who also ate with us, and none of them were effected. So I'm really not sure that I caught a cold from Rebecca's friend. It actually seems unlikely on one hand, because this particular one hit me the same way it does when I eat food prepared on old, not-sterilized frying pans and stuff. (Yes, that's happened enough that I know uniquely what it feels like). So I don't know if it was friends, or the "medicine house"... If it was the restaurant, then I guess I just got some "bad medicine"... but I surely wouldn't say that "bad medicine is what I need." haha! (Bonus points if you can name the reference... That's too easy for Jeff)


After lunch, not wanting to worry Rebecca, I tried to ignore all the signs... also knowing that I couldn't really do anything about it. So I just followed her around the university as she showed me buildings and gates and classrooms and playfields. The university is a welcome swatch of green and foliage in a town otherwise bereft of such things. So if you're going to come to Beijing, do it as a student.... or a corpse. I don't think they'd mind much either.

After the tour, we walked to Papa John's Pizza parlor, because it was known to have WiFi, and I needed to upload some of these blogs and check email and all that. Internet is suprisingly sparse in Beijing, and WiFi has been very hard to find. We got there, I break the news about the cold to Rebecca, she gets a little worried, but I let her know I'll be ok, that happens sometimes, and I reminded her that she fought a cold her first week or so in Beijing as well. We got some breaksticks and sprite and tried the WiFi. I found an access point, but couldn't get to any internet. So we gave up ad decided to go get some tissues and stuff at a minimart nearby.
On the way, we passed a restauraunt with an odd sight outside. It looked like all the cooks, prep-cooks and waiters were standing outside the front door in military-fashion, being adressed by some guy on the front steps. We didn't hang around to see what was up, but it was yet another sight so uniquely Chinese that I had to take a subtle picture. After the minimart, on the way back, we saw the same picture, but this time it was all the female waitresses and greeters. Again, in military fashion (though and actual military person... Like Rebecca.... Would scoff at the idea)


From there we caught a cab to the "Summer Palace". This is another huge swatch of land carved out of the countryside, based on some natural wonder (in this case a lake) and then build into an amazing setting of wonder and majesy on the backs of thousands of ancient peasant artisans. As soon as we walked through the gate, Rebecca said "This is a perfect day to come here". And that's because the sun was at late afternoon levels, shining briliantly on the giant lake. We were surrounded by amazing architecture, and everywhere you looked you saw.... Construction. What else did you think I was going to say?

Ok, there was also amazing artwork, architecture, construction and beauty. The place really is a sight to behold. Maybe I'm just a sucker for natural beauty, but I liked it a lot more than the Forbidden City. We walked out to the lake and there was an island off to one side with a giant stone footbridge then lead to a big palace-like thing standing boldly among the natural foliage.
Then directly across, sillouetted by the afternoon haze (this IS Beijing, the air wasn't THAT clear) was this great pagoda, probably 7 or 8 levels tall, maybe more. It was a long ways away, and one of the best "chinese" looking vistas I've seen thus far. But the thing really refused to be photographed well. I tried about ten times and only got one shot even close to mediocre. It was really kinda weird. Anyway, off to the right, was this giant super-palace built into the hillside. It was a little ways away, and it looked spectacular.
I exclaimed "Can we go there?" and Rebecca said "Yes." so we headed that way. There was a grand walkway on the way there that is just covered with detailed paintings and artwork. But it was the main thing completely blocked off because of construction. I caught a couple of shots of it you can see in my picture section. But I can imagine what it was like when it was a private residence and the emporess would be carried through there on litters. We wandered up and down the hills, finding little grottoes and walkways that most of the other tourists didn't swarm to. We were even completely alone at one point, which was kinda neat since we got a dose of that private-residence feel. We eventually made it to the side entrace of the grand super-palace only to find the gate locked.
It closed at 5:30PM, and it was 6:00 when we found it. (I think we got to the site at maybe 5:15, so we were kinda out of luck anyway) So that was a major dissapointment, but the rest of the grounds were amazing. We continued on the down the path, my sickness and dialy headache getting to the point where it was quite an irritation. We rounded one path and came upon the "Granite Boat". And that's a pretty crazy sight. There should be a pic in my pictures section. I don't actually know if the thing actually floats or if it's just a grand carving. But either way it's pretty cool.

We continued on exploring, I had to take a break to cool my head off, since that was my main hypothesis why I got such a headache every day. And the coughing and sniffling was getting worse. Defenitely a cold now. And the plan was to go for Peking Duck after... But we were both pretty wiped out, so we sat next to a stone-and-stagnant-water meditation pool, Rebecca put her head in my lap and dozed while I watched the sun set over the walls of the grounds and the slum houses nearby. After a brief discussion, we decided we wanted some food that would be good, filling and "safe". That the peking duck might not sit the best in a system that is already sick. So we laughed at ourselves for deciding that we wanted to go back to the Indian restaurant again, then retire early because we were flying south to the Yunnan provice early the next morning.

We got up from our meditation spot, headed back down the trail towards the rear exit of the Summer Palace. And Cicadas were almost deafening, I got a video of it, but I won't be able to upload it until after I get back because it's kinda huge.
We found the rear exit, it was dusk at this point, and apparently most foreigners don't leave that way. It was defenitely a difference experience. The front is all established and developed. The back way is like walking into a 1950's set. We got lots and LOTS of stares while walking hand-in-hand towards a main road. This is the kind of situation what might have freaked out some people, but Rebecca tells me that crimes against foreigners is at an all-time low. They simply don't do it. Because if they did, the government knows that it would result in China getting bad press, and bad press would impact the amount of money and "face" they are going to get from hosting the Olympics in 2008. So it sounds like the government has pretty much told people "if you commit a crime against a foreigner, we'll have your head." And I'm not sure I'm joking with that. Right before I came I read a story about how China deals with drug dealers. Every year on this one particular day, they gather up the 20 "worst" drug dealers that are currently incarcerated, then the drag them to the big square in the capital. (I'm guessing that means tiananmen square) and they have a big pomp-and-circumstance show about how well then doing in the war on drugs. The government looks good, law enforcement looks good, and anybody interested in drugs see them and knows what happens next. Because after the ceremony, those 20 dealers are taken out to a field and shot in the back of the head.

When Nancy Reagan said "Just say 'no' to drugs." I don't think she imagined "no" being delivered in a nice compact 9mm package. Part of me wants to say that's a pretty effective way of delivering your "no". But on the other hand, with "absolute" solutions like that, there is sure a lot of room for error. Like maybe that guy wasn't realy a drug dealer, maybe his ex-wife was really pissed at him and filed a false claim out of spite. And then the pacifist in me comes out and has a difficult time with execution in general. But that's not really the point I was trying to make. The point is that Rebecca and I can walk around just abound anywhere in China and feel as safe or safer as walking around back home. And that is one aspect of this trip that is very very nice.

We eventually found a cab, went back to the Indian restaurant, had another awesome meal and packed up our stuff for the trip to Lijiang in the morning.

Oh great... Flying with a head-cold... What joy.