Going Underground
Trip Start
Dec 2007
1
30
41
Trip End
Aug 2008
Beijing,
China
Saturday, February 23, 2008
So I come into the glorious marble shrine lobby of the China World Trade Center and try to locate the Bank of America. I'm looking for a small bank branch with glass doors, advertisings for IRA's and mortgages. I'm surveying the area for tacky fake wood grain teller stations and welcoming blonde Branch Assistant Managers in Brooks Brothers suits...but instead the Bank of America Beijing branch isn't a store front, but instead it is in an regular office on the second floor, and is closed on Saturdays. A very friendly, yet still rather goonish, security agent tells me this as he escorts me away from the nickel plated tenants directory.
"You, Monday...10 of clock," he says as he lightly brushes me from the lobby. I nod and am off to live like the people. This comeuppance at the hands of the Barons of Industry is only further proof that I need to get back to what Faulkner would describe as the "Glorious Simplicity of the Unwashed." That quote is completely made up, but I think he would put in "Leaves of Grass II," if sequels were the norm at the turn of the 20th century. @ n only dream of the fabulous wonderments of literature that would have come from classic sequels such as Tolstoy's "Peace and then War Again," and Hemmingway's never to be forgotten classic sequel, "Farewell to Arms...and Legs!"
I sling my backpack over my shoulder, armed only with a dog-eared copy of Frommer's Beijing guide and a healthy sense of uneasiness, to find my way underground to the Beijing Subway system. Until recently this was a cash only enterprise, but as it is with everything in this city, the most modern concepts have come to the Beijing Subway. Now you can rent...that's right rent, you don't own it...a credit card like magnetic key card that is loaded with credits. As you enter a subway or get on a bus, you slide your card over a metallic box and credits are deducted from your account. Simple and easy, right? The problem is getting the card. You see, this new card system has been in place for only a few months and the only way to get a card is to go a single window in the massive station, while there are at least 50 others that sell single trip tickets at 2 yuan each...(about 30 cents) I take my place in line, all the while thinking...maybe I should just buy a stack of one way tickets...no, I will get my card and be one of the people. Cutting to the chase, about 15 minutes later I have the card (20 yuan) and 100 yuan worth of credits, now to figure out where to go. I think I'll let the winds of misfortune carry me around the city today. I'll get out at different stops, look around a little, get back on...and do the same at the next stop that catches my fancy. I look at the map and notice about 4 stops down on the Red line is a stop named "Military Museum." Sounds great, and I'm on my way.
I have been on Subways (and have been dramatically lost on Subways) all over the world, including getting off one stop early in Moscow one incredibly frigid night and spending about 4 hours trying to find my hotel that I was convinced was only around the next corner...and having the experience of having the doors close in Amsterdam with everyone I know on board, and me, well...not. Beijing, however, is unique in its Subways. Keep in mind that China has over one billion residents, and less than one-tenth of one percent own cars. They have to move about in some manner. Bicycles are popular, but the Subway is the mode of choice. The first car I get on is so crowded, that when the doors open, it is if the Subway car itself was able to exhale for the first time in awhile, as one or two riders claw their way out and about 35 people try to replace their human gaps. I slide into a corner sandwiched between a halitosis inflicted couple who must have entered a dare contest with friends that if they don't bathe for 6 full months their friends will take them to Cabo for Spring Break next year, and a tiny Chinese college girl whose overpowered fake I-Pod spits out mildly muted sappy Chinese pop music just loud enough to annoy just about 84 percent of the crowded car's residents from her highly distorted ear-buds. Next stop...more crushing in, and not a lot of getting off. Stop two...the same. By stop 4, I feel as if I have, completely against my will, joined a 50's college prank, and this attempt to cram 400-thousand people on a single subway car will be followed by swallowing goldfish before the "super-fun" mixer with the Chi-O's.
Finally I get off at the Military Museum stop, with great difficulty, and finally emerge back into the sunlight. I look back over my shoulder and see this massive official looking building, with impressive Red Flags and a gigantic Red Star at the top of a steeple at the top... Um, that might be it. I immediately cross the busy street, buy my fancy ticket and move into a huge courtyard. In this courtyard is a full battleship that is set-up for children to play on. Perhaps the most expensive jungle gym ever is only a small part of this impressive entryway. On both sides of the doors to the museum are huge white marble statues of men and women defending the homeland. Inside are huge photographs of Mao, and the People's Army walking through the mountains; gigantic paintings of the revolution's glories and the modern muscle that is the Chinese military. The back rooms are filled with old airplanes, rockets, military equipment and even a Chinese military satellite. Outside are full sized military aircraft, including Russian Migs from the ever so popular Cold War mania, and the remains of an US spy plane that was shot down over China. I'm not sure, but this might have been the plane that several years ago, the US accused the Chinese of gutting to glean whatever military secrets they could from the wreckage. Kind of Creepy.... This is all neat, but the rest of the museum is more intriguing to me.
The entire front half of the building is dedicated to the People's Revolution, and is incredibly fascinating. Such spectacular archival material explains the 20th century Chinese history from the Emperor to Mao in simple easy to understand morsels. Very little is in English, but if you have even the tiniest amount of background it all makes sense. Really all you need to know is; Emperor until 1911, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, Nationalists defeat Communists in 1927, Mao retreats into the mountains, War with Japan (World War II), People's Revolution 1949, now you know what I knew going in. I am completely transfixed and pour over every little photograph and banner. I am secretly a little envious, because the Chinese revolutions were executed in a time when it was possible to document the revolution as it was taking place with pictures and film. Just think how cool it would be for us, if we had motion pictures of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, if there were photography crews with the boys at Saratoga or Concord. Wouldn't be cool if we could have audio records of discussions of the framing of the Constitution? Well, this is what this museum is like. There is very little post 1950 in the museum, but I understand that is only because one of the largest sections of the museum has recently been closed with the Olympics coming up. The entire 4th floor until about a month ago was dedicated to "The War Against American Imperialism and to the Aid of Korea." I imagine the exhibit was closed not to offend the American visitors coming to Beijing for the Olympic games, but for me, I really wished that was still open. I am always curious of seeing the other side of the coin, and I completely open to the other person's reflection on history, as matter of fact, it is a personal fascination to see how the same tactical events can be interpreted and even spun differently by the opposing sides. The old idiom is "the winner gets to tell the history," but what happens when both sides believe they won... Even with that part closed...I loved this museum and learned so much, although I do have to admit I am a bit of a museum junkie. I think I am the only kid I know who for their 7th birthday party wanted to go to a museum rather an amusement park...so take that into account.
My plan for today was to look around each stop and then get back on the subway, but then I found a park, and an art museum, and CCTV (Central China Television, the BBC of China) and a huge prayer bell and temple and people flying kites and a street festival, and before I knew it, it was dark. So much for multiple stops, today's Subway adventure consisted of only drop off point, oh well. There's always my next opportunity to become a sardine, and I'm strangely looking forward to it. Now only if the kids could put a little better music on their I-Pods I'll be fine...would it kill you to play a little Elvis Costello once in awhile?
