Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things

I had previously visited two of the major attractions on the western outskirts of Beijing: Xiangshan and Badachu. Recently (18 July) I added another, 北京植物园 (Zhiwuyuan, the Beijing Botanical Garden) which contains 卧佛寺 (Wofosi, the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha). Once again, I used a city bus to get there.
The bus passes by some interesting looking temples that I would love to visit someday.
The place is full of lovely landscaping, including ponds and bridges.
There is also a section of the huge park devoted to 曹雪芹 (Cao Yueqin), who wrote the classic 红楼梦 (Hong Lou Meng, Dream of the Red Chamber), which I have written about before.
The location in the hills is quite lovely, and a wide variety of different kinds of trees grace the grounds.
As I mentioned, there is an old temple inside the Garden grounds.
Inside the Glazed Arch is a little pond with koi and turtles.
The Sleeping Buddha itself is in a building where you are not allowed to take pictures.
You can see a bit of the bronze Buddha inside. It’s 5.3 meters (17' 4") long and weighs about 54 tons. The words over the door (明恒月性) I believe are supposed to be read right to left in the ancient manner, and have something to do with the quality of the moon being constant brightness. Either that or some kind of wish for the Ming Dynasty to last forever, since the name of the dynasty, 明 Ming, means bright.

Up the hill behind the temple is a little stream running down a shaded valley.
As you can see, this is a popular area for families to enjoy a little bit of nature.
Further up the valley is a grove dedicated to the metasequoia, also known as dawn redwood. This tree is common in the fossil record from millions of years ago, and was believed extinct until a small stand was discovered in Sichuan in 1944. Since then they have been planted all around the world, but it is still considered a critically endangered species. These trees were planted in 1975.

And for the bird lovers out there...
...I present a blurry telephoto shot of a fairly large bird I saw eating a fruit in a tree near the trail.

Back down in the valley, I found some nifty water plants.
One of the main attractions at the Garden is the Conservatory.
This is where they keep tropical and desert plants. As it turns out, the day I went there was so hot that it was actually cooler in some parts of the greenhouse than it was outside.
And they couldn’t resist adding some water features.
On the upper level is the desert area, with lots of cacti and succulents from various parts of the world. And a little Egyptian statue because just plants are not enough.

On the subject of not being able to resist:
No jungle is complete without dinosaurs.
Or terracotta warriors.

Like I said, the Garden is really huge, and there are parts of it that are currently not used much.
I rather like this picture of a disused path off to an unpopular area.

I’ll finish off with a collection of invertebrates I saw in the Garden.
Dragonfly (蜻蜓 qingting), mantis (螳蜋 tanglang), some kind of beetle (甲虫 jiachong), and millipede (千足虫 qianzuchong).

So that is the Botanical Garden. I must say it is much, much better than the Zoological Garden, and well worth the trip out of the city. It was very hot the day I went, but there are vendors with beverages and ice cream all over the place.

天下没有不散的宴席

天下没有不散的宴席
tianxia meiyou busande yanxi
In this world, there is no endless banquet.

That saying is the Chinese equivalent of “All good things must come to an end.” And my time in China has been a Good Thing. Sadly, but not entirely unexpectedly, it is coming to an end soon.

One of the major topics of conversation here, as everywhere, is 全球经济危机 (quanqiu jingji weiji or Global Economic Crisis), and I suppose I can consider myself a victim of the Global Economic Crisis. Every day in Beijing we hear stories about businesses that cater to foreign residents falling on hard times. The number of foreigners living and working here seems to get smaller and smaller as companies conserve their resources by not supporting expats. Admittedly, we are expensive. Our packages generally include housing and living allowances that are quite generous.

As it stands today, my departure date has been set at July 31, but beyond that very little is clear. I’m taking things a day at a time and trying to enjoy what is left here, checking things off that list I kept in my head of things I wanted to do in China.

Like so many things in life, this is a mixture of good and bad. I love Seattle, and will be happy to return to family and friends there, as well as the clean air and all the wonderful things the city has to offer. But I will certainly miss Beijing, this crazy, crowded, incomprehensible city that I have also come to love. The experiences I’ve had here, and the friends I’ve made, have been such a benefit to my life that I can’t put it in words. Yes, me, the one who always has words, is left with no way to describe this. But one thing is certain: I cannot imagine that my life will not bring me back here sometime, somehow. Whether it is business or pleasure, I will be back.

The fruits of someone’s labor

Many readers outside China will have encountered the fruit known as 荔枝 (Mandarin lizhi, traditionally spelled lychee in English, along with several other similar variations) as a flavor in Asian desserts, or maybe in a juice or even liqueur. In Beijing you can buy them pretty readily at the right time of the year, which happens to include now. There are several varieties.

The other day I was at the nearby vegetable market, and stopped by a fruit stand to get some bananas. The woman tending the stand tried to sell me everything else she had, which was quite a selection: mangoes, papayas, dragon fruit, several kinds of pears and citrus, pineapples, and so on. She offered me a lizhi, and when she saw my hands were full, even peeled it for me. It was sweet and juicy, so I bought a few of them to take with me.
Here you see some whole on the stem, one half peeled, one completely peeled, and a peeled one opened up to show the seed. If you’ve never tasted one, it’s pretty hard to describe the flavor. Mostly sweet, though sometimes a little tart near the seed, with a flowery fragrant aftertaste.

This ends the educational portion of our program.

Don’t you move

After too much time away, last night I dove back into the local live music scene for Pet Conspiracy (宠物同谋) at Yugong Yishan (愚公移山). PC is the second project from singer Helen Feng; her first is a great band called Ziyo (自由). I’ve got Ziyo’s CD and really like it, but I’ve never seen them live. While Ziyo is a rock band, PC is a kind of electronic art punk project started by Feng with Chinese electronic musician Huzi, who has a number of releases under his own name. Definitely gotta check those out.
This band is known for having a strong visual element. One of the members (Yun Yun) is credited with “backing vocals and video.”
They started out with a white curtain in front of the stage. Various graphics, lights and lasers were projected on it while a DJ played a very wide selection of music. I’m pretty sure he played some Tortoise, which makes him a winner in my book. He also included a cut by Ziyo.
Then we got Feng’s silhouette holding a large knife. She held the knife high and the plunged it down...
...and the curtain dropped to reveal the band on stage. They had it all done up in silver, which looked great in the lights. Yun Yun was up on Huzi’s shoulders, their backs to the audience. The three women in the band wore bunny masks.
After a bit, Yun Yun left the stage.
She returned with a big red ball. She bounced it around on stage for a while and then hurled it into the audience. It traveled around the place for the rest of the evening.
In addition to having a wonderful voice, Feng is a very active and charismatic performer.

A few songs into the set, Feng left the stage and returned wearing a top hat and jacket.
She and Yun Yun sang a sexy duet.
Many people in the audience were singing along with the band, so it seems they have some fans.

Later, there was another costume change.
Often music with heavy elements of programming can seem kind of dull when presented “live.”
Not a chance of that here. Between the show’s visual design and the sheer exuberance of the performers, there was no letting up from start to finish. In the last song of the regular set, which had lyrics something to do with money, a machine started spewing out fake $1000 bills.
The music reached a frenetic peak and the band left the stage to the sound of feedback from the abandoned guitar.

During the encore, the band left the music playing by itself and came out into the crowd.
In the end, there were audience members dancing on the stage as well.

When I get a chance, I’ll post some video on YouTube.

After the show, I bought Pet Conspiracy’s five-song CD and an autographed poster. Man, what a night!

Check out their MySpace page for some audio.

And I can’t resist a little language note about the bands’ names. Ziyo(自游) doesn’t really mean anything as far as I can tell, though it is pronounced the same as the word for freedom (自由), properly spelled Ziyou; on their CD the Chinese name is rather inconspicuous. In a similar fashion, while Pet Conspiracy does have a Chinese version of their name ( 宠物同谋 Chongwu Tongmou), it doesn’t appear anywhere on their CD – there’s no Chinese in the design at all. And since Chinese words are very flexible, it could also be translated as “pet conspirators.” The club’s name, 愚公移山 (Yugong Yishan), is “the old man moves mountains,” which is apparently from an old folk tale. It’s an idiom that means “nothing is impossible if you have the will.”

This is not my homework

Ever since I started learning how to write in Chinese, I’ve thought about doing blog posts using my new skill. Here goes.

我星期一下班以后起自行车回家，别人也骑车，但是他不看着路，就撞到我了。我的胳膊和腿都受一点伤，而且车筐也被撞坏了。

Well, that’s a pretty short post. Here it is in English:

On Monday after work I was riding my bicycle home, and another guy on a bike wasn’t watching the road and ran into me. My arm and legs were slightly injured, and my bike’s basket is broken.

I would like to give thanks to my coworker LX who offered some suggestions on vocabulary and grammar. 谢谢你!

I’m not sure who I think my audience for this kind of post might be, since people in China can’t get to this web site. To those who might say I’m just showing off, I’ll say, “I don’t think so.” I’m just enthusiastic about my learning and want an outlet for these things.

Chinese time machine #5

Moving back even further – though not a lot – we come to 15 February 2009. It was clear and very cold in Beijing, but I chose to venture out to Daguanyuan (大观园), which I’m not even really sure how to translate. The English maps give it as Grand View Garden, which will apparently do.

One thing about this place that is unique among all the places I’ve visited in China is that it is not old, and not only is it not old, but it was built as a set for a TV series. It’s hard to explain the cultural importance of the book called 红楼梦 (Hong Lou Meng, usually translated Dream of the Red Chamber) to the Chinese. It is one of the Four Great Novels, and you probably would be hard pressed to find a single Chinese person not familiar with it on some level. In the 1980s, China Central Television produced a series based on the book, and instead of filming it on soundstages, they built an entire compound designed to match every description found in the book of the place where the main family lives. It’s the story of a prominent family in decline, so grandeur is called for.

Here’s the front entrance.
Yeah, it was February, so prepare yourself for lots of pictures with bare trees.

At Ұ55 (US$9), the ticket is a bit on the expensive side compared to a lot of Beijing sights.

There are many buildings arrayed around various water/ice features.
Helpful signs tell you what parts of the book involve the buildings, which character lived there and so on.
As you can see, they did a very good job of imitating the style of construction you see at the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and so on.

Inside some of the buildings are figures dressed as the characters.
Most of the major characters in the story are women.
This compound within a compound is the nunnery where Miaoyu retired to a Buddhist life.

Here’s a view across the largest lake.
I’ve never before seen a sign that said “Keep off the lake” – though of course while it’s frozen solid, the meaning is correct. The Chinese is a little more verbose, and says that the ice is not safe, so please don’t go on the lake. I presume they change the sign once it’s not frozen.

Since the family in the story was highly placed in society, they had some special buildings made just for occasions when the emperor would visit.
Any resemblance to the Forbidden City is no coincidence.

Inside one building is a bunch of Red Chamber memorabilia.
These are photos of actors who have played the various parts in various productions of the story, not just the 1980s series that was filmed here.
And this kind of tree...
...is called a “Dragon Claw Tree.”

Some visitors are not impressed by elaborate buildings.
And for a price...
...you can dress in period costume and have your picture taken.

As I promised, you’ve seen lots of pictures of bare trees. It seems that such a situation is intolerable.
So the staff has provided some trees with a little help.

I guess there’s a new version of Red Chamber currently in production, and they had some promotional posters of the new cast.
I’m hoping that for the actual filming, they will have more authentic hairstyles.

There you go. I think about when I’ve visited Universal Studios, and it’s kind of hard to imagine sets like this ever being built for an American production.

Daguanyuan is in the Xuanwu (宣武) District of Beijing, not a long taxi ride from Changchunjie Station (长椿街站) on subway line 2. It is certainly not on the short list of Beijing places you must see unless you are a Chinese literature buff or maybe interested in TV production, but it was interesting, and I’ve already seen the things on the short list. There is also an underground theater at Daguanyuan where they show a computer animated 3D short feature that involves a dream in the Red Chamber. A character falls asleep and drifts through various scenes somewhat resembling events in the book. Or so I’m told – I haven’t read the book yet.

Chinese time machine #4

Set the Wayback Machine for 1 March 2009. In Beijing it was one of the first relatively nice days of the year, weatherwise. As I often do on such weekend days, I picked one of the places around town that I haven’t seen yet and went to find out what’s there.

This time it was 恭王府 (Gongwangfu, usually listed as Prince Gong’s Mansion on the English maps). It’s near the central lakes area of Qianhai and Houhai, off in the hutongs.
Unlike many buildings from Imperial times, it has a humble entrance.

It being a rather nice day, lots of people were outside, and many of them also chose this place to visit.
It has the usual assortment of buildings and courtyards fit for royalty.

There are many items on display from the old days.

I almost hate to waste storage space with such a silly picture...
...but I kind of liked the way they tried to disguise the fire hydrant as a potted (plastic) shrubbery.

The best part of the compound is in the back.
There’s a large garden with several little lakes.

This little one...
...is made in the shape of a bat, rather like the traditional Batman symbol. The image of a bat decorates almost every spot at Gongwangfu that can be decorated. That’s because the word for bat (蝠) and the word for good fortune (福) are pronounced exactly alike, fu (with a rising tone). So bats are considered very lucky in China, but I’d have to say it seems a little strange to see them everywhere. Seems kind of like Dracula’s castle.

Here’s one of the Matching Hat Brigades.
It’s a big tour group. They can often be seen following around a guide with a megaphone and a flag. Do you suppose an American tour group would be willing to wear matching hats?

Here is one of the most popular parts of Gongwangfu:
Inside this artificial hill is an artificial cave, and carved on the wall is a big 福 done in the calligraphy of Emperor Qianlong (I think it was Qianlong – it usually is). People line up to pass single file through the cave.

This pavillion at the very back...
...is decorated with a bamboo theme.
There you are. Prince Gong’s Mansion. I’ve skipped over a lot of the history you can learn there, partly because it was a couple months ago and I’ve forgotten it already. They had lots of old photographs of European ambassadors visiting officials and royals in this place during one of the periods where foreigners were welcomed.