The last time I was in Beijing was in the fall of 2008. It's a different experience this week. It's winter, and it's very cold. The green parks, the showy display of flower beds, and green trees that line the city roads and highways have given way to a monochromatic landscape. It's difficult to find people wrapped up in anything but black and drab gray.
I had spent an afternoon last October wandering around the Forbidden City amidst thousand of Chinese tourists groups while trying to fend off hawkers of maps, trinkets, and bandit taxi drivers whispering promises of sights and experiences that only foreigners could sample and appreciate ( and afford). Yesterday afternoon, the Forbidden City was "forbidden" due to ice and cold. Not a duck could be found on or near the frozen moats.
An old friend from Athens that now lives just outside Beijing, came and collected me from my hotel yesterday at noon. He was eager to show me some of his adopted capitol city (from the warm confines of his driver equipped, posh, American sedan) that I may not have seen previously. We drove around the city for a while and then he suggested that we go to a traditional tea room that someone had recommended to him.
With the aid of a GPS and several questions to pedestrians along the way, the driver was able to find the address. The tea room was in a residential area just off a main city street; it indeed looked old and established. We were greeted inside by too many hostesses, and the sound of traditional Chinese music. After being led to a small table and freeing ourselves from our overcoats, it all changed. No sooner had we sat down when the Chinese music hesitated, and "Hotel California" began to blast through the audio system. We laughed, complemented the hostess on the "quality" of the musical selection, and enjoyed the tea.
This proved to be the start of a very multi-cultural lunch. We found the only Moroccan restaurant in Beijing; a small, 4-tabled store front, and spent a couple of hours surrounded by conversations in Arabic, French, English and Chinese.
I have been reading a travel book about the Silk Road, (thanks, Chris!), in which the author, (Colin Thubron) comments about the Great Wall. "It was built to keep the Chinese in rather than the nomads out ... it separated civilization from barbarism, light from darkness." My afternoon experiences called to mind that the Wall has crumbled, and that for good and bad, the barbarians are inside.
An old friend from Athens that now lives just outside Beijing, came and collected me from my hotel yesterday at noon. He was eager to show me some of his adopted capitol city (from the warm confines of his driver equipped, posh, American sedan) that I may not have seen previously. We drove around the city for a while and then he suggested that we go to a traditional tea room that someone had recommended to him.
With the aid of a GPS and several questions to pedestrians along the way, the driver was able to find the address. The tea room was in a residential area just off a main city street; it indeed looked old and established. We were greeted inside by too many hostesses, and the sound of traditional Chinese music. After being led to a small table and freeing ourselves from our overcoats, it all changed. No sooner had we sat down when the Chinese music hesitated, and "Hotel California" began to blast through the audio system. We laughed, complemented the hostess on the "quality" of the musical selection, and enjoyed the tea.
This proved to be the start of a very multi-cultural lunch. We found the only Moroccan restaurant in Beijing; a small, 4-tabled store front, and spent a couple of hours surrounded by conversations in Arabic, French, English and Chinese.
I have been reading a travel book about the Silk Road, (thanks, Chris!), in which the author, (Colin Thubron) comments about the Great Wall. "It was built to keep the Chinese in rather than the nomads out ... it separated civilization from barbarism, light from darkness." My afternoon experiences called to mind that the Wall has crumbled, and that for good and bad, the barbarians are inside.
