Zach in China 中国: July 2007

Directly to the North of the Forbidden City is Jingshan (capital hill), which I visited on the same day I went to the Forbidden City. It is one of the two hills in the center of the city. The other is located just 600m to it's West, that is the peak of Beihai park.

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Beihai park has a long history, dating from the founding of Beijing itself. The Yuan Dynasty (translated as "First Dynasty", 1279-1368AD) was first ruled by Kublai Khan of the Mongols. It was the first time since the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD) that one administration ruled all of China. They founded modern Beijing as an administrative city called Khanbalik. The first development on Beihai ('Beihai' means North Sea, but it's just a fancy name for North Lake) was Kublai Khan's first palace, called Round City (团城). Here is housed several temples, and a 3m "perfect" white jade Buddha. Later he built a larger pagoda and temple complex on an artificial hill on the center of the Jade Islet.

Nowadays, Beihai is a pretty popular destination for those seeking relaxation and a touch of nature. The islet (Called the Jade Islet) is surrounded on the South and East by a dense growth of Waterlilies. To the East and North of the islet is the lake, which is daily spotted by paddle boats filled with families, teenagers and romancing couples. The land side has many benches for reading and enjoying the view.

I pass by this park very often, as I pass by the Forbidden City. There are many major bus routes that go that way, and I'm often leaving from where I live in the West end to where things are happening in the East. I had seen this park from a bridge maybe thirty times before I actually went. It was a worthy trip.

The view from the bridge I pass often.

Closeup of the pagoda.

The untainted symbol, this carving from nearly 700yrs ago.

The main temple in the Round City.

The 3m white jade Buddha. I had to take this from a long distance away, as no pictures from within were allowed.

The foliage.

The pagoda.

CANNONS! Out of commission though.

A view from the pagoda terrace of "The Egg", the new Chinese National Theater.

The guys were pretty cool.

This is looking East, providing a view of Jingshan.

From the bottom of the S stairs.

A lot of bamboo shoots in this one garden had been carved into.

Jade Islet from the North.

The 7-dragon gate.

I went to Xi'an from June 29th to July 5th. It was a lot more than I expected it to be. And it was also a bitch. My little camera was stolen, and so I have none of the awesome fun-time pics that make a blog worth writing. However, I can tell the story of how my camera was stolen, at least to get it off my chest.

First, a little background. Xi'an is one of the most ancient cities in China. It was the capital for 13 of 16 dynasties. It is one of the few cities in which the original wall encircling the inner city has been preserved. The city-centre has not been dominated by poorly-planned, overbearingly large apartment complexes. Rather it is dense with 10-12 story traditional clay-roofed buildings, radiating out from the center of the city, Zhonglou, an old drum tower. My favourite part of the downtown was the Muslim quarter, an area with old housing (some remaining Ming Dynasty houses, 1368-1644) and as much Muslim-style roast lamb one can handle. All of this complete with a very old, large-stone road.

My camera managed to be taken from my pocket upon seeing the Great Goose Pagoda. I was watching a fountain show and poof! Not quite that simple of course. I'd just given my camera to a friend I'd met on the train on the way over, Francisco, for him to take a picture of me in the fountain. I got pretty wet, but it was worth the shot. He returned the camera to me and I placed it in my pocket. About 1min later I wanted to snap another shot and it wasn't in my pocket. My first reaction was that perhaps I'd forgotten to get it back from Francisco. I asked him for it, and he had said he'd given it back. And then I remembered getting it back, since I'd looked at the picture. By this time, perhaps an additional 20s had elapsed, possibly a minute and a half from the time it could have been taken. It was too late. I had a vague recollection of a guy standing near me, who looked out of place. Frantically, I tried to remember what he looked like, but I couldn't remember his face. I did however remember his shoes (since I thought his thin-cotton shoes were a bit out of place). I went searching for him, a madman looking at people's shoes. I had randomly chosen a direction which in retrospect was likely the wrong one. After a couple of minutes, I spotted a man who had the same type of shoes, with a group of three other guys. They seemed suspicious, and were laughing about something. He pulled something out of his pocket to check it out, and replaced it. His body blocked my view, so I assumed he had been checking out his spoils. I had found the guy. But now what?

Francisco and his friend Olivier had come with me, and I pointed him out to Olivier. But it was clear to me that the two guys I'd randomly met on a train weren't willing to risk much for the sake of my camera. I had to take action. I cut him off, stopping the group of four. I asked him in nervous Chinese to show me his pockets. He didn't understand me the first few times I said it, so I had to raise my voice and say it more clearly. I gathered a crowd. I was nervous. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a phone. Argh! I had no idea what to do next. What if he'd given it to one of his friends? I had to let it slide, as I had come to think it wasn't him anyway. I reported it to a police officer, no matter how futile I thought it to be. And that was the end of my Canon SD600, FULL of videos and pictures from the previous two days of traveling.

That night I went out hard. I woke up the next morning groggy and frustrated, running over the scenario in my head repeatedly with different variations. Me grabbing his hand as he reached over, me telling him to fuck off before he even tried to grab it, me chasing him down and jumpkicking him in the back. All of these scenes brought me a mix of elation and frustration. And his face suddenly popped into my head, crystal clear. I can still picture that mofo. If I could JUST have the pictures, I would forgive the loss of the camera.

I still managed to take some pictures with my 300D. They are only from the Xi'an Museum of History and, of course, the Terracotta Warriors (兵马俑) display. Despite the touristy-ness of the Terracotta Warriors, it still blew me away. I hadn't realized so much was left to uncover. The shrine was built about 2200 years ago. It houses the emperor of the Qin Dynasty, the dynasty during which China was unified (as is portrayed in the movie Hero). It was first re-discovered in the 70's, by farmers in the area. Since then, only a fraction of the warriors have been recovered and put on display. As well, the actual shrine in which the emperor was placed has not even begun excavation because of its complexity. China is waiting to develop the appropriate technology to extract it in the best way possible. There are myths that the shrine was made as an entire internal universe. Purportedly, the emperor's body is surrounded by pools of mercury, and there are diamonds in the ceiling to represent stars, and moonrocks on his coffin which enable it to levitate. I believe these are mostly stories children are told, but they're interesting all the same. Wikipedia has a lot more information about this site.

The Xi'an Museum of History

Coin minting form.

And the resulting coins.

Crossbow and arrows.

Old-school money. They used to use shells as currency in inner-China. I'd have certainly gone on a trek to the nearest Ocean to find myself some dough.