Tibetan Night

When we arrived at our hotel is Wolong, we were greeted by two ladies dressed in a traditional Tibetan-looking costume. We all got a silk scarf and a little glass with liquor for a toast. That evening we also participated in roasting a whole sheep, made a fool of ourselves during karaoke, learned a few Tibetan folk dances, and tasted some more local strong drinks. Not a bad way to relax during the weekend.

Road to Wolong

After three months of cities, factories and airports, it was a dramatic change of scenery when we headed into the mountains towards Wolong to see the pandas. The air is fresh, the water is clean. China has beautiful national parks in the Sichuan province and worth a trip. The roads are still under construction and after a rainy day, quite muddy and slippery so it becomes a little bit of an adventure but at the end it was all worth it.

China Road

Last week, I went back to The Bookworm for another book talk. This time I listened to a lecture by Rob Gifford who wrote China Road, a book based upon his radio series for NPR that took him on a 4800 km hitchhiking trip across the country. He started in Shanghai and went all the way to China’s border with Kazakhstan. Along the way he interviewed and documented his encounters with Chinese farmers, Taoist monks, Uigyhr separatists, etc,… Rob mentioned that writing the book was not too difficult because there is so much happening in China that Woody Allen’s saying; “showing up is 80% of the work” rang true. I feel the same about my blog sometimes: no shortage of ideas to write about and even if I leave out any stories about all my adventures in the office. Rob started his trip as an optimist but claimed to have returned as a pessimist because of the fact that in rural China you are getting confronted with the 800 million people who still live in poverty, with the rampant corruption, with the huge environmental problems, with the widening gap between the poor and wealthy, etc,.. Did you know that there are more millionaires in China than in the US? However, he also acknowledges that over the last few decades the government had lifted 400 million people out of poverty and into the middle class. When asked to compare China with India, he agreed that he still would rather be farmer in China than in India. We all know that China is facing some huge challenges but I tend to believe that China will pull this off. The people (total Chinese population is more than 1.2 billion) are very optimistic, very entrepreneurial, very motivated, very hungry for knowledge, very driven to pursue a better life, very hard working, etc… many things I wished to see more at home in the US or Europe. We could learn from them as much as they are learning from us, but we better do it fast.

How to hug a panda?

From the city of Chengdu, a three hour bumpy car ride into the Qionglai Mountains (Sichuan Province) will bring you to the Wolong natural reserve. In collaboration with the WWF, Wolong houses the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. The Center has over 100 pandas (= more than 70% of the world’s captive ones) and is the world largest semi-wild breeding farm. Less than 2000 pandas are believed to be living in the wild. This time of the year, the park is almost deserted and as such the local workers and volunteers have plenty of time for you. I had the incredible and once in-a life-time opportunity to go behind the scenes and touch, hug, wrestle, almost kiss the pandas. You have to see the pictures to believe it. At one time, a panda hugged me from behind (meaning he wrapped his right arm around me and his left paw on my left shoulder), I didn’t see him or her coming and I needed the help of a keeper to get free. The panda just wanted to play but I wasn’t so sure. The panda are so huggable but at the end they are still bears. Surprisingly their fur is not as soft as I expected but boy do they look cute. I’m a little in shock and still cannot believe it myself that I actually hugged a panda. This is by far the highlight of all my adventures in China. I took over 250 pictures, just couldn’t stop taking them but then the feeling of touching a panda cannot be captured in a picture or words. I wished many of you were there with me to experience it, especially my son Andreas who has a life long obsession with pandas.

a day in the park (ctd)

This couple was dancing so elegantly, so romantic. I hesitated to take pictures as I didn't want to be intrusive but then they had only eyes for each other.


These men could play, lot's of instruments I had never seen before.

Later in the afternoon, I walked upon the sax player. My feet were hurting form the walking, so I decided to sit on a bench and he started playing the most beautiful tunes I had ever heard. This one is for my son Andreas who also plays the sax now.

A day in the park

reading the newspaper in the park

card games: one group after another

the game of Mahjong

group singing and top class

To get to know the Chinese people, there is no better way than to take a walk in a public park on a sunny weekend. Parks are the place where the locals gather to relax and socialize and where you will see:

• Kites: a major hobby for all ages and made of beautiful designs such as dragons, lions, fishes, eagles, Buddha’s…
• Board games such as mahjong (like gin rummy) and card games
• Ballroom street dancing: somebody brings along a boom box and people start to dance the waltz, the foxtrot, the polka,…mostly older people are dancing but the group forms spontaneously and can be easily in the hundreds.
• Singing: again somebody start to play an instrument and signs and before you know hundreds are singing along and easily you can find a similar group a few hundred feet away doing the same.
• If you walk to the outskirts of the park, you will find smaller groups playing music or practicing martial arts or Tai chi.
• People are also bringing their caged songbirds to the park and hang them in the trees so the birds sing at the background while the owner has a casual conversation with his buddies.

Just the type of experience you might miss when you are a typical tourist on a whirlwind 2-day tour through the city but which are a such an intrinsic part of Chinese life and it is those memories that I will cherish forever.

Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven refers to a large park complex that houses several buildings: a large, marble sacrificial altar, the famous three story hall of Prayer, the smaller Imperial Vault of Heaven and several smaller ancillary buildings. It is at the Temple of Heaven that the Emperor (= the Son of Heaven) would make sacrifices, communicate with the gods and pray for a good harvest. Common people were not allowed to enter the Temple during the Ming and Qing dynasties but nowadays it is a major tourist attraction. The park surrounding the buildings is crowded with local Chinese people who come to relax, to play cards, to play music, to dance, to sing, to walk, to exercise, …Of the Top 10 places to visit in Beijing (according to one of my tour guides) only two are left on my to-do-list: Bei Hai Park and the Ming Tombs. Although many local friends have told me that the latter is not too impressive. Here is the full list in no particular order: Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Tian’an Men Square, Lama Temple, Bei Hai Park, Hou Hai Park, Summer Palace, 798 Art District, Ming Tombs, Great Wall of China

For sure, at the end of my stay in Beijing, I’ll have my own personal top 10 ready.

Turning on the heat

The weather is quickly turning cold here in Beijing. Last week we had several mornings with temperatures below freezing point. I’m one of the lucky ones as my apartment complex turned on the heat on November 1. For the rest of Beijing, heating officially starts on November 15. Some of my colleagues are toughening it out at home for another two weeks. For many of us, it would be hard to imagine that you cannot simply turn on the heat at your home. It makes me appreciate the little things even more. The government supplies the heat to most of the residential areas and if the temperature of your room is below 16 degrees, you can call the Beijing Heating Group to complain. In Beijing most of the heating is coal-fired but the city is trying to double the use of natural gas by 2010 in a switch to a more eco-friendly energy system. The cold weather also puts people indoors for exercising. The gym I’m frequenting for spinning class is then also packed with people. However, I can still see people practicing their tai chi in the public parks or in front of their appartment complex. Some groups are very large, over 100 people, lead by a master. Tai chi is a form a slow motion martial arts. It aims at promoting health and longevity while focusing on the internal power. To me it seems to be a combination of yoga meditation and stretching exercises. One day I’ll give it a try as it is also being taught in my gym, just to experience it. Occasionally I see a man in a park walk backwards but even in a gym on a treadmill I have seen it done. I stopped wondering why people do it that way. They move as they see fit and I discovered another reason why this city and its culture are so fascinating.

Half way: trick or treat?

Today marks the mid point of my stay in Beijing. My assignment is supposed to last 6 months and the first three months have passed so fast that it is hard to believe. Beijing and China is undergoing such a rapid transformation that everything seems to moves a little faster here, even time. There is an eclectic energy in the air that is very addictive: a country full of movers and shakers, full of opportunities and challenges, full of surprises, full of great people eager to learn and to explore, full of contrasts, full of opposites, full of dreamers, full of hopes… you get the picture. I had the opportunity to travel a little and see some amazing places but at the end the most memorable experiences will be the ones where I connected (successfully or otherwise) with the local people. I took as much pictures as I could but still the experiences are best shared in stories. So expect some more stories to be posted on this blog for the remaining three months. My treat.