Shopping

Korean Adventure (February 7, 2003 Chautauqua)

My trip to China was an equal measure of sightseeing and shopping. The tour was organized by Koreans for Koreans. I had to shift for myself when it came to information about the various sites. This was no great hardship. I can say, without any false modesty, that I probably could have conducted the tour myself.
The shopping would present no problems for anyone. A salesman looks and talks the same in any language. If you are familiar with Ron Popeil, you can pretty much "fill in the blanks" to discover what they are saying. It all boils down to: "Give me your money."

A float in Tian'anmen Square of The Great Wall.

My first experience of Chinese shopping occurred on the very first day of the trip, when we went through the Forbidden City. There was plenty of space reserved for souvenir shops along the way, with cheesy bric-a-brac everywhere.
On the way in or out of any tourist site, I was besieged by aggressive peddlers of every description. If you wanted to bargain, you could get some fairly good looking stuff cheap. One guy was really mad at me for not haggling, though. He didn't have anything I wanted, and dropping the price didn't make it any more attractive.
The real dangerous sales reps were those we were bussed to. On the second day, we were taken to a Chinese hospital, where a doctor took our pulses, made a diagnosis, and offered to prescribe for what ailed us.

I'm sure it must be catchy, whatever it says.

Chinese doctors have an interesting way of taking the pulse. Three fingers on the wrist, subtly manipulated, offer the skilled doctor a look at the various "levels" inside the body. Supposedly they can figure out what is wrong anywhere.
After that, we were offered a foot massage, which I thought might have been fun. What I didn't know about massage is that a lot of it is real hard. The masseurs really dig into your feet; owowowowowowowOW! I was a little tender after that, I can tell you! Not too good when so much of a tourist's day is spent walking.
Our next stop was a pearl shop, offering high priced jewelry. Not too much hard sell here, as the Koreans were only too willing to fork it over.

Just inside the gate to the Forbidden City.

After that, we were bussed down to Liulichang Street, which offers a variety of traditional Chinese articles: robes, rugs, ivory figurines, cards, jewelry, and many other kinds of items.
There was a combination of shop owners and street dealers that shared an eager desire to part you from your funds. I myself got a "chop," which is a stamp made from ivory. It has Chinese characters carved on the end, and it is used to put the seal on official documents.

The garden inside the Forbidden City. Note the flags held by the tour guides, which tourists are supposed to follow or they will become lost, lost for all time.

On our way to the Great Wall, we stopped at another hospital, which offered an Herbal Sticking Plaster and Balm. There was a touch of the showman in this doctor, who rubbed the balm on his hands before grabbing a metal chain fresh out of a bed of glowing coals.

Lucky symbols on a hillside. Or an ad for Burma Shave.


Our last day in the country did not neglect one more attempt to take whatever monies we might have left. I had to give it up here, as we were shown a variety of teas. There were some interesting flavours, and I settled on some dandelion, which (I am told) is good for the liver.
In some aspects, the trip was disappointing. I was turned off by how well the "Reds" have adapted to capitalism. I could not but be awed, however, by the sights of Old China: the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and Tian'anmen Square. All of this: the good and the bad were evident in the final sight of the tour...the Great Wall.

The touristy part of the Great Wall. The Chinese have the same difficulty with English as Koreans. The sign says, " Issue the certificate of the Great Wall."
What the kimchi...er, Peking Duck?

The Forbidden City

Korean Adventure (January 3, 2003 Chautauqua)

On my first day in China, the sightseeing started right away. After clearing customs and gathering the tour group at the bus, we headed into the city of Beijing. The expressway was very similar to a road back home - even the trees were similar. It made me a little homesick for Calgary.

Our first stop was a hotel in the northeast part of the city for a little lunch. We had been fed on the plane, so I didn't have too much - just enough to notice the difference between Korean and Chinese food. It is greasier.

Some of the Koreans had planned ahead, though, and out came little Tupperware containers of kimchi, seaweed, and other assorted "sides." There were even some juice boxes (that did not have juice, but soju). Very clever.

From there, we went into the centre of the city, which is Tian'anmen Square. It is described as Beijing's "heart, soul, and conscience." In its present dimensions, it is a product of the 1950's. In Imperial times it was an alleyway between the ministries and the palace.

The Monument to the People's Heroes in the centre of the square (above, with the Chinese History Museum behind) was the launching pad for the protests that culminated in the events of June 4, 1989. To the south of that is the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall (below), where the remains of the "Great Helmsman" lie in state under crystal (unfortunately closed when I was there).



To the east is the Chinese History Museum, and to the west is the Great Hall of the People (above), where the party and government just recently held an historic series of meetings. The old leader, Jiang Zemin, stepped down in favour of the new, Hu Jintao.

We were allowed to meander around a bit before moving on to the northern part of the square. There was a variety of people wandering around. I met a couple of Canadian tourists, and spoke with a few locals eager to try out their English. There were police and military guards liberally placed around the area, as well.

On the northern side of the square is the Tian'anmen Gate (the Gate of Heavenly Peace), the symbol of the People's Republic of China. No doubt everyone has seen it at one time or another, with its huge painting of Mao dominating.

To the left and right are reviewing stands for when the party shows off its military might. You approach from the square via a pedestrian underpass. The gate and the square are separated by one of the few main roads passing through the area.

The gate itself has been rebuilt many times. It was the main southern gate of the capital of the Yuan Dynasty. When the Ming Emperor Chengzu, Zhu Di, moved his capital to Beijing in 1420, he had the gate rebuilt, and called it Chengtian ( The Gate That Bears Heaven).

A Chimera, with the head of a lion and the body of a dragon.

Passing through this gate, and the ones that follow, leads to the Forbidden City. As a palace, it served as residence and court for the emperors of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, their eunuchs, wives, and concubines. When the last emperor, Pu Yi (or Xuantong), vacated the palace in 1924, the imperial collection of paintings, bronzes, jade, ceramics, costumes, gold and silver objects were put on display under the name of the Palace Museum.

Talke Hall Of Supreme Harmony.

Some of these objects are now in the Palace Museum in Taipei, carried there when the Nationalist government fled the mainland after the Communist takeover.

Today there are nearly 20 halls filled with works of art, and visiting them all would take two or three visits. Our guides kept us moving along pretty quickly, but I was able to comprehend that at one time, a very few people must have enjoyed a lot of incredible wealth.

From south to north, you travel from the Outer Palace to the Inner Court. Each gate once meant another layer of security, until you arrived at the Imperial family, ruling in supreme and splendid isolation from the masses beyond their walls.

To the north of the Inner Court is the Imperial Garden, with a dozen or so pavilions located symmetrically from left to right and front to back. Ancient pines and cypresses grow among various flowers and strange stones. These stones, some as big as houses, look like sponges, and they are so fashioned as to become part of the garden.

Once outside the rear (north) gate of the palace, Jingshan Park (above), with its artificial five-peaked mountain offers a fantastic view of the yellow-glazed tile roofs of the Forbidden City on clear days. It was not clear during my time there. There was a thick haze in the air, almost like a fog. It was a great disappointment to have to deal with this haze.



As you can expect, this part of the tour took most of the day, and we did not even see all we could have. I have only touched lightly on what I was able to see.

Our group went from there to the Fengyutang Theatre and Restaurant. After a delicious meal, we watched a display of kung fu, put on by a group of Shaolin monks (just like Caine from the TV show). Then it was off to our hotel, ending our first day in the city.