China Adventure

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China Adventure: Hong Kong, Beijing, Xian, Shanghai,June, 2010

Anya and I began our adventure in Hong Kong, a sparkling city of glass

skyscrapers that reach toward the sky.Hong Kong is a very deep-water port andsplits down the middle into Hong KongCentral and Kowloon. We stayed inKowloon and took ferries across to theother side. I mentioned to Anya that a lot of

people probably just stay in Kowloon anddont get across that much. A day or solater, we realized both sides were connectedby an extremely efficient, new, air-

conditioned metro, probably the mostmodern metro Ive ever seen. It makes theNew York Citys subway system seem likeits in an underdeveloped country.

At night if you stand in Kowloon you cansee the symphony of lights considered the best laser light show on theplanet. Totally spectacular. It is choreographed with music and visible andaudible all along the shore.


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Since Hong Kong isablaze with skyscrapersone of the first things wedid was to go to VictoriaPeak where one takes a

very steep tram to abeautiful place to see thewhole panorama of thecity.

But it is also a buzzinginternational city halfEnglish, half Chinesewith dozens of

interesting shopping streets.One place, the Harbor ShoppingMall, was probably the biggestmall I was ever in. It seemedlike it went on for close to amile with air-conditioned shopsfrom Gucci to Rolex all over.Such opulence and wealth. Itwas stunning.

We didnt have many goodmeals in China, but we did find


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a place that was very elegant and yet absolutely packed with Chinese diners(Maxims Palace in Central Hong Kong). I had roasted suckling pig thatwas incredible. Anya had garlic spare ribs and eggplant, plus deep-friedstuffed shrimp in an orange-strawberry sauce). Delightful.

We met a man named Michael who explained why there are not more illegalimmigrants in Hong Kong. When I asked why a person from the provinces

just doesnt get up and move to the more elegant Hong Kong for work, hesaid that one must have a visa, even for a Chinese citizen, and that every

resident of China has a national identity card. It looks like our driverslicense. You get it at birth, and that is how illegal immigration is controlled.There are even posters in Hong Kong that say if you are working here andare not legally entitled to live in Hong Kong, you will be arrested. I looked

it up: Belgium, Israel, Argentina, Brazil all have them.Weve been taught that having a national identity card is an invasion of our

privacy, but it makes you wonder.

The next day we went to see the Big Buddha the largest Buddha in the

world. The tram ride up the hill was scary. I had to close my eyes. TheBuddha was big all right. Built in 1973 primarily as a tourist attraction toraise money for the monksup there. Sorry we traveled

so far to see that, but whatthe hell. We didnt have aguide. Anyway itwas nice to visit him and

get scared half to death.


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Above is the area where the paper mache Statue of Liberty was constructedand the famous Tiananmen Square demonstrations. Below is more of the

never-ending Forbidden City. In the very inner sanctums lived the Emperorwith his 108 concubines (that number was prescribed by law).


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Certainly the great wall is a major attraction here. Constructed by over300,000 soldiers and peasants starting about two hundred years beforeChrist, it runs a total of 3100 miles. Imagine a wall about the entire distanceacross the United States.


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One of the unique things, though, is that the Great Wall is one of the sevenwonders of the world, and people from all of the world are there. That isquite fascinating in itself.

From the Great Wall we stopped in a jade factory and pearl growing factory.I never saw pearls inside an oyster. Apparently if you inject a grain of sandinside the shell, a pearl will eventually form over it. Interesting!

Our next stop was the summer palace. All days in Beijing, in fact in China,were accompanied either by a pervasive mist or air pollution, so our photossuffer from that. What is unique about the summer palace is that an empress

from the last dynasty (The Dowager Empress) in the early 1900s decided tospend the money on herself and she created an artificial lake and incrediblestone walk ways, and royal buildings for herself. She was supposed to spendthe money building the empire and her navy. As a result the empirecollapsed, foreigners started coming in, colonialism had its way with China(British, Russian, Japanese, American, Portuguese, English), and China has

struggled for the last century to try to get its property back. It got Hong


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Kong. It got Macao. It hopes to get Taiwan. Really, Chinese foreign policyseems so different from this perspective. China does not appear to have anyreal history of expansionism, no history of colonizing other parts of theworld, and its whole collective psychology seems defensive. It wants tobuild walls around itself and keep the aliens out.

I dont really think it has aggressive and expansionist aims. That seems tocut against the grain of what China is. Japan occupied China, not vice versa.Anyway, here are some photos of this turning point in Chinese history: thesummer palace.


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Theempress built a marble boat pictured here. Quite opulent, but it doesntfloat.


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Miscellany

Now on our Beijing journey sometimes the miscellaneous things you do aremore important than the major events. For example we went to a jadefactory and learned that jade is an extremely hard stone. The artisans whocarve it sometimes work for an entire year on a single piece of jade. Here is

a jade statue thattook well over a yearto create:


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We also had lunch with a family in the Hutongs. This is a neighborhood ofsmall old homes right in the center of Beijing. The Hutongs were nice to

visit and sowas the little

meal we hadwith ourfamily.

We nowprepare to leave Beijing with two last photos (a tree in the summer palace)and me at the Great Wall.

More miscellanea:

We had a Chinese tea ceremony with special

teas which blossom into flowers in your glasswhen you add hot water. Wonderful to see andtaste.

We had one of our best Peking ducks ever in a

small restaurant. Delightful. However, whenwe got in our cab, he understood no Englishand we had not a single word in Chinese. WhenI said Capital hotel he looked blank. Thehotel was only 6 blocks from our restaurant,but it took us half an hour to get home. The


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Chinese driver was too proud to admit he didnt know where he wasgoing and wasnt going to ask anyone for help. We were all rattled.

Next stop, Xian.

XIAN:

This little city west of Beijing used to be the capital of the country. It is alittle bit above Lanzhou on this map.

Very curious facts about China:

(1) If you kill someone while driving a car, even if youare not at fault, you will be assessed a financialpenalty to pay to the victims family and that penaltywill lastyourentire lifetime.

(2) The largest immigration of human beings on planetearth occurred in the last twenty years in China as

over 100 million person left the countryside andcame to settle in the cities.

(3) At Chinese New Year, a period of two weeks, onebillion Chinese get on trains, buses, and cars andreturn home to see their families and relatives. It isthe largest movement of human beings on earth.


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It is a strikingly

pretty city with well-organizedboulevards. I rangthe bell at the belltower in the verycenter of the citywhere all the streetsseem to intersect.

The major attractionhere is a protectedUNESCO site andwhat people are nowcalling the 8

thwonder of the world, the terracotta warriors.


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Some 2 thousand years ago, the last emperor of the Qin dynasty wanted togive himself peace throughout eternity, so he buried an army of terra cottastatues (horses, officers, regular soldiers), each unique and individually

crafted. They were near his own monumental tomb and they were buried likehe was to protect him. There were 8000 soldiers, 130 chariots, 520 horsesburied in this way. This was discovered in 1970 and is being restored.

What I found peculiar is that the next emperor came along and dug up manyof his statues and broke them. Naively I said to my guide that this sort ofseemed like someone buried all his toys with him, and then some bully camealong and dug up the toys and broke them. Seemed, on the surface a tadchildish. But then, I sort of realized that if you genuinely believe in anafterlife and eternityand so does the bullywell then it makes a bit more

sense.


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Probably the most incredible thing about our trip to Xian was that we wentto a museum where we learned how America was discovered. In 1421, fiftyyears before Columbus, emperor Zhu Di dispatched his favorite eunuch, a

large man named Zheng He on an exploratory mission. Zheng He had lead ahuge and gigantic fleet of Chinese ships (62 treasure ships and over 27,000men) throughout the world. On his next voyage he is said to have discoveredAmerica. I took a picture of the gigantic ship that he sailed to our Californiashores. It was 120 meters long [Columbus Santa Maria was 18].

Sorry for the crummy photo. It is a bit of a shock, though, to realize Americawas discovered by aeunuch in 1421.


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My main purpose in going to Xian, however, was to see the White Pyramid.Most people in China dont know what that is, and we were somewhatconfused if we actually found it. This appears in my new book, Aliens andMan (working title) which will be out in Spring 2011. Ill let you read about

it there. This man-made mound doesnt look like much, and Im not sure Ifound the real whitepyramid, but this iswhat we did find. It

is called the Maolingtomb.

On the way out ofXian we passed acouple of amazingsites in this pollutedcountry. Right is anuclear powerstation, and below

that are over 25 high-rise apartment


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We also visitedseven storiedpagoda and Itook this pictureof a monk

relaxing.Strangely, Anyatook the samephoto on heriphone, andneither of usknew that untilwe got home.


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Final stop: Shanghai

Shanghai has a population approaching 20 million. I was taken by this glittering jewel ofa city. It is modern to the extreme, beyond anything we have in the U.S., but as usual it

was cloudy, or smoggy, or misty and visibility was minimal.

We took a trip up the TVtower (left), and went uplike 70 stories to view thecity.


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While up there we stood on a glass floor and looked down 70 floors. Scary!

Thats mytennis shoe.


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There is a beautiful, long, waterfront boardwalk called the Bund which we

found delightful, even though the weather was muggy and 92 degrees. Hereat the Bund there was just a tiny bit of respite.

More gigantic skyscrapersas viewed from the TV

tower.


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We also visited a quaint tea garden in the center of the city and found aStarbucks nearby to chill out.


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We were most taken, however, by just strolling down Shanghais incredible

shopping streets.probably running 2-3 miles and filled with Gucci, Rolexand other upscale stores. We most enjoyed going along the side streets andfinding incredible things (shoes, tea, craw fish, etc).

Saw some weird things too. Why were all these women picnicking andplaying cards in a subway station?


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Turns out they are all from the Philippines. It is Sunday, their day off, andthere are very few parks in Shanghai, so they bring their cards, sandwiches,and sit for the whole afternoon gossiping and giggling. Lots and lots ofthese.


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This is the upscale part of Shanghais shopping streets.


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It was so incredibly hot, we went to anold hotel, the Astor, right in downtown.It was air-conditioned so we stayed for

coffee in this historic spot. Here CharlieChaplin stayed (left), Albert Einstein and

other notables.

Our guide, Andy, was articulate and fun. He taught us a lot. First, hedescribed himself as part of the Lost Generation, the disaffected, young,bright new generation of China. He was in love with the United States andall its values. He said that the most popular writer in China was named HanHan, a young, Chinese adventurer-thinker-philosopher. He said 600 million

Chinese regularly read Han Han. And we never heard of him!


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This completes our photo trip, but there are some historic and philosophicalmatters I want to discuss. [You can skip this next part. This is more for me

and my need to record certain important facts for myself].

We attended the ShanghaiAcrobats performance,

thought to be the mostadvanced gymnastic-acrobatshow in the world. It was

stunning.


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The Chinese invented the compass, paper, printing, and gunpowder,but strangely they never used gunpowder in guns! It was merely anexplosive agent to them. They also invented the ship rudder, stirrups,

the crossbow, the iron plough, the wheelbarrow, hot air balloons andthe folding umbrella.

I also found it interesting that some of the worlds greatest minds wereall born around the same time. All within 191 years of each other.

Confucius 551 BC

Lao Tzu 575 BCBuddha/Siddhartha/Sakyamuni 563BC

Socrates 469 BCPlato 429 BC

Aristotle 384 BC

So completes our interesting journey. If you got this far, thanks for sharingin this virtual reconstruction.

Here are some random concluding photos of China that just fit nowhere andeverywhere.


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