Busy day in Beijing

July 15, 2013July 16, 2013 / edebock / 4 Comments

I prefer to blog as I travel while the images and impressions are fresh in my mind but our whirlwind tour of China didn’t allow time for that. Now that we’re home and recuperating from jet lag, I’ll do my best to recap for you over the next few days.

As we walked toward Tiananmen Square on our first morning in Beijing, I felt completely overwhelmed. Many times during our months in China, we commented on how surreal it felt to actually be living there but in early June of 1989 when tanks rolled into that square and mowed down hundreds of protesting students I couldn’t possibly have imagined that I might someday stand on that very spot. The exact number who died that day has never been officially confirmed. The reality of being there brought a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes. When I mentioned my feelings to our tour guide, she quickly changed the subject pointing out the Great Hall of the People where the nation’s government meets, the China National Museum, the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Mausoleum in the centre of the square where Chairman Mao’s embalmed body has lain in state since his death in 1976. I was later told that tour guides are not allowed discuss the Tiananmen massacre with foreigners.

Tiananmen Square

Joining a throng of visitors, mostly Chinese, we passed beneath the gigantic portrait of Chairman Mao and through the Gate of Heavenly Peace into the Forbidden City. It was from high on this gate that Mao proclaimed the formation of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 and we truly felt that we were at the heart of the country.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace

Our Beijing guide chose to pack too much into our first day there making our tour of the Forbidden City, so-called because it was off limits to the ordinary people for its first 500 years, a rushed one. Originally constructed over a 14 year period in the early 1400s when China’s third emperor, Zhu Di, moved his capital from Nanjing in the south to Beijing in the north, the Forbidden City is China’s largest and best-preserved complex of ancient buildings. We would have liked more time to explore it but fortunately, it is not unlike many other similar complexes that we’ve seen in Asia.

in the Forbidden City

Next on the day’s agenda was the Summer Palace, a huge park complete with gardens, pavilions, temples, bridges and man-made Kunming Lake. The soil that was excavated to form the lake was used to build Longevity Hill which overlooks it. The Summer Palace was vandalized during an Anglo-French invasion in 1860 but rebuilt in 1888 as a palatial summer resort for the Empress Dowager Cixi, also known as China’s Dragon Lady. She spared no expense even using money that was earmarked for a modern navy to build an enormous marble boat at the northern edge of the lake!

Kunming Lake and Longevity Hill

Our third historical site for the day was the circular Temple of Heaven with its three levels representing God, the emperor and the people. Sally, who we dubbed the “reluctant tour guide”, dismissed it as unimportant because “we have no God anymore”. She told us that Mao gave the Chinese people “freedom from religion”. She didn’t appear to share the hunger for something to believe in that we sensed in many of the young Chinese that we were acquainted with.

Temple of Heaven

Again, we would have liked to have had enough time to explore the peaceful park surrounding the temple but that was not to be. These are only a few of the highlights of a very busy day that ended with a Kung Fu show that was a fantastic combination of martial arts and dance.

In one way, we were very blessed while we were in Beijing. Did you notice the sky in the photos? Beijing is usually shrouded in heavy smog. It reaches such dangerously high levels that some people actually wear gas masks outdoors but just before we arrived, the air was cleansed by heavy rain and we enjoyed clear skies and unusually fresh air!

The heart of the city

March 24, 2013March 24, 2013 / edebock / 2 Comments

We’ve spent the last couple of Sundays with students but today we were on our own so we decided to explore the heart of downtown Dalian.

In spite of the fact that Dalian is a city of some 3.4 million people, it’s quite compact and easy to get around by bus. Since almost everyone lives in an apartment and there are virtually no single family dwellings, it’s not a sprawling metropolis like a lot of North American cities are.

We started our day by catching a bus to the train station. Long-distance buses depart from various points around the station so we scouted around and figured out where the buses to a couple of the places we’re hoping to visit in the not too distant future leave from. Once we’d found what we were looking for, we set off on foot for Zhongshan Square stopping for lunch along the way.

KFC and McDonald’s are probably the most popular western fast food restaurants in Asia. They seem to be everywhere. I think the last time we ate at KFC was in December 2008 in Hanoi, Vietnam. We don’t eat at KFC in Canada and hadn’t really planned on it here either but we’d both reached the point where we were craving a meal that didn’t involve either rice or noodles and the KFC that we passed on the way to Zhongshan Square was just too unique to pass by!

Zhongshan Square (which is actually circular) is the hub of Dalian’s business district. With ten roads radiating out from its central roundabout, it is encircled by ten buildings dating from the early 1900s that have been declared cultural heritage buildings under the protection of both the Chinese government and the Dalian municipal government. Though the central part of the square is undergoing reconstruction at the moment, I was so enthralled by the classical architecture surrounding it that I hardly noticed. We walked the entire circle admiring each of the stately buildings and remarking on the contrast with the much more modern structures that formed a backdrop for them before continuing our walk north along Shanghai Road toward Russian Customs Street.

Dalian was originally a Russian seaport. In 1898, the Russian Empire leased Liaoning Peninsula from the Chinese Qing dynasty and laid out a modern city that they named Dalny. After the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, Dalny was yielded to Japan and its name became Dairen. Prior to the unconditional surrender of Japan in August of 1945, Dairen was liberated by the Soviets who once again governed the city until it was presented to the Chinese Communist government without any compensation in 1950. Dalian’s many squares with their sculptures, lawns and western-style fountains were constructed by Russian architects who were enamoured with French culture and design.

Russian Customs Street retains some of the flavour of Dalian’s Russian days but I was disappointed by the aggressiveness of the many vendors hawking Russian stacking dolls and other cheap souvenirs. I’m not sure if any of them were genuine. I did purchase a cute scarf but it was made in Taiwan!

From Russian Customs Street it was a short walk back to the train station to catch a bus back home where we’re spending a quiet evening resting our tired feet!

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Winnipeg walk

May 15, 2012May 23, 2012 / edebock / 4 Comments

While Chrissy attended her first tae kwon do class this morning, I spent a couple of hours exploring downtown Winnipeg with my camera in hand. Located at the confluence of the Red and Assinboine Rivers, Winnipeg is the capital city of Manitoba and Canada’s seventh largest municipality.

The farther east one travels in Canada, the more history there is to be found. French traders built a fort here in 1738. The City of Winnipeg was incorporated 35 years later, long before anyone settled the area of Alberta that we call home.

My favourite part of this morning’s walk took me through the Exchange District National Historic Site, one of North America’s most colourful and cosmopolitan neighbourhoods. Home to the city’s arts district as well as fine cultural, dining and retail establishments, it showcases North America’s most extensive collection of turn-of-the-twentieth-century architecture.

Portage and Main, at the heart of downtown Winnipeg, is perhaps the most famous street corner in Canada. The hub of some of the city’s main transportation routes, it was once the centre of western Canada’s banking industry. The stately Bank of Monteal building, constructed in 1877, stands guard over the intersection.

I love the mixture of old architecture and new that I found as I walked Portage Avenue.

Reflections

There are so many photos that I’d love to share with you but here are just a few more.

Winnipeg may not be one of Canada’s prime tourist destinations, in fact it was the butt of a well-known and rather humourous 2005 Fountain Tire television ad, but it’s definitely worth a visit.