January 9th, 2011 (7:30 PM)

Dear All,

Here ends the third day of my travels in Beijing. Before I begin, let me say that it is really cold here. I think the temperature was lower today than yesterday, but the wind wasn’t as bad. Apple says that it’s 27^o outside, but I’m saying that it’s colder than that. Take that, Steve Jobs.

So this morning, for some reason, I woke up at 4:30 and couldn’t go back to bed. So I lied (don’t correct me, you grammarians if that is wrong. I spend my days speaking Chinese. My English will diminish over the course of this semester, and you can laugh at me in the end) awake for a while, and then I decided to creep on my fellow students.

Creep (krëp) verb [intransitive], derived from the English word creeper. 1 to obtain information about a person without them knowing, especially using FB. 2 to follow/stare at someone for an extended period of time. Ex: Hey man, that guy is creeping onme.

This is what I found out: the majority of my fellow classmates (there are around 30 of us in all) are from the Northeast and New England. A few of them are from Orange County, one lives in Iowa, and then there’s me. I thought that was pretty funny. The majority of them go to private colleges, like George Washington University, Hamilton College, and a few that I can’t pronounce. Since I can’t pronounce the school’s name, I am automatically impressed.  The guys from Orange County attend a university founded upon the Buddhist principles of non-violence (because our universities are so violent), and I found that pretty interesting. In my morning Internet romp, I sent an email to the students that had already arrived in China, so that we might could meet up. I got two responses, but only one person is here. I’m having trouble reaching them on the phone, but I’d like to meet them. I’ll update you on how that goes.

I left the hotel about 10:30, and walked over to my old friend The Little Bean. The Bean was good, but I made the mistake of asking for my food a little spicy, and they didn’t put any hot pepper at all in my food. It was still good, but not as good as the day before. I broke out the Fodor’s guide to plan out the day, and I decided that sightseeing south of Tian’An Men was a good bet. I took the subway over, and please allow me to take a moment to spin you a tale of the Beijing Subway. Firstly, the subway here is amazing. Its cheap (2 Yuan a ride = 30 cents), fast, and they have the coolest ads in the stations and along the track. That's right, along the subway ride. The subway tunnel is lined with a series of TV panels that mesh together as you ride, and they have little movie advertisements. It makes me think of Fahrenheit 451, when Bradbury describes billboards 200 feet long, with the lettering stretched, so that the people driving at 100 mph can still read the words. Also, the subway is cool because it is a magnet for tall people. When I’m jamming around the city, I don’t see any Chinese people within 6 inches of my 6’1”. But when I’m on the subway, without fail, I can see one or two guys that are my height.

Now on to my day. I left the subway very disoriented (haha!), and I had to ask directions after walking about 5 minutes in the wrong direction. My destination was to the south, and I was looking for something called the XuanWu Art Garden. I really had no idea what I would find, as Fodor’s was silent on this attraction. It turns out that if you walk past some sketchy-looking second hand stores, and turn right past some dirty street vendors, you come upon the Art Garden. This really was a gem of a stop. The Garden is a collection of all sorts of vendors selling anything you could possibly want Chinese - jade, name stamps, old coins, pottery, porcelain, dead snapping turtles (no kidding), Mao era army gear, Chinese traditional paintings, lewd paintings, and all sorts of statues and carvings. There was a museum of 400 to 500 year-old porcelain, and you could buy a piece for the right price. That little jar is on sale now for about $650 dollars. Keep in mind that its from the Ming Dynasty, and is probably close to six hundred years old. The museum-with-stuff-on-sale was so Chinese to me. They’re willing to sell off their own history in the name of economic development.

Next on my list was the Ox Street Mosque, which was complete in 996 AD. I find that incredible. The mosque was built in a time where only Chinese-style architecture was legal, and the builders (from Persia itself) had to seek permission from the emperor to include Arabic script on the temples. The Mosque has a long outer courtyard that is built on a square, and to enter the Mosque, you have to make a few right-angle turns. The mosque was designed this way on the scientific conclusion that ghosts and evil spirits cannot turn on a sharp angle. There was a pretty cool temple there, which I couldn’t enter because I’m not Muslim, some tombs for Persian monks from 1200 AD, some picturesque minarets, and a Muslim shower thing. I really don’t know how to describe the shower due to the very unhelpful sign that adorned the doorway, but I didn’t venture inside because I spied some scantily clad Muslim men.

I then traveled over to the Source of the Law Temple, but to get there I had to travel through the Ox Street Neighborhood. I now know why it is called Ox Street. Both sides of the street were very clean butcher’s establishments. It looked like the entire street jumped out of a Saw movie. The Source of the Law Temple was pretty cool, and there was a lot of incense burning there. I don’t really understand the laws surrounding the use and practice of Buddhism in these temples, but evidently the Buddhists here have to practice some form of watered-down Buddhism by mandate of the State. Chinese Buddhists alternately performed rites and offered incense in the temples, then walked outside and talked on the cell phones (haha). The buildings were very nice, and I am learning a little bit about Buddhist gods these days. All of the altars have oranges, and I can verily conclude that Buddhist gods like to eat oranges. Keep that in mind.

After that, I made a very cold trek through some Hu Tongs to Liulichang, which is a traditional Chinese painting area. They sell all sorts of Chinese art here, along with a smattering of art supplies and extremely expensive inkstones. According to Wikipedia, an inkstone is a Chinese invention consisting of a stone carved in such a way that it will hold liquid ink. I saw one there on sale for $41,000! That’s insane! I took some pictures of artwork, but the street overall looked like a tourist trap.

I then took another cold walk in the direction of the Ruifuxiang Silk Market. I got turned around on my way there, but I ran into a very nice looking hotel in my wanderings. I do believe that the next time I visit Beijing, I’ll be staying there. I emerged onto a street, and found the best-looking Western bakery. I bought a piece of cake to stave off my hunger, and then set about finding the silk market and, more importantly, where I was. I found help in my friend Yuan Lei. Lei was all-business though, and he didn’t like that I had some cake crumbs on my mouth when I asked him for directions. After conferring on the phone with some of his friends, he determined that the silk market was but a few hundred yards to the southeast (how convenient!). He, although living in Beijing all his life, had never visited the world-renowned Ruifuxiang Silk Market, and decided to accompany me there. I thanked him for his help, and then told him in Chinese, “I’m very glad to make your acquaintance.” He responded, in English, “Thank you, good to meet you to.” So I asked him, “Oh, so do you speak English as well?” After all, English would have made the last fifteen minutes of my life much easier. To which he responded, in Chinese:

“We’re in China. We don’t speak English.”

Oh. The silk market was very nice, but I think that the clothes were a little overpriced. A suit was about $300, which was a far cry from what I’ve heard about silk in China. From the silk market, I traveled to the south towards the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven was the emperor’s park in ancient China. It doubled as an imperial playground and also a place of worship. The emperor would come there to offer sacrifices for plentiful harvests, and ask for deliverance in the case of eclipses – which were seen as a bad omen. I only paid the 10 Yuan entrance fee, and thus I couldn’t visit the touristy temples in the middle of the park. That didn’t keep me from taking pictures of the buildings or looking around the park.  My favorite places in the park include the Fasting and Abstinence Palace, where the emperor would prepare himself for worshipping the gods. Right next to the Fasting and Abstinence Temple is the (you can’t make this stuff up) Imperial Style Restaurant. I also checked out the Danbi Bridge, along which the emperor would walk to visit other temples, including the Echo Wall and the Circular Mound (which is actually a terraced square). On the mound, the emperor would worship the gods on the Winter Solstice. I then walked along the east side of the park, towards my next favorite place because of its classic name: Animal Killing Pavilion. I exited through the East Heavenly Gate in search of a heavenly restroom, which I found in the subway station.

The restroom is not where the signs say it should be in the subway station, and after I found it. I helped direct a few other people who were as lost as I in looking for the restroom. One of those people was a 24-year-old girl named Lian ChenFeng. And when she emerged from the bathroom, she came up to me and introduced herself. She was really happy to talk to me, and I didn’t mind; it was nice to talk to someone in the subway on my way back. I’m a little fuzzy on some of the details of the conversation: she said that she was 24, that she graduated from college this year, that she was working (in something that I don’t understand), and that she had just arrived in Beijing today. Thus, I asked is she was on vacation. She looked at me funny and said, “Don’t be silly! I work here, of course I live here!” Oh. Of course.

I walked back to the dormotel, and checked my email. Maybe the people I’d tried to call had left me a message and I could meet them for supper. Sadly, they had not. Given that I was eating stud again, you will have to excuse me for breaking down and giving in. There were so many of them that I passed today, and they looked so good! I haven’t eaten their delicious chicken in over a year. I visited my neighborhood KFC for supper, eating a delicious spicy chicken sandwich. It was so good that I ate two. The cashier at KFC was pretty funny. They gather together your entire meal on the spot, and we had quite a time getting my order straightened out. Then he couldn’t find my correct change. He was looking for a half-Yuan bill, and he couldn’t find any in his register because he was throwing the bills in the register with no order whatsoever. I don’t even think he had a separator. Oh dining in China. I’m still not back up to speed.

Then I headed back to my room to catalog the day’s events. Now I’m done, and I think I’m about to change my strings and jam a little before going to bed!

Keep in mind that KFC in China is “Relaxed / Friendly,” and also “Relaxed / Progressive.” I think ours should be the same.

With love from the opposite side of the globe,

Jamey