Another massive city

Yes, the bullet train was SWEET! It was undoubtedly both the smoothest and fastest train I had ever been on. I arrived at the train station 8 minutes before one of the trains was going to take off—went through security, bought a ticket, and went through the train station’s equivalent of an airport terminal before it left the station. Super efficient.

Upon arriving, one of the first things I noticed about the city of Tianjin is that everything seemed new (like everywhere else in China…). Tianjin is one of China’s Economic Development Centers, where it’s known as a technology factory city and a major port. Companies like Intel, Samsung, and Motorola all have factories here in Tianjin. By being one of the Economic Development Centers, the Chinese government pours a lot of money into the city to renovate and upgrade buildings and improve the quality of life...the 12 million residents of Tianjin are sure to be happy about that.

I heard from one of the students studying at the Tianjin University that the government plans to build an additional 45 high-rises within the next 10 or so years. If I were to hear that 45 high-rises were going to be built in a U.S. city in about 10 years I wouldn't believe it; but in China they mean business, and they have shown with cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou that they can bring livelihood and a bunch of buildings to a city in a matter of a few short years! And they will be making it very eco-friendly…here are a few of the concept pictures. It looks awesome.

In downtown Tianjin, there was an “ancient cultural” street where most of the small buildings were constructed in a similar fashion to the Chinese architecture found in the Qing and Ming dynasties; this cultural street was made to replicate this style of architecture, but was constructed within the past 20 years (so the actual ancient-ness of it is questionable). After spending a considerable amount of time in the cultural sector, I ventured further into downtown towards the more recently developed part of the city.

In this section of the city, there was a 5x5 block square of a shopping plaza, where you could walk outside on beautiful tiles and stop into stores whenever you feel like—while walking through this shopping plaza, I passed by 3 different Nike stores, 3 different McDonalds, and 3 different KFCs. And two of these McDonalds were less than a block away (and they were both very luxurious McDonalds…well, as luxurious as McDonalds can be)!

From the downtown shopping area, the last place that was visited today was St. Joseph’s Cathedral. Although it wasn’t open, I was still able to go inside the gate and take a few pictures—it was very purdy.

-Alex

Attention to Detail

The buildings and architecture that emperors had made during their respective dynasties seemed like a lot of self-glorifying work; but man, the buildings are sweet! Almost all of the buildings constructed in the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, and Temple of Heaven are made solely of wood with no nails holding the structures together. I’ve uploaded a few more photos than usual in this post to give you all a better picture of how big the structures are and how beautiful the artwork on them is.

The first stop of my day was to the Summer Palace, a garden and place of residence for the emperor and the empress during the months between May and October. The Summer Palace is on a quiet and beautiful lake, with a large corridor that runs along the lake—it took about 30 minutes of walking, while stopping to look at the other buildings on the way, to get from one side of the corridor to the other. When the emperor lived at the Summer Palace, to get from one end of the corridor to the other he would hop on the “marble boat” that would take from one side of the lake to the adjacent corner. So, after we reached the end of the corridor, we took a boat back towards our starting point. There were beautiful buildings, a lot of trees, and a lake—having a place like the Summer Palace to get-away to would be so nice! 

(The Emperor's gateway after he got off the marble boat)

While walking in the corridor, I couldn’t help but stop when I saw a vendor selling this T-shirt. Who do the Chinese think they are?!

After touring the Summer Palace, my tour group went to Vanderbilt Sorority heaven: a Pearl factory. Here we learned the process of collecting fresh water and salt water pearls, polishing them, and putting them on a string. Woo. I didn’t take too many pictures here because I wasn’t all too interested, but I did think that the mouse made out of pearls was kind of cute.

The next stop was the main attraction of the day: the Forbidden City. It was given the title “Forbidden City” because during the Ming and Qing dynasties the common person was forbidden to enter. Clever enough. The only way you were getting into the Forbidden City is if you were training in the army, a servant or worker for the imperial family, a member of the imperial family, or a lucky 13-17 year old girl who would be chosen by the Emperor to be one of his concubines. Interestingly, after the first three nights of marriage, the Emperor doesn’t sleep with his wife—only with one of his 50, or so, concubines.

When we got off our bus and walked up to the entrance of the FC, we passed by 4 different beggers. A little background, Beijing is full of homeless people that beg for money to get by. In addition, there are homeless people that are a part of gangs—they can be young or old—that are given a certain territory to cover with the purpose of begging, and then the gang gets a portion of the money collected. Now, these gangs aren’t anything as bad as the gangs in Central America or the U.S., but they are still not up to any good. But when we passed by these beggers, I felt like I was momentarily watching a horror story. The first individual was shirtless, sitting on the ground, singing into the microphone that he held with his one arm. The other side of his body had been nastily burned and he no longer had another arm, and you could see all of his burn-marks. The second person was missing half of a leg, and you could see bone at the end of her stub. The third individual and her friend in need were people that had begged to me the past two days—a lady and her eye-less friend. She came up to me, for the third day in a row, asking for “1 yuan, 1 yuan”, where she then proceeded to open her friend’s eyelids to show me his empty sockets. And the fourth person was lying on the ground, with body parts abnormally twisted and disfigured. Our group walked on by each one of these people.

In those situations I have a difficult time deciding how to act. As a Christ follower, we are called to love everyone, especially those who are seen as outcasts. But in those moments, I don’t know if giving money to these individuals is the thing that is going to show them Christ’s love: it’s definitely not a bad thing to do, but anyone can hand over a dollar bill to someone on the street. I guess it’s in those moments when I need to make sure I turn to God and ask him to work in these individuals', and my, hearts.

The Forbidden City was HUGE! These buildings were enormous and had the similar Chinese architecture seen in the Summer Palace. What is cool about the Forbidden City is that there are large courtyards with just empty space. We were told that is where the Chinese army would train and march together (I’m not exactly sure of the purpose for marching, but that’s what they did).

 (Inside one of the buildings)

The courtyard in front of the Emperor’s main gate entrance (see the picture below) happens to be a very special courtyard. If a military member or common person did something that upset the emperor, the emperor would bring that person to the courtyard and beat him with a large wooden stick. After he had been sufficiently beaten, the emperor would send him away to be beheaded. Pretty sweet.

(Courtyard of death)

From the Forbidden City we moved on to a Silk factory. Here they showed our group the different developmental stages of a silk worm, and how it goes through a similar process of a regular worm becoming a butterfly, but this process ends with the silk worm dying in the cocoon phase and the cocoon being made out of silk. You are left with a silk ball and a dead, shriveled up worm inside. The silk balls are then threaded-out and stretched into thin layers of silk that can be used for quilts and pillows. The stuff was real soft and smooth. At the factory they also make some clothing out of silk, and one of the items they made was this blue suit seen being worn by our former president George Bush (two U.S. presidents in one day, and heck I’m in China)!

Our second last stop was at the Temple of Heaven, where the Ming and Qing emperors came twice a year to pray for good harvests. This was one of my favorite stops due to the bazillion trees at the entrance to the grounds; you could feel a difference of air quality being around the trees versus walking around Beijing normally. Once we got passed all the greenery, we were back to stone floors and beautiful wooden buildings. The Temple of Heaven was another large and gorgeous structure. The inside, which we weren’t allowed to go into, had large red posts and statues of animals (I think to represent sacrifices, but not totally sure), and the attention to detail was astonishing.

After seeing the temple, we walked to our last destination: a Tea House. On the way to the Tea House, we saw a ton of old people hanging out and playing cards outside the temple. I guess that’s the kind of thing you do in Beijing when you get old…actually, thats not too bad!

At the Tea House we participated in a Tea Ceremony where we tried 5 different kinds of Chinese tea. I absolutely loved trying the different kinds of tea, and ended up purchasing two different kinds that I will bring back to the U.S. (stop by the Whitmore house and try my Puerh and Jasmine teas)!

Overall today was a great day. By seeing these buildings, you can start to fathom the time, hard-work, and attention to detail that is put into each one…and the end product is amazing. But when you think about the purposes of the buildings, to create an awesome living space for one lucky family or for prayer to false gods, you can’t help but feel that these people were just missing the point. I’m not saying that these were a waste, because they preserve so much history and character of the country, but it just shows what the country was lacking: the knowledge and love of Jesus.

Tomorrow I will be hopping on the bullet train going to Tianjin where I will be spending two days touring before leaving for Shanghai on Thursday. Oh, and they call it the bullet train because it travels at a speed of 220 mph (346kph). Sick.

-Alex

Hmmm

I think one of the coolest things about traveling is how someone’s world view changes due to the things he sees or the different experiences he has. This has happened to me on trips to Australia/New Zealand/Fiji and to El Salvador—I was able to see a different culture and gain a greater understanding of how people think and operate in different parts of the world. And I do think I am learning something similar to that here in China. From simple things like taking off your shoes and putting on sandals when you walk into your house to politely handing over cash to the receptionist using two hands while paying for museum tickets, I am gaining a greater understanding on how these people think and why they act the way they do. And although the Chinese, American, and El Salvadorian cultures have major differences, I have noticed that they all have a similar goal in life; that being, to be successful and happily. Upon noticing this, I started thinking why I think and act the way I do, and what my goal is in life.

I think that the most influential part of my life that affects the way I think and how I act is God and His presence. When I feel lost and have nowhere to go, I turn to God. When I am at the top of the Great Wall looking over beautiful mountains, I thank the Lord for His beautiful creation.  In the morning I flip open my Bible because I want to be in community with Him. The reason why I turn to God in these ways is because I have made it one of my goals to become a more godly man for Christ’s sake: I want my life to be transformed by God, for God and the purpose He has laid out for me.

In the current Chinese culture, success and living a happy life is defined by the job that you have. If you have a nice job you will make a lot of money and you can buy a nice apartment and meet all your needs. In order to take steps to reach this goal, one must start early: in elementary school. If you perform well in elementary school, you can move on to a good middle school. If you perform well in middle school, you can move on to a top high school. And if you perform well in high school, you might be able to make it into an OK college; then you can go on and get that job so you can have that “happy life.” This is why there is a stereotype that Chinese students study all the time, because they have to beat one another out to get to that next plateau (and the stereotype is very true). So, in order to reach their goal, they had to work hard and take vital steps. I would argue that a Christian who has a similar goal to mine goes through a process like this too; but a much more fulfilling, rewarding, and all around awesome process.

If the goal of a Christian is to be transformed by God, for God and the purpose He has for him/her, the Christian must give God opportunities to transform his/her life—and 2 vital steps that must be taken are reading God’s Word (God talking to us) and time spent in prayer (us talking to God).

Joshua 1:8 says, “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” (I’m thinking that I need to go tell the Chinese people this…) Through God’s Word we learn more about the Father, his character, his commands, and heck he even says we will prosper. Jesus says in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one that loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” By spending time in God’s word and putting what was learned into action, Christ says that he will show himself to us. I feel like that is a great step towards that goal.

Another step towards that goal is by prayer, talking to God and allowing him to speak to us through his Holy Spirit. Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” It says that our hearts and minds will be guarded in Christ, thanks to the peace of God. And through prayer, we can ask God to advance His work in us so that we can further glorify him, and he will come through on that: “If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you,” John 15:7.  If you are selflessly prayers that ask for his Kingdom’s work to be done, God will come through. These, reading God’s word and spending time in prayer, are foundational blocks that must be laid for the Christian with the goal of knowing Christ and being transformed by Him for Him.

It’s funny how seeing and experiencing different cultures can be such an eye opening—you gain a greater understanding of their culture, but sometimes you also get down to thinking and understanding your own culture a little better.

-Alex

Good? Nope...Great.

Waking up at 6:45am is not exactly the time I prefer to wake up in the mornings, but if that’s what it takes for me to get ready to go to the Great Wall I’m all for it. Before 8:00 I was on a bus en route to the first location of the day’s big adventure: the Ming Tombs.

The Ming Tombs are the burial site of the 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty. I learned that as the emperor title got passed down to younger generations within the Ming Dynasty, the burial site for each emperor got smaller in size. This was seen as respectful to the emperor prior to the current one…I mean, It makes sense; when I pass away I am going to make sure to tell my family that my tombstone must be smaller than my dad’s...

We ended up visiting the burial ground for the 3rd emperor in the Ming Dynasty—Zhu Di (pronounced Judy)—and he has a pretty cool story. When it was time for the first emperor to give up his title, he had to choose which one of his 25 sons to give his throne to. It was customary that you would give your responsibilities to the first born son, but sadly the emperor’s first born son had already died. So, the emperor handed his throne to his first born son’s first born son. The other 24 sons of the emperor got passed for their nephew! Burned!

While the nephew was emperor, good ole’ Zhu Di was real ticked off that he didn’t get the throne. Zhu Di was basically the baller of the Ming Dynasty, and kicked everyone’s butts with his huge, loyal army. So when Zhu Di told his army he wanted to overthrow the nephew, they were game. Zhu Di ran train on the nephew, and was able to take over the throne. And that’s why you see him made into a statue at the burial site.

(Statue of Zhu Di)

Below, in the courtyard of the burial site, is a gateway that separates the “yin” from the “yang”, the dead from the alive. It was thought that when you passed through the gateway, you would be entering into another realm where you would be in the land of the dead, yin; but as you passed back through, going back to yang, you would be back in the normal realm of life. Needless to say, I was freaking out as I walked through the gate—I keep pinching myself to make sure that I am still in my body.

(Gateway from Yin to Yang)

(Ming Tomb Peach stand?)

After seeing the burial site and passing up on some Ming Tomb Peaches (although they actually looked pretty good), we made our way to the second stop: the Jade factory. We got a brief tour of the facility and had an introduction on the significance of Jade, its properties, and how to determine the high quality Jade from the low quality. There were a lot of cool pieces that we saw, but one of my favorites was this one of the horse. I found out, there at the Jade factory, that I was born in the Chinese year of the Horse. For those unfamiliar with the “Year of the ____”, it can be thought of similarly to a zodiac sign. There are 12 different animals that are cycled through every 12 years, each with a year being dedicated to them. For instance, in 2011 it is the Year of the Rabbit. But back in 1990, the year I was born, it was the Year of the Horse. It is said that if you are born in the year of the horse you are going to be a successful individual in life. I also learned that a lot of families, when deciding to have kids, will wait until a “good year” comes by, and one of the best years to have a child is the year of the pig. The pig is seen as an animal who is fun, doesn’t have to work, and is relaxed; and in previous years of the pig, there have been miniature baby-booms just so families can hope their child will attain these qualities.

(Jade Horses)

After the Jade factory came the big moment, or should I say the “great” moment. We went to the Wall and it was busy as ever. Walking up the “hero slope”, an extremely angled and slick part of the wall, was difficult because you would run into so many people—but it was very rewarding getting to the top of the tower. The Great Wall is also been known as the Wall of Death, because many people died in the process of making the wall. It took 10 years and over 1 million people working on the wall to complete it—and I can’t imagine that the workers’ union had that many rights back then. The Wall is over 700km in length and can be very steep in some places. The steps we would be climbing up or down would differ in size; we would take very miniature steps, and then very long strides up and down the wall—and it got very tiring. On the way back from the furthest point we climbed to, my quads started shaking whenever we would walk down steps. It was a good reminder that I was out of shape (doh!).

(Very crowded at the entrance)

(People lining the Wall)

I was told by a nice British man at one of our stops that there was a Great Wall Race the week before. I just couldn’t imagine having a race up and down a slick-angled path where one needs to be grasping the side-rail the whole time…but kudos to all those racers. By the time we were about to head down, me and my climbing buddy took a picture together with the mountains in the background (on his camera, mine had already run out of batter). After our picture was done, a completely random Asian dude walked up to me and motioned that he wanted to be in a picture with me. I smiled and went along with it, and his wife jumped in the picture as well. They then smiled and went on their way. My climbing buddy then told me that they thought I was a famous actor, and that’s why they wanted to get a picture with me. I felt flattered and completely judged.

The final stop of the day was at a traditional Chinese medical facility. After a long day of hiking on the wall, I thought all I wanted was to get some rest, but that changed when I heard why we were going to the medical facility: we all were going to get a free foot massages! While we were soaking our nasty, sweaty feet (from the Great Wall) in a warm bowl of herbal water, we were getting lectured by a student that she could tell if we had illnesses from just looking at the palms of our hands. She also told us that by massaging different points on our feet and hands that she could improve productivity of different organs that the points corresponded to. Nuts. Soon enough, a 20 year old Tibetan man came into the room and started punching, kneading, and doing crazy stuff to my feet and calves. It was AWESOME!

I ended getting back to the hotel 12 hours after I had left, and I now feel exhausted…but overall, it was a Great day.

We hiked from the tower at the very top-right side corner of this picture to where the photo was taken.

-Alex

Capital City

Hey yall! Since I didn’t write a post about yesterday, I am going to include two days in this one.

Yesterday, I left the beautiful city of Hong Kong for Beijing. The airport was spacious and clean, and it was easy for me to pick up my airplane ticket to the capital of China—good ol’ seat 32A. When boarding the plane, I found that I was sitting next to a mother and her son who seemed to be able 10 years old; and from the moment I snuck by the two to my window seat, I noticed that there was something off about this boy. He was slouched in his chair with drool hanging out of his open mouth, his eyes looked droopy, and I quickly found that he had a hard time controlling his hands—they would start to wonder up in the air or towards my seat, and the mother would then grab his hands and put them back in his lap. None of this bothered me, and soon enough the plane was up in the air.

In typical Alex fashion, once the “fasten-your-seatbelt” light was on I was sound asleep…but later I woke up later to the flight attendant giving me a hot meal. While I was eating my lunch, all I could pay attention to was this mother taking care of her son; feeding him, wiping off his drool, all while calmly asking him questions of what he wanted to eat next. In that moment it then hit me that this was her life; she must spend all of her time taking care of this boy, helping him sit up straight, take him to the bathroom, and blow on his hot food. I thought to myself, ‘she’s a hero.’ I then prayed that I could somehow serve this boy and her mother while on the plane.

When lunch was over I promptly went back into the state I was in prior to receiving the food: sound asleep. I think it was about an hour later I woke up with a hand jutting into my right side. The boy, unknowingly, was digging (lightly) into my ribcage and I looked over to the right to see the mother asleep. At this point I was a bit disgruntled from just waking up (and I was in a sleep-sweat, never good to wake up to), but even in this state it was clear to me that this was my opportunity to serve this family. I placed the boy’s hand back in his lap, and then pulled out my iPad…my serving method of choice? Angry Birds. Upon launching the application, the boy couldn’t stop staring at my iPad. I motioned to him how to play with the birds as I held the iPad, but he had a little bit of difficulty with his hands. I then switched to a different game that didn’t require as much dexterity, and he started slicing up fruits on my iPad. I saw the boy smile for the first time the whole plane ride (maybe that had something to do with me being asleep…), and we went on and played the piano together, and even went through my photos of Wrigley field and our puppy dog biscuit; when we flipped to the photo of Biscuit, this boy had a jolt of energy and sprung back into his chair in fear…he totally wasn’t expecting to see a dog, and he definitely thought it was real, lol. At the end of the plane ride the mother smiled at me and said goodbye. I was glad that this mother, who probably spends 95% of her day taking care of her son, was able to get some rest on the plane.

When you think of stereotypical Asian towns with relics, statues, and like a bajillion people, you are thinking of Beijing: it is the capital of China. Oh, and this place doesn’t sleep. Ever. At 4am I was hearing honking of cars outside my hotel—not to the extent where I couldn’t go back to sleep, but it was still kind of ridiculous. And the drivers are sooooo scary! Taxicabs, coach buses, and bicyclists stop within centimeters of hitting each other, and laying your fist down on the horn is totally acceptable; the constant stop-and-go, stop-and-go of the coach bus on the way to the hotel was starting to make me feel nauseous…my Mom would not do well getting around Beijing.

Upon arriving at the closest bus stop to my hotel, I was waved down by some dude who spoke English saying, “need a taxi?” I was thinking ‘this was quick!’ and gave him my huge bag. We started walking and talking to his “taxi”, and he seemed like a nice guy, but when he told me to hop in the box attached to the back of his bike, I was like “wait a second…” I had read up on scams in Beijing, and that rickshaw-esque drivers are great scammers because they charge really high prices for unknowledgeable visitors…but luckily I knew! I told him that I wanted to take a taxi instead, because he was going to charge me a lot of money ($80 for going 6 blocks to my hotel!) But he was insistent that I get in his bike box…he already put my large suitcase in the back. I told him I could get a taxi for 30yuan…he called me at 50, but I stayed at 30. He went 40, but I said 30. I was about to pull my bag out of the back and he goes “OK, OK, 30.” Winner! And it was my first haggling experience! 

(This was a glorified version of what I was in)

After a 4 minute bike ride to my drop off spot, where he dropped me 2 blocks away from my hotel (I think he was ticked), I grabbed money from my pocked and handed him 30 yuan. He then goes, “No, no, 30 american dollars”. That’s about 200yuan—and I told him, no, the deal we agreed on was 30yuan. We went back and forth for a little while, and I ended up giving him 30yuan more, making it 60 in total; he was very displeased, and I was left with a very sour taste myself. On my two block walk to the hotel, I stopped by a group of taxicab drivers and asked them about their rates. They said they would’ve charged me about 200 yuan for that ride to my hotel. I actually got a great rate for the ride to my hotel (although I was dropped off 2 blocks away…); in essence, I scammed the scammer!

My hotel is 3 blocks away from Tiananmen Square, where I walked around looking at the huge and beautiful buildings (going in them on a different day) and walked just outside the Forbidden City. I am a little confused of why they have a huge picture of Mao Zedong on the outside of the Forbidden City, but hopefully I can find out when I take the tour. Something that was weird about being in Tiananmen Square was that the officials that worked inside the large buildings, when they went outside to go grab lunch they all walk in lines of 2, marching and flailing their arms in sync. When I saw a group of about 6 businessmen do this, I thought it was frightening…I thought I was doing something wrong as they were walking towards me while I was taking a picture of one of the huge buildings. But as I saw 4 other groups, with an upwards of 20 people in each group, do the exact same in-sync walk I found it mildly hilarious.

(Note the group of men on the left)

In my tourist’s guide to Beijing, there is a section in it titled Con ‘Artists’. It mentions the following, “…routinely hounded by pesky ‘art students’ either practicing their English or roping visitors into going to exhibitions of overpriced art. They will try to strike up a conversation with you, but while some travellers enjoy their company, others find their attentions irritating and feel pressured into buying art.” Man, I’m glad I read this section of the book. On my way to the mall to grab dinner, I met a nice young man by the name of Will; he just strolled right up to me and started talking. I walked inside the mall, and Will followed. He loved to talk and, as he said, practice his English…and he was actually a very nice guy. But we started talking, and I told him how I didn’t have plans right now (I was going to eat dinner, and was afraid that he might invite himself…maybe that’s not the best thinking, but after an exhausting day walking around outside in the sun I was pooped), so he told me that I should go to this art exhibition. We were in the thick of the mall, but he assured me that it was ‘just over there’. I kindly said sorry, but maybe some other time. He smiled and went away. Later, after I was walking back from dinner, guess who I run into outside the mall. “Alex, from Chicago!” (we ended up talking for a while in the mall, lol) “Now you are free to go to see the art?” I felt kind of bad, but told him that I was busy...he smiled and went on his way again.

My attitude was a little negative towards this guy...he seemed very nice, but just knowing his intentions behind getting me to go to the art exhibition made me feel uncomfortable; but I think I would’ve felt more uncomfortable had I been at the exhibition and he was pressuring me to buy his artwork, so maybe it was a good thing I didn't go.

If you have read this far, you are a trooper. Tomorrow I am headed for the Great Wall (woo!) and will get some sweet pictures. Happy Friday!

 (Outside of the Forbidden City)

 (Tiananmen Square)

-Alex