Shanghai and Home.

Our last couple of days was spent in Shanghai, a major global city and commercial hub of China.

We said farewell to Steve Levine, who is remaining in China for another ten days. We had our last dinner at a Shanghainese restaurant in a geared-for-tourists historic district of Shanghai. I think we’ll all be glad not to see another lazy susan for some weeks to come.

At the beginning of our trip, I couldn’t imagine how a group of 40 people could get along, without at least a few curmudgeons. However, we were blessed to have a group of great travelers, and we kept in good spirits throughout our lengthy trip. Our tour leaders, Sophia (Xiao Hui) and Crystal (Jing Jing) were knowledgable, decisive, and compassionate.

This has been a trip to remember and yet I am glad to be going home to watch my three year old ride her bike.

I look forward to getting home.

Guilin/Yangshuo.

For me, today was the most memorable day of our entire trip. After our dinner, we stumbled onto a center square where it appeared thousands of people were staring at the exterior of a modern looking Hotel, called the Lijiang Great Waterfall Hotel. It turns out that this 12 story hotel has a water show like no other. At 830pm each night, thousands and thousands of gallons of water fall over the edge of the hotel’s roof covering, the entire face of the hotel with a gigantic waterfall. Our guide claimed it to be the largest man-made waterfall in the world. The water fall spans the width of the hotel, about an entire block. While fountains and watershows are more and more common in city centers, and have appeared in many of our city stops, this fountain was and is the first of its kind.

The next day began with a flat bottom boat ride beginning in Guilin and cruising down the legendary Li River, with towering mountain-like limestone peaks dotting the winding shoreline. The landscape is familiar to all who have seen images of China. We shared the relatively narrow river with fishermen on bamboo rafts who use large black cormorants to catch their fish, vendors on similar rafts who hook onto the side of the ship to hawk cheap buddhas, as well as water buffalo, cows, and children swimming in the water begging for money.

The landscape is stunning.

We ended our ride in Yangshuo, my favorite city thus far. While still teeming with tourists, the city is manageable, and is crammed with daily Chinese life. Bicyclists, rice farmers, shop vendors, buses and pedestrians fill the streets.

Thanks to an error on the part of the Guilin Sheraton, we were moved to another hotel at the bottom of the river in Yangshuo instead of returning to Guilin. As Taoism teaches, sometimes good things can be bad and bad things can be good. This turned out to be a wonderful turn of events.

Once we arrived at the hotel in Yangshuo, Professor Levine and I went to ride bicycles. While we invited our entire group, I think all thought we were nuts to ride a bike in the busy streets of China. It was an experience I will remember my entire life. We rented the bikes for 10 Yuan (or just over a buck) and started to ride through the city, weaving through traffic, cars, buses, other pedestrians, trucks, pedicabs, and motorcycles. Somehow, Steve got us out of the city down a dirt road which narrowed between two large mountains. He spotted a village in the distance and it led directly into the countryside, with rice paddies, and fish farms all around us. The scenery was unbelievable. We ended up on a main road, where we did see some other tourists on bikes, all Europeans. After riding by the local Communist Party office, some old women selling fruit in road side shacks and riding for nearly 30 minutes, we turned around and rode back in the city.

In one ride, we were able to experience, tourist China, urban China, and rural china. I will never forget it.

As the local tour agency felt terrible for our hotel mix up, they provided tickets to Impressions, a live theatrical performance directed by legendary director Zhang Yimou, director of films like Raise the Red Lantern and Hero. Simply said, it was the finest live performance I’ve ever witnessed. The performance took place in a sold out outdoor amphitheater that held over 2,000. In place of a traditional stage at the base of the amphitheater, sits a huge lake surrounded by the huge limestone peaks.

The performance presents music and traditions of four of the 55 ethnic minority groups that exist in China, the Zhuang, Miao, Yao, and Dong ethnic groups. As anyone who’s seen Zhang’s films will know, his aesthetic, use of color and fabric is visually stunning and tonight’s performance, set on this lake with over 600 performers, half of whom are local farmers, was absolutely moving. While much of the music was a Hollywood-like symphonic soundtrack, it provided a strong backdrop to the hundreds of farmers on bamboo rafts, and floating stages, awash in color and light.

This performance is a clear signal to what we might see during the opening ceremonies at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Apparently Zhang is the general director of the ceremonies.

We leave in the morning for Shanghai, our last stop but of all the places we’ve visited, Beijing, Xi’an, Lhasa, and Chengdu, this region, the Guangxi Province and the cities of Guilin/Yangshuo are my absolute favorites.

The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Center. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province and is a very modern urban city with the typical Starbucks, McDonalds, and major designer stores. There is clearly a class of wealthy people as evidenced by many large european sedans seen side by side with hundreds and hundreds of bicycles/scooters. There's even a Ferrari dealership here.

We are now in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province. I think all of us are glad to be back down at sea level. We're off to see the world-renowned Giant Panda Breeding Preserve and Research Center.

Its been a great trip so far. Our group is wonderful and there is great chemistry, which is notable considering there are 40 in our group and all are experienced travelers.

Professor Levine gave another lecture last night and he continues to amaze and impress our group with his knowledge and his ability to breakdown some very complicated political issues.

Lhasa.

From the very instant we landed, some in our group to react to the higher altitude. Shortly after we arrived, Steve Levine and I went for a walk. During our walk, I was accosted by two poor young boys begging for money and one of the boys started to punch me on the arm tried to remove my watch. Steve believed that these young Tibetan boys (6-8 yrs old) believed I was Han Chinese and therefore someone who had wealth. We heard from a few people that Tibetans love all foreigners except for the Han Chinese. Apparently, families from the Tibetan countryside come into Lhasa for the promise of opportunity and wind up stranded and begging.

The struggle for Tibetans to retain their identity, autonomy and culture continues. The opening of the new high altitude railway connecting Beijing to Lhasa might seem to many as a technological marvel, as at its highest, the railway sits over 4,000 meters but the Tibetans are the group left out of this. Since opening a few months ago, nearly 3,000 Han Chinese are arriving in Lhasa daily. They are the ones who can afford the train ticket and come looking for employment and opportunity.

The huge influx of Han Chinese into Tibet continues to takeover the social, economic, political, and cultural life.

Walking side by side Tibetan pilgrims, prostrating (walking a step, lying flat on the floor, getting up, walking another step, and repeating this…) all the way to the Jokhang Temple or around the Potala Palace is a humbling experience. Many local citizens can be seen handing money to these faithful pilgrims as they proceed into Lhasa. As we toured Jokhang Temple, the holiest place in the world for Tibetan Buddhists, we saw thousands of families who made this once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Lhasa to visit the Temple, to pray at the tombs of past Dalai Lamas and of Shakyamuni (Siddhartha Gautama).

We toured the Temple along side one very poor Tibetan family who were probably among the pilgrims who’ve come from remote regions of Tibet. They had very high cheekbones, a very distinguishing facial trait that told us they were from the far north. As they past each tomb, they placed money at the foot of each deity, money that was clearly more valuable to them that to us. Candles throughout the temple are burned in yak butter and the entire floor of the place is sticky and covered with dried yak butter.

The Sera Monastery. We visited a monastery set in the side of a mountain where hundreds of Buddhist monks, aged 14-48 were practicing their own form of debate. In pairs and sometime groups, one younger monk would sit on the rocks of the monastery courtyard while the older monk stood facing them and with a clap of their hands, asked a series of philosophical questions. Different claps were used to communicate right and wrong answers.

The Potala Palace, where construction began during the 7th century A.D. by Emperor Songtsen Gampo, was built upon in the 17th Century during the time of the 5th Dalai Lama. It was built as the home of the Dalai Lama and used to serve as the seat of the Tibetan government and a training place for monks and others. It is truly a site to behold. So much so that i've included three photos plus a view from on top! :-)

Greetings from Lhasa. I have a lot of notes from which to share my observations but dont currently have the time and will post later. However, here are some photos from the last day and a half.

Also included is a photo of me with Professor Steven Levine, and Kabir Naimseth, an American friend of Steve's who currently lives in Lhasa while pursuing his doctorate at Oxford and among other things, runs the Tibet Program for the University of Virginia.

We stopped at a local wholesale Chinese herbal medicine market - an amazing array of ingredients from scorpions and snakes to dog genitals.

Day 5 in Xi'an. The Qin Terra Cotta Warriors from (211-206 B.C) known as and touted by China as "the eighth wonder of the world. It is truly a sight to behold. Very moving.

An observation of our trip so far. Its seems that the tourism agency has a clear idea of what image of China it's trying to project. The very disappointing fact is that tourists, including our group, are all being exposed to a "dog and pony" show that is overly exaggerated. Tonight we experienced what was presented as traditional T'ang Dynasty theater but was more like a theatrical production worthy of the Vegas strip with flying people, lights and canned music. While the production appeared to have authentic elements, it was painfully hard to experience with its Hollywood wrapping.

Moreover, all the meals we've had have been in 'authentic Chinese' restaurants but its easy to realize the food isnt at all what the Chinese people eat. While its not like going to PF Changs, its pretty close.

Yesterday, our group visited a residential neighborhood. This hutong is an ancient city alley or lane typical in Beijing, where they run into the thousands. They surround the Forbidden City and many were built during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

Many are currently occupied by average chinese citizens and we saw some everyday activity taking place. The group was brought to one of these 'real homes,' met a family were permitted to ask questions. It turns out the family is paid to open their home and its clear to me that everything in their house is presented deliberately: a new computer with Windows XP on the screen, new sneakers, an immaculate and meticulously cared for courtyard with garden etc... In essence, a human zoo.

Whats funny is that it seems that these 'facades' are not dictated by the government but rather the tourism industry.

The historic sites themselves are like any other, gift shops galore, street hawkers, and dozens of tour buses but these sites, like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City are still unbelievable in and of the themselves, even though there's a Starbucks at the Badaling entrance to the Wall.

We'll see about the Qin Terra Cotta Warriors and the Potala Palace...

In many ways, my take on this is that China is trying so hard to please the outside world that it has trouble 'being itself.' To me, China is presenting an image of itself that it believes foreigners are expecting, as opposed to staying true to its ancient past and first world future.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda. An amazing story...(from my guide book)

Originally built in 652 during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), it functioned to collect Buddhist materials that were taken from India by the hierarch Xuanzang.

Xuanzang started off from Chang'an (the ancient Xian), along the Silk Road and through deserts, finally arriving in India, the cradle of Buddhism. Enduring 17 years and traversing 100 countries, he obtained Buddha figures, 657 kinds of sutras, and several Buddha relics. Having gotten the permission of Emperor Gaozong (628-683), Xuanzang, as the first abbot of Da Ci'en Temple, supervised the building of a pagoda inside it. With the support of royalty, he asked 50 hierarchs into the temple to translate Sanskrit in sutras into Chinese, totaling 1,335 volumes, which heralded a new era in the history of translation. Based on the journey to India, he also wrote a book entitled 'Pilgrimage to the West' in the Tang Dynasty, to which scholars attached great importance.

Apparently when Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), captured Huizhou, a hermit admonished him that he should 'built high walls, store abundant food supplies and take time to be an Emperor,' so that he could fortify the city and unify the other states. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang followed his advice and began to enlarge the wall built initially during the old Tang dynasty (618 -907), creating the modern Xian City Wall. It's the most complete city wall that has survived in China, as well being one of the largest ancient military defensive systems in the world.

Day 4 - Xi'an

We traveled this morning on Air China from Beijing to Xi'an. Had to get out of bed at 4am to make the 730am flight.

Here's a shot of downtown Xi'an. Our tour director Sun Xiao Hui is from Xi'an and the pride she has in her hometown makes this visit extra special for all of us.

Apparently, just five years ago, much of downtown was still farmland. After years of pouring money into coastal cities like Beijing and Shanghai, money started flowing toward the center and west of China.

Day 3 - Beijing

Another full day including the Summer Palace of Empress Dowager Ci Xi. Also had a chance to walk through some of the original residential neighborhoods of Beijing (Hutong) with Steve Levine.

We're off at 530am to Xi'an. More later!

Emil

Here's my 3 year-old daughter's toy car on the Great Wall as it continues makes its china journey. :-) Next stop for the little auto: the Qin Terra Cotta Warriors.








Day 2 - The Great Wall and the Ming Dynasty Tomb

One thing i forgot to mention is that we witnessed an arrest today. On Tiananmen Square, a woman wearing a shirt that said, "I love the Party and the Party loves me" got arrested for wearing the shirt it seems. She put up a loud fight and then went with the officers. Whew!

A young German girl befriends a young Chinese girl.

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest at the Temple of Heaven

Standing guard in the Forbidden City.

The line to view the Hall of Preserving Harmony in the Fordbidden City.

Tiananmen Gate and Chairman Mao

Day 1

An uneventful flight. We flew from JFK to Beijing on Air China on a Boeing 747. The plane was the smallest 747 we'd ever seen as it only had 37 rows. About half the plane was walled off to use for cargo.

Here's our entire alumni group in in Tiananmen Square, looking at Tiananmen Gate.

Our guides advised us against holding up our UNC banner as police are more vigilant against perceived group protests with the presence of the Falun Gong... maybe at the Great Wall...