Sunday May 10th, 2009
Today was the first time we had some downtime in our project. At least some of us did. We're moving to Production this week, and several tasks have to be completed before we can start running our stuff. Meantime, what do we do? Why, go sightseeing of course.
When I first came on this project, Kevin had promised to show me around Beijing. We met for breakfast - Kevin, Eric and I - and were planning out our day. Eric had to work, so that left the two of us to our own devices. Kevin proposed going to Tianenmen Square and the Forbidden city and then some quality shopping time at the Silk Street market. Of course I jumped at the chance. Soon we were on our way. The day was not very hot, and a cool breeze was springing up. The taxi drive to the Tienanmen Square was uneventful. I could not get over how different the architecture is here in Beijing as compared to the US or Canada. I found that I had to take a few pictures of the streets and then of course, I had to take pictures of buses and so on...
This time I brought along with me my DSLR baby. Its a Sony Alpha 100 that I had bought about two years ago, and came with 2 lenses - a 35-70 and a 75-300 zoom. In addition I had two more lenses that I used to use with my old Minolta 300si. The downside is I have to carry it in a very big bag. I'd already tested out the battery with some shots outside my hotel room. They came out good. I was good to go!
Tienanmen Square is a HUGE place. Flat. Flagged. A cenotaph stands at one corner. And it faces the Forbidden City/Imperial Gardens. Hordes of tourists were everywhere. And there were the usual mob of people trying to sell you anything from fake Olympic medals to statuettes to "art" to ... you get the picture. I was so at home! Crossing the street was like crossing a street in India. Chaotic. And then the mob of hawkers - 'You go to Great Wall?' 'You need guide? I speak English'. ' I show you Forbidden city?' I advised Kevin to not make eye contact with these people and be completely unresponsive. With his height it should be easy. But Kevin is an easy-going guy. He did respond, and I usually had to keep walking to make him come along with me. 'You want hat?' Of course, I wanted hat! I had to have a hat. So I turned around. A middle-aged Chinese woman was holding out a bunch of baseball hats. 'Duo zhou chen?' I asked her 'How much yuan?' 'Fifty' she replied..Hmmm... about 8 USD! Nah.. I held up my right hand with the index finger crossed over the middle finger - Chinese sign for 10. 'Ten yuan'. She looked disheartened.. I upped it to Fifteen - Deal!! Yes!! My first bargain in China.. A baseball hat for less that two dollars, red with the word Beijing on it! I was such a tourist!
We clicked pictures and walked across the massive courtyard headed to the Forbidden city. A giant portrait of Chairman Mao stared at us across the square from the walls of the forbidden city. What a feeling it must have been to see 6,000,000 people crammed into the square as he declared the Republic of China. Pretty mind-boggling.
To get to the forbidden city, one has to go underground and then come up. I held on to Kevin's arm because the crowd was scaring me a little, and I didn't want to get separated from him. All of a sudden he turns to me and says 'Did you see that?' 'What?' I asked. A prostitute had evidently propositioned him! WOW!! and him with a girl on his arm. These women were BRAZEN with brass cojones!!
The Forbidden city spreads out like a humongous maze. Courtyard after courtyard, golden tiled roofs, flagged floors, thrones, dragons, ... and lions. The predominant colors were red and gold and green and blue. Everywhere. It was a sight to behold. And people milling around. Packs of baseball hatted tourists following their tour guides holding up little blue, green, red, or yellow flags, like a sea of lemmings. But the romance of the place got to me. I walked into one of the courtyards. Down the center of the yard, was a path that only the emperor or the empress would have walked. I walked down arms spread, eyes closed. I could soooo be an empress. The courtyards had been restored around the central walkways, but off to the side there were still bricks from centuries ago. I could imagine thousands of soldiers kneeling there as their emperor walked down the central flags of stone. The romance of the place was getting to me. Kevin had been there before, and he told me little anecdotes about each of the courtyards, and which were the best places to see the certain things, like thrones and rooms. A huge slope from the final doors was carved intricately with dragons and all sorts of symbols. Around the main courtyards were the inner rooms and courtyards. And these led to little cul-de-sacs. Each doorway had a wooden bar at the bottom, sometimes with a step on the outside. I wondered if they were to stop anybody rushing the emperor. You could hurt yourself falling down those stairs. The rooms had artifacts around them that depicted life during the times of the longest line of emperors in the world. We wandered around, admiring the incredible details on the roofs, and the walls. Great big read doors, set with golden knobs opened out into yet another courtyard. The were huge copper vats, painted with gold that gathered rain water. People were touching the heads of the dragons on those vats. We took pictures of each of us doing the same. Wonder if it brought luck? Then we wandered into the gardens at the back. There were trees that grew gnarled and old twined into each other. One tree had been grafted into another. The paving on the paths had intricate designs mosaics. I couldn't stop clicking.
See my pics at http://picasaweb.google.co
We spent a few hours there, and then decided to head out. We came out at the back of the Forbidden City. Immediately we were accosted by throngs of just about everybody selling everything. It was frightening and not to mention, hilarious. I held on to Kevin's arm and said, keep walking, eyes forward, do not respond. I was holding his right arm feeling that I had to protect him from all this mayhem! It was definitely like being in India - except the jabbering was all in either Chinese or heavily accented English. Suddenly, this woman rushed out of nowhere trying to push me away. I responded with a well-placed elbow in her mid-riff. We wanted to go the Silk Street Market, and no cab was willing to go. We walked along. Suddenly another guy appears out of nowhere, offering to show us the Great Wall. I got very annoyed. This was worse than it is in India. At which point I had a brain-wave. I turned around and yelled at him - abbey, chaltna hai ki nahin? Kab se dimag khaye jaa raha hai.. teri ma-ki to.. -- which roughly translated meant get the hell lost! He looked at me and said 'I dont understand you'. to which I turned around and said ' No speak English'. As soon as we turned the corner, we just cracked up... It was wayyyyy too funny. We had turned down a side street, lined with trees. We could see inside houses, life in China! and somehow I was reminded of Russell Street in Calcutta - just not so posh. We walked for a good fifteen minutes, till I spotted a taxi. We hailed it and then we were on our way to Silk Street. It really wasn't that close, was it, Kevin?
The taxi dropped us off at a busy crossing, and now we had this eight lane street to go across. There were no pedestrian crossings at that signal. But we noticed people gathering at the lights waiting to cross. So we waited along with them. It was a good ten minutes before the lights changed. We sprinted across the street. Kevin knew a little Mexican restaurant, and decided we were going to have lunch there. A big pitcher of margarita was starting to sound just about right. We walked down the tree-lined street and found the place. Enchiladas, tacos and Margaritas later, we crossed the street to enter the Silk street Market.
If you've been to New Market in Calcutta, you know the feeling. It's just spread across quite a few floors. Kevin needed something for his wife, and their neighbours. We were accosted by salespeople almost from the moment we stepped inside. As I said, Kevin is BIG and very American! So as soon as we stepped through the doors...we got MOBBED!! okay ..not quite mobbed, but definitely, a feeling of having to push your way through narrow corridors lined with stores and very very persistent hawkers. Each floor in the Silk Street Market usually sells different kinds of wares. We went downstairs to the luggage/bags level. We had a game plan. I would speak in Hindi, Kevin would be speaking gibberish, and we'd pretend that we'd come to a conclusion about whether we were buying or not. We were also looking for a specific "make" of bag. Remember - these are all knock-offs! The way you bargain in China is they will offer you something - typed on a calculator. You wipe it out, and type out your offer - I started at 10% of original price. As we walked down, one female asked me if I spoke English and turned around and went 'habla espanol?' well she just flipped into Spanish!! Imagine my surprise, as we quickly walked away. Finally we found a store that had the bags Kevin was looking for. The storekeeper was a little girl that came up to my ears. We found the bags and the haggling started. Kevin and I did our 'talking' in our incomprehensible languages - of course, that gave us some advantage because they didn't understand what we spoke about. This little thing, at point was poking Kevin in the chest going 'You big man...You killing me.. you give me very little money!' soooo funny. Minutes of bargaining later, we finally got three bags for 285 yuan.. very good!! I'd spotted a laptop wheelie that I wanted. Now was my time to bargain. She was asking for 2000+... we walked away with her yelling 200 yuan at us. Around a corridor and then a quick confab.. I really wanted the bag. It was pretty and for $30... not bad at all. We came back, and got it.
Up to the clothes department. We found a beautiful silk robe for his wife. The fabrics were just fabulous! I could see us making beautiful sarees or blouses out of them. The men's suit fabrics were also incredible. Of course, I am going back there next weekend. I hadn't shopped at all. But next week it would be Eric that would be there,and this I have to see. Eric can drive a very hard bargain. So I am looking forward to doing another round at the Silk market. But today, we felt vindicated. We walked out and got a cab. Back to the hotel.
Tomorrow - it was going to be the Great Wall at Mutianyu.
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