November 15 – Beijing
Another try at breakfast this morning. Today I had steamed buns with something chopped up and green inside them. One of the things that I have learned about eating in China is that if it’s green it’s probably some kind of vegetable and not too surprising…if it’s red it’s probably covered in chili oil and may cause blisters.
Walked around a residential neighbourhood – it’s another clear sunny day with excellent air quality. I’ve been here two days and I haven’t started to cough and my hair hasn’t turned yellow. I’m not sure if the government has done something to clear the air, literally or figuratively, or if it’s just because it’s so windy. Whatever the cause is, it’s a chance to see Beijing in a whole new light. I have seen lots of older people walking dogs. I’d like to propose a new economic index – the dog index – as it’s my observation that when people have pet dogs they have a little spare money. Most of these ones are wearing sweaters or coats, and look loved and well fed. I wonder if the Economist would be interested in my Dog Index?
Alan’s dad came and took me to the conference hotel, again without a word of English. I left my big suitcase behind as I’ll be moving back to this hotel in a couple of days. It has all been arranged without any input from me except for smiling…it pays to be trusting. The conference hotel is a 4 star tourist hotel – in China the stars are awarded by the government. In theory, they are able to greet visitors, but when I arrived it appeared that no-one spoke English and they couldn’t find my reservation. I applied my “get what you want in a foreign country” technique and simply sat and smiled at them until they solved the problem. Since I was in their way, they were highly motivated to sort it. Eventually they found my reservation under “Law” and with a great deal of smiling gave me a room key. The room is quite deluxe.
I decided to eat lunch in the hotel before meeting my colleagues…but I had to order from the pictures in the menu. I had some really good fried dumplings (think perogies with ground meat and vegetables) but accidentally ended up with a jug of fresh pear juice when I expected a glass. Oh well…time to figure out the character for small. I’m not clear how one person eats in a Chinese restaurant, since every plate seems to be enough for sharing – if I had ordered vegetables as well I would have had enough food for an army. It’s interesting that we consider rice to be an essential part of a Chinese meal – I haven’t seen any since I got here.
The company that sponsored the conference took invited the international guests out for dinner. It included me, and 4 Americans, along with a couple of Chinese colleagues who had agreed to act as translators. They took us to see a bridge that was built in 1190 or so, and then repaired in about 1698. In 1949 the new Communist government paved it, and about 40 years ago the pavement was removed and it was repaired. It is made of granite and has eleven arches. It is still in daily use. All along the bridge are carvings of lions, some in very bad states but some still very clear. Each one is different. We arrived there just as the sun was going down and it will beautiful. Marco Polo used this bridge and mentioned it in his travel writing as “a very fine stone bridge. So fine indeed that it has very few equals in the world“. It is the site of the battle between the Chinese and Japanese that started the second Sino-Japanese war.
At the other end of the bridge is an ancient fortress, Wanping built about 1840 to defend Beijing against the peasants’ uprising . The founder of the company is a poet, and he bought property here when he was young and it was virtually worthless. Over time he restored the buildings that he purchased and now, with the rising prices of property in Beijing he is a millionaire many times over. The salesman tried to explain the value of the land to us, but since he was quoting in Chinese currency for an area that we didn’t understand – by the time we had calculate it into square metres and US dollars we had entirely lost track of the zeroes.
His company has their head office in this wonderful restored building, and their branch office in Philadelphia. They also have a restaurant, but only people who are guests of the company can use it. The space is a series of small buildings with intertwining courtyards, decorated with traditional and modern Chinese art. When we arrived at the restaurant, we were each presented with a statue of a character from traditional Chinese opera. They really made us feel like honoured guests.
The meal was fascinating. The food was good but the presentation was outstanding. Skewers of shrimp were served standing up in a wooden model of a warship…each skewer had a little conical hat made of pumpkin as they represented soldiers. The boat was sitting in large bowl of dried ice so mist rolled across the table as the boat made its way from person to person on the middle rotating section of the table. This was followed by a tree full of little nests – each nest was full of little cubes of fried tofu. The branches of the tree also had little mechanical birds resting in them and whenever the tree was touched, the birds started flapping their wings and tails and cheeping. It didn’t really seem important how good the food was.
There always seems to be a fish involved in a Chinese dinner…and they are always served complete with their beady little eyes staring at the guests. Apparently, this is a symbol that at the end of the year there will always be something left, meaning that it represents prosperity. It the ultimate in bad manners to turn the fish over when you are helping yourself, that will reverse the good fortune due to the diners by the presence of the fish. This one looked like some kind of catfish as it lay there eyeballing me.