Hutong

Hutong or a courtyard home. The Chinese style of home is a series of rooms enclosing a central courtyard. A rich person may own the whole compound but today many of the existing hutongs have been subdivided into a few separate homes but still enclosing a central courtyard which may house a garden. A few of these old places exists in Beijing, the majority have been bulldozed and replaced by spanking new high rises.

A Chinese garden

Next to the Forbidden city is this wonderful Chinese garden, quiet and peaceful. I prefer a garden with lots of colorful flowers quite like that of an English country garden. While a lot of the world's flowers originated from China, it is surprising that one find  very few of these flowers in any Chinese garden. Where are the roses, the Rhododendrons, the Peonies?

Baozi

Dumplings or Baozi are very popular street food. There are people hawking these everywhere in Beijing. We were too early for the opening of the Forbidden city. We hung around and found a vendor. Here we are on a Beijing street eating dumplings and tea eggs.

Tian An Men square

Right in front of the Forbidden palace is Tian An Men square. It's just an ordinary large boulevard and square, nothing spectacular. The only thing spectacular about it is the history associated with it. As with most Communist countries there is the need of this wide boulevard in which to parade their military might on the first of May each year. We don't celebrate the first of May in the USA, we don't have a need of wide boulevards. We never display our military might in public. We've seen the making of history in the uprising of the Chinese people during the Tian An Men riots and the riots in the middle East is a clear reminder. But the Chinese uprising did not end well and the people got nothing out of it. China is still a communist country. But it took me a while to get here. Finally I'm in Beijing and in front of the Forbidden palace. I have shivers in my spine. The air in Beijing is always like this, smoggy. The air over the major cities in China are always like this too.

Our hotel

This is the area near our hotel. We arrived with no reservations and an old guide book. Never use an old guide book for China. Things are changing so fast in China that a guide book written a year ago could be outdated. The hotel we wanted was fully booked and another went out of business. We started walking away from Wangfujing into what looked like the old quarter and found this new hostel. It was new, clean and cheap, unheard of in Beijing. It was an easy walk and easy bus ride to the major sights. There's another problem to Beijing, all the major sights are scattered far apart and it becomes difficult to see many things in one day. It's more like one major sight a day and it takes many days to see everything. It's not the place to shop either because all the shops are the Western chains like the Gap.

Wangfujing

This is pedestrianized area, a huge area of mega shops, mostly Western chains. It is next to Tian An Men square and the Forbidden palace. We chose to stay in this area because of the close proximity to the major sights. Beijing is very modern and therefore very boring. The old part is slowly disappearing but one can still find some old Hutongs that are rustic and interesting. The old capital mentioned in books as Zhongdu is non existent. I'm reading a book, 'the Mongols, from Genghis Khan to Tamerlane' and it writes about the siege of the old capital of China, Zhongdu.

Dinner in Beijing

We did end up eating those smelly tofu and the intestines. They were pretty good, only they were too heavy on the salt. The night market was a lot of fun and we only happened upon it. It was right next to the big and fancy shopping street, called 'Wangfujing'. Everybody knows this street, its the 'Rodeo drive' of Beijing where all the fancy Western shops are.

Beijing, next stop

 We arrived in Beijing with no hotel reservations, just some names of hotels from an old guide book. We quickly realised that some of the hotels have gone out of business and the one we wanted was fully booked. So we walked and found this great hostel, new, clean, cheap and close to everything just a little off the main street. What a find. I don't remember the name but I can find it again. It wasn't mentioned in any guide book and that's probably why they still have rooms. It's now my secret in case I should return to Beijing. Right off I'm going to say, I don't like Beijing, it's too modern. But surprisingly in spite of its sheer size, it's pretty easy to navigate.

There is a suburban rail system that takes you from the airport to Central Beijing where you can connect with the rest of the subway system. After taking care of housekeeping we dawdle around and found this night market in full swing. This is where they sell all kinds of weird food.

 Strange looking crabs...

 The famous crickets and scorpions on skewers, some are still alive..... ughhhh..

Smelly tofu with chili sauce...

Fried crabs...

They tell us these are cooked silk worms....ughhhh.....

Intestines of all sorts....mmmmmmm?

Cuttle fish on skewers... phew... what a selection. The Chinese do eat everything. It's just great that we didn't have to go far to see authentic Beijing life. The whole country operates on Beijing time, even far off Xinjiang province. It takes a little getting use to. I know its the same in Turkey, the whole country operates on Istanbul time. China is much bigger than Turkey.

The Mogao caves

Visitors to the Mogao caves are mostly Han Chinese from other parts of China. It's not easy to travel independently in China because of the language though there are a sprinkling of intrepid foreigners. We met another American from Seattle who was traveling alone and don't speak a word of Mandarin. Dunhuang is a sleepy oasis town sitting right smack on the silk road. A few hundred years ago a monk traveling in that area began to carve out a cave in the desert rock just outside Dunhuang. It is a quiet place that is so inaccessible and ideal for meditating and safe from the marauding Xiongnu tribe who ruled this area during the early days. After being exposed to Buddhism brought in by traders from India, early Chinese monks began to go to India to learn more about the faith. Over the next few centuries, more caves became to carved, frescoes added, sculptures added, sutras being translated, the number of caves grew and the also the number of monks. These caves became a fully fledged Buddhist monastery and after the decline of the silk road, they were forgotten until scavenging explorers from the West came and started carting off whatever they can to their home countries. A lot of caves were destroyed by the Communists during the cultural revolution, they didn't tolerate religion. But today there remains some seven hundred caves with precious frescoes and sculptures.

Buddhist frescoes

The unfortunate thing is photography wasn't allowed in the Mogao caves. Each cave is painted with elaborate scenes from Buddhist fables, the whole cave is painted with thousand Buddhas like wall paper. In the centre there would be Buddhist sculptures of their deities. It is fascinating. Numerous foreign explorers would come in the early days to take away the frescoes. They would carved them out of their rock surface. There used to be tens of thousands of sutras or religious writings. A greedy monk sold a lot of them to these explorers, chief among them, a German, Aurel Stein who carted away museum size trove back to Dresden which was bombed by the Allies. All the stuff he took from Dunhuang was incinerated by the bombing. An early convert to Buddhism went to India to study the religion and came home to translate everything he learned into Chinese and hence this trove of sutras. Over the years more and more monks joined and painted and sculpted and then you have the Mogao caves sitting at a very strategic position along the ancient Silk road. While this picture is not from the Dunhuang caves but from a temple in Yunnan. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures but I did take this one and was reprimanded for doing so. I'm glad I did.

Dunhuang Mogao caves

I'm into frescoes but these are Buddhist frescoes. Fascinating!

The new China

The fringes of China is so much more fascinating. Unfortunately photography wasn't allowed in the Mogao caves in Dunhuang. Here there are some 1000 caves caved in the desert rock but some 700 plus still survive. This is a repository of Buddhist art, sculpture and writing. Visits can be made with an official guide who will show you only 8 caves. The caves shown are rotated every 2 years. We met people who come every 2 years, locals of course, just so they will eventually see more caves.

Breakfast in China

 This was a very busy breakfast place in Dunhuang across the street from our hotel. They sell steamed vegetable dumplings, soya bean milk, fried dough and tea eggs. It is crowded every morning and the food sell out fast. This is not your typical Western breakfast. This is very Chinese. The Chinese, me included, are lactose intolerance and don't drink dairy milk or eat cheese.

 Sophie loves these fried dough, I don't care for it.

These are just hard boiled eggs but most places sell tea eggs. Tea eggs are hard boiled eggs which are cracked slightly and reboiled in some smoky tea so the tea infuses the egg and flavor it. They are tastier than plain hard boiled eggs.

Dunhuang night market

 They eat the same thing in Germany. I remember seeing the huge pork knuckles in restaurants in Germany.

 Mapo tofu, a very typical Chinese dish that is found in every restaurant.

We had dinner at the huge night market in Dunhuang. It was very atmospheric. Sophie was more delighted, this being her first trip to China. I was more jaded, this was my second trip to China. I was in the Yunnan province in the south a few years ago. That was a more memorable visit, Yunnan being much more beautiful. But I was in Dunhuang to see the Mogao caves and its frescoes and that we will soon see.

Making the desert bloom

 There's an aquifer in the desert sand, water in the midst of this barren desert. There is some vegetation and a temple. This was the closest I got to it, I couldn't walk since I popped my right knee that morning. I can't believe the desert could be such a delight and could give pleasure to so many visitors. Dunhuang was at the very heart of the ancient Silk road and there are many reminders of it. This desert is a reminder of what the traders have to deal with, a vast tract of desert.

There could have camel caravans of several hundreds camels each time crossing this desert to get to Europe and to get back from Europe. I can't imagine doing it the way they did. For us, the distance was just too great and the time constraints means we need to fly. I'm reading a book on Genghis Khan right now, 'The Mongols, from Genghis Khan to Tamarlane'. They rode horses to get to Europe and to fight there. Today it is called 'insanity'.