Lalin’s Column: ‘Ni hao’ (‘hello’) Beijing 2010

Ten of us, family and friends visited Beijing from 7-12 Sep 10 on a tour excellently organized by Sri Lankan Holidays, China Travels International Limited. For us it was the chance of a life time and we were overawed by most of what we saw and greatly enjoyed meeting the Chinese.

They are very friendly and helpful. We found enough people who understood English to find our way about freely. The streets and public places were antiseptically clean even though the city which covers 16,800 sq kms has 12 million people. Vehicles in their thousands pound the many 8 lane highways.

Amazingly there wasn’t a policeman in sight. Neither did we see anyone carrying a weapon. The supreme confidence of a state that yet has the biggest in the world, 2.3 million strong army, was incredible. All street names, subways, hotels and some premises were also given in English. Beijing receives over 65 million passengers by air and nearly 500,000 aircraft annually. It must surely be a magnet for tourists.

‘Let the Sleeping Giant sleep for when it wakes, nations will tremble’ (Napoleon)

This was a stunning world. It was like Singapore (385 sq kms) many times magnified but vastly superior. It at once reminded me of what Singapore’s famed Lee Kwan Yew (LKY) humbly said when reminded of his country’s runaway modernisation and asked what he thought of China’s future. He said “the overseas Chinese were the coolies of that land; the most brilliant men, the professors, engineers and scientists remained. They will lead it to be a super power soon,” or words to that effect. The hundreds of breath taking historical attractions also reminded us the greatness of its civilization. It will surely be the only Super Power in another decade. The USA should muse on the meaning of LKY’s remarks as to its ‘origins’.

When Mao Tse-tung said ‘political power grows out of the barrel of a gun’ it was taken out of context primarily by the West, with its pathological fear of a reawakened mighty China. It should have remembered that Mao also said ‘people are like water and the army is like fish’ meaning one could not do without the other and ‘the people and the people alone are the motive power in the making of world history’. The Chinese civilisation was not nurtured by military conquest but by learned men. It abhorred war. Today its people are well cared for by a paternalistic state that admits freely that such care is insufficient for all Chinese as HE the Chinese Ambassador Madame Yang Xiuping candidly said on the 61st anniversary of the founding date (27 September) of modern China. She pointed out feelingly that despite their might, wealth and strength, there still were 100 million very poor Chinese whose future must be improved rapidly.

We were to leave KIA by midnight on 6th Sep but left nearly 1.5 hours late due to the delay caused by the struggling under staffed SLA checking desk officers. The SL flight captain Lobo (Indian) and cabin crew made up for this delay in their imitable, courteous and efficient professional style which has brought them praise from who ever they have cared for on their flights crisscrossing the world. Our re fuelling stop in Bangkok was shortened and we arrived in Beijing around 3 pm.

We were met by our guide ‘Michael’ knowledgeable and courteous as the Chinese invariably are. We cleared Immigration rapidly and were driven South East to Holiday Inn Hotel (Temple of Heaven) which is one km south of the Temple of Heaven and very close to the city centre. We were given time to clean up and hustled away for what was to become an obsession thereafter every lunch and dinner - Peking (Anglicised name for Beijing) Duck. It was followed by an hour of shopping in up market Wanfujing shopping street before the roll call showed 2 members missing but in 10 minutes we were all present and retired to the hotel for a long over due night’s sleep.

The next morning we had what was to be a somewhat of a monotonous but ample and satisfying mixed Chinese and western buffet breakfast. We met our guide ‘Nancy’, a small made, petite fast thinking graduate who knew how to lay down the law to nine SL senior citizens each wanting to have his/her own say.

She was backed only by the youngest in the group who used to say with great delight, as the seniors including both her parents were brought to order, ‘give it to them girl’. Nancy’s fire call was ‘now listen to me’ first said very softly and then rising in volume each time she had to repeat herself but without the slightest sign of losing her cool.

We were first taken to a jade factory the products in which dazzled but were way beyond most of our purses. Craftsmen showed us how the jade was cut to make fashion ware and vases, sculpture birds and animals, many of them the imitable Chinese dragons, and also human figures.

We then left with much anticipation to see one of the great wonders of the world, the Great Wall of China at Badaling, one of Beijing’s many viewing sites. The Wall stretches 5,600 kms East to West on the crests of mountains .Work on it took two millennia. The best part of it was built after the deprivations of the Mongol conquests in 1200 and completed during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
There were long lines of coaches and vans and cars to be seen at the base.

This happens every day. Three of us (Two were ladies, of whom one was not very young but insisted she wasn’t actually old and had little else than determination to do so), climbed along with thousands of orderly visitors, mostly Chinese, (there were Europeans, Iranians, Argentineans and Americans amongst others) to the 2nd stage of the guard posts from where we had to return as we had been given only one hour to finish the climb to the 3rd stage. There were young Chinese boys and girls who were seen skipping and tripping their way up and getting ready for a second trip. The weather was mildly hot but not fierce or humid thankfully.

After lunch we were to see the 2008 Olympic Stadium called the ‘Birds Nest’ for its roof’s canny resemblance to one and the Olympic Swimming Pool called the ‘Water Cube’ but due to avoidable reasons of our own we had to view it from a bridge close by. It was to be a case of so near and yet so far sadly. The last event was an Acrobatic show which was nerve tingling and thrilling.

The next day we were taken to the National Arts Theatre which “takes the shape of a half ellipsoid from the outer construction, surrounded by an artificial lake creating the visual effect of water mirroring the pearl” another breath taking magnificent building set in a wooded park. The entrance to it is goes under the water. We all thought back expectantly to Colombo where the Chinese are constructing the new John de Silva Memorial theatre even as we remembered that the Chinese built BMICH was the first truly magnificent building we had.

We next moved to famed Tian’anmen Square. It sprawls over 440,000 sq meters and is the world’s largest public square. It can hold a million people for special occasions. We mingled with thousands of visitors mainly Chinese recalling the momentous events that had unfolded there. Like all else it is spotlessly clean. We saw the Great Hall of the People, the monument to Peoples’ Heroes and the National Museum. Mao Tse'tung’s mausoleum at the further end which we could not go to is approached by the Tian’anmen gate tower built in 1417. The buildings are all beautiful, magnificent and elegant.

We next went over to the ancient Forbidden City the entrance to which was ‘guarded’ by unarmed soldiers who stood ram rod straight. I doffed my hat to the last. I noted from the corner of my eye an imperceptible slightly amused acknowledgement.

The Forbidden City built in 1406 for the Ming and Qing dynasties was used for handling state affairs and the Emperor’s living quarters, is the largest (720,000 sq meters) and best preserved ancient complex in the world. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. It has 10 m high walls, outside of which runs a 52 m wide moat and took 100,000 skilled technicians and millions of labourers 15 years to build. Inside it are the traditionally magnificent palaces, huge squares, beautiful pavilions and lovely gardens. We walked through it from one end to the other taking pictures as usual and absorbing its magnificence while being given a running commentary on its history by Nancy who also knew a thing or two about coaxing the older/infirm members of the group to some how catch up.

After lunch we went to see the Summer Palace which covers 2.9 million sq meters and saw yet another example of spectacular ancient Chinese architecture and beautiful gardens. A huge artificial lake with many islands had also been built to ward off the summer’s heat. The lake had many boats plying on it. There was a 1000m long corridor which had paintings done by artists who accompanied the Emperor on his annual visits in the country side to recollect for him the village scenes he journeyed through.

We then went to the highlight of the tour. A novel presentation of Kung Fu martial arts at the Red Theatre. It was in story form about a young novice who becomes the Temple’s best monk in Kung Fu and finally takes over from the chief monk. It was fast moving at first but later slowed down but picked up at the end with an exhibition of ‘chopping’ of real cement and wooden blocks with hands.

The next 2 days were free and the ladies in the group had a ball as bargaining is what makes shopping in Beijing a cultural challenge. On the first day we went to the Silk street market and once in the main building at the top of the street, we spent the whole day there except for the time we took to have lunch just outside.

It exhausted two of the 3 men who gave up. After lunch it was more shopping until nightfall. We had dinner at a restaurant within walking distance from the hotel and despite still having more Peking duck believe it to have been a tastier meal to those we had earlier.

The next day we walked down the street from the hotel to the East Gate of the Temple of Heaven. Through familiarity we had passed by every day we left the hotel but had not bothered to visit it. We were very happy we did so. We walked through its entire length, about 2 kms, to the West gate, enthralled by the beauty of the gardens, the temples, the lawns and flowers. There were many couples waltzing to western music in one place where they were joined by our ladies while in another place elderly couples practised the ancient art of Tai Chi also to music.

The exercise is meant to improve physical health, decrease stress and bring unity to mind and spirit, the ideal form of living for the Chinese. It was a place of tranquillity and beauty. From the Western gate we descended on the smart Wanfujing Street where no vehicles are allowed for our final session of shopping.

This was serious stuff as there was no bargaining here. One silk shop proudly displayed a photo of the Malaysian Prime Minister’s wife visit there, possibly to showcase its quality. We lunched in a swanky mall close by and paid the price.

We then decided to make use of the subway system to get back. It was a revelation. Not only was there a flat fee of two yuan (=SLR 30 rupees), it was spotlessly clean as were the trains. My experience of the London and Paris under ground just did not compare. On the platform a screen hid the line from us until the train stopped (no chance of committing suicide or placing bombs I thought!).

In the train we traced our journey on an electronic screen which pin pointed the stations we had passed in red circles and the on coming ones in green. At each stop there was an announcement in Chinese and English naming the station.

We transferred to a bus (flat fee was one yuan) to get back to our hotel just before a slight shower started up. By the time we got to the hotel it began to rain hard. A proposal to have a slap up dinner on our last day was aborted as by that time it was pelting with rain and taxis were hard to get -thankfully. We had dinner at the hotel for the first time. It was good and tasty.

The next morning we left at 10 am for the airport but got there after about 2 .5 hours to what was described in the SL papers on Sunday as Beijing’s worst traffic jams for one day beating the last by almost double. It was a monumental jam despite the 8 lane highways and over head bridges until we got on the Expressway to the airport. We saw some very smart cars going at a fast clip on the extreme right. We were told it was a reserved lane for VIPs. Those cars we saw must have been the advance guard of state security officers. No one attempted to get on to that lane. We read on Sunday that a SL Defence delegation had gone to Beijing about the time we were leaving.

Our flight back on SL Airways was uneventful while the crew looked after us in their traditional warm and friendly way. As on the journey out there were a lot of passengers for the Maldives. It is about time they were diverted to my favourite land.

The enduring memories of Beijing will not be only its magnificent airport, teeming sky scrapers, 8 lane highways, over head bridges, throbbing well ordered traffic with no police or soldiers to be seen and enticing commercial areas but mainly of the Chinese themselves in their thousands, stoically contributing to their country as they have done through generations stretching over 5,000 years. Their discipline, friendliness, pride in their history and the effort to preserve its wonders to benefit not only themselves but also all the people of the world.

There were also the spotlessly clean and sheer ordered beauty of their public places with the presence of green lawns, parks, flowers and shade trees everywhere. There was also on our last day some Beijing smog which can only be overcome by moving the Beijing factories elsewhere. It gave us the distinct impression that those who rule this country must not only have been strong in thought, knowledge and vision but had mastered the many elements of inspirational and exemplary governance. A people who use words like serene, tranquil, heavenly purity, supreme harmony, Golden Chimes (bridge) for their public buildings and places must belong to a wonderful civilisation.

Our trip ended on a note of great sadness. We learned on arrival at night on 17/18 Sep that there had been a massive accidental explosion of gelignite that took the lives of about 25 people including 2 Chinese nationals working on development projects in the East. It shook us very badly.

Return we must, even ‘on a slow boat’ from Hambantota. The giant will not sleep again.

- Asian Tribune -