Sunday, October 12, 2014

The trip (SPring Festival 2014) Days 1-3 Changchun/Beijing


Day 1 January 21 Changchun (DEA)
We flagged a taxi at the intersection across from Ji Da north gate and were swiftly transported to Changchun north railway station. It cost less than 30 RMB and the trip in total was about 45 minutes, at the beginning of rush hour.
The station is enormous with four pagodas on the departure Hall and enough seating for everyone and their luggage. We may be the only people of obviously European descent in the place. So people are watching us with tolerant good humour. Nice.
The Hall is long. There are ten pillars speaker perhaps 20 meters apart running the length of the building on each side. The rows are perhaps 80 meters apart. The ceiling is maybe 25 meters above There is a mezzanine on the long sides with some food concessions: more are coming this year, according to the hoardings. Seats are numerous and comfortable Very clean and modern.
As E had predicted, many people had one or more cartons of noodles needing only hot water to make a tasty meal.  There was, of course, a hot water machine and seats near it for eating the noodles.
We boarded the penultimate car and found our compartment 5_18/17. The soft sleeper is a little bedroom with two sets of bunk beds with clean sheets and a duvet and pillow provided. Very modern. There was a family from Changchun in the other two bunks. We all settled in for the overnight trip to Beijing.
Elizabeth is amazing. Within 20 minutes she managed to communicate that we are teachers on vacation and managed to found out that the family less 4 kilometers from our school, it costs 7 RMB to travel by taxi, and that the son (English name is Tiger) is eleven years old.
Train departed promptly at 6:14 and we all bedded down at around 8:30.
Day 2
 January 22 Beijing (DEA)
We slept well until 5am and learned more about our roomies. He is a long distance trucker who specializes in automobile transport. The were travelling to Beijing to pick up a truck load of cars, then the whole family planned to drive in it to the south of China, visit grandparents and have a holiday.
By 6:30 we were in the station McDonalds drinking coffee and listening to Greenday being played loudly on the PA. First step done! Outside the station the sky was getting lighter. The large plaza in front of the station was filling up quickly with families and individuals carrying parcels and pulling big bags. This was our first sign of the famous Spring Festival human migration.

Elizabeth got us onto the subway with perfect aplomb and found the appropriate stop. Afterwards we walked a bit farther than the directions, basically because the landmarks were missing. Lesson learned: don’t rely on landmarks. Things change quickly in China.
So we back tracked for about twenty minutes and arrived at the Red Lantern Hostel We are in a courtyard in a sweet little room with private bathroom. Had a light breakfast at the Hostel and then ventured out onto the byways of Beijing.
Elizabeth bought a local map for a few RMB so she navigated is through the hutong and down to the lake. Lovely late morning and early afternoon ramble for us both. We saw skaters, ice sledges and ice bikes and even a Dragon Boat fitted out for ice! There were also people swimming---crazy
Visited a national museum marking the life and career of Soon Ching Ling and a lovely Chinese garden with elements from the Ming dynasty. At around 2:30 we paused for lunch of dumplings and salad then walked back to the music stores where Elizabeth got a lovely bamboo flute for about 80 bucks. It sounds really really nice! Retreated to our room to store the flute and figure out what we are doing next. 
Of course we are cold. There is not a lot of central heating in old Beijing and we aren't near the stuff that has it. But we are managing to stay warm enough.
7.00 out to dinner for a combination of beef stew with a bunch of different spurts of mushrooms. Yummy. Then back to our little courtyard that time forgot.
Elizabeth had a pretty high performance day. She started quite excited and upbeat, had a bit of a moment of existential doubt which was assuaged by chocolate, and of course her late afternoon blahs. But she seems generally resilient and in good spirits. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings...
Day 3
 January 23 Beijing (DEA)
We woke at around 6 am happy with the room, which had warmed up quite nicely. Breakfast was delightful hot tea, toast, and egg Yum!
We conferenced back at the room. Elizabeth is still experiencing some problems with Google and Facebook, so what's some emai to manage. We also telephoned friend E, and got our departure date from China confirmed. Now I have to talk to Janet and arrange travel plans for the Island.
We wandered into the morning haze and after a suitable interval treated ourselves to a second breakfast of coffee and donut.
Thus fortified we December for Tiananmen Square.
Elizabeth is Queen of the Subway! We entrained at Ping'anli station and transferred onto line 1 to Tiananmen East station. I was hopelessly befuddled but she was in complete control. Quite reassuring. (E: The subway is well labeled in English as well as Chinese, and very well laid out. Lines on the platform show where to stand to get in when the train stops, and there is a separate lane marked for exiting. This is another result of he Olympics.) We first walked up the east side of the Forbidden City perhaps half way and then skirted the wall southward and along the front, talking pictures as we went. To be frank, I really never grasped the magnitude of the place until that moment; think of the entire old city of Jerusalem and you won't be far off. But Beijing 's centre has a formidable coherence that is hard to grasp on first introduction.
We paid a tiny fee of perhaps 3 RMB each to enter the Zhongshan Park installation just west of the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Lovely place with a museum dedicated to Sun Yat Sen in the former Temple of Earth and Agriculture for an additional fee of 2 RMBI managed to break my sunglasses but was so engrossed by the exhibit that I lost my sell-annoyance in about 30 seconds. We walked south and west to a lovely garden by a pond and along some covered walkways with exquisite paintings along the beams. There were depictions of rural life, a bit from Journey to the West, Daoist saints, red birds, and much, much more. We exited on the south side of the installation and walked eastward past the Mao Zedong museum and onto Tiananmen Square. On the way I nearly managed to fall headfirst down a long flight of stone stairs but managed to grab a handrail and was hauled back to vertical by a kind municipal worker who seemed to have teleported himself to the scene just to rescue the baffled foreigner.
There is quite a lot of security getting into the Square, but the people doing the job are efficient without being officious, which is a nice change from the way things are done in North America!
On the north of the square is, as mentioned, the Mao museum and Forbidden City. To the west is the Great Hall of the People and on the east Chinese National Museum. On the south stands Mao's mausoleum. We left on the southeast corner after taking a picture of the Chinese Railway Museum and were back to our hutong in about 20 minutes. There is an alley just west of us with lots of good places to eat so we stopped for coffee again, a healthy light meal of cold beef and rice and then home to the Red Lantern for a shower.
At 6 pm we were met in the lobby by a driver who skillfully got us to the Chinese National Acrobatic troupe show.
VIP treatment! Our seats were first mezzanine centre and were brought in through a side door and therefore missed having to wait outside or be herded in with perhaps 700 excited locals.
Show started with a clown who wandered into the audience making balloon animals for all the kiddies. I tried to project my inner juvenile but somehow didn't quite manage. But it was still a lot of fun to watch. [Note in October 2014.  Some of my EFL studetns made balloon animals as part of an oral presentation and gave us an armful of balloon poodles and flowers. so david got his wish after all.]
Tumblers leaping through hops! A rope walker! A brilliant contortionist balancing glasses on a tray! A juggler managing ten balls while walking backwards up a set of stairs! A woman balancing on one arm looking like a giant tree frog! A troop of climbers leaping on to vertical poles with the ease of capuchin monkeys! Twelve women on a single bicycle! 
It was awesome.
Afterwards we took the tube back home and walked about 10 minutes to our hostel. A lovely night.

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