day four: beijing

Day 4
January 2, 2008

The Great Wall, Ming Tombs, the Sacred Way and street food at night

We headed out to the wall on Wednesday – out to Badaling, one of the more popular spots to climb the Great Wall of China. On the way to the wall, we stopped at a cloisonné factory to see the process by which the Chinese have made this famous pottery for the past thousand years. It was a quick tour punctuated by an extreme shopping opportunity at the end, but it was really fascinating to see the creation process. The process goes like this: first, the base piece is created in copper. Then, women using very careful hands bend and shape strips of copper that will be applied to the base piece to create the actual design and pattern of the pottery. The strips are glued to the base piece in shapes of dragons and flowers and pandas and such. Once the base piece has been painstakingly designed, it is ready for glazing. (on to the next room) The glazing process is multi-stepped. After each layer of glaze is applied, the piece is fired in an uber-intense kiln like no other I have ever seen. This pattern of glaze and firing happens about 7 times, until the thickness of the glaze matches the height of the copper design on the base piece. (on to the next room) Once firing is complete, the piece is ready for sanding and buffing. And this was the craziest thing we saw – 5 people bent over 5 different sanding machines, using a steady stream of water and fine stones to smooth each piece of cloisonné. The piece is spun at rapid speed while the stones are used to grind it down. The sanders use only finder cots for protection. No masks. No gloves. Just little pieces of rubber on fingertips. It seemed odd to both of us that it wasn’t a good idea to wear even a small mask of sorts for the work. Who knows.

After the whirlwind tour of the process, we were ushered over to the factory showroom where we could spend thousands of dollars if we wanted to on cloisonné pieces for, um, well, perhaps the foyer of our mansion on Crete. Or the winter garden of our chateau in France. I have no idea what you’d do with all this cloisonné.

Off to the wall we went. Thankfully, the temperatures had warmed up a bit, and the chances of frostbite were pretty slim. Again, that feeling of, ohmigod, are we really here? are we really seeing this? Amazing. Couldn’t really grasp the idea that we were on the wall. We spent about two hours or so bouncing around the wall, jumping, climbing, running, being silly. Just enjoying being out on this incredible structure. We found great handmade art along the trek and met a nice couple who took our picture. We climbed up and down some of the steepest stairs ever. We had a good laugh at one of the graffitied names we found on one part of the wall (graffiti has been a big problem there for a while). The name read: “Pol Pott ’88.” Seriously. You think he might have been there in ’88? I dunno. Maybe. Ha!

After the wall, we headed off to our next lunch at the Auspicious Restaurant. A huge space with a very old structure and heavy, dark wood tables and chairs. We at delicious Sichuan food there. Yummy stir-fried pork and chicken. Jasmine tea. Watched a group of acrobats practice a pyramid and back flip for their show that evening.

And then, off to the Ming Tombs and the Sacred Way. So, in one area outside of Beijing, there is a site of 13 different Ming Emperor tombs. They are located in many different spots all in the same valley – which seemed to be slated for redevelopment as a golf course or some such nonsense. There are only four tombs that are open to the public. We went to Ding Ling and walked around the grounds and into the tomb site. The grounds were far more interesting than the actual tomb, though the whole concept of the place was truly fascinating. The grounds were covered in these amazing dragon trees, stripped bare of leaves by the cold winter. Scattered throughout the grounds were small marble and stone tables encircled by small marble elephant chairs where people could sit to have picnics. As we entered the space, we walked through a large archway. In ancient times, the emperor believed that passing through this archway signified moving into a different world – the world of the spirits. When you exited the tomb site through this gate, you would return to the world of reality as you knew it.

The emperor Wanli was buried at this particular tomb. Excavated in the 1950’s, this tomb was created in a vast underground chamber. Within the chamber, there were two main sections – the actual tombs and a long hall leading up to the Diamond Wall where the entrance was ultimately sealed. The tombs were large red coffins containing the emperor and empress’ bodies along with all manners of goodies such as bolts of silk, gold, jewels, and various other bouillon sundries from the empire. Today, when people visit, they throw money at the replica tombs to bring themselves good luck. The deal was this, after the emperor and empress died, the tomb was set up properly and the entire space was filled in with earth, all the way to the Diamond Wall. The wall was self-sealing, and once it was sealed, the rest of the chamber leading back up to the grounds was also filled with earth. I was pretty nonplused with the tomb itself but impressed, I guess, with the trouble and effort it took to seal those people up with all their riches inside the earth. Strange, I think.

The best part of this experience was, again, the great signs we spotted all over the grounds. Thoughtful, anachronistic, cheeky even. Signs such as “Luxuriant grasslands. Please don’t trample.”

We left the Ming Tomb and headed to the Sacred Way, the long walkway that lead funeral processions to the spot of the tomb where their emperor would be buried. The walkway opens with an archway to a stele atop a mythical tortoise-dragon creature called a bixi. The walkway is guarded on either side by 12 sets of officials and animals. We hit it right at sunset, and the effect was so ethereal. Jim happened to notice that all the people and creatures on the left side of the walk from where we approached were smiling just slightly. All those on the right hand side weren’t. A very odd thing, really. So subtle, so slight. You’d never have known it if you weren’t looking carefully. And Jim is always looking carefully. We stood in front of the same elephant that Mao stood in front of sometime in the 1950’s. We walked past these amazing stone creatures at sunset. Truly gorgeous.

Back to the city for us. Exhausted and ready to pass out after a very long day, we hit the hotel and decided to get some rest before we headed out for the evening. We were headed first to the Silk Street market and then to find some good street food. But, who knew that we would get there at 8:45, with only 15 minutes until absolute closing time. Seriously insane. The place was like 6 stories, I think. Anything you wanted you could get there. Women were walking out with full sets of faux D&G and Louis Vuitton luggage. Custom-made dresses and suits are a favorite here. There were just aisles and aisles of bolts of fabric. Gorgeous silks. But there was no time to browse. People throwing sheets over their stalls, hundreds of people being ushered out of the building. Vendors making a mad dash to nab the last customers. Jim had his heart set on some silk shirts as the crazy Korean washing machine has torn his shirts to shreds. We found a stall that was open and, with his mad bargaining skills, he managed to get out of there with a lovely shirt for less than $20, I think. She wanted about $100 at first. So, off we went with all the other shoppers, out the front doors, but not before we found this fabulous sign:

We made it to our next destination just around 9:30. Wangfujing Snack Street, not too far from the Grand Hyatt hotel where we eventually ended up for a last drink. A tiny little series of back alleys that are home to all manner of treats on a stick – lamb, scorpions, starfish, sea horses, chicken, squid, and a variety of other unidentifiable creatures. And, alas, we arrived there exactly at closing time. And just like the Silk Street market, these people were no joke. Gates shutting in our faces, buckets of soapy bleach water being tossed at our feet causing us to scurry away to the next stall trying to catch someone who would feed us. We scarfed down a lamb kebab, which was amazing and delectable, and then found a stall at the end of the alley where Jim bought himself some scorpions on a stick. He gnawed on a few and then I went for it. They were, as we had been told, quite delicious. And crunchy! So, as we were swept out of that place, we headed down the street to yet another street food venue, the Donghuamen Night Market. Made it there just about 10 pm. And, again, with just minutes to spare, the vendors were tearing it all down. So, we hurriedly bought a bunch of random things on sticks and scarfed as much food as we could and ended up spending all the cash we had on us. It was a hilarious night of near misses. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to have the full, relaxed street food experience I had hoped for, but we got the speed tour. And that was just fine. The food still tasted good.

We wandered across the street, and Jim spotted a market he wanted to check out. We made our way into a sea of colors and smells and treats to buy. There were huge troughs full of all kinds of strange candies, one wall covered in packaged meat treats, and a back wall with nothing but expensive and exotic liquors. While I was focused on examining all the strange dried meat-like things on the shelves, Jim managed to find the strangest thing in the store – bottles of wine containing ginseng and snakes. Yes, snake wine, indeed. Bottled in Russia, no less. So, he talked the woman down from her original price, as is the customary game, and he walked out of there with a bottle of snake wine which now sits on display in our living room. We were warned not to drink more than one small cup, to be measured using the top of the bottle. I don’t know that anyone will ever actually drink this stuff. But it’s an awesome and rather disturbing conversation piece. It occurred to me as we were leaving the store that the airlines might have a problem with the bottle. Not necessarily because it’s a snake, but rather because of all the craziness around liquid on flights these days. Surely we were over the 3 fl. oz. limit, or whatever it is. Jim successfully wrapped and padded that thing in his luggage such that we wouldn’t have to deal with Chinese or Korean customs agents inquiring as to whether it was actually legal. And it made it home in one piece.

I unwrapped some of the candy I had bought as an experiment in the store. Popped a chocolate covered somethin’ in to my mouth and was definitely not amused by the taste. Bad liquor chocolate. Not so yummy at all. We made our way back towards the Grand Hyatt where there was a fancy bar I had read about in the Wallpaper guide. Figured we’d walk into fancy land, but I thought a lovely cocktail might be nice. And oh, it was! We walked into the Red Moon Bar and found a very high end sushi restaurant where you could definitely drop like $1000 for dinner and wine and such. We had ourselves some rather amazing cocktails and ordered some tiramisu which had to be “fetched” from the café. It occurred to me that there might be a “fetching” surcharge, but whatever. We were hardly spending any money as it was. What the hell. The tiramisu arrived and was absolutely divine. Truly. And cost a fortune. I think we paid $16 for the dessert which came in a small porcelain cup. But it was all worth it. We sat on our red velvet couch and had a photo shoot with the snake wine. What else do you do in the most expensive sushi restaurant you’ve ever seen but take pictures of snake wine perched on their very plush red velvet pillows?