Yangtze River Cruise – Chongqing, Sichuan Province to Yichang, Hubei Province – PRC – October 2013

Tags

china, Chongqing, Cruise, Global Easy Tour, Hubei, huguang Guild, Sichuan, Three Gorges, Yichang

Three day cruise down the Yangtze River 

A friend of mine visiting Beijing from Western Australia wanted to travel out of Beijing so we decided on a cruise down the Yangtze River.  Global Easy Tours pulled together a great program and we flew from Beijing to Chongqing, Sichuan Province to board the MV Victoria Grace for a three day cruise to Yichang in Hubei Province.  The ship also departs from Yichang and travels up the river to Chongqing but as this is against the flow the cruise takes a little bit longer. We arrived in Chongqing and drove through downtown before taking a tour of the Huguang Guild and the ancient village of Ciqikou.

Huguang Guild is a complex of residential houses, prayer houses and shops built by immigrants from Guangdong, Hubei, Guangxi and Hunan during the Qing Dynasty.  It was the culture, social, religious and business centre and meeting place for people from the southeast and eastern provinces of China for over 200 years.

Various buildings have identifying names like Guangdong Hall for the Guangdong people and Jiangnan Hall (south of the river) for people from the area south of the Yangtze River.

Ciqikou is an ancient town in the Shapingba District of Chongqing and during the Ming Dynasty gained prominence as a commercial port and market town; shipping goods by both land and water.

The town has been described poetically as ‘in Ciqikou one thousand people greet each other during the day..(and) ten thousand lamps flicker at night’.

Little shops sell porcelain, handicrafts and you can also buy the usual souvenirs that can be found anywhere in China.  It actually reminds me of West Street in Yangshuo – a pretty street with lots of lanterns and many shops selling Chinese souvenirs.

Around 6pm and after a delicious hotpot meal, which my friend absolutely loved, we boarded the ship and went straight to our cabins.  We selected standard cabins on the top floor however I heard from a friend that the suites were lovely, so we went to take a look.  We were offered an upgrade (at a cost) and I immediately said ‘yes’ and my friend said ‘no’ as he was already on an expensive ten day/three province trip from Australia.  The staff were very concerned that my friend would not upgrade and ended up giving us two suites for the price of one – very happy.

Overnight we sailed about 180 mms to Feng Du where we were given the option to take a shore excursion.  This happens every day and some of these excursions are already paid for in the ticket price and others have an additional charge.

There are also so many activities on the ship, movies (Red Sorghum the first evening), Tai chi, an introduction to the Yangtze River/Three Gorges, a presentation by the ship’s doctor on Chinese medicine and welcome drinks with the ship’s captain.  Both evenings on the ship, we were entertained by the staff who sang, danced and did magic tricks and generally performed for us passengers.  On our first night of entertainment we had a  wonderful rendition of the Joe Cocker song ‘you can leave your hat on’ – excellent entertainment.

In the afternoon of our first day, we had champagne and canapés with the captain, who looked incredibly handsome in his white captains uniform, and docked at Shi Bai Zhai which literally means Stone Treasure Fortress and took a shore excursion to the Red Pagoda.

Shi Bai Zhao is a rectangular rock with sheer cliffs standing on the riverside; it has a red wooden pagoda which is twelve stories high build against the rock wall.  Our lovely tour guide met us at the ship and walked us to the pagoda – this usually takes about two hours however you can either walk to the top of the pagoda (we didn’t) hence the two hours or walk around (which we did) and on the way back got to see a magnificent sunset as a backdrop to the pagoda.

Along the Yangtze, we initially sailed through two of the famous There Gorges – Qutang and Xiling.  Qutang Gorge is the shortest and said to be the most majestic of the Three Gorges (I agree) and winds eight kilometres along Wushan County.  Xiling is the longest gorge among the three and is named after Mount Xiling.  Both spectacular to see.

On our second day we took a shore excursion to Shennong Stream which comprises two beautiful gorges; Parrot and Long Chang and runs for sixty kilometres.  We first boarded a larger boat and enjoyed the scenery for about an hour then left to board a much smaller wooden boat and travelled for about forty minutes through a stream to enjoy more fabulous scenery.

Around 11pm that evening we travelled through the five ship lift locks.  I didn’t think this would be all that interesting but it was an incredible experience.  We went up on the top deck for a while and saw the great gates open and shut and then went to my suite to sip champagne for a while.

In my room were were able to both hear the gates open to allow us through but also touch the walls of the lock – an amazing experience.

Due to the construction of the dam, ships must be lowered or lifted over ninety-one metres and because of this height, the water pressure required for one single lock would be too much for one gate so instead the dam uses five locks.  Each of these five locks lowers or raises the ship nearly twenty metres.

On our last morning we were taken to the Three Gorges Dam site which was very interesting and afforded us the opportunity to have a bird’s eye view of the five ship lift lock.

We then set sail once again and saw the last of the Three Gorges – the Wu Gorge.  This gorge is known for its deep valley and forest covered peaks and said to be the most notable of the Three Gorges because of the unusual shaped rocks surrounding the Gorge and the short daily periods of sunlight which allow for the Gorge to be surrounded by fog and clouds in a variety of shapes.

The three days were so enjoyable; they afforded me the opportunity to sit and relax and either read my book or view the river and sights along the way including the hanging coffins.  I enjoyed the short sightseeing trips on the shore and the opportunity to practice my Chinese as there were only about fifteen westerners on the ship along with hundred or so Chinese.  As soon as some Chinese heard me speaking Chinese to the wonderful staff, they came and spoke to me and engaged me in conversation – I enjoyed that immensely.

Three Days in Taipei – Taiwan – Republic of China – November 2013

Tags

Republic of China, Taipei, Taiwan

Three days in Taipei

I had wanted to visit Taipei for such a long time, so with my dear friend from Scotland/NZ and the other from the UK, we planned a long weekend from Beijing.  My start of the long weekend was great albeit a little embarrassing as I arrived at Beijing Airport (Terminal 2) and the queue to go through immigration was very long both in the normal channel and also the diplomatic channel (that I use).  I was standing in the diplomatic channel looking around trying to assess whether the other channels were shorter (they weren’t) when an officer came up to me and asked me if I was a diplomat, when I replied ‘yes’ he whisked me past everyone else and took me to the front of the line – I kept on saying ‘bu hao yisi’ [sorry] to everyone I overtook (but I was clearly not that sorry as I did go to the front of the line and within minutes was through immigration).  Another plus…the plane from Beijing took off on time – completely surprising!!! THEN I arrived at Taipei airport and within less than two minutes, I cleared immigration and went to the baggage carousel and there was my suitcase – now this has never happened before – ever – so I knew this was the beginning of a great love affair with Taipei.   Great [and quick] ride from the airport to the hotel as well.

Not so for one of my friends; she travelled separately with flight delays from Beijing/very lengthy immigration queues and extraordinarily lengthy delays in traffic from the airport to our hotel in Taipei – all made for a very cranky friend upon arrival.  She got over it pretty quickly when my Scottish/NZ friend met her in the hotel foyer with a glass of NZ sauvignon blanc and a Cadbury chocolate.

We stayed at the Landis Hotel (www.taipei.landishotelsresorts.com) which was really lovely – clean with extremely professional and helpful staff and a lovely roof area to enjoy the sights of Taipei and a glass or two of champagne.

Our first night we did some internet research and decided on an Italian restaurant for dinner called Merlo Cafe & Bistro which is said to be the number one Italian restaurant in Taipei.  It was a great intimate restaurant with white tablecloths, great service, excellent home made pasta and good Chilean wine – a really good choice by my Scottish/NZ friend – so much that we ended up going there twice during our three day visit.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel where I was surprised to see so many motor bikes on the road – and of course having come from Beijing, was even more surprised to see every rider wearing a helmet – excellent safety precautions in Taiwan!!  It was also unusual (for someone living in Beijing) to also see tens of police bikes neatly parked on one street – ready for use by the wonderful Taipei police.

A little further up the street, we saw a sign outside a hotpot restaurant which seems to say Louis Vuitton bags were not allowed!!! My friend in Australia, Simone, would not have liked this sign one bit; being a huge fan of LV.  Perhaps for anyone who reads more Chinese than me can work out what the intention of the sign is.  And of course my UK friend had to put her face into the strange menu outside the same restaurant.

The next day we took a taxi to the National Palace Museum to look at some of the wonderful bronze and jade sculptures.  The museum holds 696,000 artefacts, calligraphy, jade and artworks which I am told makes it one of the largest in the world.  We, of course, didn’t make it to see all 696,000, however, one exhibition we really enjoyed was one where many current day artists were invited to interpret relics from the 18th century (belonging to Emperor Qianlong) and transform them to fit into a modern sculpture.  A really interesting exhibition.

From there we took a taxi to Longshan Temple which was built in the 16th century by settlers from Fuijian, southern China.  Like the majority of temples in Taiwan, it is multi-deonimational and along the back wall of the temple there are several bays containing different gods.

The vibe inside the temple was calming even though there were a lot of people leaving offerings and praying.

We didn’t have any offerings but my friend had a lollipop in her bag and respectfully placed it on the table.  We then made our way to the exit and when we walked outside the front of the temple we saw monks selling cedar wood beads and an old woman selling magnolias which we could have bought before entering to leave for the gods.

Anyway I am sure the gods were happy with my friend’s offering!!  Our taxi driver was incredibly friendly, (I must say like all the other Taiwanese people we met) spoke English and proceeded to tell us about the other great sights in Taipei, so we booked him for the following day to take us to a famous site thirty minutes drive from Taipei.

Our next stop that same day was to Chiang Kai-shek’s memorial hall, so my trusty friends took out their iPhones and maps and told me that it was a very short distance to walk – now as we all know the distance is very short ‘on the actual map’ not so short in reality – but anyway off we went.  An hour later we were still walking around trying to find the memorial hall but as luck would have it we came across a wonderful little coffee shop selling of course coffee but also frappe – I had never had one before so I ordered a chocolate frappe and after a couple of ‘ice cream headaches’ [because it was so incredibly cold but delicious] we made off for the memorial hall.

After another fifteen minutes walking with me whining about not wearing proper walking shoes, we found the memorial hall.  Thank goodness!! Along the way we walked past a lovely street named ‘bird street’ as it was selling thousands of different types of birds and met some really lovely Taiwanese people who just stopped and started talking to us.  As I mentioned such lovely people.

Our last stop of the day was to Taipei 101 – which was the world’s tallest building from 2004 until the Burj was built in Dubai in 2010.  We walked into the adjoining shopping centre, bought our tickets for the viewing platform and were given a time to return.  At that point we decided on a glass of wine whilst waiting.  Of course the price of the wine very nearly matched the price of a LV bag I was eying off – but decided on the wine rather than the bag.  I am still yet to work out the marketing by LV using plastic duck feet to hold up the bag in the window, but clearly something is working as they certainly sell enough bags.

By the time we finished our wine and returned to the queuing area, the line was very long – my friend said it brought back memories of her time in the airport queue!!  Anyway, we waited patiently for about ten minutes and at that stage we were told we had another forty minutes to wait before we would arrive at the elevator to take us to the viewing platform.  We promptly walked back to the counter, got reimbursed for our tickets and returned to the hotel rooftop for chips/chocolate and wine.

Our second day in Taipei, our lovely taxi driver ‘Tom’ picked us up from the hotel and took us to Yeliu which is a cape in the town of Wanli.  This cape has many distinctive rock formations that have been given imaginative names based on their shapes.  One is the ‘Queens Head’ which is also the unofficial emblem for the town of Wanli.  Others are ‘sea candles’, the ‘beehive’ and the ‘fairy shoe’.  We were so lucky to have such a fabulous day; bright blue sky and beautiful water views.  My UK friend even brought her swimmers with her and took a dip in the sea – all supervised by ‘Tom’ who was very scared she would drown.

That afternoon we took a half day trip to the northeast coast to Chiufen (or Jiufen) which is a mountain area in the Ruifang District of New Taipei.  Some history: the town is called Chiufen/Jiufen as during the first years of the Qing dynasty, it housed nine families and those nine families wold request nine portions every time shipments arrived from town.  Gold was discovered in the area in 1893 which hastened the town’s development along with Japanese rule.  After WWII, gold mining declined and the town became desolate.  Then in 1989, Chiufen was the setting for a Taiwanese film called ‘City of Sadness’ which was based on one of Taiwan’t most critical historical events.  After that film, people returned to Chiufen to see the nostalgic scenery as seen in HOU Hsiao-hsien’s film.

Chiufen also became more popular after its downtown was used as a model in a Japanese animated film (‘Spirited Away’ – said to be the most popular animated film of all time).

I must say I didn’t care much for Chiufen shopping district, as our guide left us at the top of the street (shop number 4) and told us to meet him at store number 142 in one hour.  I genuinely love shopping and am happy to do it any time any day, but this was a very stressful experience; thousands of people (literally) all walking along the this tiny street with shops at both sides selling the same (kitschy) things.  We immediately found some steps and walked to a parallel street without any people; much less stressful.  At the end of the ‘busy’ street there is a rather quaint and smaller street with many less sightseers and cute doorways and little shops.

One little shop I found sold all things cats and had a huge cat sitting on the roof which might be the sister shop to the one I saw earlier which has a huge dog on the roof – a veterinary shop by all accounts.  So instead of shopping in Chiufen, we found a gorgeous tea house overlooking the water and enjoyed a cool drink.

Taipei is a fabulous city with wonderful people and I know I have only visited just a few of the magnificent sights – but I am so glad I took the opportunity to visit.

A Post Christmas Visit to Jiangxi Province – PRC – December 2012

Tags

china, Jiangxi, Jingdezhen, Lushan, Mount Lu, Poyang Lake, sightseeing

My last trip within China in 2012

My last trip of 2012 was to Jiangxi Province which occurred just after Christmas with the aim to visit Poyang Lake, Mount Lu (Lushan) and buy some porcelain from Jingdezhen.  My friend recommended Jiangxi because of its history and wonderful sights but also because it would be warmer than Beijing at this time of year.  Wrong!! Really not warmer than Beijing, the first day we arrived in the capital, Nanchang, it was snowing delightful little snowflakes; the first snow of the season.  A couple of hours later we travelled the two hours from Nanchang to Jiujiang city where the snow was no longer delightful but had become very [very] heavy with little visibility.

Still we trouped on and with our tour guide and our bus driver we drove along the twenty two km long curved road to the top of the mountain but not before the bus broke down and we had to transfer to another.

After transferring buses we arrived at the top of Lushan to find it totally and completely covered in snow.  The streets were particularly lovely covered in snow although visibility was extremely limited and the wind bitter.  Lushan is an unique mountain, twenty five kms long and ten kms wide and at its centre, between three peaks, is the two square kilometre town of Guling inhabited by 120,000 residents.  Not many out on this day I must say – only the hardworking men and women carrying items on their shoulders!

Chiang Kai Shek spent his summer holidays there, Mao Zedong is said to have asserted his power which led him to proceed with the Great Leap Forward and one of my favourite authors, Nobel Prize winner, Pearl Buck, was one of the first westerners to be carried by sedan chair up the thousand steps to Guling.

We were forced to leave the mountain early in the afternoon as the government declared that all visitors, due to heavy continuous snow fall, were to leave asap.  But it’s certainly worth the visit as the walks down the tree lined streets were beautiful – and empty.

Our tour guide insisted we see the Ruqin Lake but I am still at a loss as to why because at this stage you could not see two feet in front of you so the lake was just a white blur.  It turns out, as we found out on day three, that the lake was on our itinerary so we ‘had’ to go there.  I have looked it up on the internet and it does look lovely so I am sure it would be lovely to visit in spring or summer.

That evening we stayed at Jiujiang at the Juijiang S & N International 5 * hotel which was very lovely but with the usual bricks for a mattress.  The next morning we took off early to visit Poyang Lake National Wetland Park which was about a two and a half hour drive but with the sun out, the drive was enjoyable.  I forgot my sunglasses so we stopped at a little shop along the way where I bought a pair for 10 RMB (@ $1.50) – I didn’t even bother with the usual foreigner phrase of ‘tai gui le’ (too expensive) I just bought them and must say they did the job and didn’t look ‘too’ bad.

Poyang Lake is a habitat for over two million migratory birds and during the winter it becomes a home for a large number of Siberian white cranes, of which 90% spend their entire winter at the lake.  China’s finless porpoise is also a habitant of the lake however we unfortunately did not see any.

Environmental issues such as dredging are making life difficult for the porpoise but luckily there are groups taking action to save the porpoise of which there are only 1400 left living with 500 of those in Poyang Lake.  The lake is about 200 km2 and is fed by the Gan, Xiu and Xin rivers which connect to the Yangtze through a channel.

That evening we drove to Jingdezhen – a two hour drive – where we stayed at the Jingdezhen Zi Jing 4* hotel, which I think was even better than the 5* in Jiujiang.  Jingdezhen (the town of Jingde) is now a city and is know as the ‘porcelain capital’ because it has been producing porcelain for 1700 years.  Historical records show that it was during the Han Dynasty that Jingdezhen commenced making porcelain.  The views from my hotel room were spectacular with misty views out onto the water.

Across from the hotel was a small area which at night looked fabulous.  There were little lights in the trees and shrubs and a huge 56 metre long dragon made of blue and white porcelain perched on a small lake.  The lake provided a mirror image of the dragon that changed colour every couple of seconds – really spectacular.

The dragon was a lovely sight during the day also.

On our third and final day we visited the Jingdezhen Porcelain Factory which afforded us the opportunity of seeing how porcelain is made with one Chinese employee having worked in that field since he was twelve years old – and is now a very young 72!!

The gardens at the Factory were lovely and interesting – everywhere you turned there was some sort of porcelain ornament or object; be it a tea pot on a rock or a totem pole made of porcelain.  Inside the factory, we saw the world’s largest wood fired ceramic kiln which has the Guinness World Records certificate to verify it.

In the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jingdezhen was named one of four famous towns in Chinese history, along with Foshan in Guangdong Province, Hankou in Hubei Province and Zhuxianzhen in Henan.

It is said (unconfirmed) that Jingdezhen gave birth to the English name of the country. The ancient name of the town is Changnan. Way back in time, Changnan was synonymous with ceramics, and over time, foreign ceramics traders made the name sound like “china”. The rest is [said to be] history!!

During our tour of the factory we saw a few of the younger (well just a little younger than our 72 yo employee) taking what was clearly a well deserved rest whilst waiting for their tools/paints and clay to defrost from the previous day’s below minus temperatures.

And last but certainly not least, on the way to Juijiang airport, with beautiful clear blue skies and the absence of snow, I finally got to see Lushan which was truly beautiful.  Another fabulous place in China I am glad I took the time to visit.

Lunch at Pialligo Estate – Pialligo – Canberra – August 2015

Tags

canberra, Pialligo Estate, restaurant

Great food at Pialligo Estate Restaurant

Finding a good restaurant in Canberra for Saturday lunch is a little difficult as the majority of the ‘top twenty’ are closed.  I found a great website (http://visitcanberra.com.au/restaurants/find) which lists the best restaurants in Canberra so decided to go to lunch there on a Saturday with two dear friends.

Pialligo Estate is set on eighty-six acres along the Molonglo River and is very easy to find  as it’s near the airport and also close to the city centre.  The Estate has it’s own market gardens, fruit trees and a vineyard and fresh produce is picked from the market gardens daily.  I was very interested to read that the landscape was designed by acclaimed landscape designer Paul Bangay (great designer whose books I have bought).

Walking to the entrance of the restaurant you reach two huge copper doors; a lovely way to enter the restaurant.  Then once inside you are greeted by very friendly staff who offered me the relaxing chair near the fire whilst waiting for my friends.  I must say as this was a beautiful Canberra day of 18 degrees, the fire was not needed.

The restaurant has a great ambience with tables both inside and outside in a private covered area.  We sat inside and had a full view of the open kitchen with about six or so chefs bustling about; perhaps this was why we felt a little warm throughout our lunch.  The menu is appealing with a selection of meat and seafood dishes.  One of my friends who is a salmon junkie, ordered the fish as there was no salmon on the regularly changing menu.  I selected the only vegetarian entree and main and my other friend ordered the suckling pig for her main.

My friend Karen ordered her entree and asked the waiter to ensure there was no pork.  Unfortunately when the meal arrived, the waiter noticed there was pork shavings – glad he did – and a new meal without the pork arrived within a minute or so.

The wine menu is extensive for bottled wine but only a select few can be bought by the glass.  I am a sauvignon blanc fan and you could only buy this by the bottle so I settled for a couple of glasses of chardonnay whilst my two friends drank merlot.  But now I think I should have ordered a glass of the Pialligo Estate 2009 Riesling as I have read some good reviews about this drop.

The service was excellent and meals were explained in detail when they were brought out to the table.  Two courses were $65.  We all decided to go for the two courses incase we were too full to eat dessert.  Lucky we did as we were too full to even have a cup of coffee/tea after our meals.

We asked for sparkling water and had three or four bottles and it was a wonderful surprise when the bill arrived to see there was no charge.  Prior to the main meal, delicious wholegrain and white breads arrived in a delightful little brown paper bag with a tasty butter pat.

I also ordered a side dish of coleslaw – which I probably think is the best coleslaw I have ever tasted – all fresh ingredients from the Estate.   My main was roasted cauliflower, broccoli, almond, pomegranate from the orchard and vadouvan (which I now know is a blend of spices) and was delicious.

But I forgot to mention prior to entree, the waiter arrived with a palate cleanser of a long cracker with a type of creme fraiche topped with anchovies.

We all were all too full to order dessert but another wonderful surprise arrived, a tray of mini doughnuts – which were warm and delicious, long marshmallows which my friends told me were very creamy and three yummy macaroons.

Clearly this is a restaurant enjoyed by many in the Canberra region; as we were waiting for our entree a friend of ours walked past and she was enjoying a meal with two other friends.  So I popped over to their table outside in the enclosed area and their desserts had just arrived.

The Valhrona Jivara chocolate, buckwheat, caramelised banana and malted milk looked sensational – so I took a quick photo before it was all devoured, I will definitely have to return to eat this great looking dessert!!

A day trip to Xitang Water Village – Jiashan County – Zhejiang Province – PRC – January 2013

Tags

beijing, Water Village, watertown, xitang, Zhejiang Province

Xitang Ancient Town – a day trip from Hangzhou

I was visiting Zhejiang Province which is on the Eastern coast of China, for work, when I decided to stay a couple more days and arranged a bus trip to Xitang which is about an hour and half from Hangzhou (the capital of Zhejiang).  I have written a post about my visit to Hangzhou which I think is one of the most beautiful places to visit in China.

So…back to my trip to Xitang.  I arranged a tour bus and guide to the water town and when we arrived we took a boat trip on a little wooden boat which lasted about twenty minutes.  If you intend to do this, and I do recommend it, please watch your head when you walk onto the boat or you will do what I did and smack your forehead on the low doorway.

The boat ride gave me the opportunity to see some great sights along the way which included some very colourful buildings, hundreds of wonderful Chinese lanterns hanging from trees and/or buildings (one of my favourite things in China) and the daily life of locals washing clothes and dishes in the canal.

Nine rivers run through the town of Xitang, while over 100 bridges connect the water town into one entity.  Xitang is particularly famous for its corridors which consist of many sections and in the main, are tiled roofs which are built along the riverside connected to the shops and houses.

Xitang’s residents relax under the shade of these covered corridors whilst the many tourists walk around, enjoying the scenery, eating snacks and buying fruits, nuts, sweets and nick knacks.  I tasted some great local food including Chinese pancakes and turnip cakes – absolutely delicious.

The corridors also, as I saw, provide a great place for residents to hang out washing on a sunny day.  No item of clothing was too delicate to be displayed and clearly the owners of the said ‘delicates ‘were not embarrassed by tourists walking past.

I have many great memories from this day out but two favourites are meeting one very charming Chinese gentleman who asked me in perfect English ‘where are you from?” and after our conversation was very happy for me to take his photo.  Completely charming!!

And my second is a small dog who sat in the middle of the pathway and no amount of people traffic or coaxing from his owner would make him move – that clearly was his spot in the sun and that is where he stayed!!

A wonderful place to visit with some really fabulous sights.

A visit to Dong Yue Temple – Chaoyang District – Beijing – PRC – November 2012

Tags

beijing, Chaoyang, Dong Yue, Temple

Beijing’s Dong Yue Temple

This temple is definitely worth visiting even just for about an hour or so – it’s historical but also weird and fascinating.

Historical:

This taoist temple is located in Chaoyang District and is dedicated to the God of Mount Tai which is the easternmost and holiest of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism.

Founded during the Yuan Dynasty, this temple is the largest of the Zhengyi school of Taoism in northern China.  It’s in a very peaceful location which surprisingly had very few people.  The courtyards are pretty and hold a collection of about ninety stone tablets, some dating back to the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

Weird and Fascinating:

There are numerous halls around the edge of the courtyard area which were previously departments of the Taoist supernatural realm where spirits and demonic government officials dwell.

Each hall is governed by a minister, court/government official and defendants.  The larger than life people and animal-like figures are unique and particularly odd – some quite scary (the temple is recorded by Lonely Planet as one of the top ten scary places to visit in Beijing).  Each hall has a large Chinese and English plaque describing the ministerial department and its duties.

Several of these departments feature rather frightening netherworld employees dealing out nasty punishments.  One of my photographs below depicts a scene from the ‘Headquarters for Controlling the Punishment’ department – I am not sure what crime justifies having one’s tongue stretched out until it’s the size of a rolled up broadsheet newspaper – and unlike a rolled out newspaper which we can roll back up – I don’t think this poor fellow’s tongue will ever go back into his mouth.

Some of the departments make sense, for example the ‘Instant Rewards and Retribution’ department and the ‘Recording Merits’ department.  However some make no sense at all and others take a little bit of your imagination for example the ‘department for demons and monsters’ and the ‘department for implementing fifteen kinds of violent death’.

My next photo depicting a man with a rather scary look on his face belonged in the ‘unjust death’ department – I wasn’t sure if he was the intended recipient of an unjust death or he is the contributor – either way he looks pretty scary!

The temple is located at Dongyue Miao, Chaowai Dajie, Chaoyang District.  10 RMB entry or 30 RMB for a guided tour.

Dinner at ‘Lost Heaven’ a Yunnanese style restaurant – Beijing – PRC – January 2013

Tags

beijing, Lost Heaven, restaurant, Yunnanese

A great evening at ‘Lost Heaven’ Restaurant in Beijing

I love Chinese food!! And being a vegetarian I have found there are incredible food choices in Beijing and throughout the whole of the ‘Middle Kingdom’.  It’s certainly not like being in Australia in the 1980’s where your meal from the local Chinese restaurant was served with a lot of MSG and the dishes only included sweet and sour pork and various other non-genuine Chinese meals that the Chinese have never heard of.

So when a friend recommended the Yunnan restaurant ‘Lost Heaven’ I jumped at the chance as the restaurant has a wide variety of vegetarian options.  A group of us went one Saturday evening and had a wonderful time with lots of great food and wine.

The restaurant is impressive from the moment you arrive.  It is located in the corner of the former American Legation Quarter next to Maison Boulud Restaurant (which is also fabulous) at QianmenDong Da Jie.  The quadrangle of neo-classical buildings was home to the US embassy in the Qing dynasty (between 1903 and 1949) and is close to Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City.

The restaurant is divided into two floors, the first comprises a bar and part of the restaurant, which holds about sixty people.

The second floor is just the restaurant which holds about 120 people.  We dined on the second floor and the atmosphere is truly lovely.  The walls are made of Pu’er tea bricks and the entire restaurant has a strong ethnic style.  Every corner is filled with Yunnan crafts and totems of the Ya, Yi, Dai, Bai, Naxi, Tibetan and Mao ethnic cultures.  The lighting is dim but just adds to the ambience.  When you arrive your place setting has what looks like a tin hat on the plate and that is removed by your waiter once you are seated.

The menu is very impressive and the vegetarian options are endless.  I selected the non-meat dishes for our group and these included the Yunnan wild vegetable cakes which were crispy pancakes with onions and a great tomato sauce, vegetarian samosa, copper pot dumplings, some very tasty vegetarian spring rolls, a spicy eggplant dish and Yunnan scrambled eggs with white mushrooms – all extremely delicious.  All the dishes were beautifully presented in terracotta or hand-painted dishes and were decorated with pretty purple and white flowers.

The cocktail menu was created by an Australian who won an award of the Australian Bartender of the Year – not sure which year though.  Gin and vodka martinis are subtly infused with Pu’er tea that has been blended by the restaurant at their tea packing house in Yunnan, southern China.  There is also a signature cocktail which comes served in a ceramic mug inspired by the traditional wooden masks of the Yunnan minority people (can be purchased for 70 RMB).

Lost Heaven also has another restaurant in Shanghai, just off The Bund.  It’s a ‘must’ if you are in either Beijing or Shanghai.

Cow Street Mosque – Xicheng District – Beijing – PRC – September 2012

Tags

beijing, Mosque, Xicheng District

The oldest Mosque in Beijing

Walking through the grounds of the Cow Street Mosque, the biggest and oldest in Beijing, will only take about ten minutes, and is located in Xuanwu District.  So if you are interested in Mosques it’s a nice place to visit but it might be best to combine with a visit to somewhere else as it will not take up much of your time, especially if you are non-Muslim (more on that later).

The grounds cover 6000 square metres and the mosque is the spiritual centre for 10,000 Muslims who live in the vicinity.  The mosque was originally in Xuanwu District before it merged into Xicheng District in 2010.  Xicheng District, where the mosque is now located, is the largest area inhabited by Muslims in Beijing.

The mosque was first built in 996AD during the Liao Dynasty and reconstructed some years later in the traditional design of Chinese temples during the Qing Dynasty.

The main building inside the grounds is a 600 square prayer hall, which is only open to Muslims.  The mosque also hosts tombs of a number of Islamic clerics from hundreds of years ago, along with stone steles with Arabic engraving.

Entry is 10 RMB (@ $1.50)

A visit to the Eunuch Museum – Shijingshan district – Beijing – PRC – September 2012

Beijing Eunuch Culture Exhibition Hall

Beijing has so many interesting museums; for example the Watermelon Museum, The Bee Museum, The Museum of Ethnic Costumes and The Beijing Tap Water Museum to name but a few, and with a spare Sunday in Beijing, I decided on the Eunuch Museum which is located about 40 minutes out of Beijing and said to be the world’s ‘only’ Eunuch Museum.

The museum first opened to the public in 1998 and am told is mainly visited by foreigners, and with only another two foreigners at the museum on the day we went I guess it could be correct.  Entry fee is 8 RMB (@ $1.50).

Pang Zianhui, the curator of the museum said the primary function of the museum is to record the lives of eunuchs and it does just that.  The grounds include a tomb of eunuch Tian Yi who was castrated at age nine and commenced his tenure at the Beijing Imperial Palace  (today’s Forbidden City) under the Jiajing Emperor.  Tian, it is said, carved a remarkable nice in the Ming Dynasty where he served three emperors in a row rising from the bottom rung of the job ladder to become a second-grade official within the royal hierarchy.  Tian passed away in 1605 at age 72 and upon his death, the emperor is said to of ceased court work for three days and asked his craftsman to build an underground coffin chamber for Tian, proclaiming imperial glory that few men received.

Tian’s tomb remains the last completely preserved eunuch tomb in Beijing.  Tian’s good reputation afforded him to not experience the same fate as other eunuchs i.e. their bodies were dug out of their graves after their death even though they lived powerfully when alive.  Tian’s tomb today, is completely empty as it was raided during the Cultural Revolution and all the treasures were stolen.

The museum was once the Cixiang Nunnery, inhabited by monks and nuns and the eunuchs who guarded Tian Ti’s tomb.  After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, many Qing Dynasty eunuchs donated money to improve the Nunnery out of their admiration for Tian Yi.  Some eunuchs went to the nunnery to become monks after they were driven out of the palace due to their advanced age.  The came to protect Tian tomb and spend the later part of their lives at the nunnery.

At the entrance to the museum grounds there are two huge statues of Tian, one as a scholar and the other dressed as a warrior, both 3m high.  Again it is said that after Tian died, 259 eunuchs came to pay tribute to him ad their names are inscribed on a stone column that stands nearby.

The actual museum comprises five rooms, and the room that caused a great amount of wincing was the graphical rendition of the actual ‘operation’ which was performed without anaesthetic and involved the young boy being held/tied down to stop struggling.  We also saw one of the knives, albeit now rusty, which was used for the procedure.

A good couple of hours to spend on a Sunday if you have the time whilst in Beijing.

‘Friends’ Cafe – Chaowai Soho – Beijign – PRC – November 2012

Tags

beijing, chaowai, Friends, soho

A cup of coffee at Friends Cafe in Beijing

London has one so does Dubai and in 2010 Beijing opened one…a replica of the cafe Ross, Rachael, Monica and Chandler from ‘Friends’ visit every day.  The hot chocolate is good enough as are the snacks but don’t expect anything substantial..  The quaint cafe has many replicas of the actual set, for example the handwritten menu on the wall, the ‘Cafe Perk’ sign on the window and iconic couch where you can watch re-runs of the actual show.

My friend and I were about to sit on the couch but were immediately told by the Chinese staff that we could not so we found ourselves a small table to eat our muffin and drink our hot chocolate…but then we saw a young good looking Chinese couple come in and were shown straight to the couch..clearly this couch is kept for the ‘young and good looking crowd in Beijing’…ouch!!

We didn’t see any of the old cast members of the show but was told that the customers affectionately call the owner ‘Du Xin’ which translates to ‘Gunther’ after the shows fictional manger.  ‘Du’ created the cafe’s interior by studying photos online and worked with the designers to customise each piece of furniture to create a warm and cosy atmosphere.

Cafe Perk is located at Chaowai SOHO, 6 Chaoyangmenwai Dajie, Building A, Suite 0616.