Crowd control measures in central Beijing

Trip to China, day 3 (04.09.2014)
In the morning we made our way to the National Museum which was quite big and new and also had interesting exhibitions such as modern-day chinese ceramics and diplomatic presents from many countries. The museum has recently been redesigned by a German architecture bureau. Furthermore there were galleries with pictures from wartime – the communist army and their officials were shown in many places, including many pictures from comrade Mao Zedong. In the main hall there are famous paintings with revolutionary-communist themes. After some time we became very hungry. Even though it was raining quite heavily since we got up in the morning, we left the museum to look for a restaurant.

The problem was that on and around Tiananmen, there were still rigorous crowd control mesures in place after the celebrations of 70 years End of WW II. We were forced to follow the stream of people between two fences into a public garden east of the Forbidden City and there was no way out but the West gate leading into the first inner courtyard of the latter. We actually just wanted to traverse Tiananment in order to get to its west end. It turned out that we had to senselessly walk around in the heavy rain for about an hour. There was no way over or past the fence – security personnel from police and army forces controled every move of the crowd which was, like flocks of sheep, trying to play along with the circus. After some time we were soaking wet to the underpants, hungry and had wasted a lot of time. In the end we found a restaurant selling jiao zi of average quality at ten kuai (Ten yuan ren min bi, about 1,4 Euros) for one serving. We ate and it made us a bit happier because we were so hungry that pretty much anything would have been fine to eat at this point. At a convenience store be got some water and Schweppes +C Lemon soft drink.

After our late lunchbreak (it was about 3 pm already) we still tried to get to the Great Hall of the People which is said to be interesting to see, but crowd control measure had us walk in circles around it and we became even more wet – including the contents of our bags as we found out later. We wasted a lot of time and the rain became so heavy that it was monsoon-like and even the Chinese literally fled the open space on Tiananmen. Along with the crowd we tried to protect ourselves against the rainstorm in the entrance area of a big public toilet. As the worst was over after some minutes, we tried to get back to our Hutong/Hostel which took us quite long. Back there we took a hot shower. At the reception we asked for a place where we could hang our clothes to dry and he suggested that theres a clothesline in the courtyard – we were a bit puzzled because it was still raining heavily. Staff at the reception of Ming Courtyard Hostel was friendly but they did not understand enough English to answer questions which were more complicated than: “Where is the train station?” and “Where are the lockers?”
In the evening we only ate some Mannerschnitten because we did not want to go outside anymore – our raincoats did not withstand the amount of water that poured down on us during the day. We had a chat with our American roommates Sydney and Boston which was quite nice, and then went to sleep rather early.

Porcelain (瓷) in the forbidden city in 北京

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Many parts of the forbidden city are museum halls with different types of exhibits. Even though I spent more than 5 hours walking about in the huge palace, I did not see but half of the exhibition space. I became … Continue reading →

The difference between China and Korea – Part II. – Buildings

In both countries, modern day skyscrapers are perfectly westernized and are the only type of buildings built in big cities nowadays. Even apartment blocks have about 20 storeys so I count them to this class of tall buildings.

The difference between China and Korea is visible in the style of their traditional buildings, even though the Korean style was heavily influenced by the Chinese example over a very long period of time. This can be seen from the shape of a rising curve at the edges of the roofs for example. In both countries the houses were built on a base made of stones from round pieces of wood which were painted afterwards. But let’s look into the differences.

First of all, the chinese palaces are much bigger, due to the difference in size between the two countries (I suppose). Another significant difference is the choice of colours used to paint the wooden parts of the buildings. It is said that the Koreans always were much more connected to nature so they made green the colour of their choice while the chinese preferred the more aggressive coulour of bright red which is a lucky coulour symbolizing prosperity at the same time. It is often combined with blue and golden elements. As examples I chose the forbidden city in 北京 and the Gyeonghuigung palace, one of five palaces built by the Joseon dynasty in Seoul.

The forbidden citiy in Beijing.

Wooden window grating in the forbidden city, Beijing.

Gyeonghuigung palace in Seoul.

Gyeonghuigung palace in Seoul – wall painting.

The Koreans used red as well but a less bright version of it. There are more patterns and motifs directly influenced by the colours and shapes of nature, while the Chinese chose more abstract patterns and mythological animals such as the dragon who symbolizes the emperor and the mythological lions who proctect houses and palaces.

In contrast to european palaces which largely consist of one big building and some garden pavilions, chinese and korean palaces consist of a big number of buildings aligned and placed next to each other in an orderly manner, forming lots of small and big courtyards.

 

About Chopsticks (筷子)

…and then they said: It’s so complicated to eat with fork and knife. Why would anyone prefer that? You need two hands for it. Chopsticks are so much easier.”

While a number of european people thinks that they can eat with chopsticks, most of them just handle them in some funny way to get food into their mouth, but most of them don’t do it the right way. I met a person who told me that I’m doing it wrong only after I came home from my China trip so I felt ashamed and decided to improve my skills at home for the next time we would go out and eat together. Although this never happened I want to explain what I learned about 筷子 (chopsticks). In my opinion it is a good idea for everyone to learn how to eat with chopsticks in the proper way because it is a skill which trains your fingers. In addition, whenever one eats asian food it is easier to do so with chopsticks and at the same time it’s more fun. Especially when one eats sushi, it looks ridiculous doing so with a fork or with one’s fingers. I want to emphasize the fact that it is important to learn it the right way – please check out the big number of youtube videos in order to have it explained how to. I recommend to watch several different ones because some of them are more, some of them less understandable for a specific person. This is the best one I found, because it is clear and short and states the general rule that only the upper chopstick should move while the lower is stable.

The proper way of holding chopsticks might be hard to do in the beginning. In order to improve you can help yourself using training chopsticks which you can order online, or you make them yourself.

I made the ones you can see in the picture myself but changed the position of the rubber band in order to fit my hands better.

As I wrote about the differences between China and Korea lately, they do not stop when it comes to chopsticks.

The type of disposable chopsticks widely seen in asian take-aways in Austria is japanese-style. They are rather short and flat and rather thick, made of bamboo.

Japanese chopsticks

Chinese chopsticks are longer than japanese ones and made of bamboo as well, but their diameter is rather round than eliptical or square-shaped.

Chinese chopsticks and my DIY – training chopsticks.

Korean chopsticks are very different. First of all, they are made of metal most of the time. In addition, they usually come with a spoon. Their shape is quite different as well: they are much thinner, but as long as the chinese ones. Also, they are quite flat so the tips can be considered as pointy in comparison. I made the experience that Korean chopsticks are a challenge, even after 2 months of eating with chinese ones. Their pointy tips make it much harder to take pieces of food, but once you can do so, your eating will consist of elegant and precise movements. The fact that they are rather rectangular and flat in diameter makes it harder to hold them. They might flip over if you don’t hold them the right way which might cause your piece of food falling down.

As you can see they also have rounded ones in Korea which were supposedly bought in a tourist shop (they are a much loved present from a special friend of mine).

Korean chopsticks and spoon.

The explanation for the diversity in the shapes of 筷子 has been explained to me just today. It lies in the fact that the dishes eaten in the countries respectively vary so the chopsticks are accommodated in the most ideal way possible to the shape of the consumed food. Korean food consists of rater small, solid pieces of food so the chopsticks are hard and pointed in order to meet the requirement of transmitting a lot of the hand’s force to the piece of food. Many chinese dished inlcuding 饺子 and 面汤 are much softer, so people need less pressure from their hands to pick them up. The chopsticks can be made with the softer and more flexible material of bamboo. For the japanese chopsticks we can say that the fine tips are ideal when it comes to picking the bones out of the fish that they traditionally eat most of the time.

If you are motivated to improve your 筷子 skills I suggest that you eat pretty much everything you eat with chopsticks. You can eat frech fries and salad with them, and even Ravioli or Tortellini. Just imagine them being 饺子 and do not add a lot of butter in order to make it easier to handle. After some time you can go for 面汤 which is not hard to cook and a good thing to train your chopstick skills.

P.S. Use a 碗 (bowl) when using chopsticks. It’s so much easier. Have fun! =)

The difference between China and Korea – Part I.

China and Korea seem to be quite similar from the point of view of a rather uninformed european person when it comes to Asia (and I counted myself to those for almost all of my life, i.e. until I was 20 years old). For me it was hard to see the difference until I read more about Korean and Chinese History and then actually went there. However, there are some superficial similarities. Both peoples look “asian”, they eat with chopsticks and korean palaces are inscribed with chinese characters.

In general I think that South Korea is more developed than China. There are more big roads in a very good condition and especially when it comes to education, Koreans might have more choices and chances. Most people in Korea understand English (even staff at McDonald’s took my orders in English, answering in Korean) and still a majority of people in the street speaks English as well (at least enough to give me directions). In China it was an exception if anyone spoke English or any other language but Chinese. Even in a big business hotel in 昆明 (Kunming) there was no-one able to communicate with me without using their iPhone for basic translation. People who actually spoke some English were very proud of it. When I approached someone and talked to them in English they gave me weird looks and were embarassed and in a seemingly very uncomfortable situation. After some days I stopped trying to talk to people and instead learned some phrases in Chinese which was really hard but worked better still.

While in Korea there are loads of public wifis available, there are hardly any in China. If one happens to find one, there are so many restrictions on its use that it is impossible to use it. Furthermore the login site being written in Chinese only doesn’t exactly help. Especially in western China there is no necessity seen to write anything in any other language but Chinese. I think that this is natural to a certain extent but it makes life harder for foreigners.

Since the Korean War, Korea is very much inclined towards the West and especially towards the US as it seems. There’s a huge embassy with numerous security staff at one of the main squares of downtown Seoul. In China, I did not see any embassies or other clear signs of the presence of other nations in important places.This is only normal when one thinks back in History: european nations de-facto colonized parts of China and commited the indelible crime of burinng down the summer palace of the Qing during the Opium war. Meanwhile, Korea got help from the US in the war against the communists which results in a more positive relation.

Talking about History, Korea was a peaceful kingdom (or several kingdoms) most of the time, while in China there were more wars and later revolutions (1911 and then the communist revolution ending in 1949). Both countries have in common that they were invaded by the brutally fighting Japanese who seeked for imperial expansion until 1945 when they were heavily bombed by the US.

Thinking of the people themselves, Koreans are much more polite than the Chinese, generally speaking and of course from a european point of view. In China, the word for “Thank you”, 谢谢, is much less used than the Korean 감사합니다 (kamsahabnidaaaaa!). Chinese only say “thank you” if someone did something exceptionally nice, i.e. something apart of their “natural duties”. In Europe, a shopkeeper would say “goodbye, thank you” to a customer and people would say “thank you” to a waiter who brought their food. In China, it comes across weird if you say 谢谢 (xiè xie) in either of those situations. In my opinion this comes from the fact that you are expected to work hard in any case and it is your duty to do your best, so there is no reason to thank you. The advantage of this is that if someone says 谢谢, they really mean it and it’s worth something in terms of gratitude, other than in Europe where it has mostly the meaning of being a polite person. In Korea, saying “thank you” seemed to be more normal. Also, Koreans show a lot more of respect to others than the Chinese. At least there are more rituals showing respect towards elder people, such as turning away when drinking Sozhou with them, and bowing when meeting them. When it comes to moods, Chinese and Koreans genrally seem much more calm than Europeans. While I saw people in China in outbreaks of sudden rage, shouting as something went terribly wrong, I did not see a single Korean behaving like that (but this may be due to the fact that I only spent one week in Korea). Generally speaking I made the experience that in Asia, people showing an outburst of negative emotions are generally ignored and what they say is not taken seriously.

More of my opinons and experiences concerning Asia are soon to come in part II. and I would appreciate your comments so feel free to post below!

很快再见！

Shandong big pancake (山东大煎饼)

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Shandong big pancake is another type of chinese food that I like a lot. It’s easy to eat on the way and there are several different versions of it. I ate a delicious one in Guangzhou before getting on a … Continue reading →

Toilets in China

Yes, this is a post about toilets in China. It sounds ridiculous but it was the only thing that strongly surprised me on my trip through this huge and fascinating country. Everyone who ever went to Asia surely knows that there is a difference between western toilets, on which you can sit down quite comfortably in case they are clean, and asian toilets which are more like a hole in the floor. But then, there are chinese toilets. Quite a number of public toilets in China are more like a trench which is parallel to a wall. There are little walls that form small compartments. In there, one has to squat down in order to use this sort of toilet. Every three minutes or so, there is a stream of water flowing through the trench. In case you’re at the last compartment, your backside might become a bit more wet than expected. In case you’re at the first compartment, you will see everything pass underneath you in this moment. Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the important detail: there are no doors to the compartments!

Oh, and you should bring your own toilet paper as well.

The farther to the west you are going, the more of these toilets you will encounter. The (probably) only exceptions are the Hutongs (traditional housing quaters) in Beijing. Most people there don’t have toilets in their house so they use the public, doorless ones in their street, where they might meet their neighbours by chance. If you are using one of those toilets in the morning, you will see people sitting there using their smartphones, texting and watching TV series.

Toilet without door in China

Toilet in China

How to deal with this as a european person?

Chinese people have a strong sense of community. You should join them in whatever they are doing in order to really learn about their culture and the life realities in this stunnning country. Don’t be a tourist, be a traveler. Don’t be just another european person who avoids unfamiliar things because they are just too scared of the unknown and too stuck within their own cultural representations.

So, do you have your tissues ready?

Traditional Chinese Houses in Hoi An

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In many areas in Asia, one can find traditional chinese houses. They are to be found in places where trade flourished and where waterways were connecting the different cities and countries. It seems that the Chinese people, throughout history, migrated … Continue reading →

How to get to a lonely mountain top in Yangshuo

This is a description of how to find your way to the top of one of Yangshuo’s mountains which is definately not crowded with tourists. Please keep in mind that I do not know if it’s allowed to go there. Also please do not consider going there if you’re not experienced in hiking and please don’t go alone. It isn’t a high mountain and it should take you under half an hour to get to the top, but it’s very slippery and steep. Keep in mind that the way down is always more difficult to make than the way up. Please do not continue climbing up if it’s getting tricky for you. There’s a risk that you won’t make it down again in a safe way.

Directions: If you’re at the city center, follow West Street (Xi jie) until it ends where the post office is. Turn left and follow the street. It’s making a turn and there’s two walls to it’s sides. You should be on the left side of the street. Where the walls begin, the shops end. There is one last shop which sells mainly scarfs (October 2013).

This is how the street looks like.

This is how the shop looks like.

Remember, it’s the last shop on the left side of the street before the wall begins.

The stairway that you can see right next to the shop leads to a small house which is just above it. Pass the house quickly and no one will say anything. Follow the direction of the wall and step over the water pipes. Turn to your left, and you will see a pathway going up the hill. Down here it’s full of litter and it does not look nice but the view from above will be rewarding.

This is how the path looks like. It’s way steeper than it seems on the pictures.

There’s a lot of birds in the bushes but I did not see anything dangerous. Please be careful in any case. The path becomes more and more difficult in the upper part. Please don’t consider going if it’s been raining before. It’s too dangerous if the earth becomes even more slippery.

This is the view from above:

I went there on a cloudy afternoon in autumn but I think it will look even more stunning in summer.

Disclaimer: I do not claim that it is permitted or a good idea to go up there. It is a possibility that I want to show to people who like to be away from touristy and crowded places but I want to warn you about the dangers and risks of hiking up there. Whatever you do, it’s your own responsability.