Concrete Reality
The first real feeling I got walking around Beijing was how easy being there is compared to other places we'd seen. On a simple level, everybody is used to foreigners there and they've gotten over yelling at you. More generally, it is cosmopolitan enough that you can feel that comforting anonymity one gets walking around any big city.
The second major realization is that, in general, everything in Beijing is massive and dull. The tourist agenda that covers imperial history is intellectually very interesting, but not aesthetically engaging at all. The rest of the tourist highlights seem to be mainly of interest to travelers who are not seeing any other parts of China.
In the end, Beijing was a bit of a letdown after everything we've seen. This is especially true since they go out of their way to redevelop any place with charm; for example, we wanted to go to lunch in the famous Qianmen district one day, and discovered that every single building on the main street--for a mile--had been knocked down.
The Forbidden City (and especially Tiananmen Square) are big and impressive but not pretty or pleasant by any stretch of the imagination. Everything looks like a big sterile parade ground; all the opulence exists as a display of wealth and power rather than a desire for luxury.
But after all we'd been doing, it was nice that being there was so easy. We really enjoyed the emotional rest. Unfortunately, Tara became quite ill and had to stay in bed for a day or so. Because of that we ended up really keeping a light (for us) schedule.
Our visit was greatly improved by the fact that I connected with a friend from my kyudo (archery) class who is spending the year in Beijing. He showed us around to some nice parts of town and was able to give us a lot of back-story on imperial history that made much of what we saw in town make more sense. He also took us to a truly fine Peking Duck restaurant.
We had been hoping that at least we'd be able to do some shopping in Beijing for obligatory souvenirs and whatnot. But it was as disappointing as the rest of China. Even though everything in the world is made there, it turns out that there isn't actually anything worth buying in China. Handicrafts, art, and antiques are all in short supply. It's just like going to Chinatown in San Francisco and seeing that every single store has the same supply of ticky-tacky junk. It's a mystery, really.
I was also rather disappointed that I wasn't able to see much interesting art around town. The Palace Museum in the Forbidden City apparently has quite a collection, but they do not show it. I saw no good traditional painting at all, neither there nor anywhere else in China. Apparently Shanghai has a good museum, but nothing in the capital or anywhere else we traveled.
And we didn't even visit the Great Wall.
The second major realization is that, in general, everything in Beijing is massive and dull. The tourist agenda that covers imperial history is intellectually very interesting, but not aesthetically engaging at all. The rest of the tourist highlights seem to be mainly of interest to travelers who are not seeing any other parts of China.
In the end, Beijing was a bit of a letdown after everything we've seen. This is especially true since they go out of their way to redevelop any place with charm; for example, we wanted to go to lunch in the famous Qianmen district one day, and discovered that every single building on the main street--for a mile--had been knocked down.
The Forbidden City (and especially Tiananmen Square) are big and impressive but not pretty or pleasant by any stretch of the imagination. Everything looks like a big sterile parade ground; all the opulence exists as a display of wealth and power rather than a desire for luxury.
But after all we'd been doing, it was nice that being there was so easy. We really enjoyed the emotional rest. Unfortunately, Tara became quite ill and had to stay in bed for a day or so. Because of that we ended up really keeping a light (for us) schedule.
Our visit was greatly improved by the fact that I connected with a friend from my kyudo (archery) class who is spending the year in Beijing. He showed us around to some nice parts of town and was able to give us a lot of back-story on imperial history that made much of what we saw in town make more sense. He also took us to a truly fine Peking Duck restaurant.
We had been hoping that at least we'd be able to do some shopping in Beijing for obligatory souvenirs and whatnot. But it was as disappointing as the rest of China. Even though everything in the world is made there, it turns out that there isn't actually anything worth buying in China. Handicrafts, art, and antiques are all in short supply. It's just like going to Chinatown in San Francisco and seeing that every single store has the same supply of ticky-tacky junk. It's a mystery, really.
I was also rather disappointed that I wasn't able to see much interesting art around town. The Palace Museum in the Forbidden City apparently has quite a collection, but they do not show it. I saw no good traditional painting at all, neither there nor anywhere else in China. Apparently Shanghai has a good museum, but nothing in the capital or anywhere else we traveled.
And we didn't even visit the Great Wall.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home