Easter Flowers

 

March in Beijing was a month of cold wind, bright sun, beautiful flowers, and Easter. In addition to the holiday, I was able to see several wonderful sights in Beijing. I was fortunate to see the Beijing Metropolitan Zoo, the Imperial Gardens, the Temple of Heaven, and even participate in a baking class. It was a soft month of China transitioning from the bitter cold of winter to the mild of spring.

The Zoo was quite fantastic, despite the fact of being inside the already crowded city of Beijing. It was much larger than I had expected with many different types of animals. Some of the cages and enclosures for the animals were a bit smaller than expected, but most had a great area to call home. There were also several endangered species being helped in the zoo. There were programs and learning tools as well that sometimes worked with the local schools.

In addition to the Beijing Zoo, I was able to see the Temple of Heaven. This is a very prominent site for Chinese living in or visiting Beijing. This temple was important for the Chinese, and the emperor would visit this temple twice a year and pray to the sky for good harvests. There were many ceremonies including animal sacrifices, proper clothes and music, and parades by the emperor. This temple complex is wide and very beautiful.

On Easter weekend, I went to the Imperial Gardens. These gardens were once the site of a grand display of different types of architectural designs, including those from different regions in China and Asia, as well as western styles. The gardens hosted several lakes with various trees and flowers from all over the world. Although it was destroyed twice by the British and the French, it still holds its beauty. There are many ruins with greenery carving its way throughout the rubble. The lake is a perfect place for swimmers, fishers, and boating.

On Easter Day, my wife and I went to an Easter baking class. There, we learned how to make traditional European Easter breads and desserts. Although it was not all a Chinese experience, it was fun, and we learned how to make great breads from scratch. We were even awarded with a baking certificate upon completion the class.

Beijing greeted Springtime with a plethora of vibrant flowers. We celebrated this by visiting the gardens with the brightest trees and bushes.

Within Ancient Walls

This February, I was fortunate to enjoy my Spring Festival (Chinese Lunar New Year Festival) with my wife’s family in Xi’an. It was an awesome experience, worth going and seeing and doing. There was much of my time visiting friends and family, as well as partaking of the old Chinese traditions for Spring Festival. Some of the traditions include putting decorations around the house – various characters that invoke the spirit of the New Year, bringing luck and prosperity. They also liked to hang lanterns. These were anywhere you could imagine – in homes, on poles and walls, even in the trees. In addition to this, there were fireworks everywhere. I cannot stress this enough. I was having flashbacks to wars I am not old enough to have ever fought, because it sounded as though the city were being bombed. The people seem not to mind, and in general rather enjoy the experience. Spending time with extended family and friends is a necessity. It seems like it is the one major time of year that people from all over China return to their families.

Another great tradition is making dumplings. I am not talking about the western dumplings – like chicken and dumplings – I am talking about Asian dumplings, sometimes called potstickers in the West. These are made from scratch during Spring Festival, and can be filled with just about anything. Often, the dumplings are made with vegetables, or herbs and meat, but during the holiday we used a special recipe of chives and pork with various seasonings to bring prosperity for the New Year. I tried my hand at rolling the dough, but my mother-in-law quickly changed my responsibility. I also was not very good at making the filling. For some reason, I could not chop the meat small enough. In the end, I was filling and folding the dumplings, at which I was relatively good. Afterwards, the four of us ate almost all the dumplings we had made – which was a fair amount.

Although I did not see the Terracotta Warriors on my first visit to Xi’an, I did get to visit many of the sites that make Xi’an famous. First and foremost, the Xi’an Drum Tower and the Xi’an Bell Tower are very popular destination for people traveling to Xi’an – even other Chinese. They are well preserved, and nothing else is really built around the towers. They are even still used for their original purposes – during the special times of the year, the drums and bells will ring.

Another important set of landmarks in Xi’an are the pagodas. There are a few, but the most prominent of these is the Wild Goose Pagoda. There is a story of a famous philosopher traveling to India. When he returned to China, he converted the Hindu texts into Chinese and helped integrate them into the Buddhist culture. The pagoda is preserved and visited. Every night there is a laser light show with coordinated water fountains. They have classical music playing in the background to tie the lights and water together.

Xi’an is also very well known for its Muslim street. While having a designated Muslim street may seem odd to many of us, it quite accepted and even celebrated in China. It is similar to many of the hutongs, or alleys, in China, except that most, or all, of the shops and stands are owned and run by Chinese Muslims. There is a great deal of cultural food – special food that cannot easily be found elsewhere in Xi’an. There are so many food stands and so many people sampling the food, that roadway is usually clogged with people from beginning to end. There are also many unique gifts and bric-a-brac sold along this hutong. The hutong is also home to one of the oldest mosques in China. The mosque is still in use. It is a very beautiful building, and I had the pleasure of looking around the inside during my visit.

There is also a large lake in Xi’an. It lies in the Southeast section of the city, and has a park built around it. Apparently, when Xi’an had been the capitol of China, one of the emperors was upset that the palace was not the highest point. Instead, there was a large hill in the south. He decided that he wanted the palace to be the highest point in the city. So, he had the hill removed and made into the lowest point in the city. It was turned into a lake, with its own river inlet and set of waterfalls. The park and lake are gorgeous. Even the buildings around the park are well kept. It adds a luxury feel to the very old city. There is also a rich culture in this area, indeed throughout the city. There are many buildings with historic poetry carved onto the walls, adding an aire of enlightenment to its beauty.

The last but still important part of Xi’an is the city wall. Unlike many other large cities in China, Xi’an has kept its city wall intact and in use. It runs completely around the inner city, and separates the inner city from the outer city with four large gates. The towers and palace are still inside the walls. The inner city tends to be the business and tourist attraction part of Xi’an, with the outer city being where the schools and homes typically rest. Despite the inner city only being a part of Xi’an, the city walls are immense. They are 30 feet tall, 40 feet wide at the top and 60 at the base, and they run for 8.5 miles around the inner city. The wall is such a large part of China’s history and culture, that it still is the location for part of the Spring Festival television broadcast in China. I was able to walk a section of the walls and see both sides of the city, as well as all of the Spring Festival activities taking place on or around the wall.

Xi’an is an old and beautiful city that holds many treasures, not the least of which is my wife’s family.

 

A Moveable Feast

“To travel is to live.” –  Hand Christian Anderson

Although I just started telling the stories of my journeys thus far, I wanted to switch tracks a bit and share with you some of the foods I have tried in China. They range from things with which westerners with a “Chinese” restaurant may be familiar to things that may seem absolutely bizarre to anyone not acquainted with Asian cuisine. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your personal view), I have gotten to eat food from all parts of this spectrum.

I will start by saying, yes, China does have western food. Of sorts… The western food in China is comparable to the Chinese food in the west. By that, I mean that neither is really similar to the food it is imitating. They do have western chain restaurants, such as McDonald’s and Pizza Hut, but they do not taste anything like the ones in America. They still offer a realm of familiarity, however, if one is feeling particularly homesick. The best western food I have eaten in China comes from westerners, namely myself and a few local restaurants that are run by ex-patriots. There are a few wonderful German restaurants, a handful of good British/Irish pubs, and only one true America barbecue place that I have seen so far.

I did not come to China for food that I could get at home. I came to China to be a local, which means eating as the locals eat. The first and, in my opinion, best thing about Chinese food is the abundance of street food. Almost anywhere you go in the major cities (and anywhere else that has at least moderate traffic), you will vendors selling a variety of snacks, treats, and even bigger food items. They have the Chinese version of sandwiches, there are candies and many other sweets, they even sell noodle and rice dishes, depending on where you are.

Another set of places in China with lots of food varieties are the developed hutongs. Hutongs are alleys in China, but many of them have businesses, bars, restaurants, and stands selling snacks, food, and trinkets. There are several larger hutongs like this in Beijing and Xi’an. My favorites so far are the the hutong near the Wangfujing area of Beijing and Huminjie in Xi’an. They offer wide varities of foods and trinkets, with many more things to see than some other hutongs. These places offer things that foreigners and locals alike may not be able to find anywhere else. Some of the strangest I have seen are fried insects and arachnids – scorpions, beetles, cicadas and such, as well as parts of animals we are not accustomed to eating in the west, like intestines and testes.

The hutongs do not just offer the oddities, they offer more palatable options, as well. Many stands sell chips, seafood, duck and chicken meats, and several types of sausages. There are also vendors who make the Chinese version of pancakes, filled with various things – from chives and egg to mushrooms and meat. There are dumplings, steamed buns, and many other delicious things that are both familiar and unfamiliar. There are also quite a variety of drinks that are not usual for westerners – like plum juice and hawthorn tea. On the subject of hawthorn: Chinese eat more of this fruit than any other I have seen. There are all different types of prepared hawthorn, from dried fruit to sugar-covered fruit to drinks and desserts. There are also many stands and open fruit-vegetable markets along the streets at any time.

The hutongs offer the extreme foods for everyone, but if you want to try something much more local, nothing gets any more Chinese than Huoguo, or hotpot. Hotpot a Chinese food style that involves a large pot, sometimes divided into two or three parts, that has boiling broths. Typically, these are spicy broths, but they can be mild as well, with tomato and chicken stock flavors. Vegetables, meats, tofus, noodles, and other dishes are ordered. They are brought to thte table as the broths begin to boil. Once boiling, the food is added and left for a few minutes to cook. Then, the food is skillfully plucked out with chopsticks.

This is most often done with larger groups who want to share a variety of different meats and vegetables. This does take some skill not to spill anything, and spoons with holes are offered for those who are not ready for the challenge. Another traditional food style in China is Malaxiangguo, or dry hotpot. This is similar to hotpot, because you pick a variety of individual meats and vegetables to be cooked together, but there is relatively no liquid. Also, the servings are smaller, meaning this can be eaten with smaller groups. However, eating is often a social activity in China – many people, family and friends, eating together. They do this a few ways, but the Lazy Susan style tables are the easiest way I have seen so far.

China, like America, has many local dishes. While I have not tried them all, I have tried several. I have enjoyed most of them. I still cannot manage to eat fish heads, which are a specialty here in Beijing. China hosts an amazing variety of noodle and rice dishes, vegetable dishes, meat dishes, and desserts and breads. I love the creativity in the presentation, assembly, and seasoning of all the food here. There are many extremely strange foods I have had the opportunity to eat, not pictured here. They include pig brains and donkey penis. Yes, I did try it while I was here. The brains were not as bad as I thought they would be. It was soft and chewy and absorbed the flavors of the hotpot sauce. I decided that I could like them. Penis, however, was terrible. I tried it for the sake of trying it, and I will never eat it again. It as tough, rubbery, bitter and salty. It was altogether an unpleasant experience.

I also had the pleasure of going to Thailand while I am in Asia. Cassey and I were fortunate to try several local foods in Thailand, namely curries and seafood dishes. The food their clashed with Chinese or western food. It was much brighter, with a lot of citrus and cilantro in the cooking. There was a new depth to Asian food that I had not known before in going to Thailand.

I look forward to continue traveling and eating in Asia. I hope to add sequel food posts in the future to share my experiences with you all.

Frozen Dragons

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” –  Marcel Proust

I landed in China in January. It was a New Year. I had new hopes, new dreams. I was on a new adventure. China was this wide new world, waiting for me to see whatever I could see. The problem was that it was cold. Did I say cold? I mean frigid. Did I say frigid? I mean FROZEN! I had landed in Beijing expecting a winter, but what awaited me outside was a polar region that had somehow developed over a metropolitan city. The temperatures were the lowest I ever remember experiencing for any period of time. For a little longer than a month, the average temperature was about 0F°. The high during the month of January was 12F° and it got down to a staggering -22F°. All of this was before the wind chill! It did not snow very often, however, only a few times – maybe a total of four separate times in January. The wind was terrible at times, though. There were times of constant wind, and gusts could reach 50-60mph. It felt COLD. It was so cold that many establishments had low smoke coal stoves to warm their guests, as the normal heating was just not enough to heat a business.

Regardless of these nasty weather conditions, Cassey (my wife) and I managed to view the city that was new to both of us. The first places we managed to explore were Beihai Park (The White Pagoda) and Jingshan Park (The Beijing Mountain). These were both very cool places to visit. These were not places that were popular to foreigners. In fact, few people in general showed, due to the cold weather and wind. Beihai was a Buddhist temple built above the Forbidden City. It was the temple that the emperor would sometimes visit to pray for the empire. Jingshan Park was a peaceful place, also overlooking the Forbidden City, that was for the emperor to think peacefully and write poetry.

We climbed to the top of Beihai, which was a tall hill with the temple on top. It was very beautiful – you could almost see the entire city of Beijing from the top. The temple was split into different layers, each layer at a different height up the hill. Each place had a place for prayers and incense. Prayers could be written on small wooden prayer tokens and placed at any of the tiers. At the top, there was a café. Cassey and I had hot cocoa and sausages. Jingshan was a beautiful park, even in the terrible winter. There were frozen lakes covered in snow, temples, and pagodas throughout the park. There were also several tall hills. One was the tallest point inside of Beijing. We yet again climbed up in the icy cold wind to see our new city.

Cassey and I tried several times to enter the Forbidden City, only to learn there was a reason it was called forbidden. Instead, we visited the Lama Temple and the Burial Palace during that time. The Lama Temple was where the Dali Lama, the head of the Lama Buddhism, comes to pray and meditate. It was a very interesting place to visit. Of course the Lama himself was not there when we went, but there were thousands of people braving the cold to say their prayers and offer incense. The temple also had prayer wheels, which were cylinders with prayers carved into them. It was said that if you spin the wheel, you were praying whatever prayer was written on the cylinder.

The Burial Palace was the palace adjacent to the Forbidden City. It was where the emperors and empresses went to be prepared to die. It was also a place where the emperor could gain wisdom from past emperors. There were several gardens and ponds, rock formations and buildings. Most of the garden and water areas were frozen, but it was a beautiful visit nonetheless.

Cassey and I also saw Houhai, a large lake, and Wangfujing Hutong, an alleyway with many shops and stands selling foods and trinkets. Houhai had many hutongs (alleys) that went off to different sides. The lake itself was frozen very solid. In fact, many people – adults and children alike – enjoyed various games, sports, and activities on the ice. It was quite fun to be out on the ice, watching people skate and play. The hutong in Wangfujing was amazing. There were so many different foods and small things to buy. I quite enjoyed myself with all the new food to try.

Eventually, Cassey and I were able to go to the Forbidden City. I got to see it the way few people – Chinese or foreigners – get to see it. There were hardly any people in the Forbidden City when we went. I was able to take pictures of everything, even the empty roads and alleys within the city. All of the museums inside the buildings were easily accessed, and the windows used to view the preserved interior were not crowded. I was told that is a rare thing in China, especially in Beijing. Either way, I enjoyed my time where only royalty walked in the ancient times. The rivers in the city were frozen, as were the statues throughout the city. It was an amazing view, though, and I was glad I had a chance to see it.

It all began…

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving” –  Terry Pratchett

I have been in China for a while now. I had yet to take the time to form a real catalogue of my journeys, while I am overseas. I decided that I should first tell of my love for traveling and where it all began.

When I was young, my father was in the Marines. That meant that mom and I traveled a great deal between where we lived near the military base and our hometown. We made that trip several times before I was 4 years old. As a result, I was open to travel from a very young age. When my sister was born, my family settled down in my home town. This, however, did not thwart my wanderlust, nor slow our exploration.

My childhood was filled with trips, vacations, family reunions, and travels. I began to explore new regions of the world. My most memorable earlier journeys were into the mountains of West Virginia. My parents and grandparents took my sister and I to camp with a group that was partly family and partly friends that worked with my grandparents. We often played in the clearings and the streams. We hiked long trails over the moutains and looked out over the cliffs, exploring the woods. I visited Seneca Rocks, Dolly Sods, Blackwater Falls, and so many more scenic locations in West Virginia.

I loved the mountains. We went sometimes twice a year. I always looked forward to our trips into the wilderness. The dew in the grass, the wind in the trees, the smell of burning wood, the sound of flowing water. These things are magical – they hold the beginnings of my exploration as a child. I remember wandering off alone or in a group of children to explore the hills and forests. There was always good food, and the fire would almost always smell of firewood and something tasty.

Another fond set of vacations was my family’s yearly camping trips to the lakes in West Virginia. We alternated between Burnsville Lake and Summersville Lake. These trips always included boat rides, swimming, hiking, visiting the historical areas of the towns nearby, and good food. My grandfather would drive his boat and pull the kids (and the braver adults) behind the boat in innertubes. We would stay for a week at a time. It was usually the longest regular vacations we had.

We did not travel to West Virginia alone. We also took trips to other parts of the country. My great grandfather, Papooh, often took us kids to Forked Run Park in Ohio. There was a lake and waterfall, campground and beach area. It was always a fun place to visit. We usually only went for a day, returning in the evening, but it was something I remember looking forward to all the same. We would drive in the old station wagon, fighting over who would sit in the dummy seats in the rear of the car. It was also where I learned to swim. Despite my family taking my to the local YMCA to learn when I was young, I had not truly learned to swim until one of our trips to forked run, when Papooh taught me.

My family also took vacations to Tennessee, visiting the Great Smoky Mountains – Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. We also stayed with my Aunt Mysty, Zippy, who lived in Nashville. My grandparents also took us to visit Dollywood – the mountain area theme park, based loosely on the WV, KY, TN area and Dolly Parton’s life. We would go to North Carolina and visit my grandparents’ friends in the Outerbanks. Also, once a year, we had a “Pig Pickin'”, which was a friend and family weekend barbecue event with music and food. We would go to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. I even remember visiting family in Missouri and Arizona.

All of the places, all of the sights, smells, sounds, all of this was before I was even 13.

When I became a teenager, things changed. My sister, cousins, and I became more and more busy with school and other activities to do as much traveling. We still went to the mountains and the lakes each year, but our extra trips became far fewer. I had already been to many of the states around the country, almost all – except the farthest ones. I had seen so many things. During my teenage years, there were two bigger trips. This first was when a large part of my family went to Walt Disney World in Orlando. We drove, which allowed me to see a majority of the South that I had not already seen. It was a fun time together. The second was a trip with my church to the northern reaches of Canada for ministry and outreach work. We went into the Algonquin National Park in Northern Ontario, helping the villagers and preaching to them. It was a wonderful experience and my first trip out of the country.

Throughout the rest of my teenage years, I continued to travel when I could, with my family and friends. Before going to college, I managed to visit all of the states of the continental United States. I had been to one country outside of my own. I had traveled so much, I had seen and experienced so much, and yet I was so young.

My first year in college changed my traveling yet again. I got to spend time in Europe. I stayed in Belgium, while visiting Netherlands, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. It was another wonderful opportunity in my life. I got to explore a whole new continent, seeing the ancient beauty of Western Europe. I stayed in a small village outside Brugge, Belgium. I took trips with my classmates to Amsterdam, Koln, Berlin, Paris, Luvern, and many other wonderful places.

I loved the culture and atmosphere in Europe. It was where most of the American culture originated, yet it felt so foreign, so old. I did not try to stay in heavy tourist areas, eating only familiar foods. I became a local – going places locals went, eating local foods. I grew as a human. I saw the world completely different from how I had as a child. I saw more people and more culture, and I began to understand people who were nothing like me.

I have traveled many places. I have seen many things. Throughout my journeys, my mountains call to me. No matter how far I go, West Virginia is still my home.

Travel Posts

“Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.” –  Anita Desai

I will write posts about all of my major journeys in my life. Please feel free to share my experiences with me. Also, I would love to share your experiences. We can journey together.