Beijing: Hutongs, Trains, Subways

Last week I went to Beijing for an internship project. The internship is based in Shanghai, so I needed to find a place to stay in Beijing as well as a way to get to there. I decided to stay in a Hostel near a hutong instead of staying at some western Hilton-type Hotel. Also decided to take the high-speed bullet train rather than fly.

The Hutong near Kelly's Coutyard Hostel at Dusk

Train Ride -  The 5 plus hour ride was nice, cushy, red.  Food wasn't served, so I went on a scavenger hunt. The prize was learning how to say crackers in Chinese. Bonus was ice Cream. First class was made up of business people, Singles, professionals, working or sleeping (ie, in their own world). There wasn't much interaction, yet there was a loud divide.  Literally, though. One guy was watching movies on his laptop without headphones.  When I walked around and went to seek out the food car, I walked through the other class sections. Those were primarily families, students laughing with each other. It was noisier, had more bustle, had more interaction....the scene reminded me of a trip I took with a good friend when we rode from Chengdu to Xi’an. We got the cheapest, most uncomfortable seats. The train to Xi’an was unsophisticated (in comparison to the Shanghai train) but the awkward, curious interaction was there despite language barriers. I also wandered into the “tourism” class. Those seats reclined so far that they transformed into a bed. They got blankets, too. Most of the people in the tourism class were Chinese…

Doorway near the Hutong

Inside Kelly's Courtyard Hostel.

Beijing Subway – The early morning crowd is made up of well dressed, sophisticated looking people. Beijing in July is hot, and people do a good job of business-casual that compliments the weather.  There is still a mad rush, and people seem to assume that I don’t know what I’m doing because I’m clearly not Asian and my hair is the opposite of sleek-straight. It works in my favor, though. Typically, I'm texting (likely boyfriend in Seattle) as I weave through the crowd. They generally lighten up the intensity when I have my phone in hand. I'm finally starting to make sense of the organized chaos! That makes me a crowd ninja!

That was the morning scene.  Midday, I rode the subway from the office back to my hostel. This crowd was quite different. Primarily migrant workers. Darker skin, primarily because they were born into a minority family or because of the labor-intensive lifestyle of working on a farm.  It's not an easy life. Like anywhere, China has its social stigmas. This one in particular mirrors aspects of the deep blemishes in American society.  Darker skin is perceived as undesirable, lesser.  Many of the minorities have darker skin. You see the bias in their perception of beauty (marketing, ads) and in the differences of classes, work, lifestyle. To be honest, because of the nature of this particular workday itself, I was at a low in my day.  But my “low” seemed so minuscule after observing this.  The subway was packed.  I was stepping over bags (probably loaded with produce, goods) as the train moved and shifted bodies. The smell was unfamiliar – it was beyond the smell of crowded bodies.  In Shanghai, people are careful about that sort of thing. As was the business crowd in Beijing.

I hadn’t smelled anything like that before.  There was what looked like a Tibetan family (high, sunburned cheek bones) dressed in modern clothes.  The mother was quite thin, and was holding a child (no older than 5 years) and was also managing the two men that were part of the group. When waiting (fighting) to get onto the subway, she and I kept bumping into each other. Subway politics. In the end, we both got on. Her husband’s backpack became unzipped, and she would’ve had to put the girl down to help him. I was within reach, so I quickly reshuffled his backpack and zipped it up.  She cleared a small pathway for me to exit the train when I needed to leave.  This was such a quick, simple exchange. It was a small moment yet very sweet: we were looking out for each other.  In a crowded society, I think people learn how to put themselves and those that are close to them first.  I think it’s hard to care about a stranger when that stranger is just another face in a sea of people.  In China, if you always put other people before yourself, you would get absolutely nowhere.  On the other hand, when people are involved in each others’ lives, it's a wonderful community to observe and to be warmly accepted into. It can be so sweet, so caring, so close. But first, you have to be part of the group.

 

Snapshot of the Hutong in the morning, on my way to work

If ever in Beijing, I highly recommend looking into Kelly's Courtyard Hostel! It's a special place with a ton of character.  The grounds keeper, Mark was so gracious and had much insight to offer about Beijing lifestyle. When he learned of my plans for Mongolia, he even passed along a book about Mongolian dialect.  Here is the information about the guesthouse:

Chinese name of the hostel:凯丽家酒店

Address: No.25, Xiaoyuan Hutong of Bingmasi Hutong, Xisi South Street, Xicheng District, Beijing, 

Chinese address:北京市西城区西四南大街兵马司胡同内小院胡同25号

Hostelworld Link: http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Kelly-s-Courtyard/Beijing/23366?dateFrom=2014-07-04&dateTo=2014-07-07

My Room in Kelly's Courtyard

Propaganda Poster Museum - 大字报

I recently went to a museum called the Propaganda Poster Museum.  Finding it wasn't easy, and I got utterly lost in the process. Turns out, the museum is actually in an apartment building... on the Basement floor. Yup.

Entrance to Museum. Apartment Complex on HuaShan Road

The museum was small, charming, and had many layers to it. By displaying the propaganda that engulfed, haunted, inspired China during the 20th century, it managed to show the controversial transformations that Chairman Mao forced onto the Chinese People.  The era of Mao was the first time that China was united in over 2,000 years. From what I understand, this group of people shared a common history, a common culture, and a common (written) language. What they lacked was a common vision of what was to become of them as a group of people.  Between the British invasions, the Manchus, War Lords of the north, Dragon Lady Empresses, the opium wars, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's attempt to make China a democratic nation, and the showdown between Mao and Kai-shek, the people were living in a country that was changing rapidly. The ability to steer their fate and the fate of their children was out of their hands - and in a constant state of flux. After Mao's Long March, China was finally united once again. A sense of hope swept throughout the country. The events that followed and bled into the Cultural Revolution seems both traumatic yet (sadly) necessary for China to transform itself.  In retrospect, it's no wonder why Mao is such a controversial figure.  Ask anyone in China today about their opinion of Mao, and you will get anything from strong admiration and loyalty, to anger, to humorous comments.  I have yet to run into someone that has a neutral opinion of Mao here in China.

The museum is prefaced with a small introduction: "As Winston S. Churchill famously said, “The Empire of the future will be the empire of the mind.” In the days before CNN and Fox News, a still image truly was worth a thousand words, and these posters were how Mao and his group informed and restored the collective mind of the Chinese people. It is a heroic saga of countless victories over momentous struggle..."

I will be going back a few more times while in Shanghai to learn more. For the sake of the length of this particular blog post, I will focus on the Big Character Posters. 

In one portion of the modestly sized museum were Dazibao（大字报), or Big Character Posters. Dazibaos play an important role in Chinese history, as they allow a society that praises reputations and outward appearances to create an anonymous public spectacle of criticisms towards leaders. These posters were some of the most powerful pieces of the Cultural Revolution. They represent the fear, paranoia, and chaos of the time.

Dazibao - created by Mao as a weapon to denounce rightist sympathizers. On university campuses, students would paste these large posters to denounce their professors as reactionaries, either because they truly believed in this idea or that they feared being otherwise being called a rightist.

Dazibao represent one of the few effective modes of free speech that voice political concerns in China

The museum describes the collection as "imaginative creations" and had few links to actual truth. Dazibaos were created by Mao as a weapon in the Cultural Revolution. They were weapon of propaganda, a weapon of the mind.

China is the birthplace of paper, and Mao thought of himself as a calligrapher and fancied poetry. In many ways, he started a revolution with paper and pen. The irony is that by describing the Dazibaos of the Cultural Revolution as pieces of art (rather than historical documents) ethical questions about what art can be used for and what art has the power to do are considered.

Dazibao suddenly disappeared after the Cultural Revolution, as people hated what they stood for, and nobody saw them as having any value as an art form.

Big-character posters were used to denounce people as opponents of the Revolution. Mao turned to the medium of the big-character poster in order to express his own revolutionary goals and he encouraged the masses to do the same.

The owner of the modest Propaganda museum describes his connection to the posters: "I was a university student during the Cultural Revolution. The school campus was full of Dazibao, posted on walls. Even today, when I close my eyes, I can still see them vividly in my mind. I never expected that, years later, I would be showing Dazibao as art...These posters are unsurpassed as people’s art, not only as a historical witness of the Cultural Revolution, but also as priceless treasures of Chinese contemporary art."

I didn't hide a GeoCache here, the exhibit is enough of a find.
Here are the coordinates:

31 12'48.37"N, 121 26'20.51"E

Yangshuo (Guilin) Geocache

This post is about the first cache I hid in China.  In a previous post, I talk about my geocaching project.

Yangshuo has beautiful Karst rock formations and is near the Li river.  The scenery is unforgettable. Unfortunately, Yangshuo (near Guilin) is known as one of the biggest tourist destinations in China.  Much of the original Chinese culture of the place has been trampled on in order to meet tourist desires and western expectations.  Regardless, I found the natural beauty of Guilin astounding.  The pictures I saw and the research done prior to going didn't do it justice. 

Guilin.
To understand more about Karst rock formations:
http://www.guilinchina.net/travel-guide/location/karst-mountains-and-caves.htm

Such beauty can only remain untouched and undiscovered for so long.  Guilin has embraced the era of tourism - where it is finding a balance between unique landscape and resorts.  Guilin has a railway system that connects it to major cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Xi'an.  Also, it has an autobahn that connects Yanshuo to the airport.

I had a different hiding place in mind when I set out to plant this cache in Yangshuo. On my way, I wandered into a little village and decided this was a better place for it.  As I  walked through the village, I saw rice patties and beautiful views of the karst rock formations that Guilin and Yangshuo are known for.  The village eventually turns into a dead end.  This little village was accessible by the main road, yet tucked away from the tourist traps.  Inside the cache is a Jurgen Bey quote, a log, and 20 yuan (equivalent to $3). I put in the 20 because it has an iconic picture of Guilin on it.

The Coordinates: 24 46'28.52"N, 110 29'48.21"E

The Cache

The cache is hidden in a tree near here

A note to the person that finds it. It explains what they found and asks them to take what is inside and leave behind something for the next person that finds it. It also asks them to add their name to the list. At the bottom, I wrote my Chinese name.

The Story Behind the Geocaching Project

Background story: A friend of mine gave me a travel book.  My idea is to hide the best parts of this book in the form of geocaches in the places I visit.  I'm doing this by including favorite quotes and images in my hidden cache. I could say that I'm paying it forward, but that would be a lie. This project  really only fuels my wanderlusting activities.
What is geocaching?: It is a scavenger hunt of the 21st century! You look up the posted geocaches that are in your location by using GPS-enabled devices. After you navigate to the provided coordinates, you try to figure out where the cache (or treasure) is hidden based on the provided clues. It's alot of fun and great to do with a group of people.  The clues range in difficulty and can lead a scavenger to special places. Whatever the process, finding the cache is rewarding. To find out more, click here.

Why I am not posting this on the geocaching site?: So, the truth is... I tried. The geocaching site has specific criteria for people to adhere to in order to post coordinates of the hidden cache. Because I am doing this as a traveler, I will not be able to check up on the caches that I hide as often as they would like. Because of this, I do not have a way of maintaining what I hide or making sure that it does not move, get damaged, or that someone removes it entirely.  I respect their approach, but the site is not made for serial cachers like myself.

My plan: I am back in China for an Internship in Shanghai. I plan to travel within China, and I will be meeting incredible boyfriend in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. What this means is there are many opportunities to leave a geocache behind!! I will upload coordinates, and describe where I am and what I am experiencing in this blog. So, if you are curious, you can look up the location on apps like Google Earth and see what I am talking about, seeing, hearing. I will describe what the treasure is in my blog and will leave it for a local, or a fellow traveler to (hopefully) find one day.  Essentially, I am trying to connect readers to what I am experiencing, while sharing something that is special to me with a stranger that stumbles upon the cache.

In Japan: Getting to the Yasukuni Shrine (Part II)

I am no longer in Japan.  I returned to my college town a day before school started. But still, I have the Yasukuni Shrine in the back of my mind. 

Before leaving for the states, I wandered back to the shrine two more times. The second time there, I went through the museum (1st level was free, but the exhibit itself was worth the fee). I was curious how the museum would present the Emperor's Army and Meiji Restoration Era. 

My third time there was an unplanned drive-by situation on the way to the airport. The taxi driver insisted on showing me the Imperial Palace (despite assuring him that I have seen the Palace and I have visited Japan many, many times). He was very sweet about it and very proud of his town. I am glad he did this, because we drove by the Yasukuni Shrine. As we did so,  I asked him if he's been inside. He nodded with a big smile and said that he has lived in Tokyo for 20 years and that visiting the shrine for New Years is tradition.  Not just a tradition for him, but for families throughout Tokyo. He said it gets very crowded. 

In the airport, I looked up the news stories about Prime Minister Abe's visit to the Shrine.  Sure enough: reports of South East Asia's outrage and appall at Abe's visit were released just a few days before the New Years. So, was his visit part of a Japanese tradition? Was he showing respect to old leaders and soldiers? Was he really trying to stick it to China and Korea?

Without the Meiji Restoration Era, Japan would not be as westernized as it is today.  Japan threw out its Samurai Bushido code, and its educational system and replaced them with new ones. These new  systems reflected (what the Japanese believed) were the best of the Western World. Westernization and modernization is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, a country must sacrifice aspects of its cultural identity.  On the other, the transition from being a developing economy to a developed economy offers the opportunity of higher education and a greater standard of living to its people. The way I see it is: The world's system has been developed, nurtured, and influenced (primarily) by western powers and European thinkers. Global systems (ie international law, economic policy, treaties, judicial systems) were created with a western background, a western perspective, ideology, and standards. So, if the nature of International Relations was developed and influenced by western leaders and policy makers, of course non-western world countries would have to adapt to those standards. It's Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Survival of the Fittest on a global scale.  Countries of the old world have been trying to adapt to Western systems since decolonization (World War I) and have made monumental transformations since the Digital Age (think India and China).

Map of imperial Japan

Before visiting the shrine, I had only understood its controversy through China's eyes.  Now, I see it a  little differently.  There is China's perception and anger at the crimes committed on its soil. The bitter sentiment lingers and continues to play into their relations with Japan.  On the other hand is Japan's point of view: without the Meiji Restoration, their modernization process would have certainly happened much later and much slower.  I am not justifying the "Crimes against Peace" that Japanese commanders and soldiers were convicted of in the Tokyo trials. What I am saying is that it was a necessary step for Japan to take in order to be taken seriously by the Western powers during World War II.

The Meiji Restoration may have been a militant one, but the Restoration and the aggressive modernization was arguably necessary for Japan's future. 

The Shrine symbolizes all of this - the transformation, the growth, and the ugly details of the era. Specifically, it honors those that fought in the Emperor's Army during the Meiji Restoration.

Bite the Tadpole

I recently met a gentleman named Paul.  What started off as a quick introduction turned into a conversation about experiences, Spainglish, and culture shock.

Paul is charismatic, expressive, and ready for a laugh. His hair is turning from silver to white and his face has embraced laugh lines. From what I understood, the twists and turns of his consulting career lead him to the East Coast of the US. He flies to Asia and India for business often and expressed a keen desire to do less traveling for the sake of business and more for the sake of pleasure, curiosity, enrichment, ect.  He enjoys laughing and sharing stories about his younger self – particularly his stories about Columbia.  Paul was raised in Calle and grew up in a bilingual (“Spanglish”) household.

At one point, he began talking about advertising in Columbia. The example he gave was about Chevrolet’s Nova advertising attempts in Latin America. In Spanish, no va means “no go” or “it doesn’t go.” According to Paul, there was a billboard in Columbia with this advertisement.  For Spanish speakers, the joke was on Chevy: who would invest in a car that advertises itself as a “no go”?

Chevy Nova

The conversation then moved to other multinational companies trying to localize. I told him about studying in China, and learning of Coca-Cola’s marketing story in China. Initially, Coke translated its name into Chinese as “Bite the tadpole” and tried to sell its soda to the Chinese market.  The Coke Company was going for a phonetic translation that matched the sound of the company name. That was their mistake, because the translation did not make the drink sound appealing or satisfying to customers in China. They later decided to compromise: they scrapped the old name, and found a better translation. Now, instead of “Bite the Tadpole,” the Coke product translates to “happiness in the mouth.” 

Coka-Cola Ads in China

In the end, Paul and I agreed that localization is a difficult step for multinational companies. If a company is going to risk tapping into foreign markets, getting to know the language, culture, and customs are important. 

After all, what is a group of people without their culture, their language, their history, and their traditions? 

In Japan: Getting to the Yasukuni Shrine and "The Book of Souls"

I heard about Prime Minister Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan a little over a year ago. The news stories I read had headlines that were fluffed with words like "controversy" and "Nationalistic." The articles mentioned China's outrage as well as last year's Anti-Japanese protests. The protests in China were flared because it was the anniversary of what is known in China as "The Rape of Nanjing" (Nanjing (南京) - or "South Capital" - was China's capital after the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, and before Chairman Mao's Long March from 1933-1935). The Nanjing Massacre was part of the Invasion of Manchuria chapter. 

The Yasukuni Shrine

During this time, Japan was abandoning its Samurai System, and the Bushido code was made into more of a social code rather than a militaristic one. The Japanese were in the process of revamping their military and decided that they liked the military structure and tactics of the Germans best.  They tested their skills and new-found military tactics on China when they invaded Manchuria and Nanjing. The League of Nations did not have the power to stop the invasion.

To this day, what happened in Nanjing lingers as a bitter memory between Sino-Japanese Relations. China wants an apology (or at the very least acknowledgement that the brutal event actually happened on their soil). Meanwhile, Japan is too proud to recognize the actions of past military leaders as well as these costly events during their mission to modernize, to westernize, and to be respected on an international level.

This all ties together, I promise...

The reason why PM Abe's visit to this particular shrine has received so much attention is because it is the Shinto Shrine that houses the souls of military soldiers that served the Emperor from 1867-1951.  There are over 2,000,000 people that are listed in The Book of Souls, over 1,000 of which were convicted of war crimes. Fourteen of the names were convicted of committing 'crimes against peace' and were charged as Class A War Criminals. 

A sign posed at the shrine's entrance
(Written in Japanese, English, Korean and Chinese)

  So, this time in Tokyo, I wanted to make a point to going to the Yasukuni Shrine. What can I say?: My curiosity simply got the better of me.  After spending a year in Chengdu, China and peeling back the many, many layers of China's complex and beautiful and tragic history, I am deeply interested in this era of Asian history.  What is more, I wonder how it has affected the world's present international relations. After witnessing the Anti-Japanese Protests of 2012, I realized that threads of the Nanjing tragedy fuel nationalistic pride and political actions between the two nations (for example, the Disputed Islands in the South China Sea, China's Air Zone, The Chinese Balloonist that was rescued by the Japanese Navy near the shores of the Disputed Islands).

What struck me most about it was not the shrine itself, actually. What struck me was its context. I decided to walk there since I felt like exploring and possibly getting lost. On the walk, I passed by the Imperial Palace, the National Diet Building, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Cabinet Office. I also passed by a handful of Embassies and Museums. 

Odd, no?: Such a politically central and modernizing location for such a controversial shrine. 

From Point A to Point B: My Route to the Yasukuni Shrine

I got a little lost

Something unexpected I found along the way

Cat posing like he's a total Babe