Mom's thoughts on China

It is early morning. Jack and Sarah are still asleep. But since dawn begins about 4 a.m. and the summer
solstice just occurred, morning comes extra early in Shenyang. Sarah has dark curtains on her bedroom window to help it seem like you should be sleeping, but the street noise is too much for me to stay asleep. With the dawn come the street vendors.

Sarah lives on a rather busy, two-way street. (It’s hard to say how many lanes it is, because that depends on how many folks want to get by at one time.) In the mornings, though, it is strictly pedestrian/bicycle/scooter. Vendors spread out paper or towels on the street and lay out their produce or other wares. Some have rickety tables and low chairs. It is arranged rather like the supermarket. You have your variety of meat vendors in one area, then the fish people. A man with grains and beans has his wares neatly displayed with each 40 pound bag neatly rolled down to display the contents. There are breads, shoes, clothes, and everywhere produce of all kinds. There is no lack of variety. There is an almost constant honking or bells on bikes as people jockey for position and try to get through the mass of shoppers. By 9 a.m. it is largely deserted and back to a regular road with the vendors significantly thinned out and limited to the sidewalks.

Our first morning here Sarah got our breakfast on the street. One vendor was selling cornmeal pancakes. Another cracked eggs and would put meat (you should never ask what kind) and onions in it for a kind of handheld omelet. At a third we got the Chinese equivalent of doughnuts – strips of dough deep fried and continuously turned with chopsticks. It is amazing what these people can do with their chopsticks.

One day a friend of Sarah’s gave us a cooking class on making jaodzuh – Chinese dumplings. She met us at the Club kitchen (like Sarah’s apartment, the kitchen area in our instructor’s home is about 2 by 8 feet – not exactly space for several people to work.) We set off to shop for ingredients – a real experience. In the market (kind of an indoor experience like Sarah’s street) I saw plates of what appeared to be nuts – a lovely brown, hard shell arranged beautifully on plates. Then……..one of them moved. They were silk worms for sale. Apparently you can cook them or eat them raw. Some people ingest the crunchy outside, some spit it out like watermelon seeds. We passed on the silk worms.

Jack and I learned a lot about cleaver technique and, after several hours of preparation, enjoyed our dumplings. There were enough to share with locals at the Club who nodded their approval to our efforts. Sarah’s friend made beautiful leaf-shaped dumplings. Jack had one successful one. I stuck with the crescents. Because dumplings are so labor intensive, the Chinese tend to make them as a family activity on special days. We were so glad to get this personal glimpse of Chinese life. Harry, an intern at the Club, dropped in and noticed Sarah crying over the onions. He took over, then never let us get back to it, even though he also was crying over the onions. He suggested we use a meat grinder and food processor next time. For now, we like the authentic approach.

Sarah planned an amazing variety of things for us in Beijing. She found a very comfortable hotel off the beaten path and near the Forbidden City. Most of the arrangements for our activities in Beijing were through the Chinese Culture Center and a real step above what we were able to contract through the hotel. More on that later.

Our first day, Mimi was our guide. A lovely young woman, she had studied English in the UK for several years and had a good command of the language. She took us through the Forbidden City, an excursion that seemed to go on and on. It was on a grand scale, suitable for an emperor, and very elaborate. Lots of symbolism – lions guarding the doors, turtle and crane statuary for long life, rounded arches for heaven vs. square entries for earth. Even the colors indicated status. It is easy to see why this was the capitol seat.

From there we went to a tea house where I chose peony tea with lunch – very tasty – and we saw a shadow puppet show, one of the stories of the monkey king. It was interesting to observe the use of the cymbals and gong to punctuate the story.

From there we rode pedicabs through the hutong district, narrow alleys where many Beijing residents prefer to live (as opposed to the many high rise, modern apartment buildings.) Houses come right to the street where the doors open onto courtyards. The surrounding rooms, accessible from the courtyard, make up the living quarters. So you would cook in the kitchen, then go outside to take it to your eating area. Nice at this time of year, but I’m not sure I would like it in winter. Couple that with the fact that many do not have bathrooms so residents use the available public facilities, and I was especially thankful for our hotel.

We stopped at the home of an older woman who shared with us her life in the hutong. She had been sent away to work in the country during the cultural revolution, but was allowed to return to take care of her aged and ailing Grandfather who lived in the house at the time. She has been there ever since. It was interesting to hear about her life over the years and all the changes she has seen.

Because of a quirk in the schedule, we had a couple of unscheduled hours, so we went to the SilK Street Market. It has everything from up-scale stores on the top floor to trinkets, any Chinese knock-off you could imagine and everything in between. On the lower floors the sales staff get especially in-your-face as you walk past their stalls. Sarah had coached us to mostly ignore their advances. Jack learned to do this especially well. So well, in fact, that as he walked down one aisle and someone repeatedly tapped or brushed his arm, he wouldn’t even look at them. It wasn’t until the person actually grabbed his arm, wheeled him around and asked, “What does it take to get your attention!” that he realized it was a friend of Sarah’s from her school. Imagine running into someone you know while shopping in Beijing!

That evening we attended a dinner and show at a place that seemed to be frequented by locals, not tourists. The show was a variety of traditional Chinese performances – a couple of acrobatic acts, some singing (Peking opera style and folk), a martial arts demonstration, plate spinning, and the playing of a traditional multistringed instrument. Mimi and Sarah ordered for us, so there were no surprises in the meal but we were able to try some new dishes. Did you know you could eat corn on the cob with chopsticks?

Our adventures the next day included an opera workshop at the Culture Center. It was a private event – just us and the opera members. We got to see two singers come in off the street, be transformed as they put on makeup and costumes, then perform one aria each. Both began their training at age 8 and had been at it for 15 years. They were apprentices with the opera. The opera master was with them and explained, through an interpreter, the meaning of their gestures, costumes, training, etc. Sarah wasn’t impressed, but for Jack and myself, this was a highlight of the trip. When the singers were done, Sarah tried on some of the costumes. Expect to see lots of photos of this event.

Our trip to the Great Wall was arranged through the hotel. We had been spoiled by Mimi and the others we met through the cultural center. Unlike them, our guide this day had functional skills, but could not say much off his script. Still, it was interesting to get another insight to China.

We went to a part of the wall generally less crowded and not quite as commercial as where most tourists go. Because the day threatened storms and was cloudy, visitors were few. It also meant our pictures there are not spectacular. The wall itself, what a massive undertaking! Were they nuts? As a military man, Jack doesn’t understand how a marauding army could come over the mountains anyway. Wouldn’t they use the valleys? These mountains are really, really rugged. Just walking along the top of the wall on the uneven tiles took a lot of care. We took the cable car up to the wall and rode the toboggan down. Jack and Sarah went for speed. I had them go in front of me so I could be leisurely and enjoy the sights on the way down. They said I sat bolt upright on the way down looking rather like Mary Poppins would had she visited the Great Wall. Safety folks along the way kept telling Sarah and Jack, “Slow down!” They kept telling me, “Go faster!” Since no one was behind me, I kept to my own pace.

I love the parks. They are places of real community. People gather for singing, playing various collections of instruments, exercise and games. They also come for contemplation. It is not uncommon to see old men with large calligraphy brushes practicing their Chinese character writing using water on the pavement in the parks. Beautiful.

There is so much more, but ask me in person. The Temple of Heaven, the Ming tombs, choir and meetings at her Club, the school’s graduation, Sarah’s seamstress who made an outfit for each of us, the flying acrobats show, our “western” afternoon…….it has been an amazing trip. Tomorrow we head for the airport to Seoul, then Seattle. See you in Louisville after the 29th.