Elegant Architecture in Shan haiguan
We headed to Shanhaiguan on Saturday, after getting rained out on the beach at Beidaihe (further down, you can see some wet shots of the rainy beach! 🙂 ). So we arrived a bit late in the day, and enjoyed a stroll around the old part of town – within the old town walls, which still stand for most or all of the town, it seemed – before finding dinner. As you can tell from all the picutres of courtyards and little lanes I’ve been showing you, I was quite taken with this town. I found it retains a small-town charm, with little lanes and corners to discover, while also holding the excitement and elegance of being the first station on the Great Wall right at the ocean, and a very important town strategically.
Graffiti and Rubble in Shan haiguan Old Town
The town of Shanhaiguan was a very major garrison town during the dynastic era, and you can still see signs of that throughout the old town. The towers and other old architecture you’ve been seeing show that this was a very important town at one time. 
However, like much of China, it’s undergoing a makeover now. Clearly there’s a major redevelopment effort being planned, since we saw large tracts of land with rubble from torn-down buildings. I’m giving you here only one shot of this rubble-strewn landscape. 
I also saw my first real graffiti – at least that I can recall – in China. I was quite interested to see it, and I wonder what it bodes for other cities in China. One part of me is happy to see people expressing themselves (I’ve actually not bothered to translate what’s being said, sorry), but another part of me never much likes the defacement of public or private property.
I’m also including an evening view of the mountains behind the town, in which you can make out the line of the Wall snaking its way up the rise to run the ridgelines all the way out to the deserts of Central Asia.
People in Shanhaiguan
I always try to do a bit of people-watching, and touring new cities provides special opportunities. Here a few people shots I snuck while wandering the streets of Shanhaiguan with my friends. Catherine helped me with the old guy, who was sitting outside the little hotel we stayed in; she fake-posed for me, then I just turned the camera to catch him watching us. The wedding cars were in a little alley we explored that morning. In the last shot, I sort of enjoy the contrast of the elegant green watch tower in the background, with the guys fixing whatever they are fixing in the foreground.
Rain at Beidaihe
Just down the road a piece from Shanhaiguan is the seaside resort of Beidaihe, the closest beach town to Beijing – maybe 2 or 3 hours away, depending on how the trains run and/or how the roads are. We managed about an hour on the beach with some sun before the skies opened up. Naturally: in Beijing, where I spent my first seven months complaining about how dry it is, the first time I try to dedicate a day to the beach – the heavens open up. Note the name of the hotel & restaurant behind the curtains of rain. 🙂
Unrecycling at the Great Wall
I just HAD to get this picture. Most places in China have two trash cans, one for recylcling and one for…unrecycling. I’ve just never seen it called exactly this before, and I found it funny.
Triangle Hike – Western Hills
I finally got out on my first hike with my usual hiking group, a few weeks ago. Before I left Beijing for my seven-week vacation, I was certainly enjoying my hikes still – but also finding it depressing how incredibly brown the hills were. One of the first things I noticed when my airplane flew in over Hebei and Beijing was how green things got in the seven weeks I was gone. Since I got back, we’ve had plenty of solid rains, and it’s even greener and more lush now than when I returned. We had a great hike up to a high peak in the western hills that gets up to about 870 meters. So here are a few shots of the valleys and peaks of our gorgeous and challenging “triangle trail” hike. (There were some r e a l l y steep areas!)
Wildlife on the Triangle Hike
I suspect that the orange flower is a wild version of a tiger lily, or a turk’s cap lily — I seem to recall reading once that these lilies originated in Asia. The black and white bug was hanging out a leaf and just really caught my eye.
Farewell Lunch for Max, Paul’s New Look
Max treated those of us who were in the office on his last day to Beijing Duck (yes, Steve, the same restaurant we all took you to). Thanks, Max! Here are some pictures of me and my colleagues bidding Max adieu. There’s also a shot of me with my new look – and trying not to smile, since some people have told me I look sexier this way. Frankly, given how much I’ve been swimming lately, I think I look best in a swimsuit right now. But we’ll leave it there for now – though feel free to weigh in both on the “to smile or not to smile” debate, and on Paul’s new look. I love it: it’s much cooler, and it feels great when I swim. And hey, maybe it’ll help some new guys notice me so I’ll get a date or two once in a while.
Paul in Nanning – Feburary 2006
Part of this “miscellany” section is these photos taken by my Paris colleague Francois-Pierre, our logistics supervisor, who visited us in early February. He and I spent a few days in Nanning, along with my Chinese colleague who handles most our logistical work here in Beijing and provides support for Nanning as well. We have me at dinner, Liu Bin (his English name is also Paul) and me in the AIDS clinic in Nanning, and Liu Bin and me at Nanhu Lake park in Nanning. You can tell it’s February by the fact that we’re actually wearing warm clothes – there are, in fact, a few short months where you need a sweater in Nanning.
Miscellany from Delphine
My friends and colleagues Delphine and Max, with whom I’ve worked since my arrival in China, have left China this week. Before she left, Delpine was kind enough to give me several photos she’s taken over the past year, including some of me in various locations and with various people. Here we have me with Max and Delphine’s daughter Lison, who was made in China and born in France in early January (we were at lunch just a few weeks ago, me soothing Lison for a minute so Delphine could actually eat); me with my white “Joining Worlds” t-shirt and back to the camera, unloading stuff for the supply line at our flood relief last July; and me smiling at Delphine and Max’s farewell party in December, before heading home so Lison could born in France.
Paul in Yangshuo – April 2005 :-)
The first pictures Delphine ever took of me were these shots, taken along the Li River in Yangshuo, near Guilin in Guangxi. I’m putting these up here because Yangshuo is beautiful, because Bobbie and Bill have Guilin and a Li River cruise on their itinerary in October, so perhaps you’ll want to see this – and because Yangshuo was my second weekend here in China, early April last year, and my first introduction to many of the colleagues I’ve spent the past year working with. So this is a little walk down memory lane for me. 🙂
More Modes of Transport
Since the last things I posted, in early June, included some photos in the category I think of as “modes of transport,” I thought I’d include here a few more that I’ve taken since then. In Nanning, in June, I saw the guy on the bike struggling along much more slowly than I was walking: because the bags hitched to the back of his bike contain concrete mix. Think how hot you’d get if you were bicycling along with a couple hundred pounds of concrete mix with both temperature and humidity above 90!
In the other one, the load is a lot heavier, but a horse is doing the carrying and the cart is on wheels that probably manage the load much more effectively. Those who’ve been to my office, or who remember the views from my street that I posted last October: this shot is looking west from the corner of Dongsanjie and Sanlitun, just outside our compound. You can see how far they’ve come with the construction. Steve, you almost wouldn’t recognize the area any more. Even today, biking home along my usual route for the first time in three days (heavy rains have created lots of mud lakes, so I’ve been taking a southerly route that’s paved), I noticed that they’ve taken down many more of low brick buildings that were there just a few days ago. Workers are now picking through the rubble and cleaning up bricks for re-use: they probably end up, like this, on donkey carts being carried blocks or miles away for all the new buildings going up.
Returning to Beijing
I wasn’t sure how it would feel, to return to Beijing as my home and place of work, after such an extended vacation surrounded by friends and family – after all, whenever I’ve lived abroad before, I’ve been there for a period of time without coming back the US, then when I left it was over and I was back to the US and whatever life I needed to resume there. I find I’m learning what the extended expatriate life means, and it’s an interesting unrolling in ways good and bad, happy and sad and lonely and connected all at once.
First off, Beijing feels just like home…as does the US. This, I suppose, is what it means to “have one foot” in two different places. Neither feels take-for-granted comfortable in the way, say, New York did during my long years there. But both feel perfectly homelike and comfortable; oddly, Beijing feels almost more like home now that I’m back to it: all the stuff I’ve lived with for the past year is here, my office and the people who need/want me to work with them are here, so it truly is a homecoming. Nonetheless, I’m still trying to have newly fresh senses for the sights, sounds and (oh, yes, especially now that it’s hot summer) smells of Beijing. During my Friday morning run, I passed this melon vendor on his horse cart on a street that’s a very popular route for people bicycling to work — at the hour when I run, it feels like 10,000 bikers all heading south, and me running north against the flow of bikes. I wish I’d had my camera to catch that image: scads of bikers passing the melon man and his horse cart.
But I had to go back on my way to work with the camera, by which time bicycle rush hour was already past and the man was napping atop his cart. With summer harvests here, there are more horse and donkey carts on the roads: Beijing’s answer to the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market is guys who load their carts up with watermelons, musk melons, or bokchoy in the wee wee hours (or the night before), hitch it to their horse or donkey before the sun rises, and make their way into the city to sell their produce to workers on their way to the office. It’s a reminder that horses and donkeys represent a far lower capital outlay than an automobile, and cost far less cash in upkeep and maintenance. In Nanning, it seemed most of the produce vendors road their bikes, fully loaded on the back with whatever they were selling…but that wouldn’t work for heavy stuff like melons.
I’m also attaching a picture of a guy I passed on my way in to work, then — the box recycling collector, I suppose he is. Modes of transport are a never-ending source of fascination for me here in Beijing: it truly is every mode invented by humans since the wheel, and just last night I saw (UGH) my first big, bold, brash yellow Hummer. Thanks so much, America, for setting a global standard of wasteful profligate overconsumption to which other nations can aspire. A lot of good it’s doing our planet, huh?
Other aspects of the return I want to note here for the record. I had far more social interactions the first week back than during the entire first six months of my time in Beijing. Connie and Anne are in China on a tour from Pace University; I had them over for dinner Wednesday and took them out to a great dumpling house Friday night; had drinks with Catherine upon my return and again last night, when we also did a bit of Chinese quizzing of each other; I’ve also finally decided I hope not to remain utterly dateless and celibate here in Beijing so I’m taking steps to meet a few like-minded guys, which have already borne fruit in an evening of Risk (yes, Risk!) with two guys I’d met online. Both are fun and interesting, though both will leave by the end of summer.
Then there have been both online and in person conversations about a topic that’s often in my mind here, the fine line between becoming an apologist for the highly objectionable things this government does and has done, and being realistic about the fact that life is far, FAR better for enormous numbers of Chinese people than it has ever been before – and really far more free, not just more comfortable and well-fed. I was honestly both depressed and offended by the simplicity and judgment so many of my interlocutors in the US bring to their view of China.
It’s been so fashionable since 17 years ago today (June 4, 1989 – violent army shutdown of protests in Tiananmen square) for American intellectuals to treat the Chinese government as something of a pariah, and remains so fashionable in some circles to continue acting as though this vast, complex, ever-changing country can be reduced to catch phrases about human rights and territorial expansion. Like the US never went in for territorial expansion? Wonder how descendants of Hawaii’s kinds and queens feel about that, or the Spanish-speaking ancestors of people who lived in New Mexico, Arizona and California before we declared war on Mexico in order to steal all that territory…who are now self-righteously judged for not speaking English, by Johnny-come-lately English-speakers whose ancestors didn’t arrive until a century after these people’s ancestors built their acequias (irrigation systems established in the Rio Grande valley centuries ago that are still used today) and tended their crops in the Rio Grande valley. And we’re not even mentioning the Native American tribes, are we? Would those same people who self-righteously gripe about Tibet and Human Rights accept such a nuance-deprived monochromatic approach the US, a country whose history is a mere blip compared to the history of territorial expansion and retraction and cultural and political growth and shrinkage in China and East Asia?
Ah yes, now I’m working up a head of steam but I should stop before I get boring. My point is: this is a great country to live in now because things are changing so constantly, and beneath the change is this vast, rich, deep reservoir of history and culture and conflict. Denying this, reducing this country to sound bites, says more about the intellect of those doing the reducing that it could ever say about this country. That said: I really don’t want to minimize the bad things this government does, has done and will no doubt continue to do…though as a French guy I was chatting with just yesterday mentioned, Americans are in a weak position to throw stones these days. Guantanamo, anyone? Abu Ghraib, anyone?
Last Sunrise in Albuquerque
The departure from the US and the end of my vacation was made a bit sweeter for happening in stages, and for having family and friends with me right up until the last minute. In Albuquerque, mom and I spent the last evening at an airport hotel since we both had flights out very early the next morning. Naturally, with early flights on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend in the US, we wanted to be up and at ’em bright and early. This meant an opportunity to catch the beginnings of the gorgeous desert sunrise from our high-up hotel window, and it was a lovely image to have in my mind as I left Albuquerque, a city I’ve always enjoyed.
During my 5-hour layover in SF, I was fortunate that Nancy stayed in town for the long weekend, so she and I had the chance to have breakfast together and chat a bit before she took me back to the airport for the plane across the big pond. Though the travel day was incredibly long, measured from awakening obscenely early in ABQ, to coming back to my bed in Beijing after drinks with a friend so I’d stay up until a reasonable bedtime, it was delightful to begin and end it with friends and family on both continents. 🙂
Farewell, New Mexico & US
The end of a vacation is upon me, and since it’s much easier to post while in the US with full access to the blog, I figure I’ll drop some pictures and thoughts on here before I fly home (yes, Beijing is home as long as my work is there) tomrrow morning. I write from Roswell where we celebrated Aaron’s graduation from High School, and just as when I left last the US last year, there is much gratitude I want to express to the many people who’ve made this vacation special…so with apologies to those whom this bores (you’ve likely already skipped to the photos, right?), here’s goes, from beginning to end:
–Steve, Jill and Chuck schemed a great celebration trip to Cumberland for Mom. Judy and Bill joined us there, and a better way to begin my vacation would have been hard to find. Thanks to you all, and good luck to Bill and Judy with the big move. Sorry I won’t see the old house again while you live there!
–The Keipers, Cremones and Schmitthenners asked wonderful questions about China and showed remarkable ability with Chinese characters, and Mutti as always was a wonderful and tremendous cook. Thanks!
–Carrie: was kann ich nur sagen? Endlich mal eine Stunde mit dir und dem Mann verbringen zu koennen ist ja schon toll gewesen, aber mehr waere eben nur noch besser. Naechstes Jahr, in Zuerich, bestimmt, OK?
–The students of Ridgewood High and Oberlin: you guys are great audiences! You could turn me into a public speaker after all. Thanks for listening. Stay interested.
–As always, Oberlin Shansi and my committee mates for making me feel welcome and appreciated. What a delight to work with you all.
–Steve: you do the “American secretary” thing with grace and skill, and I remain eternally grateful. Also for taking the wheel all the time. 🙂
–All my wonderful friends and hosts, who welcomed me to your homes, met me at and dropped me off at airports, and made me feel welcome wherever I went: Peter; Neal & Elizabeth; Steve & Sharon; Christian & Laura; Amy, Nancy & Kip; Howard & Gene; Steve & Joezen; Gary & Rick…you guys are great.
–And all the other friends who enlivened the trip and made me feel welcome, many of whom I’m sure I’ll forget to mention — Tim, Maude, Michele, Laura G, Ron, Jason, Kenya (great curried garbanzos!), Lisa/Rick/Kiki/Jack, Don, Maryasha (for meeting me at Greens!), Steve K, George and so forth.
Thanks again to you all. Drop comments on the blog, drop me an e-mail when your time permits, and let me know what you’re up to. You know how I’ll miss you once I’m half a world away again!
(so much world, so little time....) 