Travel China and Beyond

Places to See in China / Beijing — Beijing DongYue Temple Visit

One of the less visited temples in Beijing is the DongYue (East-Mount) Temple.  This Taoist temple is located at 141 DongYueMiao ,ChaowaiDaJie in ChaoYang district of Beijing (interestingly enough it is right across the street from busy shopping malls), but often overlooked.

If you want to visit you can take a cab to the address above or use the subway.  The temple is located near by the Chaoyangmen station.

The temple has been rebuilt in multiple dynasties since its establishment in the 14th century    The stone tablets in the temple represent apparently one of the largest collection of those in China.  Some of the 90+ tablets are inscribed by famous caligraphers and date back to the centuries of the temple’s first operation.

Today the temple is a nice place to visit and both experience some very interesting architecture and get a glimpse of Taoism, as well as just to enjoy the piece and quiet of its many courtyards.   Here an older Chinese gentleman is enjoying an exercise….

Buying Murano Style Glass Jewelry in the Silk Street Market in Beijing

When I was in the Silk Street Market in Beijing last month buying some stock for my online jewelry store, Chinafinds, I noticed that there were a number of stalls selling beautiful Murano / Venetian style glass jewelry. There was no attempt to pass it off as ‘genuine Murano glass’ or ‘authentic Venetian glass’ as it was very clearly made in China. It would be hard to imagine importing the genuine art glass from Italy and selling it in a Beijing market anyway!

At any rate, the quality of many of the items that I saw was quite good and the prices were much, much lower than those of the real Italian Murano glass items that I have seen. I had seen Chinese Murano style glass jewelry in the markets in previous years, but the amount was smaller and the quality was not nearly as good. Clearly, the Chinese manufacturers are perfecting their techniques.

Buying Cloisonne Jewelry at Hongqiao Pearl Market in Beijing

Still on Day 2 of my recent trip to Beijing—my daughter and I headed back to Hongqiao Pearl Market after lunch and a bathroom break at the hotel (for those of you who have never had the pleasure of visiting Beijing, a visit to the hotel bathroom is generally infinitely preferable to using the (un)sanitary facilities when one is out and about!). This time, we were in search of cloisonné jewelry. Like cinnabar, cloisonné is an ancient Chinese decorative art. To create cloisonné, wires are first arranged on the item to be decorated in the desired design and then the spaces in between are filled with successive layers of colored enamel. Finally, the item is fired and polished. Cloisonne can be used to create decorative plates, bowls and ornaments as well as jewelry, but today we were only interested in its jewelry applications.

The large central area of the third floor of the Hongqiao Pearl Market is devoted to pearls and to get to the place where cloisonné, cinnabar and other traditional handicrafts are sold, you have to go to the far back reaches of the floor. There you will find a multitude of items other than cinnabar and cloisonne—wood carvings, rugs, stone carvings, Christmas ornaments, Chinese seals (chops), decorative boxes, glass spheres with carvings inside them, hairpins, writing pens, writing brushes, ink sticks, wall hangings and more! Bargaining is, of course, essential. We finally found a few places selling good quality cloisonné bracelets. One of the vendors, who was selling cloisonné of higher quality than those in the neighboring stalls, was particularly informative about the different quality levels of cloisonné. She showed us the difference between cloisonné items that were lighter weight and had a rougher texture and those that were heavier and had a smoother, more polished texture. From what I understood of her explanation in Chinese, the former used a less expensive four-step process in its manufacture and the latter used a lengthier and pricier six-step process. I may not have understood her all that clearly, but I was impressed with the quality of the items I purchased from her. There was clearly a difference between the two types of cloisonné and the six-step process simply produced a higher quality product. We purchased both cloisonné bangle bracelets and hand-knotted cloisonné bead necklaces from her and then returned back to the hotel to collapse in our comfortable room.

Buying Cinnabar Jewelry at the Hongqiao Pearl Market in Beijing

On Day 2 of my recent trip to Beijing, I rose early from my comfortable bed at the Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven, urged on by my nine year old daughter who was worried that we would miss out on all the good stuff at the complimentary breakfast buffet if we didn’t arrive sufficiently early. After quick showers and a long breakfast (the breakfast buffet really was quite tasty and all the good stuff wasn’t gone!), my daughter and I got into a taxi and headed over to the Hongqiao Pearl Market.

The market is located right beside the beautiful Temple of Heaven, so it is quite convenient to do both of them in one day. However, we had already had several pleasant outings at the Temple of Heaven in the past, and today only shopping was on our agenda. We entered the Hongqiao Pearl Market through a side entrance as it appears to be undergoing some sort of construction facelift, leaving the front entrance not easily accessible, and went straight to the jewelry section. To do this, we had to march determinedly past the first floor vendors selling scarves and knickknacks and electronic equipment, evade the second floor vendors as they tried to sell us shoes, clothing, luggage and purses, and go right up to the third floor where all the jewelry is. This morning, our objective was jewelry made from carved cinnabar. Cinnabar jewelry has an interesting history; originally, it was made from a tree sap lacquer that was colored by the beautiful but toxic mineral cinnabar (otherwise known as mercury sulfide). The resulting red lacquer was painted onto an item in multiple coats, letting the item dry between each coat, and then the resulting layers of lacquer were carved by artisans in decorative patterns. Obviously it wasn’t known at the time that the mineral cinnabar was dangerous and any poisoning that resulted was probably low level enough never to be noticed. Today, Chinese cinnabar products contain no actual cinnabar—the classic red color associated with cinnabar is provided by a harmless red dye.

Cinnabar jewelry, our objective of the morning, comes in many forms. One of the most common is the cinnabar bangle bracelet. Carved with a variety of traditional Chinese designs, these bracelets come in various widths and sizes. Some aren’t even red—I encountered pure black cinnabar bracelets on this visit for the first time. There are also cinnabar bead necklaces, cinnabar pendant necklaces, and cinnabar earrings. My daughter and I managed to buy a good quantity of each type of cinnabar jewelry and came back to the hotel laden with loot. Our next objective would be cloisonné, but that could wait until after lunch!

A Visit to the Malian Dao Tea Street Market in Beijing

On the first day of my recent trip to Beijing, I decided to take the afternoon and visit the Malian Dao Tea Street Market in the southwest corner of Beijing.   This fascinating market stocks a dizzying array of Chinese tea and tea accessories and is a cultural experience in itself.  There are a large number of stores in this area, but the one that my daughter and I went to was a four story edifice that houses a multitude of small vendors.  The first floor is crammed with hundreds of small tea stalls, primarily selling loose leaf tea but also stocking teapots, tea leaf storage canisters, tea cups, etc.  The second and third floors replicate the more crowded first floor, although the price seems to go up as you ascend to the upper levels.  (The fourth floor doesn’t appear to sell tea at all, but has unrelated stores and perhaps a restaurant—I’m not sure!) On this visit, I concentrated on the first floor and ended up buying 6 pounds of loose leaf tea—four pounds of jasmine tea and two of green tea.  The tea was remarkably reasonably priced at about $8.50 per pound and it was very good quality.  Of course the initial selling price was around three times as much, but that is to be expected in a Chinese market.  The obligatory bargaining was good practice for my scheduled visit the next day to the Hongqiao Pearl Market to buy jewelry for my online store Chinafinds.

Beijing Botanical Gardens and WoFu Temple

In the cold winter days of Beijing it is good to remember the nice sunny weather of the summer — that is when I remembered about our visits to the Beijing Botanical Garden.  The Garden is located near the West Hills in a nice wooded part of the city outskirts.  It is a nice place to escape in the summer as the garden itself has plenty of greenery, nice walk through fountains and plenty of interesting plants to see.  The complete Garden is comprised of:

• The Ornamental Plant Section
• Rose Garden
• Ornamental Peach Garden
• Tree Peony Garden
• Herbaceous Peony Garden
• Lilac Garden
• Crabapple and Cotoneaster Garden
• Magnolia Garden
• Bamboo Garden
• Perennial Garden
• Aquatic Garden
• Mume Flower Garden
• Arboretum
• Acer-Rosa Section + Coniferous Section + Tilia-Populus Section + Magnolia-Berberis Section + some other ones we did not see
• and Glasshouses
• Tropical and Subtropical conservatories
• Here you can find also examples of Chinese Penjing — which includes Tree Penjing (also known in the west as bonsai), Water & Land penjing and Landscape penjing.  Essentially all these forms of art are focused on recreating parts of a landscape in a very scaled down format.  Some of the trees grown in those landscapes are over 100 years old — quite an accomplishment indeed!   I must point out also that the art of penjing also has geographical / regional aspects.   I did not quite see all different types but from what I understood from some exhibits, there are essentially Penjing styles in pretty much most provinces of China - e.g. Jiangsu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Beijing, Fujian, Yangzhou, Anhui, Zhonzhou, and EVEN a Taiwan style.
• Another interesting part of the Botanical Garden is the WoFu Temple - also known as the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha.

At any rate, you should plan a visit to the Gardens, and spend a day among beautiful trees as well as surrounded by colorful Chinese Halls in the WoFu temple.

You can see some images from both the Garden and WoFu temple in the Photo Album area of the blog.  (Scroll to the area labeled Beijing Botanical Garden and WoFu Temple)

Air Travel Experiences - Plane Mechanical Troubles and Delays Abound

Over the last three weeks my family and I have had to travel on a number of flights and across several airlines (American, United…) for both business and personal reasons.  Between the Thanksgiving holiday and business travel for me we logged in over 18K miles each and over 6 flights.  During these flights we experienced numerous delays due to plane mechanical issues.  For example - our Thanksgiving trip included travel from Austin (TX) to Huntsville (AL).  That involved 4 flights.  Out of the 4 flights, three had mechanical trouble.  These were all on American airlines.  That resulted in delays from 40minutes to 2 hours per flight.

Then last week I had to fly to San Jose.  I arrived at the airport (for an early morning flight === for an early morning meeting in San Jose) to find out that the night before the 6:40 am flight has been canceled.  Lucky for me I was able to jump on a flight to Dallas and from there to San Jose resulting in only 1 hour delay of arrival.  The alternative was pretty bad — I was going to meet a critical customer meeting!  By flying via Dallas I was able to notify the customer and delay the meeting by one and a half hour — 1 hour flight delay plus time to get to the customer site (my original flight was to arrive early enough that I could make it to the customer’s location way before the meeting time)

Then came my most recent flight Taipei - San Francisco - Austin (just yesterday) —> the flight from San Francisco to Austin got delayed as well (by 1 hour) as the plane had trouble with the navigation system and required parts replacement while the passengers were on-board….That was an United flight.

Have I had only one or two such troubles in a short three week window of time, I would have thought — “This is just a normal / sudden issue”.  But the case here was different — I was on 12 flights in a matter of three weeks and four of the flights had issues with the planes.   Add to that the now usual time delays due to traffic congestion and you have yourself a pretty tough situation for us the travelers.

What is the lesson learned from all this — well, I do not think we can do much to change the readiness of the planes — this is the airlines’ responsibility.  I hope the airlines are taking steps to renew their fleet and / or keep the planes in better shape.  What can we, the travelers do?  One thing only — always plan your trips with the thought that you will be delayed and figure out ahead of time what your options could be.

Do you want to go on a Safari in Beijing ? — a Trip to the Beijing Wildlife Park

Just recently someone asked me — “Is there a place to see wild animals in Beijing?”  Of course most people’s natural reaction is — “Go to the Beijing Zoo…!”

Well, I have something else for you — you may want to go to a place a bit off the beaten track (for China / Beijing) — the Beijing Wildlife Park (also referred to as the Beijing Safari Park).  The park is located on the Badaling Expressway — the same road that you may take to go to the Badaling section of the Great Wall.   If you are driving yourself — look for big signs to exit from the highway and follow signs to the place.

My family and friends of ours actually visited the park in the winter — it was a sunny, but cold day (you can see the snow patches on the ground — on the photos below) — but being relatively cold had its advantages — there were hardly any people in the park.

Once you get to the park you will have to stop your car and go and purchase entrance tickets (about RMB70 per adult and 50 for students, kids below 120cm as usual gain free admission).  Near the entrance you will also see a sign advertising the purchase of various small animals to “yes, you guessed it” feed the tigers and lions….

The park has a wide array of animals including some very rare White Siberian Tigers (see the photos above).

While in the park you can also have a glimpse of a section of the Great Wall — added bonus

And the final piece of information — you will be glad to know that you can drive your own car through the park — it is quite unnerving to slowly inch your way among several lions or tigers but it is also pretty exciting.  We felt relatively safe as we were one of the few people in the park and there were guards / park employees (you can see their jeep in at least one of the photos) near some of the electric gates.

At any rate, if you want to experience the thrill of having a lion, tiger, or a bear within an arm reach, this is the park to visit.  Happy travels!

If you doubted that Tour Guide companies lead you to shopping, now you have a proof

In discussions with some visitors to Beijing you would often hear their descriptions and some times complaints about the fact that they were lead to various stores or left for a long time at shopping arcades on visits to museums or historic sites around Beijing.  I personally do not think much of tours as options to see the city, but many people do participate.

At any rate, now  Sina.com reports that the Beijing Gov’t has not only confirmed (via their recent orders) that being the case, but are also mandating that the tour companies stop the practice.  Here is a link to the article: http://english.sina.com/life/1/2007/0424/110414.html

So, now that you know this, isn’t it better if you explore the city on your own

Interesting Initiative by the Beijing City Government

In the last couple of years I have observed multiple cities in Asia (e.g. Taipei, in Taiwan) and North America either deploying or planning wireless broadband networks for city-wide access.  Today I came across such an initiative by the Beijing City Government as well.  Here is a link (in English) to the form which was created to gather input from what it looks like mostly expats.

Of course until that city-wide broadband network is available, you may want to consider the hot-spots which are available across multiple bars, restaurants, etc. in Beijing.  I have been compiling those in a list from various sources and personal experience.

Here are some currently active spots for Free WiFi:

Cafe Niro - near Tong Li Studio just off Sanlitun

Fruity Mix - Pacific Place

John Bull Pub - 44 Guanghua Road

Man Pen Xiang Restaurant - Basement of Times Square (Shi Dai Shang Chang)

O’Farrell Coffee - SOHO Block C, ground floor

S.I.T. Cafe - Hairun International Condo No. 2, Jiangtai Road (and other locations too)

Sculpting in Time Cafe == No.1 Building 12 Hua qing jia yuan.Cheng fu lu.
Haidian District. (West of WuDaoKou train station.)
All Sages Bookstore == near South gate of Tsinghua University.

Be There or Be Square Café == Beijing Oriental Plaza, No. 1 East Chang An Avenue , Dong cheng district.
Bar Blue == Tongli Studios, Sanlitun bei lu, Sanlitun bar area, Chaoyang District.
The Drum and Bell cafe == Located at the corner of the plaza between the Drum and Bell towers.  41 Zhong Lou Wan Hu Tong, East District, Beijing
Grandma’s Kitchen == Level B, Jianwai SOHO, Dong Sanhuan Zhong Lu, Chaoyang District

Steak & Eggs == 5, 6 Xiushui Nanjie, Jianguomenwai, Chaoyang District (favourite with the expat crowd for Sunday brunches)
Top Club & Lounge == 4th Floor of Tongli Studios (South Entrance), Sanlitun.
www.topclubbeijing.com.

Cafe de Niro == 1 st floor Tongli Studios, Sanlitun north bar street, Chaoyang District.
The Den == Expat bar and club == 4A Gongti Donglu (next to City Hotel)
Fruity Juice == 107 PCCW Building, Gongti bei lu,Chaoyang District .
John Bull Pub == 44 Guang hua lu, Chaoyang District.
Mrs Shanen’s Bakery and Café == 5 Kaifajie, Xibaixinzhuang, Shunyi. (near River Garden and Capital Paradise housing developments)
Fishnation == 31 Nanluoguxiang, Sanlitun Area (the little alley between Poacher’s bar and Kai)

Man Pen Xiang Restaurant == Basement of Times Square (Shi Dai Shang Chang).

O’Farrell Coffee == SOHO, Block C, ground floor.

Le Petit Gourmand == South Bldg., 10 Sanlitun lu (North Bar Street), in alley just west of Skyline Bar)

SPR Coffee == Hairun International Condo No. 2. (near Lidu in DaShanZi area)
The Bookworm == Building 4, Nan sanlitun lu, Chaoyang District.
Touch Bar == 8 Qianhai Beiyan, Houhai Area, Xi cheng District.
Salud Cafe/Restaurant == 66 Nan Luogu Xiang.
There Cafe Salon & Restaurant == 97 Nanluoguxiang, Dongcheng.
Gustomenta
The (new) Bookworm == Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chaoyang District.
Saveurs de Corée == Swish Korean bistro with free WiFi
Chazhenxiang Tea and Coffee House == Zhongguancun Nan Dajie, next to a KFC
Kerry Centre Hotel == No. 1 Guanghua Road,Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100020,
China World Hotel, Beijing == No. 1 Jianguomenwai Avenue, Beijing 100004, China
(The place itself is really nice, aside from the free WiFi –  enjoy    )
Cafe Pause == 2 Jiuxianqiao Lu
The Pavillion == Opposite Workers’ Stadium’s West Gate
Sequoia Cafe == 44 Guanghua Lu (beside John Bull Pub)
Stone Boat Bar == Ritan Park, southwest corner
Browns == Sanlitun South, Chaoyang District (above The Loft)