Thoughts on Beijing

I am back in Wuhan now, settled back into the world that I call "home" b/c you have to have one (a home--that is) regardless of what country you live in. Our trip to Beijing was lovely and fun and whetted the appetite--now I know exactly how and where I will want to spend my time when I return.

There will be more pictures and probably a video coming soon--I'll try to post it over the weekend. We hit most of the significant sights in the city--Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City, the Llama Temple, the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, etc...

The Great Wall was incredible but difficult to get to, the Forbidden City was neat but underwhelming, Tianammen Square is basically a big concrete parking lot without the cars--not as eerie as I expected considering its history. We hit the Llama Temple on Dec 24--strange to spend Christmas Eve in a Buddhist Temple--watching the devout reverence of the Chinese and asking the hard questions concerning Belief and Tradition and faith and righteousness and salvation that come when you watch others practice their acts of discipleship with solemn ceremony.

But what is Beijing like, you ask? Beijing is like every other metropolis in the world. There are a few distinguishing cites to see that identify the city as different from Pittsburgh or Berlin, and between the streets are dotted with KFC and McDonalds and large office buildings populated by men in Hugo Boss and women with Prada purses. Don't get me wrong, the Forbidden City is great and the Great Wall is astounding...but the rest of the city feels a bit like a gaudy knockoff of Chicago or LA...it doesn't even attempt NYC. It's like the Barberry or Pashminoo scarfs sold on the streets--the silver Rolez watches that turn your arm green if you wear them two days in a row. It looks right--and yet doesn't.

And like the true opportunists that they are--the Beijingwren offer up their few bits of authenticity as tourist traps. Here, you get only glimpses of the Orient that must have gut-punched Marco Polo: the breeze that carries the holy incense through the city near the Temples; the smell of spices at night that cuts through the cold air; the maze of hutongs clumped together in the Old City; the sound of a Chinese flute rising from behind the gates of the Forbidden City; the sight of the Great Wall crawling endlessly along the spine of the mountains.

It's all startling and marvelous and FOREIGN. And while the cites that I paid the ticket price to see were well worth the money--they left me wanting more. MORE of the great Orient--this civilization that spawned the firework, the compass, astronomy, spices, silk, and tantric sex. More of CHINA--this country that for dynasties thrived without a glimpse from Western eyes--that built and created and reasoned all while America lay young and primitive and undiscovered.

But there is precious little of the Orient remaining in Beijing. In fact, Beijing is not really the best place to be looking anyway--the most ancient dynasties chose Xian as their capital--Beijing did not become a city of prominence until later. Since then, the march of Time, the Japanese occupation, the Cultural Revolution and now the spread of globalism have changed the face of the city into more and more of another capitalistic bore. I found myself staring at the bland corporate offices and feeling a frustration bubbling inside of me--wanting to scream at the gray concrete "You are CHINA--not America! Act like it!!" in the same exasperated tone my mother used when she'd say "You're a big girl, Lucy--act like it."

But, in the end, Beijing is now what it is now. It is not ancient Peking, it is not a treasure of the Orient--it is the modern capital of a globalized nation with a bursting economy. The only thing to do is accept it and enjoy what this city has to offer--the shopping, the Russian district that must have emerged during the Cold War--the import grocery and English book store near the street with all the Embassies--TGI Fridays, the Sizzler, 7 Eleven, Starbucks and Subway sandwiches.

And enjoy it we did--believe me, a Subway sandwich has never tasted so good.