The Dumpling Rebellion

The rest of the train ride was quite nice—who would have thought there’d be a non-stop 11-hour express train from Xi’An to Beijing China?. We arrived early, at around 7 AM. I got six or seven hours of sleep en route, and enjoyed the rocking motion and rhythmic sound of the train. The Chinese inter-city train system seems far superior to the U.S., though of course that isn’t saying much. In any case, the ride was much nicer than I had imagined.

When we arrived in Beijing, all of us were tired and grungy and really desperate to check into the hotel and take showers. We spent an hour in rush hour traffic (to go about 6 miles) before arriving at the hotel. It was pouring rain outside, and about 30 degrees cooler than Xi’An. When we finally arrived it was 8:30, and our rooms were not yet ready. I think we would have been content to hang out in the coffee shop or lobby for a few hours until we could check-in, but we were informed (on the spot) that there had been a change in plans and we were due in the offices of a local urban design and planning consultancy at 10:00 AM. It was suggested that we go into the hotel bathroom and change our clothes, splash water on our faces, and make ourselves look presentable before hand.

I can only speak for myself, but that moment was probably the low point of the trip. No shower or shave for two days, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt and carrying a 40-lb backpack after a night on a Chinese train, still feeling sticky and hot from a day of sightseeing and bike riding in 100 degree heat the day before, no real meal in almost 24 hours, and now learning I was on my way to a planning and design firm as a representative of my profession in a foreign country. Ugh. To top it off, the itinerary kept changing (I think this was partially due to the rain), and it was rumored they were replacing our walking tour of the Beijing hutons (courtyard dwellings) with a class on how to make dumplings.

At this point, a few people bailed and opted for sofas and comfy chairs in the lobby—the rest of us got back on the bus and pleaded with our tour guide Dragon to spare us any more dumplings. Dragon was most accommodating, and told us that after the meeting with the consultants we could come back to the hotel and check in. He has been extremely responsive and helpful throughout this entire trip--a really great guide.

As it turned out, the meeting with the consultants was really interesting. They did an excellent powerpoint on architecture and urban planning in China and fielded our questions for about an hour. We apologized profusely for our bedraggled appearance, and they were very nice about it. They even brought us bottles of water. As it turned out, they were all American educated and had decided to return to China to practice. Their work was really cutting edge, beautiful, and organic and was unlike anything we’d actually seen in our travels around China. The cultural differences and "Chinese" approach to design was pretty interesting to hear about. Probably the most telling point was when Jean Lin asked if the urban growth policy emphasis in Beijing was to grow “inward” or to grow “outward.” The lead speaker replied, “it is to grow forward.”

We returned to the hotel around noon and finally checked in. After a shower and clean clothes, I felt 100 percent better. I had a whole two hours to kick back and relax (I actually unpacked!)

At 2:30 we reconvened in the lobby and headed to one of the big universities in Beijing. We were scheduled to meet with an urban planning professor at 3:30. While en route, Dragon received a call on his cell phone informing us that the professor had been in a car accident and was being taken to the hospital. With our meeting cancelled, we did an about face and asked the bus to take us to the Beijing Urban Planning Exhibition. This is similar to the wonderful Planning Museum in Shanghai, with an enormous model of the sprawling city that takes up about an acre of floor space. We were able to spend an hour there, perusing the exhibits until they kicked us out at 5 PM.

After getting back on the bus, Dragon took us to an excellent Northern Chinese restaurant where we had a nice meal (only one plate of dumplings--whew). From dinner, we walked a few blocks in the pouring rain to a theater where we saw a Beijing opera performance. I had a different image in my head—like we were going to the Met, or the Paris Opera. As it turns out, Beijing opera is a form of theatrical performance, like Kabuki theater in Japan. The actors are dressed in elaborate Ancient Chinese costumes with frightening make-up. A concubine sings in a nasal high pitched voice for about 45 minutes (Dragon told us to be prepared for the sound of “screaming cats”), culminating in her suicide. Then, men dressed as soldiers (and turtles and monkeys) come out and do various acrobatic dances (with fans and swords) for half an hour.

It was an entertaining and colorful performance, although the whir of the cappuccino maker at the bar a few feet away from our table reminded is this was first and foremost a concoction to entertain Western tourists.

Back on the hotel room now, enjoying a relatively quiet evening.

First impressions of Beijing…wow, totally different than what I was expecting. I had images of a grand capital city like Washington, but it’s much more like Los Angeles. There are immense 12-lane boulevards spaced about every quarter-mile, lined with self-contained superblocks of high rise office and residential towers. It’s very LeCorbusier—very pedestrian unfriendly. The worst traffic I have ever seen in my life, bar none. More reflections tomorrow, right now its 12:15 AM and I want to go to sleep.