Tired feet…

Ow, I’m tired. One of my fellow exchange students, Julia, organized a trip out to the Fragrant Hills park, just northwest of Beijing. It’s kind of the Chinese equivalent of New England – in the autumn, Beijingers go there to look at the leaves turning red and orange. Although it’s been cold for a week or so, the leaves are actually only just beginning to change colour; next weekend would probably be better. It’s a long climb up to the top of the mountain (we spurned the cable car!) and I’m not used to so many stairs! Anyway, it was a nice day out. There were so many people, I lost sight of the rest of the group and, with the phone signal being bad, couldn’t find them again. It was OK, though, I wandered around happily, came back down the mountain by another route, and then explored the beautiful, less rugged, lower reaches of the park – including the Buddhist temple where Sun Yat-Sen was laid in state before being taken to Nanjing for burial. On the walk back to the road to find a taxi, I passed a martial arts shop where I bought a stand for the sword (jian) I bought in a Singaporean junk store in 2003, and which I brought with me to China, so it’s been a very good day so far.

Update: I meant to say that, just as in the Summer Palace, most of the buildings – palaces, temples, pagodas, etc – have a plaque beside them, explaining the building’s name, history, purpose, and that it was burned down or otherwise destroyed, by the British in 1860 and/or 1900. Sometimes it’s embarrassing to be British in China…

Being accepted

I think one reason I like living in China is that the Chinese are refreshingly natural in their relationships: you see this all around, in the ready smiles, the way grown women unselfconsciously hold hands with their friends in the street, in the ease with which people look you in the eye. It’s a very refreshing comparison with other places I’ve lived.

Part of it is cultural, I guess; part of it is that I mostly meet ordinary working people (but where does that end? I include the beggars in the street and university lecturers in the spectrum of people I meet every day!). Part of it is also socio-economic, in the sense that the society of the Spectacle* hasn’t established itself in China yet – and I hope that it never does. [*I would include a Wikipedia link, but for some reason Wikipedia has been inaccessible for the last couple of days].Anyway, this morning I went down at 7am to practise Taiji outside my block in Hua Qing Jia Yuan. I normally go to the same spot every day, but this morning there was someone exercising there – one of the many retirees who are often around in theearly morning, doing stretching or qigong. I didn’t think anything of it, and was just going to go somewhere else – but she met my eye, gravely nodded, and moved away herself! I feel rather touched, that after three months of regular practise, I seem to have been accepted, and that that really is “my spot”.

Update, Nov 01: OK< wikipedia is indefinitely blocked by the great Firewall,but there are ways around it. Society of the Spectacle.