Tian An Men Square & the Forbidden City

Bob's comments: "We left Thursday evening after classes, packing and something to eat. We left our apartment shortly after 7 pm and walked to the south gate--there was a taxi unloading and we hopped in for the airport. The driver should have taken out extended warranty on the horn as he was on it all the time. We got the the airport in good time and checked in. The flight departed right on time at 10:20 pm and arrived at Beijing right on time at midnight. Our one suit case was on the carousel just as we arrived to pick it up. We had a little trouble finding the taxi stand but soon saw a sign that said taxis. We got a cab and went straight to our hotel. No problems with check in and at 1 am we were just going to bed. The hotel was the nicest one that we've stayed in since we've been here. It had good western food for breakfast--bacon, eggs cooked to order and a good selection of food. At 8:30 we left for Tian An Men square and the Forbidden Palace."

Tian An Men means "Gate of Heavenly Peace."

The bottom of the monument in the middle of the square
with carvings of the struggle for the People's Republic

Main Entrance to the Imperial City

The forbidden city was about 100 times bigger than I expected. It really is a city. We went through gate after gate and past building after building. We spent only two and one half hours there and just had time to walk from one end to the other.

I think this is the Hall of Supreme Harmony


Is this the Hall of Central Harmony or the Palace of Heavenly Purity?

This is the largest stone carving in the palace and weighs more than 200 tons. It has interlocking lotus patterns all around, curling waves at the bottom and nine dragons in the clouds in the middle. It was quarried from the western suburbs of Beijing and transported to the Forbidden City in winter when water was sprinkled along the route to make an ice road to drag it along.

We didn't get to see Mao. I assume we just didn't have enough time. There was a long lineup to get into his tomb. When I mentioned it to the guide he told me I didn't like Mao and Mao probably wouldn't like me so it was better that we didn't meet.

This was all the traditional building we saw in Beijing. Everything else has been torn down and replaced with sky scrapers.

Prices in China

The price of the suit was about $140. CDN. The fabric is very nice - a wool and silk blend. It would have been cheaper if we had gone to the wholesale warehouse and purchased the fabric ourselves and taken it to the tailor. At present we don't know where the warehouse is. One of the other teachers is supposed to take Bob and show him. We just looked at swatches at the tailor's shop and the tailor purchased from the warehouse and doubled the price of the fabric.

A good bargainer might get a better deal. I hate bargaining.

The price of clothing in the stores varies greatly. There are big stores with exclusive designer brands that are very expensive - maybe even more expensive than at home.

There are small shops that are less expensive. Then there are the open markets. We purchased North Face jackets for about $40 CDN at one of the markets. A friend purchased a North Face at a shop here in Nanjing for about $50 CDN but the jacket wasn't as nice as the ones we bought.

We're Thinking of You

This reminds me of last winter. Do you remember Jean, Donna and Len?

21 November 2008

We have been to the tailor's shop and Bob had a suit made. I had a couple of pair of pants and a shirt made. Great to have clothes that fit.

Last week when the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, came out Bob went out and found a DVD of it. Supposedly it was both in English and Chinese. Well it turned out it was in Chinese with English subtitles. The subtitles contained English words, but they made no sense at all. I gave up watching after ten minutes, but Bob continued to watch the whole movie. At least he can say he watched it and heard it. I guess you don't have to understand the words in a Bond movie.

We went out to eat three times this week. The co-0rdinators of the China Teacher program from the Kennedy center at BYU came to visit. They took us out tonight, the wieban (head of the foreign teachers at Nanjing U.) took us out Wednesday. We went out with our neighbours Monday.

They have been turning the heat on at night in our apartment building. It has been quite cool here. They don't heat the classrooms so the students and teachers all wear coats during the classes. A boy in my class on Thursday was wearing a big wide headband and a scarf around his neck and chin and I told him I couldn't even see who he was and he replied that he had a cold. Actually there seemed to be a few students coughing and sniffing during the classes.

Just a note on why I knew about Nickelback. The group was formed in Hanna, Alberta and my brother lives in Hanna. The house where two of the members were raised is one of the must see sights on a tour of Hanna.

Next Thursday we are off to Beijing for the week-end, so this may be our last post for a while.

End of the Week (Sigh of Relief)

This has been a busy week. It started last Sunday evening when we had to do English Corner which is a club for students who want to learn more English. English Corner should be an informal gathering where the students practise their English, but here it is rather formal. It is held in a classroom with desks that are bolted to the floor and the English teachers are supposed to plan activities to entertain the students who show.

We had to catch the 5:00 p.m. bus over to the other campus and the executive took us to a restaurant for supper and then we went and did activities with the students. We caught the 9:00 p.m. bus back to our campus. Here is a picture of the group.

Wednesday I had to give a lecture. This was arranged by the English Club which is organized by the staff of the Faculty of Foreign Studies. They had told me last September and said I could talk on any topic I wanted. Then they wanted a name for my lecture and since I hadn't decided on a topic I told them to call it Canada. They didn't think that was an inviting enough topic (their suggestion was "Mysterious Canada" which I rejected), so I decided to talk on Alberta and call it "Wild Rose Country". Well they were satisfied with that.

Again I had to catch the 5:00 P.M. bus to the other campus. The lecture was in a huge amphitheatre and I would guess that there were at least 100 students. I talked about the various tourist places (eg Waterton , Banff, Jasper, West Edmonton Mall etc.), the history of Alberta, industry in Alberta and then some miscellaneous things, such as people who had come from Alberta (Kurt Browning, Nickelback etc.). The students all want to hear about rock music, so the hit of my talk was a u-tube video with Nickleback singing.

I made the mistake of leaving time for a few questions. They asked things like "What is the difference between Americans and Canadians?", "What do you think about animal protection?" (This was asked because I had showed a picture of buffalo bones from Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump), "How do you play Hockey?" and "What do you think of China".
Anyway I got through it and all my classes for the week and now I have to prepare for next weeks classes.

There is a building being torn down right next to campus and near our apartment. There is some very noisy machinery working on the project and they start very early in the morning.

The yellow machine on the left is the one making all the racket.

First Week of November

One fifth of our time here in Nanjing has gone by.

My history class had their mid-term on Monday. They weren't too happy with it - much too hard.

The Oral English class recited a poem for their mid-term. I was amazed at the poems they chose - several Robbie Burns, Yeats, Tenneson and even an Edgar Allan Poe. They did very well with them. I was impressed.

On Tuesday evening we went to a lecture by Sam Heilman from the City University of New York who talked about the Jewish Influence on US elections. It was interesting. He is in Nanjing for a month on a Fulbright program and then he goes to a couple of other universities for a month each.

Thursday morning when I left for classes it was quite nice out and I had on a short sleeved shirt. At noon I noticed that people were coming in with wet umbrellas. Luckily Bob met me at the bus with an umbrella when I came back. It rained steady for two days. Today is nice again, but there is a cool breeze. The heat is supposed to be turned on in our apartment complex next week.

Last night we went to a Chinese Opera presented by the Jiangsu Province Kun Opera at the Lanyuan Theater in the Chaotian Palace. It wasn't a whole opera, but three scenes from different operas - "The Dream Interupted" from The Peony Pavilion, "Wang Zhaojun Crosses the Border" from Green Tomb of the Beauty and "Assignation of the Tiger General: from Prophetic Paintings. Chinese Opera is different from Western Opera. The costumes were fancy and glittering. One of the characters did a lot of acrobatics. He was fantastic. The program said "The role of Zhaojun demands a high standard of both singing and physical performance, and her attendant turns somersaults throughout the scene. The scene is particularly demanding on the actors, and for this reason is not often performed: few performers are able to fulfill its demands."
Somersaults was an understatement for what he did - cartwheels, flips etc. Unfortunately we didn't take a camera.

More Halloween

A use for orange Chinese Lanterns

At the monastery Friday there was a lake with many turtles swimming in it. They were taking donations to save the turtles. If you made a certain donation you could save one turtle. I don't know where the turtles were coming from and where they went after they were "saved".

There was also a "handicapped instrument" in one of the restrooms. (Some restrooms have a western toilet for the handicapped.)

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