Yushu to Serxu

Preliminaries:
I could see the doubt in the driver’s eyes. Either he thought Christmas had arrived early, or, more likely, he was contemplating some grim and rapid end to his life. What we had proposed was the following: Yushu to Manigango in a day, with stops at Serxu Gompa and Dzogchen Gompa.

His reservation: his claim that Sichuan Tibetans were not honest like the Tibetans who lived in Qinghai. The word ‘Manigango’, he repeated it several times with distaste, evoked some kind of hellhole from which you’d never return. “Bandits, the lot of them; what if I just drop you at Serxu?”, he protested.

His incentive: The 1,000 Yuan I was offering, plus food and accommodation in Manigango.

I pointed out to him that we had been to Manigango in 2004 and found it quite safe. Even though we too had heard numerous stories of pillaging bandits around Manigango, these seemed to belong to an era long gone. Still, I remembered that Manigango had felt like a real Wild West frontier town in 2004.

The main problem was that I had no option: the altitude sickness was playing havoc on my body; five days without sleep and the Tibetan medicine and the oxygen tank were having little or no effect. Serxu, at 4,200 metres above sea level, is another 500 meters higher than Yushu; lingering around, counting on dodgy bus schedules, didn’t appear to be the best option. So, basically, the upshot was: “Either you take us or we’ll have to hire another car”.

The first leg of the journey
Price agreed and the driver’s mind set somewhat at ease, we set off at 6.00 am.
The road followed what was now familiar territory, passing the Mani wall, Domkar Gompa, the turn- off to the Leba gorge and finally [Read more →]

Tags: Qinghai Province, Sichuan Province, Travel // Add Comment »

Youning Si 佑宁寺 (Update) To go or not to go

Last year we visited the Monastery of Youning Si in the Huzhu Tu Autonomous Region of Qinghai near Xining. The Monastery is famous not only for its beautiful setting, but also because the monks are descendants from the Mongols and continue to speak an old Mongolian dialect.

They are known as the Tu minority. We visited Youning Si by taking a bus to the town of Ping’an and then hiring a taxi the rest of the way. We never saw a check point or a police patrol during our entire visit.

However, we have had a few comments on our previously posted article saying the area is actually closed to foreigners and that any traveller found visiting without a permit, or without an authorised group, runs the risk of being punished or fined. The most recent comment came just over a week ago from a traveller saying that they had been threatened with a fine and finally turned back by the police when trying to visit Youning Si.

We must have been lucky. We had no idea the place was closed. Maybe [Read more →]

Tags: Qinghai Province, Travel // 1 Comment »

Zhaozhou Bridge / 赵州桥

The amazing Zhaozhou Bridge in Zhaoxian County, Hebei Province, about an hour from the provincial capital Shijiazhuang, is a stunning reminder of just how sophisticated Chinese engineering techniques were, more than one thousand four hundred years ago. That is the amount of time the Zhaozhou Bridge has stood spanning the Jiaohe River.

The bridge is the work of the engineer Li Chun who had to overcome numerous technical difficulties when designing and building it. First of all, it had to be high enough to avoid damage from frequent flooding, but at the same time it had to be flat enough to allow trade caravans and the imperial army to cross. Li Chun’s answer to this engineering dilemma was a segmental bridge, the world’s first, and [Read more →]

Tags: Culture, Hebei Province, technology // Add Comment »

Hola!

Para cualquier persona que tenga interés en aprender el idioma Chino en Madrid:

Mañana 4/3/2010 es el último diá para matricularse en el Curso de preparación para el examen HSK nivel 3.

45 horas en total. Las clases son de  10:00-14:00 los viernes. Para mas información haz click aqui.
http://www.ucm.es/info/fgu/formacion/csim/csim_index.php

Tags: Uncategorized // 1 Comment »

China Film Festival (El Matadero, Madrid,  2 February to 14 March)

Apart from the exhibition, visitors to the Matadero can also take in one or two Chinese films or documentaries a day, in the small projection room to the right of the entrance. From Tuesday to Friday, the sessions are at 17.00 and at 19.30; on Saturdays they are at 12.00 and at 16.00; on Sundays sessions may be at 12.00, 14.00 or 16.00. Programmes are available at the reception desk, or on-line at the Casa Asia web site.

Here is an overview of the films we have managed to see so far:

The Road 芳香之路(2002, directed by Zhang Jiarui) is the moving coming-of-age story of a young girl, Li Chunfen, set against the Cultural Revolution of the 60’s and 70’s.

Li Chunfen is a sweet and naïve young girl works as a ticket seller on a bus driven by Lao Cui, a decent, quiet man and a model worker who has been praised by Chairman Mao himself. Every day, their trusty old bus travels the precarious mountain roads of eastern Yunnan, connecting isolated villages and providing a valuable life line. In the course of these travels, [Read more →]

Tags: Chinese Cinema, Culture // Add Comment »

Yushu Gompa Excursion

We start our second excursion around Yushu at the nearby Domkar Gompa, scenically located on the mountainside, overlooking the main road. Today, our driver has brought his little son along, a boy of about five, with a Fu Manchu pigtail at the back of his otherwise bald head. Both father and son are in good spirits, as if they are looking forward to the day’s sightseeing as well.

First, we are shown around the Gompa’s main Assembly Hall, which houses an impressive collection of large, gem-studded statues. For 15 Yuan, our [Read more →]

Tags: Qinghai Province // Add Comment »

Beijing Time 北京时间(18 December to 21 of March)

Beijing Time is the title of an exhibition that is currently being held at the Matadero (Paseo de la Chopera 14), a centre dedicated to contemporary creative arts in Madrid. The exhibition has been organised by Casa Asia.

The title refers to the fact that the whole of the vast territory that makes up China, is run according to whatever time it is in the capital; regardless of the inconvenience this causes in the far-flung border regions. For instance, when it’s 9am in Beijing, it’s only 6 am in Xinjiang. Depending on the political stance you take, Beijing Time can be seen as a symbol of unity, or the government’s attempt to impose this unity.

A second reading of the exhibition’s title refers to the increasingly prominent position of Beijing/China on the world stage, whether in a [Read more →]

Tags: China in Madrid, Culture // Add Comment »

Chinese New Year in Madrid

Last week, the Chinese community in Madrid celebrated the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Tiger, right in the centre of the city. The parade started in the emblematic Puerta del Sol (where we live), and finished in Plaza de España, passing the Royal Palace on the way.

Each year the parade seems to increase in size, both in the number of participants and spectators. In years gone by, the celebration was limited to the charismatic neighbourhood of Lavapiés, where many Chinese have their wholesale businesses. These days, the narrow, hilly streets of Lavapiés have become too small for the growing celebration.

The parade included all the usual dancing dragons, lions and people dressed in folkloric costumes. Martial arts displays, mostly performed by [Read more →]

Tags: China in Madrid, Culture // 1 Comment »

Jiǔhuá Shān九华山

Studying English

For a few magic minutes time stood still. A full moon illuminated the pond where a gaggle of Buddhist nuns were lighting candles and carefully balancing them upon enormous, floating lotus leaves. Overhanging red lanterns left their reflections suspended in the water. Occasionally, a well- fed golden carp broke the silky smooth surface and then, with a swish of its tail and a plop, disappeared into the murky depths again.
This is the China we imagine when we close our eyes. The China we see on ancient scroll paintings, the China that we hope to find, but so seldom do. Was I dreaming? Well, not exactly. This was Jiǔhuá Shān in late September 2001, serene and so peaceful after the mayhem of Huang Shān. We remained transfixed by the moment, for how long? I don’t know. And then, out of the night came the shrill sound of laughter, and in the distance the local guitar- playing and folk-singing busker started up again. The nuns slipped out of sight through the temple gate, a cloud crossed the moon and the light from the candles paled. In short, the spell broke and we found ourselves again in 21st Century China.

History

A bit of history: Jiǔhuá Shān is one of the four sacred mountains for Chinese Buddhists, together with Eméi Shān, Pǔtuó Shān and Wǔtái Shān. Set in a beautiful area of southern Anhui province, Jiǔhuá Shān offers the traveller some rare moments of rural bliss and the chance to witness [Read more →]

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Beijing Coma /北京植物人 Review

This book should come with a health warning: unsuitable for first-time visitors to China, for they may well decide to cancel their trip. Even old-time China-lovers, such as myself, should proceed with caution, as some of the things you’re about to read may put you off going back there forever!

Having suffered through some graphic descriptions of the unspeakable suffering, and the cruelties Chinese people inflicted upon each other during the Cultural Revolution; having shuddered at the inhumane way the death penalty is carried out and gasped at its utterly immoral connection to organ transplants, I found I had to keep repeating the words Dai Wei, the protagonist, says to his girlfriend, Tian Yi, as if they were a kind of mantra: “ ‘They aren’t evil, they’re just products of an evil system.’ ” (p. 504).

Synopsis

Dai Wei is in a coma; unable to move a muscle, though aware of his surroundings and with his memory intact. Through his memories, he relives his life, from his early childhood, when his father returns from a 22-year stint in a series of reform-through-labour camps, to the fatal denouement at Tiananmen Square, during which he is shot in the head.  At regular intervals, Dai Wei’s attempts to return to his past are interrupted by his awareness of present events - the visits of his girlfriend or friends, his mother’s comments - or interspersed with clinical observations on the deterioration of his own body, as he is after all a Biologist.

From his family history, childhood and adolescence, with a traumatic first arrest for ‘immoral behaviour’, we move gradually to his university days, first in Guangzhou and later in Beijing. At university, Dai Wei’s political awareness, a vague feeling of anger and frustration that until then had lain dormant, is shaken when he starts reading his father’s journals from his camp days. Over time, [Read more →]

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