Changes in Longitude

Catching Up

Pingyao City Wall

I’ve been home for a few weeks now and am actually almost caught up with work and life in general. Right now I’m sitting at a Toyota dealership getting the recall work on my new Highlander completed.  I think this may be the last of the tasks that accumulated while I was away. I guess that means it’s time to go back and try to catch up on the tail end of my recent China trip.

Our last stop before our return to Beijing was the walled city of Pingyao in central Shanxi Province.  It was constructed in the late 14^th century making it older than the Forbidden City by a couple decades. 

Pingyao looking south from the north leg of the city wall

The city within the walls is fairly well preserved with numerous original courtyard homes and street side shops intact.  Narrow cobble stoned alleys and streets wind their ways between the courtyards’ surrounding walls.  Many of the main thoroughfares are pedestrian only and outside vehicles within the city are mostly limited to electric powered golf carts.  It’s all rather quaint.

Our group was booked into a hotel created within one of these old courtyards.  The rooms were actually individual buildings restored to original condition and furnished as they would have been centuries ago with many of the pieces being actual antiques.  It was really very nice.  When coming back after a night on the town or getting up in the morning you were almost transported to “old” China for a time.  My only regret was not having the family along to share the experience.

Courtyard area of our hotel.  My room is behind the door on the right edge of the picture.

As we traveled about I had various willing members of the group pose with Durango, the frog puppet.  For grins I am posting a series of the photos below.  Thanks to all the folks who helped make our little family tradition so fun this time around.

Restaurant hostesses in Taiyuan

L-R: Anna, Richard and Jean in lobby of Pingyao hotel

Chris and Diane

Paul overlooking Shanxi cave dwelling, some of which are still occupied.

Drew outside temple complex near Taiyuan

Keone at mountain temple whose name I forget.

Stephanie and Annemarie outside oldest wooden building in China.

Close to Home

Recently there has been a rash of attacks on school children in China by adults with a spectrum of problems, most based on lack of economic or personal success.  I guess China is catching up to us in yet another way, senseless attacks on innocents.  I sincerely hope this trend will quickly burn itself out and that folks will find another way to express their frustration and anger than bludgeoning or stabbing children.

What really caught my attention this morning was that the latest attack was in the city of Weifang where we lived in 2007.  It was not all that far from where our daughters attended school.  This latest attack hits close to home for us.

China has much going for it but it also has immense internal issues to address.  The frustration and anger of those who are not sharing in its growth are but two of them.

School children in Weifang, China April 2007

Riding on the Railroad

Two local farmers outside the oldest timber building in China having fun with us and posing with Durango, April 14, 2010 near Taiyuan, Shanxi.

We’re leaving Taiyuan for Beijing on the new CRH (Bullet) train.  The Chinese are planning something like 140 similar train lines between major cities throughout the country.  When the Chinese government decides to move on an idea they surely don’t do it in half measures.

Today is a beautiful day.  Temperatures are in the 70’s with blue skies and only a hint of wind.  But even these perfect conditions are sullied by the dust and grit that fills the atmosphere at ground level.  Even though Texas gets hot and humid I’ll be glad to get back to where the air is clean.

Riding through the countryside you see how the heavy hand of man has shaped this land.  Hardly a square foot of ground has not been cleared, farmed, rearranged and built upon at some time.  Even where few people live there is no unaltered land or wild spaces.  To me it is as unnatural as the surface of the moon.  Well, maybe that’s a bad example as man has only left a few tons of garbage there and tracks on but a few square miles.  Otherwise the moon is natural, if barren.  Here the barrenness is the result of man’s activities and on a scale that is hard to fathom. 

The one saving grace I see out my window, beside the wonderful people who toil on this land, is the millions of tree seedlings planted everywhere.  Someday there will be a forest here for a time.  But it is still not natural.  The trees are in rows and on terraces and all of just two species, one pine and the other poplar.  It will be better than the current bare ground that is constantly lifted by the wind and eventually settles on everything and in the lungs of all who breathe the air.  In time it will make conditions measurably better and while it is yet one more effort by man to shape this land, the program of planting all these millions of trees is well worthwhile.  I just wish they’d do it with a little more variety.  Maybe someday.

As always seems the case for me, I look at China through several frames of reference at one time.  My daughters are of this land and that gives me one perspective.  My professional career leads me to China to both learn and to a limited extent teach.  That is yet another perspective.  In many ways I’m an American tourist and I see things through those eyes even if I possess more familiarity with and knowledge of the land and culture than most.  And lastly I am a businessman who sees opportunity.  How each of these perspectives blends into the next and which takes precedence at any given moment is a moving and ever changing window through which I take in and process what I see.  Often I am left confused and conflicted.

There is one thing that remains constant throughout.  I am fascinated by China in much the same way I am fascinated by America.  As different as they are I find them equally engaging.  There is a life and vitality in each that makes both pulse with optimism and hope.  These things ebb and flow with time and conditions on both shores of the Pacific but they remain nonetheless.  America is young and imperfect.  China is ancient and imperfect.  I can honestly say I love them both in all their wonderful diversity.

Tomorrow I board a plane for home.  Yet another journey will come to a close when I am once again in the close embrace of my family.  I've enjoyed this journey but am looking forward to being home.

 

I'm Still Here

We've been traveling around a lot the past few days and I have been enjoying the company of my fellow timber framers and China enthusiasts while the opportunity still presents itself. 

Currently we are in Pingyao and staying in the coolest hotel ever.  It is a restored courtyard family home whose lineage I've yet to ascertain.  Regardless it is amazing.

I've also seen several really old buildings and had long hours on a bus looking out the window at the Shanxi countryside.  It is sobering and uplifting to me at the same time.  One moment I see the magnificent work done by Chinese craftsman a thousand years before the country that gives me a passport existed.  At the same time I see people plowing fields using mules and plows that have not changed in that entire time.  One moment I find myself marveling at the what the culture that gave me my daughters accomplished.  I am filled with pride, entirely undeserved.  Ten minutes later I find tears in my eyes as I consider that my daughters may very well have been relegated to living a life akin those I see out my window do, every day, with little hope for better and quite possibly worse had their birth parents made other choices.  Yet again I find myself thanking those unknown persons who took the leap of faith and the chance to put our daughters on their paths to us.

I'm tired and need some rest.  Goodnight from China.

Durango in Datong

David singing with Durango

Each time I take an extended trip my daughter Marit tucks one of her stuffed animals in my bag to keep me company.  Most of the time I try to take a photo or two of said toy wherever I went as sort of a travel log of Marit’s little friends.  This time Durango the frog is traveling with me.  He’s named Durango because I picked him up on a client visit I did in Durango, Colorado some years ago.  Not only is Durango a frog, but he’s also a puppet.

Durango went with us to both the Hanging Temple and the 1,000 year old temple outside Datong today.  The above photo is of David from California and Durango on our morning bus ride and the second is of Durango with our bus driver, Mr. Lu.

Mr. Lu being a good sport about posing with a puppet.

Today we woke to snow and frigid temperatures.  The cold and snow weren’t so bad but the 50 mph wind made things uncomfortable.  So much so that we truncated both our visits considerably and because of the icy conditions in the mountains we were unable to go to Wutai Shan as planned and returned to Datong for the night.  Tomorrow we’re off again but keeping to lower levels.

The Hanging Temple is really interesting.  It’s a small temple that started as a Buddhist monastery.  It eventually shifted to Taoism and finally added Confucianism to the mix.  It was built on timbers set into the rock face of a cliff several hundred feet above a river.  In time erosion raised the streambed to the point that allowed one end of the temple to be supported by a masonry foundation added centuries after it was initially built in 491.  It was rebuilt and maintained during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.  You can read more of the particulars via Wikipedia if you like.  What surprised me the most is that the river that used to flow below the monastery is now completely impounded by a large concrete dam that sits to the south and considerably above the structure.  I never heard it was there.

The Hanging Temple

In any case it was so cold and windy up on this shaded west-facing cliff that I didn’t spend much time up there studying it.  There was one thing I did note though which was confirmed by our guide, Anna.  The long slender poles that seem to support the temple really don’t.  They were added in the 1980’s when the number of people visiting increased to the point that there was noticeable deflection (bouncing) when folks walked through.  The poles are there, set an inch or so short of the beams, so that when loaded the beams then rest on the ends of the poles and the bounciness goes away.

The Hanging Temple at second level facing north. It was colder than it looks.

The second structure we visited is called the 1,000 Year Pagoda or Yingxian Wooden Pagoda.  This nine story building was built during the Liao Dynasty in 1056.  It stands more than 200 feet tall and is made entirely of timbers joined using wooden connections.  Over the year metal bands and bolts have been added to stabilize the structure but originally it was all wood.  From the outside it appear to be only five stories tall because of the five levels of balconies but there are actually floors between each of those levels that do not show to the outside and bring the total floors to nine.

The structure is suffering from some serious structural issues.  Personally I’m amazed that tourists are allowed up to the second level as it is pretty scary.  Support beams are completely crushed by both weight and time.  Others have bent past the breaking point while others have rotted away to a considerable extent.  That being said, even in a stiff wind the tower did not noticeably shake.  All the same it needs real repairs and needs them soon.  The building lists several degrees and the third level walls are way out of plumb having shifted to the north.  As a result of all this the floor tilts quite a bit from one side of the building to the other.  The good news is engineers have mounted all kinds of monitoring equipment in there to see what stresses and movement happen over time while they consider alternatives for repair.  Personally I see dismantlement, repair and reassembly the only option but there are no doubt more creative minds than mine considering this.

Yingxian or The Thousand Year Old Pagoda.  Look closely at the wall on the first balcony level to the right.  It's really is leaning more than it looks like in this picture.

Once again, Durango and I are off in the morning.  More ancient buildings await us.

Are you jealous yet?

Datong

The latitude and longitude of Datong as per this sign on the tarmac at the airport.

Our day started at 4:00 AM when the wake-up calls were made.  We had to scramble to pack up, grab breakfast that the hotel cooks came in at an ungodly hour to make for us and board the bus to the Beijing airport for our 7:30 flight to Datong, Shanxi.  We all made it in plenty of time and had an uneventful 1.5 hour flight over the rather desolate region that is between Beijing and Datong.

Datong, like most of Sanxi Province, makes its living mining coal.  It’s rather different from the glitz and nouveaux riche excess of Beijing.  It’s dirty and dusty and everything looks about ten years beyond its prime.  The people can’t help but suffer from chronic lung irritation but seem to be happy nonetheless.  Drew, a group member who lives in Xi’an, and I turned to each other and said something like “now this is the real China” to each other.

 
Workers building new timber framed building at Yungang Caves site.

At the same time Datong seems to have plans.  The mines are being cleaned up slowly, the entire city center is being cleared of residents (over 100,000 I’m told) who are being moved to new apartment blocks south of town.  The remnants of old city wall is being rebuilt complete with watch towers and imperial gates in hopes of turning the area within into a historical park to draw tourists from around China and then hopefully the world.  It is amazing to see.  An entire city center is being razed, a new city being built and a Tang Dynasty era walled city is being recreated all at the same time.  You have to hand it to the Chinese.  When they decide to move on a project, they move and it doesn’t seem to matter the scale.  They seem no more daunted by a large one than a small one.

 
One wall of caves and grottoes cut by Buddhist monks and their workers around 450 AD.

We visited a temple in the morning, which was interesting enough, but the highlight came in the afternoon when we visited the caves and grottoes of Yungang.  In the middle 5^th century Buddhist monks with the support of the Ming Dynasty set about to make caves and carve huge and intricate buddhas and other religious icons within them.  They built hundreds in the cliffs.  Many are rather small, say the size of a one-car garage, but others are enormous with statues up to 90 feet tall within them.  I was awed by it all.  The skill, dedication, imagination, resources and faith that went into making it all happen is nothing but inspiring.  I don’t pretend to understand the tenets of the religion but I can’t help but think they have enormous value given what I saw today.  It was much as I felt when I visited the Dafo in Leshan in July 2007.  It is what one must feel when visiting the Sistine Chapel or any number of magnificent works done in the name of faith.  I need to visit more.

 

Detail of carvings in one cave.  There are literally hundreds of caves with these types of carvings and tens of thousands of individual carvings within those caves.

Catching Up

Blossoms at Behai Park in Beijing April 5, 2010

Spring has arrived here in Beijing and the fruit trees are blooming.  The flowers are showing the first signs of color and the willows and aspens are leafing out.

It has been a few days since I’ve had time to write anything down.  I’m now with the group of timber frame enthusiasts and we’ve been jumping from site to site several times a day.  By the time I get back to the hotel after dinner I’m worn out.  At the moment we’re on a bus for a couple hours going to a temple near Tianjin so I may actually have some time to catch up on writing.

The first structure you see as you enter Jing Shan Park from the south is Qiwang Tower, a relatively new building having been built in 1750.  That makes this building merely decades older than the United States rather than the usual centuries.

To this point the group has been visiting sites I have been to on several prior occasions so I’ve not seen much new.  At the same time it’s completely new to them and it is fun to see their reactions when they first see the things I’ve come to appreciate.  I can fully understand their feeling of awe and wonder.  The timber work in China is of a scale and complexity unprecedented in the west.

Members of our group examining cast bronze bells in the pavilion pictured above.  Normally it is not open to the public but Shen Fang, the director of the park complex, opened it for our group as a professional courtesy.

On Thursday, our group was joined by my teacher and friend, Mr Ma, and once again he arranged visits to areas of the Forbidden City I had not seen before.  Rather than try to describe everything, I’ll just post photos and let you see it too.  The area we visited is to the west side of the main axis of the city and closed to visitors so it was quite a privilege to be there.  

 

Mr Li (left with hands up) explaining the finer points of timber architecture.  Mr Li is the Executive Director of the entire Palace Museum (Forbidden City).  Looking on is Mr Ma (right in glasses), a noted expert on Chinese historic architecture, who arranged our behind the scenes tour with Mr Li.

In the extreme northwest corner of the Forbidden City is a courtyard built for a prince, whose name escapes me in the Tibetan style of architecture.  This three tiered temple with numerous elements from that region awaits restoration at some later date. 

Well, the ride is bumpy and I don’t want to tempt fate on motion sickness so I’ll pack it in for the time being.

On April 5 it was clear enough that I was finally able to get a photo of the Forbidden City from the crest of Jing Shan (aka Coal Hill).  This photo is looking south over the main north gate in the foreground all the way to Wumen on the extreme south of the complex.  In the extreme left of the photo about halfway up you can see the the temple pictured above. 

A Quiet Day and Random Thoughts

The Imperial Vault of Heaven at Temple of Heaven Park 4/1/2010

Qingming is today.  In China this is the day when the living pay respects to their ancestors by cleaning their grave stones and burning paper representation of gifts to the spirits.  According to the local news the holiday is losing resonance with the young and is becoming little more than a three day weekend devoted to relaxation and short holiday trips.  It seems to following the pattern of our Memorial Day.

I woke up this morning to news of an earthquake in NW Mexico that rattled a few windows and nerves in California.  The first word I heard was from an Aussie who said the earthquake was centered on LA but fortunately he had misheard the reports and was a little confused about the geography of the US southwest.

After breakfast I headed up to my room and flicked on the TV just to make sure the game between the Red Sox and Yankees was not being broadcast here.  Surprise, surprise!  It was.  So I kicked back and watched the Red Sox overcome a 5-1 deficit to win 9-7.  That was a nice way to start the 2010 baseball season.

Calabash player enjoying the morning sun at the Long Corridor At Temple of Heaven Park 4/1/2010

After the game I switched over to CNN and there was a breaking report on the rescue of over 110 of the 150 or so coal miners trapped below ground in Shanxi Province by flooding last week.  There are still nearly 40 miners trapped but it is absolutely amazing and encouraging that so many have already been brought back to the surface.  Let’s hope the news is as good for those still in the mine.  China’s mines are a dangerous place to work (over 2,500 fatalities last year) and clearly that is not a good thing.  But one has to be proud for the Chinese mine workers who pulled off this amazing rescue and impressed by their sticking to what must have seemed a hopeless task for so long.

One other interesting bit from CNN is the latest shuttle shot into orbit this morning.  Only three more to go.  Adding the passengers on the shuttle to those already on the International Space Station we now have four women in orbit for the first time in history, the most ever.  That's worth noting.

Today was my day to get myself organized before the group I’ll be spending the next two weeks with arrives tomorrow.  I suspect my colleagues are getting their selves together right about now and heading to the airport for the long flight to Beijing.  It will be good to see so many of my old friends from America here in China.  It should be a good time traveling about China with them to see the timber architecture we share such an interest in.

I did some shopping today.  The girls now have new qi poas for next Chinese New Year and I’ve got a few new books.  I’m not yet done but this is a good start.  I still need to find a fan and some calligraphy stuff but I do have time.

Well that’s enough small talk for now.  I just don’t have anything more exciting to talk about today.

Worker applying final layer of finish to timbers at a small temple reconstruction in a Beijing Houtong.  Several layers of paint and tung oil will be applied later to give that distinctive smooth and glossy finish so common on Chinese timber buildings. Beijing April 1, 2010

PS. In case you're confused, the photos have nothing to do with the text.  I was just throwing up some pictures I liked for the fun of it.

Second Impressions

Jade Belt Bridge, Summer Palace, Beijing April 2, 2010

Happy Easter.  It's almost over here but you're just starting to look for Easter Eggs right about now.

Baseball season begins officially in a few hours when the Red Sox play the Yankees.  Unless I’m mistaken, the local ESPN station will broadcast cricket and football (soccer) scores ad infinitum or show a rerun of some European basketball league game played last week instead, even though ESPN in the states will carry the real game that matters…to me anyway.

Yesterday I spent the entire day at one of my favorite places, The Summer Palace.  It’s not that it’s an amazingly old example of Chinese architecture since it was originally built in the 1700’s and essentially rebuilt in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s after British and French forces burned it to the ground, twice, in an effort to show the Chinese who really ran things in China.  Such was the diplomacy of two world powers at the time.  What really interests me about the Summer Palace is the grounds, which mostly survived intact even though most of the buildings did not.  There are several lakes, many beautiful stone bridges, large and old willows and a series of lawns and wooded areas that attract crowds.  It’s yet another wonderful park that Beijing’s citizens flock to with all the expected activities normal to Chinese parks.  It really is quite a show.  The mulberry trees were just beginning to blossom and hints of green were beginning to show on the hanging tendrils of the willows.  The day was comfortable and there was some fairly regular sunshine that worked its way through the light haze.  All in all it was quite charming.

Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha from below, halfway to lake level

Being on my own I had a chance to visit areas of the Palace I had not on several earlier trips. I climbed up to the Tower of the Fragrance of the Buddha (a strange name that conjures up some juvenile humor on my part) for the first time.   From the south the path up looks rather imposing with the switch backed stairs climbing along a sheer masonry wall but if you go around the back way it’s a rather pleasant stroll through a bit of woodland with several nice pavilions along the trails.  You’re climbing all the way but it’s not all that demanding.  The view from up there was really quite dramatic since you’re looking down on Kunming and Back Lakes and there were literally hundreds of little rented boats going every which way that day.  Trying to photograph it proved futile as the haze mostly obscured everything to the camera even though you could see things pretty clearly by sight.  Some polarized lens caps would have made quite a bit of difference I expect.  But alas I had them not.

Looking through a different kind of lens, one colored by my own limited experience, I’ve been noticing some changes in how people react to foreigners here compared to how it was just a few years ago.  In 2001, we were constantly stopped by local folks to have their pictures taken with us.  Apparently we were novelties back then and worth the effort.  Yesterday no one paid me any mind.  There were hundreds of foreigners all around and it seems the novelty has worn off.  That’s a good thing on balance, I think.  I suspect it’s still more like 2001 in many of the less developed places in China.

Something else I have noticed over the last week is that a significant number of Chinese have lost the impressive work ethic that was always on display in the past.  This may be unique to Beijing but I suspect it is endemic to all the more prosperous cities.  Cashiers now throw your change at you instead of giving it to you with two hands as I had become used to and really found nice.  I’ve seen security folks (private guard forces not the People’s Army folks) texting instead of paying attention.  Store clerks spend a fair amount of their time yakking with each other and less paying attention to customers.  It goes on and on.  It seems at least in some ways the Chinese have achieved their goal of becoming more like Americans.  I do suspect that this kind of indifference, I can think of no better word, is generally limited to the lowered paid service sector folks but it may be a harbinger of things to come if this infects the whole working class.  It may not be long before large numbers of the low and medium wage manufacturing jobs that now sit in China move to places that want them more.  It’s already begun in a limited way.  It may not be all that long before China starts to wonder where all those jobs went.  

The Seventeen Arches Bridge just because I like it.  Summer Palace April 2, 2010

Laoshur Tim

Laoshur is the Chinese word for teacher and is generally used as an honorific followed by your surname.  In Weifang at the university all the western faculty except for Wynter were known as laoshur ____.  Wynter was known as Doctor Wynter as an added sign of respect due to her earned degree.  I was just the old guy who hung around.

Today I gave a short lecture to the graduate students and faculty at Tshinhua University’s Architecture School with regard to western timber architecture.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but as is often the case here, it ended up being much more interesting than I’d imagined.

Getting to the university involved a rather long cab ride through Beijing traffic which you can’t fully appreciate until you’ve been through it a time or two.  I’ve become a little bored by the constant thrill ride after considerable repetition.  Today I experienced something new.  I was in the cab going over my notes and looking out the window from time to time when my cab driver hit the brakes, launched me a bit forward and rattled off a long string of what could only be words not normally uttered on CCTV.  Rearranging myself I looked out and saw a pretty lady driving a brand new Lexus SUV while texting on her cell phone.  As if Beijing traffic is not already dangerous enough, one must now text as well?  I’m with the Tappet Brothers, Click and Clack, on this one, put down the damn phone and drive.

Upon arrival at Tshinhua I met up with my personal laoshur on Chinese timber framing, Simone.  She came along to hear what I had to say and keep me out of potential trouble.   We were shown into a very nice conference room by a student who our host, Professor Wang, sent to escort us from the front gate.  We walked in and I was immediately greeted by another student who proceeded to take my jump drive and load my presentation onto a computer that had already been set up for me.  Five minutes later I was up and running with both coffee and tea set before me.  Now this is service I could get used to.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the Chinese are gracious hosts.

It is my habit to do presentations more or less as question and answer sessions.  That method has been known to be a hazardous way to do things with Chinese students. They are often loath to ask questions for several reasons of culture and the program tends to devolve into a series of uncomfortable pauses.  Even knowing this tendency I thought I’d give it a try and lo and behold, these students rose to the challenge and kept me going with excellent questions and comments for an hour and a half.  I truly enjoyed every moment.

Tshinhua University is known as one of the premier institutions in China and I can say without reservation that these kids are in the same league as the best and brightest in the west.  They were articulate, thoughtful and willing to express their well-considered opinions.  This is quite different from what we saw in Weifang where the students were mostly cowed by anyone in authority. 

I’ve one other item is worth mentioning here. I was able to do the entire presentation without a translator as these students were quite capable in English.  I wonder how it would work with American architecture students receiving a lecture in Chinese?  I know, it’s a silly question.

As we were wrapping things up and everyone was ready to begin a long weekend Professor Wang stepped forward, gave me a very formal handshake and said, “Thank you Laoshur Tim for giving us your time and your knowledge.”  He then handed me a beautiful scale model of a duo gong, the complex and decorative bracket sets that support the graceful roofs so indicative of Chinese architecture.  I am grateful and humbled by both the title and the gift.

Duo gong (bracket sets on lowest beam) supporting extended eave in Beijing 2010