travel reports

Lady Hu

I wanted to take JGN to the National Theater (aka The Egg) but there were no performances scheduled during our stay. So we went to see some Peking Opera at Huguang Guild Hall （湖光會館), built in 1802 and a famous opera venue. It was also where Sun Yat-sen proclaimed the Guomindang (Nationalist Party) in 1912. The opera hall had magnificent stage and the opera was in the old style, with audience sitting at tables and served tea and little snacks. We saw excerpts from three stories, the last one about Lady Hu, who valiantly fights her enemies.

Summer Palace and Great Wall

A sunny day at the Summer Palace on the northwestern outskirts of the city (not far from Peking Univ). We came across a group sing-along ("Heart to Heart chorus") ... not just tourists here, many local people come to the park grounds, where the temperature is a bit cooler and the air is a bit less polluted, to hang out, have a little picnic, and sing. (That's why the Dowager Empress built it, to escape summer heat of Beijing center). In China there is mandatory retirement at 55 for men, 50 for women (five years older for university professors and a few others)--to make way for younger workers--so there are a lot people who are not working but still very active. Later we met a flautist who had a concession in the park's Suzhou Street area. We bought his CD--we think it's perfect for the lanai.

Suzhou Street (notice the blue sky!)

We had Peking duck with my cousin and his family (he is my first cousin on my father's side, a retired heart surgeon at Xuanwu hospital in Beijing). We went to Quanjude（全聚德烤鴨店), where roast duck is served in classic style, not like the nouveau roast duck which has less fat (seems like a bad idea, it's so lean anyway, and the little bit of fat on it seems absolutely essential). Dinner came with a certificate of duck authenticity including its number.. Then we went to his place for whiskey and DVD on his 60-inch screen... The next day we climbed the Great Wall at Mutianyu. Rode the cable car up, in a car memorialized as having carried Bill Clinton in 1998 (whatever). Sun was out, but very hot. I had been feeling guilty about not exercising but this was a real workout.

Everywhere in Beijing are traffic signs with cartoon-y police

We love Peking Duck!

MN & JGN on the wall

Beijing

JGN met me in Beijing. I am introducing him to China. We traveled around for two weeks and had lots of fun. In Beijing we had one day of rain and three days of blue skies and sunshine, almost unbelievable but we have photos to show for it. The city continues to boggle the mind with mega-size buildings, six ring roads, traffic, etc. etc. Over 22 million people, 4 million cars, and real estate more expensive than Manhattan. The government now restricts new license plates to 60,000 per quarter, with 1.1 million people vying to win the car lottery. A new car in China costs the same as one does in the US. There are also restrictions on driving--odd numbered licenses only can drive on odd numbered days, even on even days. But there are ways around this. In my cousin's family, there are 3 cars -- two so that they can drive every day, and one that is parked in a space that he doesn't want to give up. Yet he still lives in a modest apartment built over 50 years ago.

The first night we poked around the alleys behind our hotel and found Otto's (Ri Chang), a popular HK-style chain. We picked it because there was a line (15 min wait). Food was pretty good! (though we didn't know to order what all the locals were eating--chicken wings wrapped in foil and big clay pot rice with meat... next time!) Next day was very rainy but we soldiered on -- visit to Forbidden City, Tiananmen, then a rickshaw ride for lunch and shopping in hutong (old neighborhoods --see link at left for more).

Otto's

Tienanmen

Inside the Forbidden City

南锣鼓巷-Nanluoguxiang hutong

Dongbei (northeast) cuisine

tofu skins, for wrapping veggies dipped in savory sauce

I was not familiar with dongbei cuisine before. It's very tasty. Famous for its tofu and some hot and spicy dishes. Also "river fish" which I think is a carp; we will see this served in a lot in other cities. Being in the north they do not eat a lot of rice here, but serve jiaozi (dumplings) at every meal.

NB- I am enjoying hotel breakfast buffet here which has tons of options (incl. western, muslim, etc) but I'm alternating rice, millet and sorghum congees with spicy pickles, salted duck egg, and you tiao.

chicken and mushroom casserole

sweet sticky rice dusted with cornmeal and pan fried,
dip in sugar before eating. Really yummy.

spicy tofu and chicken

the spread (banquet on last day of seminar)

Changchun

Changchun (長春, "long spring"), the capital of Jilin province in northeast China, is a moderate sized city (4 million), known for its greenery, automotive and film industries, fairly good air quality, and long and cold winters. It was the capital of Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state during the 1930s through end of World War II. Jilin Prov. borders North Korea; there are ethnic Koreans here, traces of Russian and Japanese influence, and a Muslim population.

My mom and aunt came to visit for a few days. We saw the "palace" of the last Qing emperor, Puyi, who was installed by the Japanese as the puppet emperor of Manchukuo (cf Bertolucci). The "palace" was built by the Qing as an administrative center, and was also used as such by the Nationalist government until the Japanese occupation.

We visited the International Sculpture Park, which since 1997 has held biennial symposia to which it invites sculptors from around the world (seems to be a lot from Eastern Europe and developing countries). Several local people told me that many or most of the sculptures are not originals but copies, which is hard for me to believe. (But there were copies of Rodin's Thinker and Balzac...)

My host at NENU, Professor Liang, took me to Clear Moon Lake National Forest (净月潭-jingyuetan) just outside the city. Li Min, who was the graduate TA for our seminar, came with us. The lake and forest were built by the Japanese and it is sometimes called the "sister lake" to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan. Prof. Liang said he and his wife, who live nearby, frequent the park as an "oxygen bar." Indeed there were people in the forest in pup tents and hammocks, a nice way to spend an afternoon. (I don't think there is overnight camping though.)

There were crazy wedding photo shoots taking place around the lake. This would be something we'd see again in other places (in parks, on the Bund in Shanghai, etc.) Part of the Chinese nouveau rich life style.

Seminar in Manchuria - June 2013

I spent one week at Northeast Normal University (東北師範大學), in Changchun, Jilin (Manchuria), teaching a seminar that was one-third of three-week seminar in immigration history, cosponsored by Organization of American Historians and American History Research Association of China, hosted by the American Studies Institute at NENU. The participants were MA and PhD students and junior professors in US history, from universities around China. And I will be back -- I was honored to be appointed to the faculty as a Named Chair in the School of History and Culture. I will teach a course there in US history each spring for the next three years.

NENU is a major university (30,000 students) and has one of the top three American studies programs in China. It has many international students, especially from Africa and other developing countries, giving the campus a very cosmopolitan feel. There was a conference going on when I was there, for "university professors from developing countries" (I met professors from Latin American and Central Asia). I also met a retired professor from Univ. of Edinburgh who is studying Sino-Africa relations.