Beijing's Traffic

The traffic in Beijing is chaotic. Drivers rule, and pedestrians have to do their best avoid getting his by cars. Cars routinely drive in the bicycle lane, and many cars speed. Despite having been living in such a chaotic environment for almost a year now, I had not seen any car accidents. I have personally been in a few bike accidents, but nothing two serious. Once I did end up destroying someone else's wheel after I hit it. All this changed over the weekend when I witnessed a dramatic car accident.

I had just finished lunch with Wendy, one of my Chinese friends, and she was taking me to the bus stop to show me which bus to take home. As we were waiting, I heard a crash to my right followed by screeching sound. Looking into the road in the opposite lane, I saw a white car sliding on its side along the street. It finally came to a stop and several passerbys ran into the street to help the occupants. After a few moments about ten people began shaking the car, until it fell over on its correct side. I walked up on to the pedestrian bridge for a better view. Apparently the women inside was uninjured. I saw her standing next to her car talking on a cell phone. With a better vantage point on the bridge, I also finally saw the other car involved in the collision, a taxi. It was located about fifty meters up the street. Its front side had been severely damaged. It didn't seem as if anyone was injured, as I only saw a police car. Wendy told me that this was the second accident she had seen. In her home town, Chengde, she told me she saw the aftermath of an accident in which a pedestrian was killed. At no point did I hear any sirens. The traffic did not stop at all, instead it went around the cars. It seems as though in China victims of an accident must fend for themselves, and not expect much help from authorities.

The Celestial Masters

During my university studies of Chinese history, I became particularly interested in the history of the Celestial Masters, a Daoist school. They emerged in Sichuan province during the 2nd century and transformed Daoism from a philisophy into a religion. After about 600 CE, the Celestial Masters disappeared, and re-emerged about three hundred years later in current-day Jianxi province, with their headquarters at at mountain called Longhushan. I have always wanted to visit their headquarters, but there was no information in my travel book on Longhushan. Internet research did confirm that there was a temple at Longhushan open for tourism, as well as some karst peaks. Since Longhushan was not in my guidebook, I figured I would be the only non-Chinese tourist there. But, in China, Longhushan is actually quite famous. Everyone whom I asked about it, all said that they knew about it. For the weeklong October holiday, I decided to go.

Yingtan, the biggest city near the mountain, is like any other Chinese city, filled with bathroom-tile buildings and other architectural horrors. That was no surprise. After finding a hotel, I took a shuttle to the mountain. The lady at the hotel warned me in Chinese that the Celestial Master temple was in a different spot than the mountain, but since I didn't really understand her, decided to go to the mountain anyway. I was given the option upon arriving of either taking boat cruise among the karst peaks for an exorbitant amount, or climbing one of the peaks. I took the latter option. The scenery was lovely, but I was dissapointed at how poorly reconstructed the temples on the mountain were. They had both been built of concrete, and were very poorly maintained. After the roughly hourlong hike, I bought a map of the area to see where the main temple was. Because it was too far, I ended up hiring a motorcycle to take me to the temple due to lack of other transport options! The temple itself was in an area that was being rapidly developed for tourist. Old-style buildings were being rebuilt and two new temples still hadn't been painted. The Celestial Master temple was a huge dissapointment. As far as I could tell, only a tiny part of it was still old. That part was nice. The main pavillion was made of concrete and just looked plain tacky. I think a bit of concrete is ok in temple construction, but only the columns and walls. The rest should be wood! Especially the roof supports. I can see why the current Celestial Master lives in Taiwan. If he returned to see his home temple he would be ashamed!

Strange things in Korea

While on the train to Suwon today, where there is a fort and palace, I witnessed some strange going-ons. Normally on the subway in Asia you will see cripples coming through begging for money, or terrible musicians playing an accordion very badly. Today, I saw a man come through with a push cart and demonstrate a vegetable slicer which cut cut cucumber very thin. He was also selling something that looked like pantyhose. He gave a long spiel and then sold at least tewn of the things my car. I was surprised by his success! Next, I saw an obese man come through and hand everyone a sheet of paper in Korean, including me. Then he went to the front of the car, closed his eyes and muttered silently, before collecting the sheets of paper. I'm sure this was some sort of religious thing. Christianity is very popular in Korea. Of course, I had to see a talentless musician, which I did. He was an old man playing one note on a harmonica. It was painful to listen to. I also saw a woman dressed completely in orange. She was wearing all orange clothing, orange shoes, and orange hat and an orange hand bag. The train is filled with colourful characters, it seems.

Seoul

This morning I hung around the hostel for a while to do my laundry, which desperately needed to be done. Then, I went on the very efficient subway system to one of the city's five palaces. I stopped for a lunch of noodle soup on the way. I enjoyed the palace, as it was quite different from the Forbidden City. It seemed more primitive, with the grounds being dirt rather than stones. Most of the palace had been rebuilt, as the Japanese almost completely destroyed it during their occupation. It started rainig while I was in the palace, so I decided to return to the guesthouse. There I had a quick nap before heading out to dinner, where I had some diffculty ordering. No Korean restaurant has an English menu, apparently.

Seoul

I arrived in Seoul yesterday at around six and checked into my lovely hostel, where the owner was very helpful. I went to dinner, and with the help of the owner's Korean writing, ordered a delicious tofu stew with kimchi. Unfortunately, I did not sleep so well, as the air conditioner was too strong in our room. I was frigid.

Taipei - Day 2

I didn't sleep very well last night (I never sleep well in dorms), and felt tired for much of the day. I started out by going to the Confucian Temple, which to my disapointment has been closed for renovations. I went to the nearby Baoan temple next door, which was ok. The temple architecture here is different from that that I've seen on the mainland. It's a bit more garish. I next went for lunch and then went to the Longshan temple to make up for the missed Confucian temple. It turns out this temple was having some sort of special day. According to a security guard, I asked, every month there is one day that attracts tons of people to the temple who leave offerings. There was tons of food and other offerings in the temple. Unlike the mainland, it appears as though religion is alive and well in Taiwan. Also, no temple has admission charges here, which is nice. Nor should temples charge admission. Taipei has recently built a couple of distinctive buildings, one of which is the Taipei 101, which I visited yesterday. The other is called the Living Mall, and while it is just a boring old mall on the inside, the building is quite distinctive, containing a sphere that is witihin a standard building. I went to the Starbucks there, and it wasn't too expensive (compared to the one in Singapore). I fell asleep in the plush chair for about half an hour, and then returned to the hostel for a longer nap. I like the subway here. I compare it immediately to the one in Beijing, and the difference in the way passengers behave is striking. There is no pushing, people stand to the right on escalators, and people wait for people to get off the train before boarding. There is still hope for the mainland, thank goodness.

Taipei

I spent the last two days on flights or at the airport. I will say that the Singapore Airlines flight to Beijing was the best I have ever taken. I'm quite tired now, but have arrrived in Taiwan, which is very hot.

I went and got some breakfast this morning, but was confronted with a Chinese menu. I asked the lady to serve me something Taiwanese, and was pleasantly surprised to get a turnip cake. Then I walked over to the Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall, a grandiose structure that celebrates the life of a despot. I went to Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, and paid too much to go up. The view was impresive though, and I did ride the world's fastest elevators. I had lunch at the food court. It was good, but prices are higher than in South-East Asia and China. I was nearly out of money, and wanted to change some but none of the changers would accept my USD because the serial number were 'bad'! I'm not sure why. I never had problems anywhere else changing mony, although in Laos, people would not accept 'old-style' bills. I had to get money from the ATM, which I really did not want to do, because I still have plenty of cash. I next went to the National Palace Museum, which contains the relics smuggled away from the Forbidden city in 1948. It was interesting, but very small. They need to expand the exhibition space to put more of the collection on exhibit.