Dingzhou

Only thirty kilometers from Quyang is Dingzhou, a city on the railway that links Beijing to Shijiazhuang. The minibus from Quyang dropped me off at the train/bus station in Dingzhou, both on opposite sides of a chaotic square. I immediately got in line for train tickets at the station, and tried to buy tickets for the evening, but alas, they were sold out. I settled for a 7:45 morning train back to Beijing. Since I had to stay overnight, I found a hotel that was right next to the train station. It was a real shithole, the second-worst hotel I have ever stayed in. The bathrooms were dreadful and had no partitions. However, they were at least clean. The room was clean, but very basic. The owner, an old man, was very friendly to me. He obviously had little contact with foreigners; as he was taking me up to my room, we passed a guy who said ‘hellooo’ is a mocking way. This is typical Chinese behavior towards foreigners. The old man asked me if I knew him. No, I explained, I do not. But a lot of Chinese people like saying hello to foreigners.

My whole reason for going to Dingzhou was to visit the Liaodi pagoda, China’s tallest premodern building. The ride through the city to the pagoda showed that Dingzhou looked the same as every other Chinese city: dusty and ugly. Featuring horrible bathroom tile buildings of grotesque dimensions, Dingzhou was not easy on the eyes. Even in the ‘old quarter’ where all the historical attractions were, the city was hideous. In the hutong area behind the pagoda, I counted one building that looked more than sixty years old. As usual, it was in an appalling state of repair.

On the bright side, the pagoda was delightful. It was beautifully restored, and you could climb to the top. I enjoyed looking down on Dingzhou at the top, and saw some historical sights from the air. In a display of historical pictures in front of the pagoda, I saw that in the 1880s, a quarter of the pagoda had collapsed, revealing an interior ‘core’ pagoda. Very interesting.

Next I went to the Confucian Temple which was new, but nice. While there, a group of soldiers walked in and wanted me to take their picture with them. When I finished in the temple, I heard an old man outside ask someone about me. “That’s a foreigner, right? Not Korean or Japanese?” This is what you get in the boonies of China.

Quyang

I wanted to visit a town way off the tourist path, and Quyang was that town. Unlike Zhengding and my next destination, Dingzhou, Quyang is not even connected by railway. Apart from a large temple and a crumbling pagoda, Quyang has nothing for tourists. I wasn’t sure what to expect from Quyang, but was moderately surprised to see old-style buildings in the temple area. Apparently the local government wishes to attract tourism.

Quyang is not very well developed. Unlike the massive apartment towers in Zhengding, Quyang, had squat little apartment blocks, and I didn’t see a KFC there. Having a KFC is the mark of a city in China. Quyang’s claim to fame is its sculpture industry. Before I left on my trip, I did a quick internet search of Quyang and found a reuters article about the sculpture industry. It seems as though the economic downturn has severely affected Quyang, with orders drying up for the Greek style sculptures. Not surprisingly, there is little domestic demand for these kind of sculptures, so they sit in the workyards of Quyang. On my way out of town, I passed tons of these workshops filled with garish statues.

Overall, I quite enjoyed Quyang. The Beiyue temple was spectacular, and it was kinda fun stumbling across a decrepit pagoda in the midst of hutongs. People were very friendly to me in Quyang, which was nice, and no one tried to cheat me. I got a lot of stares but thankfully no hellos.

Zhengding

This weekend I visited Zhengding, a town located in the central China plain, just fourteen kilometers north of the Hebei capital Shijiazhuang. Nevertheless, Zhengding feels like a town in the countryside, far removed from the modernity of Shijiazhuang. I would estimate that massive development only began here a few years ago. In the north part of the city, four massive apartment buildings were under construction. A couple of other apartment buildings have been completed, along with a mall. I'm not entirely sure what the main industry is here, apart from tourism.

Happily for the town’s historical preservation, the massive development is quite removed from the old quarter. Development is so limited in this part of the city, that farmland is still present within the walls. Even so, there was actually very little that was actually ‘old’ in the old town, apart from the pagodas and temples. The main street in the old town was built in old style, but none of the buildings were really that old, including the dwellings in the many hutongs. Unlike the beautiful courtyard houses in Beijing, these hutongs had ugly brick houses. The city wall has not been pulled down, but is crumbling away.

I saw three other foreigners in the time I was there, but Zhengding still has a lot of work to do to make the city friendlier to tourism. It felt more like a frontier town than a real city. Pains should be made to beautify the surrounding hutong neighborhoods, and not build ugly modern buildings. Better hotels should be built that are up to international standards.

The historical sights within the city are very well-preserved though. Perhaps a few halls could be reconstructed to create an actual temple with worshipers. The Kaiyuan Temple, in particular cries out for a reconstruction of its two destroyed halls. Having a living, breathing temple with monks and incense creates a better atmosphere than a sterile historical site. This can be seen in the comparative popularity of the Longxing temple over all the other sites, despite its higher admission cost. I think Zhengding has a lot of potential to become a premier tourist attraction, but more work needs to be done to beautify the city and expand tourist’s amenities.

Beijing's Dilapidated Temples

Beijing has a number of very beautiful temples that have been restored for public viewing, after being largely ignored throughout the 20th century. A good example of a restored temple is the Temple of Successive Emperors, which was neglected for over fifty years, before being re-opened a few years ago. If you were too look at all the temples that are in Beijing in tourist guide, you would probably find about twenty, but in reality there are many more. The temples you don't read about are the ones that have been transformed into housing or other buildings, and that have escaped the destruction that runs rampant in old Beijing. Although many of these temples have already been torn down, there are still some remaining.

I had an encounter with one of these temples yesterday when I attempted to visit a restored temple called the Temple of Longevity. It turned out to be closed on Mondays (but curiously was open for tour groups), but next to the temple was a neighborhood of hutongs. Many of the ones right next to the temple wall had recently been torn down, but one complex of housing still stood. Facing the street was a closed, temple-style door, and a small, very old plaque, saying that this was the Yanqing Temple, which was under protection from the local government. I went inside and saw that it was filled with small buildings. Instead of there being a wide open courtyard, surounded by buildings, the courtyard no longer existed, and ugly brick buildings stood in its place. I confirmed with a lady that this was indeed a temple at one time, although who knows how long ago. The temple halls still remained, converted to housing. I hope the temple is restored at some point. I am a bit concerned though, because those knocked down hutongs right next to the Yanqing temple could be what happens to it in a few years.

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.