Lost in China

honey, I’m coming home…

It’s not only a lake. It’s also places for hang out, gathering and dinner on a boat.

Located on the northern of Forbidden City, you can ask the taxi driver to go here just by saying "HouHai". I never realize that this place is so big until last weekend me, Andam and Fitrix had a visit. It’s a place for hang out indeed.

You will find (western style) cafes along the lake (including Starbucks, I have to mention it hehehe…) and a lake with small boats (you can have a dinner on a boat). I think none of them has a Chinese cultural background for their entertainment package, except a live Chinese pop songs. So many expats at the area, just like the Sanlitun Area in a bigger scale with a lake inside. Well, all I can say that: this place is not for Chinese culture. It’s for me (and you) to hang out.

Just outside this lake area, you also can find the "HuTong", a Chinese traditional  housing area. The HuTong people always try to survive against the modernism. From the latest magazine,  I found out that all HuTong area in BeiJing will be demolished and replaced with high buildings for apartmentsas the preparation for Summer Olympic 2008. Pro and contra always comes up from the residents.

I’m wondering is there any lake in Jakarta that can be plotted just like this HouHai Lake entertainment area…??? Eh…

This is the place if you’re looking for the beautiful landscape of Chinese temple. Make sure that you have a best weather of the day.

One of my best visit beside the Forbidden City (the history) and Simatai Great Wall (the landscape & the challenge). Temple of Heaven is truly a must visit if you’re in BeiJing.

Located just southern of Wang Fujing Street, about two or three km to the north gate of this temple. The ticket is 35 RMB for "through ticket", the ticket that allowed you to enter the main gate, the Circular of Mounds and the Temple of Heaven itself. In my opinion this is the place that I always want to take pictures and still want to. Specially when you have a bright blue sky. Magnificent.

photo by: edwin 

Built first in 1420 during the Ming Emperor Yongle’s reign, it was expanded and renovated during the Ming Emperor Jiajing’s (1522-1566) and Qing Emperor Qianlong’s (1736-1795) reigns. The Temple of Heaven is a magnificent masterpiece of architecture in a solemn environment. Since the founding of New China, the government has allotted major resources to protect and restore the cultural monuments here. The Temple of Heaven with its long history, deep cultural significance and magnificent architectural style mirrors the ancient culture of the China.

Toilet business is my biggest complain in China. I had thousand of experiences…a bit hyperbolic… of using public toilet/wc and none of them resulted in satisfaction. Sometimes, I found them as disgusting, weird, strange and unpleasant experiences or even nightmares. Toilets in China had received bunch of complains from expatriate, tourist or foreigner who just dropped by in China. I heard that Chinese government really take this matter seriously and they gear up to handle this problem soon as this country will face 2008 Olympic Games.   

One of my experiences is really strange but i found it quite funny and become unforgettable for my entire life. Most of the toilet problem I had is about the sanitation of the toilets but this one is not.  It happened when we had a dinner with a Chinese friend in a hot pot restaurant. During the dinner, I had this urgent, emergency condition that I really needed to go toilet right away. After a waiter told me where it was, I hurried up to settle my business but unfortunately there was only one toilet and 3 other ladies already in queue before me, so I need to wait. When my turn came, I quickly entered the toilet and how surprised I was when I entered the toilet there was a young lady squatted, crouching with knees bent and she mumbled some words to me but off course I didn’t understand what she said. I just assumed she said “You can have your own business…never mind me, have a nice time”……whatttt???

In my mind, an ideal toilet should be a very personal place, sometimes it’s a place for people to enjoy their time of being alone….for me, it’s a good time to recall back memories, pondering, reflecting or reading papers or magazine…hehehe.  How can I settle my toilet business with other people squatted before me and maybe she will take the opportunity to peep…Ooo no way, it will never happen to me, my brains shouted….as I about to beg her to give me some space and ask her to leave the toilet , I saw her crying and seemed like in a deep pain…Oh Gosh, what should I do with her….she just drooped and waved her hands to me refusing to get out ….and I was in really deep trouble because of this urgent need….there was no other way to run for another toilet….so I just closed the door  and took my time with this lady in front of me, still crouching and bowing her head…In my heart, I yelled out to her…Don’t you dare to peep me, miss!!!

Today (Friday September 15, 2006) me and Fitrix did the Friday pray (sholat Jum’at) at NiuJie Masjid, Beijing. Located southern part of Beijing, near the Temple of Heaven to the west direction.

We (me, Andam and Fitrix) arrived at 11.40am and found out that Friday pray at this masjid started at 1.30pm. Well, at least we still had two hours and we decided to take a lunch first at moslem restaurant around masjid. On the way to the restaurant we found one big moslem Supermarket: NiuJie Moslem Supermarket. That’s brilliant…!!! Looks like this area is a moslem area, so many people with XinJiang faces, people from middle east and also so many moslem restaurant.

While we wait for our orders at the restaurant,  someone waving at me. From his face I could tell that maybe he’s from South East Asia (Indonesia/Malaysia/Brunei). I bet he think the same way that I think, that’s why he waved at me. Mmhhh…brothers…

The masjid is a mixture of Islamic and Chinese cultures. The outside shows the Chinese influence while the inside decoration is rich in Islamic flavour. Founded in 996 during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the masjid was rebuilt in 1442 in the Ming Dynasty and expanded in 1696 under the Qing Dynasty. It consists of an observation tower, prayer hall, and minaret with a pavilion on each side. The observation tower is just behind the entrance. It was built and originally used for astronomical observations needed for drawing up the Islamic calendar. The hexagonal wooden structure is also Chinese outside but Islamic inside, with Arabic designs on the ceiling and the beams.

At masjid, we found so many different faces: Chinese (including XinJiang faces), middle east, western and South East Asian. All together doing the same thing, praying. I’t been a long-long time since I arrived in BeiJing, I finally found the big moslem community. And guess what, we met other Indonesian people also at that masjid.

Next Friday, I will be on a flight back to Jakarta.

That’s it. I’s my one and only chance to do Friday pray at this magnificent masjid. I hoped I can do Tarawih in BeiJing, but maybe Allah wants me to go back to Jakarta, to face the Ramadhan together with my little happy family.

I feel a bit daunted to post something on this blog recently. Since this blog became a reference for Asia Travel weblog a couple months ago, i think i need to be careful about the ‘quality’ of the posting. So much for a reason that i’m a woman, sometimes i feel i only write about my feelings and not really ’something’, you know. Often i neglect about the grammar and spelling, who cares??…i’m not a native english speaker, so what the heck?? as long as you understand what i mean…that wouldn’t be a problem, am i right?

So back to the story, a week ago, we went to an old mosque in Beijing, the name is Niujie Mosque. Located in southern part of Tian an’men square, the mosque has been there since 900 A.D at the age the Song Dynasty and was rebuilt in 1442 during Ming Dynasty and expanded in 1696 under Qing Dynasty. The architecture of the mosque is a mixture of Islamic and Chinese cultures. Just like any other Chinese construction, the mosque also has a wooden rooftop complete with typical Chinese reliefs but the difference lies on its pattern which can be flowers, clouds or abstract shape and not usual Chinese reliefs, dragon and phoenix. The construction itself consists of several separated buildings or pavillions: the worshipping hall, the calling tower, meeting hall and pavillions at each side and in the backyard, we can see two tombs of Imams, 2 muslims who came from Middle east and preached in the mosque. 

So, this Friday, edwin and fitrix gave a time to do Jum’ah Pray in the mosque. When the time approaching 13.30, many people pouring into the mosque, people from different races and nationalities, Chinese, African, South East Asia like Indonesia, Brunei, Middle East and etc…all mingled up into one harmony. A different atmosphere…though we have significant physical differences, like eyes, skin color, hair and we speak different languanges  but i can feel there’s a bond binding us…that we are all muslims and thus we’re all brothers.   

Gosh, how can I forget to write the story about this place…???

Sanlitun is located near the embassy area, close to Dongzhimen Street, Beijing. This area famous by the mall and bars along the street. For me,  a mall is a mall, nothing special (hehehe…sorry…) but  I love the bars located along the street. You can find a crowd night life at those bars, specially on the weekend.

You can find many expats at the area, perhaps because it’s near the embassy area, near many four star hotels and it’s located between ring road #2 and #3. I’ve been there, but to be honest I haven’t enjoy the night at those bar yet. Hey, how ’bout this weekend…??? Let’s see then.

I thought I still have more than 30 nights in Beijing, but looks like I have to go home early ("question marks" icon: on).

I should knew this two months ago, when this link came up on the "incoming links" tags.

Today I just found out that one person read our story about Indonesia food in Beijing through that link. That’s mean our story has became the reference for Asia Travel weblog. Isn’t it great…hehehe…

We’re back!!! from a 4-day geological trip to Ji Xian, Tianjin Province. What an exhausting trip, climbed up and hiked mountain and hills but nevertheless there’s something interesting and beautiful about Chinese people and culture we learned from the trip. So much things to tell but seems words are not enough to describe all. The most important thing is that because of this trip, we had been able to twine relationship with our chinese colleagues here. After 4 months having a hard time just to communicate with them eventually the ice now is melting down.  We don’t know after all this time, they were so eager to talk to us, but due to their poor english made them so timid and refrained.

One night, we approached a guy who supposed to act as our escort (??) during the trip to ask something about problems we had with our simcard, one simple question lead to another then it turned to be a pleasant conversation between people with contrast background. We chatted about many things, from simcard to communist party, from monogamy-poligamy to how expensive to buy a house in China, from our wife/bf-gf’s profession to Korean War, Japan War, Hongkong and Macau. I can say that this guy is very open minded person, I dare not say youth generation of Chinese nowadays all like him, i just can guess this man is different, unique, not only how open he was but also he can joke with us the way we do. A real cute and funny chinese young man.

At the other night, he revealed to me that he is not a Han Chinese but a Manchurian (you know that majority of Chinese, 90% is Han race and the rest are Miao, Manchu, Mongol and etc). No wonder I always thought his face is unlike typical chinese men, more like Korean or Japanese. His hometown is in Liaoning Province, Northeastern part of China, He said that in ancient times, 3 province in North Eastern China which covers Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang were belong to Manchus. The last dynasty who reigned China before China reformed to a national was Qing Dynasty, and this dynasty came from Manchu tribe. In old times, the Manchus earned living by hunting animal and used animal skin as their clothes, which is unlike Han race who mostly lived as farmers. We shared so much thoughts,  opinions, differences but at the end i realized that no matters what nationality, religion, culture, customs, tradition every people has, we are all just the same human being everywhere.

Dedicated to our dude, Gao Boyu…