Lost in China

It’s kinda a bit late to write this one but i guess it is still part of our journey in China—the final pieces to complete the puzzle. Our last trip in China was the trip to Tibet at the end of last September. As some of you might have known, that we planned this trip soon as we came to China but for my self even before i left Indonesia. I still remember vaguely I watched National Geographic on TV a couple years ago, it was all about Tibet, Lhasa, Dalai Lamas and since then i’ve became fascinated with Tibet and set my heart that one day I must go to see this place. So when the chance came to visit China, i didn’t think twice….it was one big step closer to Tibet. I searched high and low on the internet,summed up all the information including the cost and other technical things on how should i get there. But still, i need companion, this kinda hold me back….due to several reasons, some of them are because i’m a girl….a small one, which is physically impossible for me to defend my self if i get attacked by stranger and also this was my first trip abroad. It wasn’t China that we talked about….it was Tibet, sounded  a ‘no where’ place, far, isolated, off the beaten track and unaccessible. I didn’t even have any idea what’s the status of this country, is it a country, a state under China or??? but then I found out that Tibet is a special administrative region under China, it is called TAR, Tibet Autonomous Region. 

Lucky for me, i have friends who shared the same interests and passion, Edwin and Fitrix, Both of them were also excited about Tibet, so Fitrix arranged everything and contact the travel agent to take care of the trip and documents needed. We decided that we should try the new railway Qinghai - Tibet, which just been opened for 2 months and looks people rushing to take on this train. This raised up our excitement for the trip. It still several months to go but we already dream and imagining the trip, the train, Tibetan culture etc every day and the news about the train and Tibet were always on CCTV 9, driving us crazy…….counting time to time.

Oops, i need to work now…will continue the story later…..oh yeah, i remember one moment when we went to Ganden Monastery, 30 km outside Lhasa, by jeep and we passed along Lhasa river, it was extremely gorgeous…..very very beautiful, i could never can forget it….and the songs You’re Beautiful by James Blunt kept ringing in my mind.

You’re beautiful…You’re beautiful….You’re beautiful…It’s true….I saw your face in a crowded place and I don’t know what to do….’cause I’ll never be with you…..

for Mr. Sta*R*bucks, for all beautiful memories we had…

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.

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…   

Simatai Great Wall is -I believe- the most magnificent Chinese heritage that I’ve ever visited. Located just about 3 hours driving from Beijing to the northeast direction, Simatai trully is a must place to be visited. You have to concern your fitness if you want to go there because you’ll find a lot of high hills. And don’t forget to check the weather, make sure that you’ll find a perfect blue sky.

photo by edwin 

It’ll take about two to three hours to climb, it depend on how fast you walk and how long you’ll take pictures (’puke mode’: on). On the other hand you can take the cable car and then walk from the cable car station to the tower #8 (still have to climb). I prefer to walk, taking pictures and enjoy the beautiful scene of northeast China. I can’t even describe how beautiful it is through the words, nor the pictures , nor the video cam. It’s an incredible & spectacular scene.

Different with Badaling, this Simatai is less (I mean really less) crowd, perhaps because of the -quite far- distance from Beijing and the steep tracks of it. In Badaling you’ll find a lot of people, so crowd that you can’t even take perfect pictures (’grin mode’: on). Simatai is a perfect place to take pictures with a beautiful scenery and with Great Wall background.

Again, if you want to go to Beijing make sure that you put this Simatai Great Wall on your itinerary.

These are Chinese athlete’s world achivements for the past four months: 

1. World Champion of table tennis (men and women team, tournament held in Germany)

2. World Champion of badminton (Thomas & Uber Cup, tournament held in Japan)

3. First time qualified for World Group of Fed Cup

4. Golf medal for men 110m Hurdles (Liu Xiang - new World Record at Athletissima Grand Prix)

5. Women Football Team, Champion of Asia (tournament held in Australia)

6. WTA Tour, Single World Ranking (#20: Li, Na and #27: Zheng, Jie)

7. Fifth place at the Basketball Continental Championship Stankovic Cup (with Yao Ming in a team, tournament held in Jiangsu Province China), indicates that China has a fighting chance of getting two wins against Puerto Rico, Slovenia and Senegal and earning a spot in the round of 16 at the World Championhip in Japan

8. Women Hockey Team qualified for World Cup

9. Gold medal for women 1m springboard (Jingjing, Guo at 15th FINA Diving World Cup in Changshu Province China)
10. Gold medal for men 1m springboard (Chong, He at 15th FINA Diving World Cup in Changshu Province China)
11. Gold medal for women 10m platform (Tong, Jia at 15th FINA Diving World Cup in Changshu Province China)
12. Gold medal for men 10m platform (Luxin, Zhou at 15th FINA Diving World Cup in Changshu Province China)
13. Gold medal for women 3m springboard (Minxia, Wu at 15th FINA Diving World Cup in Changshu Province China)
14. Gold medal for men 3m springboard (Kai, Qin at 15th FINA Diving World Cup in Changshu Province China)
15. Gold medal for women 3m springboard synchro (Jingjing, Guo & Ting, Li at 15th FINA Diving World Cup in Changshu Province China)
16. Gold medal for men 10m platform synchro (Liang, Huo & Yue, Lin at 15th FINA Diving World Cup in Changshu Province China)

17. Gold medal for women 5,000m running (Xue, Fei at IAAF World Junior Championship in Beijing)
18. Gold medal for men High Jump (Haiqiang, Huang at IAAF World Junior Championship in Beijing)
19. Gold medal for women Pole Vault (Yang, Zhou at IAAF World Junior Championship in Beijing)
20. Gold medal for women 10,000m Race Walk (Hong, Liu at IAAF World Junior Championship in Beijing)
21. Gold medal for men 10,000m Race Walk (Xiangdong, Bo at IAAF World Junior Championship in Beijing)
—>>> TOTAL China had 5 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 7 bronze medals. Runner up of the tournament.

and still counting…