Modern China: A Giant Being Transformed

By Arnie Greenberg
Contact Arnie at
ultours@gmail.com

(Arnie and his wife Dana take a rickshaw ride in Beijing, a traditional form of transportation in a land where the automobile is now crowding streets)

China is being transformed.

Its major cities are glittering, modern, bustling with tourists living in futuristic hotels.

(Where Arnie and his wife Dana stayed in Shanghai)

The old Shanghai is hidden behind a forest of steel and glass. The modern airports, the shopping possibilities, and the welcoming spirit of the people make it a wonderful visit.

(The old Shanghai is now hidden behind a forest of glass and steel)

China is also becoming less mysterious. More and more people are visiting places that they once only dreamt about, especially as the country gears up for the Olympics in 2008.

China "The" Place to Visit

I was once told that China wasn't ready for foreign visitors. Not only are they now ready, but the network of hotels, especially designed for tourists, the tour companies, the guides, the food services, and special entertainment make China "the" place to visit.

Tourists find the streets generally clean and safe. The people are warm and cordial, especially the children. The merchandise is worth buying, even when many of the items are 'knock-offs' and the price is right. Consider a Burberry winter coat at a cost of $40.

Each visitor has his favorite sites. Shanghai is now modern, sparkling and inviting. A Yangtze River cruise or a trip on the Li River is on most travelers' lists. Here are a few of my special discoveries.

The Forbidden City

Beijing can rival fast food outlets and modern western shops everywhere. Even the styles are up to date. Beijing hotels boast everything a visitor could want. The squares, palaces and modern boulevards are not to be believed.

China's official capital and most popular attraction, The Forbidden City, dating back to 1406, contains 8,700 rooms that took 200,000 workers to build. It occupies 720,000 square meters with 9,000 bays of halls and rooms. The ten-meter-high walls are 3,428 meters long with four splendid corner towers. There is a 52-foot fortifying moat surrounding the whole wall.

(A portrait of Mao adorns Tiananmen Square)

It is so big that when we walked from Tiananmen Square to the other side, we had to take a taxi back. For centuries, ordinary people could not enter the gates, hence the name, Forbidden City. The city served both the Ming and Quing dynasties well. Twenty-four emperors ruled the whole country from here for almost 500 years. The last person to actually live in the Forbidden City was Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Quing Dynasty. (See the film The Last Emperor).

The city includes magnificent halls, serene pathways and secret places where discussions could be held away from prying ears. The Imperial Gardens boast huge pines, exotic flowers and rare stones. There are pavilions, two-storied houses and ponds.

(Everyone needs to take the requisite Tiananmen Square photo, and Arnie and Dana were no different)

There was nothing left to be added, except, perhaps, toilet facilities for the masses of visitors. These are few and far between. Nobody expected this sacred sanctuary to be a visitor's paradise. Of course, Mao's picture still greets you and reconstruction is an ongoing thing.

The reconstructed project became a key cultural relic in 1961 and was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1987.
There were hundreds of foreigners there that day, but even more Chinese who still venerate the traditions of the site.

The Magnificent Bronze Lions

Even before you enter the gate, you are faced with two magnificent gold-plated bronze lions. The guide explained that the one with its paw resting on a ball was male and the one with the baby was the female. They are perfect symbols of power, grandeur, dignity and luxury. It is at this point that the emperor would give his New Year's announcements.

(One of the gold-plated lions one sees before entering the gate)

There are too many halls (rooms) or courtyards to describe or even remember. I particularly enjoyed the bedroom of Emperor Quinqing, with its ornate ceiling, red pillars and ornate rear screen. Like most buildings of this era, one can find great ceramic heaters. This room is no exception.

The Tai Hall is larger but similar in some respects. It was here that the emperor was enthroned and held important ceremonies. The emperor's throne was made during the Ming Dynasty, painted gold with dragons adorning it. Behind it is a gold-plated screen.

Documents, lanterns, bridal chambers, inner moats with sculpted bridges, gardens with pagodas, ornate curtains and statues of cranes or tortoises plus sculpted marble staircases, gold encrusted globes or clocks and dragons as well as portraits of emperors and empresses give us a better idea of the opulence of the rulers of this gigantic and once-mysterious country.

Walking on the Great Wall

About an hour or almost 60 km outside the city, workmen constructed a wall as a protection over vast distances to keep invaders out.

(The Great Wall of China is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World)

Walking on the Great Wall is an exciting thing for visitors. Considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and dating back to 770 BC, it covers a distance of 54,000 km -- the only man-made construction that can be seen from space. When it was constructed, wars were fought with swords, lances and bows and arrows.

This was the best way to defend against warring invaders. The beacon towers were a source of communication in case of attack. The expansion of the earlier walls in 221 BC required 300,000 soldiers to do the work during the Ming Dynasty. In the wall which is one-meter thick and five meters high, there is enough material to encircle the globe ten times.

It is difficult to describe the feeling one gets when one visits this monumental undertaking. Thousands still visit daily just to walk over tiny sections of the wall. At the base camps there are restaurants, parking lots and souvenir shops. The view during a red sunset or at dawn's first light or when covered with snow resembles a silver dragon. During the rainy season, it sits above the low clouds as a silent sentinel to man's ingenuity.

Visiting Badaling

We also visited the large mountainous section at Badaling which has been meticulously constructed and is an outstanding example of ancient military architecture. Here, the surroundings are beautiful, especially during the autumn months when the surrounding colors are so vivid.

From Sima Terrace on a dizzying height one can see the lights of Beijing on clear nights.

The wall looks like a dragon winding its way through green forests that are covered with puffy white snow in winter. Being there is its own reward. It is key to China's pride in any season.

Some sections are all open to the public. People come to breathe fresh air, some to do exercise and some to bear witness to the enormity of the project that will surely leave one humble on return. I certainly felt that way. I think about my walk on only a fraction of the wall, and I dream about returning. It is beyond belief that something as old and grand as this should still be standing and welcoming strangers. Just being there takes away some of the mystery of centuries.

Terra Cotta Warriors of Xian

There are so many other places in China worth visiting.
I recommend the Terra Cotta Warriors of Xian, a city of 11,000,000 that few westerners ever thought of visiting before the thousands of Terra Cotta warriors were accidentally discovered.

(There are 80,000 terra cotta warriors to be seen, in addition to 10,000 horses, and 1,000 chariots)

Now you can see nearly 80,000 of the million life-sized armed warriors, 10,000 horses and 1,000 chariots arranged in battle formations. The area covers 20,000 sq. m. It's awesome and once the capital of all China.

(Arnie Greenberg strikes a pose with a terra cotta warrior of old)

The Li River near Guilin, in Guangxi Province, is where tourists cruise on flat bottom boats. The 52-mile journey takes you through mysterious looking peaks on the limpid Li River under perfect blue skies. You drift past water buffalo, rice paddies and fishermen on bamboo rafts.

I ended my first tour in Hong Kong. Again, there is nothing like it, from the crowded streets of Kowloon to the dizzying heights above. People, busses and hawkers fill the streets. Markets abound with people, people, people. Hong Kong is like nothing I know.

(A restaurant visited in Hong Kong)

Be sure to make your guide and hotel reservations before you go. It may sound romantic, but traveling through China on your own is something not recommended.

Let's Visit a Hutong

On our tour, we were told in Beijing that we would visit a Hutong, but nobody knew what it was.

When we finally go to see it, we found out that it was, generally speaking, a district within the city of Beijing with 700-year-old narrow streets or lanes assembled in a quadrangle with spaces so narrow that only rickshaws could be used for transportation.
Unless, that is, you cared to walk.

(A warm welcome to visitors)

Hutong means a lane or alley, compounds of houses built around courtyards, and in a country where space is at a premium, they are just the right thing.

Flying over parts of China you can see small clusters of houses built on a square of land. They look small and uninhabited, but remember, the space between the houses was limited. Some say the lanes are as narrow as 40 centimeters. What I saw was wider but not wider than a normal lane. From the air it looked like an enclosure, but I was told that great numbers of people lived in those Hutongs.

Now it was time to visit one and we went to a meeting point where over 100 rickshaws were assembled waiting to drive us to our lunch meeting.

(Rickshaws, or pedi-cabs, are now driven by bicycle power in China)

These pedi-cabs are no longer pulled but are driven by bicycle power. Two people to a rickshaw on padded seats under orange-red canopies were pulled through the narrow streets. These rickshaws were quite comfortable. Once inside, we would learn about daily life of ordinary residents.

A home-cooked meal awaited us, and we had the feeling we were where the average ancient family spent their entire lives. Some of the great names in China once lived in such dwellings. Now they are regulated by the government with certain ones selected to receive visitors.

(a 4-star toilet -- now there's a first if ever there was one!)

Over a delicious lunch, we were told the cost, size of the rooms and the number of people who lived there. I felt that they did require some dressing up or repairs, even for a country like China. After all, the modernization of Beijing is beyond one's imagination. It is now a mega- city with shining hotels and steel-and-glass buildings going up all the time. With the Olympics coming in 2008, the growth is even more rapid.

Like the rest of China, the people were ready to talk or try to converse. They were very cordial and we felt welcome.
In Beijing, the Hutongs were built around The Forbidden City. There are two types. One is a regular Hutong and centered closely to the east and west of the palace.

The other is simple and crude and is located to the north and south. The main buildings are four houses built around an enclosure or courtyard. The size varies with social status. High-ranking officials and wealthy merchants have more space and often a front and back yard.

The Hutongs are very much in the news these days, as so much of the land has been given over to wide roads, apartments and first-class hotels. Recently, important Government officials reported that they would spend what is needed to bring the Hutongs up to date.

A tour and lunch in a Hutong is very rewarding. You can arrange to sit in on a nursery school class or have a hands-on lesson in learning to make dumplings in a resident's home.

The Chinese are proud to show off their talents. Even Chelsea Clinton and Bill Gates have been visitors. Ask your guide to arrange a visit. It's part of Beijing's history. In two hours you can learn about daily life of ordinary residents.

The question I am asked is will they be ready for the 2008 Olympics? You can bet on it. Even now, two years before the great event, you can see the construction. It will be special, there's no doubt.

For more information go to www.hutongtour.com.cn

(Read more of Arnie's stories by clicking here)