Leichhardt

My sister Mary Ellen had a great idea (isn’t that what sisters are for?)...I could show you all exactly where I am here at what was previously Harold Hawkins Court Hostel, and now is called Georgia House, by letting you know where it is on maps.google:
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Be sure to play around and have a look up and down the street, as the façade of Georgia House is surely nothing to blog about! From a plaque on the wall, I have discovered that this place was at one point a residence for senior citizens. Well, I did make friends with two of the young persons who inhabit the place this morning over breakfast, and they were quite pleasant and did not seem at all ageist. Probably some friendly spirits are still wandering around the place.

Yesterday evening I explored the neighborhood a bit, and discovered in addition to the restaurants already mentioned, Lebanese and Thai (I’ll try to write about more eating experience, Kerrin!). I also found two bookstores (and bought a book on the history of China at one of them!) and a cinema just couple of short blocks away. I think I’m all set! I tried out the Japanese at the local Fujiyama Restaurant yesterday evening, and had some nourishing edamame and a delicious chicken and cucumber maki roll. I decided to get acclimated before going for the sashimi, though from what I saw from other customers’ dishes and satisfied looks, my next visit there will include it in the order. The food there is very fresh, and nothing splashed off of the chopsticks, so it was an outing to be repeated.

This morning I went out for a walk, and discovered a small park down the road. It’s the size of a city block, so for longer morning walks, I will be hopping on the bus that stops just across the road, and heading down to Circular Quay for explorations of the harbor area. Today I also did some somewhat serious grocery shopping at the supermarket (Coles) so I will be (rather boringly) avoiding the outside temptations and eating in. One great thing about being in Sydney when it’s summer is…cherries! OK, a bit on the expensive side, but very fresh, large and juicy.

For now, with supplies in, head down and to work!

The journey begins

From the splendor of a 5-star hotel in the center of Beijing to the plain lodgings of a student in a bohemian neighborhood of Sydney. This trip is about a lot more than just distance in physical space!

Beijing was spectacular. After spending 12 hours in a plane full of screaming, crying and shouting children (I slept, but each hour was punctuated by a loud noise which startled me into wakefulness) and arriving sometime not long after the sun rose, following my 10 euro taxi ride all the way in from the airport, I got to the hotel to find that they needed another hour to get my room ready (why do so many long haul flights deposit you at your destination at the crack of dawn when most hotels don’t let you check in until 2 pm?). The hotel was wonderfully located, right on the Wangfujing Avenue, which is the huge shopping district, with all sorts of trendy shops and shopping centers. Yes, I went into a mall and found a Starbucks for a coffee and a roll, too jetlagged to venture into a Chinese establishment for breakfast. I also managed to buy myself a digital camera (having left mine in Madrid) and a pair of neat fold-up reading glasses (having left mine at the hairdressers the day before departure in Madrid), and I found the Foreign Language Bookstore where I got a guide to Beijing. I tried haggling as I had been coached by friends who had been in Beijing before, but to no avail. I don’t think I was in the right kind of shop.

After checking into the hotel, and delighting in the huge bed, my big terrycloth robe, and room with all the amenities, I took off to see some sights. The hotel is conveniently located near the Forbidden City, so off I went, much surprised to find a Dia supermarket on the way (never realized it was an international chain…is it Spanish?). I met an artist on the way who helped point me in the right direction, which included a stop in his studio and the purchase of one of his cherry blossom scrolls. Drat, I forgot the haggling, and paid 300 RMB (around 30 euros) for it (it will look wonderful in the living room). Off I went to traipse around the outskirts of Tiannamen Square, and then walked the parameter of the Forbidden City, which, according to my guide book, covers 70 hectares. It was impressive from the outside, not just because of its size, but also because of the frozen moat running around the whole thing, and the glimpses of the splendor within.

In my wanderings, I was accosted by several people either wanting to know where I was from, offering to guide me around the City, or wanting to have their picture taken with me. That was quite startling! Across from the north entrance to the city, which is the Gate of Divine Prowess, is a wonderfully vertical park, called Jingshan Park (my guidebook calls it “Coal Hill”, which doesn’t seem quite the same), the top of which offers a splendid view of the Forbidden City, and Tiannamen Square beyond. I met a nice young man, also a visitor, who, after seeing my box of the scroll purchase, of which he had one of the same type and size, timidly asked me how much I had paid. He confirmed that he had also paid 300 RMB. Comforted by this shared purchasing experience, we parted ways, and after walking back to the hotel, I decided it was too cold and dark, and I was still too jetlagged to venture out for dinner, so I ate at the Asian restaurant at the hotel…chicken with walnuts and asparagus, which turned out to be celery. Still, it was delicious and with white rice, comforting. I spent the evening in my room, working on the book (a common theme when I wasn’t out sightseeing).

View of the Forbidden City from the top of Jingshan Park.

I had arranged with the concierge for an expedition the second day, including the Great Wall, about 70 km from Beijing. OK, I splashed out here. I was thinking of joining a bus tour, but the concierge said that they spend more time taking you to shops than to the sights, so in the end I acquiesced to the 800 RMB (around 80 euros) the whole trip would cost. I had my qualms, and tried haggling again, but the concierge looked aghast, and showed me the nice car I would be in, and reiterated that I would have an English-speaking driver. I asked if the driver would also be a tour guide, and again the concierge looked aghast at me as if to say that I was asking an awful lot. On Sunday morning, Li picked me up, and I think the concierge must have tipped him off that I was a bit crotchety and in need of humoring, as he was a wonderful guide. I think he had memorized off a whole guide book, as his English packaging of all of the facts and stories he reeled off was excellent. He even pointed out in one conversation that “azure” is a word that English speakers don’t use very often. He drove me to the Ming Tombs…well, I didn’t see any tombs, but I had the most enjoyable walk along the Sacred Walkway, with its stone dignitaries and real and mythical animals lined along its 7-km path. Then we drove along a bit more, and he asked me if I still had my entry ticket from the Walkway, as I would need it for the museum. Except it wasn’t a museum….it was a shop! Well, a jade factory and shop. A young woman took me around the “museum”, teaching me along the way to distinguish between real and fake jade (plastic has bubbles, marble is not translucent…), and then led me into the shop and displayed before me 5 bracelets. I had to decide which 3 of the 5 were fake. Of course she had taught me so well that I passed the test with no problem. A wonderful trick to get a customer feeling so good about herself that she bought a jade happiness ball (several layers of hollow balls, one inside the other, all carved from one block of jade, as the layers are seamless), and again, I forgot to haggle!

Shopping done (and I was glad that Li did not take me to any more shops) we drove off to the Great Wall. It was freezing cold and windy that day, but I had my superwarm winter jacket, hat, scarf and gloves, and I bravely got on the cable car up to Badaling, a relatively large section of the wall (about 80 km…when the Wall in all of its ramifications is said to total over 8,800 km!) that has been beautifully restored. The cable car was scary…all by myself in this capsule, suspended above craggy rocks, being buffeted about by the wind. It was worth it when I got up to the top, and saw the wall stretching off through the mountains in both directions. I staggered against the wind one way and then another, marveling at it all, and anticipating the cable car ride back down. In spite of the buffeting (which seemed to have grown worse) I arrived at the bottom with no problem, to be met by Li who then drove me off to the Summer Palace.

The Summer Palace…these emperors really knew how to choose where to live! Of course, this is just the summer palace, when the heat in Beijing grew too much to bear. I did wend my way up to the palace, which wasn’t as spectacular as all of the grounds, and the huge Lake of Tranquility, which was completely frozen over, with lots of people out for a stroll on its icy surface. Also spectacular was the Long Corridor…I couldn’t imagine what that meant until I came across this 700 meter long covered walkway, covered with thousands of paintings of Chinese history and tradition.

Then it was back to Beijing, with a stop along the way for a photo of the Olympic National Stadium (or the Bird’s Nest) from across the highway (on the way out we had seen both this and the Water Cube, but alas my camera had run out of batteries!), and a stop at the Silk Market as well (just for a brief spin around the museum…no shopping).

Then…back to the hotel. Whew. I do think I got my money’s worth, and more, as Li was such a fantastic guide. That evening I got adventuresome finally! And went to Shun Yi Fu, a small restaurant near the hotel, which is especially known for its dumplings. After a long, very cold day, the green tea they brought immediately was comforting. The cabbage and meatball soup was out of this world, and the chicken and mushroom dumplings delicious. I was the only Westerner in the place, so it was kind of embarrassing when a dumpling slipped off my chopsticks and went splash! into the soy sauce, sending the stuff everywhere. No one bat an eyelash (so maybe they are used to that?).

That evening started the tummy troubles…not too bad, mind, but enough to set off slight worry that I should take it easy.

The next morning, though feeling a bit achy, I got into a taxi and for 20 RMB (which is like 2 euros) I went off to the Temple of Heaven. It was the place of worship for the emperors to make sacrifices and prayers to God in order to ensure a good harvest, and the whole complex is huge, with the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, a walkway leading to the Imperial Vault of Heaven, and then another to the massive Round Altar. There are various assorted halls along the way, including the different places where the emperor and empress would change into the ceremonial garments. The pathways are lined with different kinds of stone…and depending on your rank, you could walk along one set of stones or another, cross one kind of bridge or another. Things have changed…just outside the entrance to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests were dozens and dozens of people, doing aerobics to songs with a funky beat sung by a guy with a microphone and a boom box hooked up to speakers. I called a taxi to take me to Tiannamen Square…and he said 70 RMB!! I finally haggled….and got him down to 30 (I had come out a fair distance from where I had started as I exited a different gate, so fair enough.)

Off to Tiannamen Square…you actually have to go through security screening to get on to this huge square. There are a number of guard posts, and guards everywhere, in their Russian style fur caps and long belted woolen green coats. Tiannamen leads to the Forbidden City…which, again, is breathtaking. Despite the crowds, it was easy to let the imagination play at being there with emperors, empresses, concubines and eunuchs, dignitaries bowing to the ground in front of the emperor seated on his throne…the place is huge, with its outer courtyard, and inner courtyard, and all of its gates and halls. The Gate of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Supreme Harmony, Hall of Middle Harmony, Hall of Preserving Harmony, Gate of Heavenly Purity, Hall of Heavenly Purity, Hall of Union and the Hall of Tranquility, and the Imperial Garden all had their functions in terms of where emperors and empresses received people, and then those are all surrounded by the living quarters of the concubines and eunuchs. It all makes me want to see one of those epic Chinese films…

After walking back to the hotel after a long day, and still not feeling 100%, I went to one of the restaurants at the hotel and ordered a chicken dish that was just right…actually, it was pieces of boiled chicken with spring onions and white rice, along with a chicken and spring onion broth (sorry I didn’t get down the Chinese name of the dish!). Delicious…and just what the doctor ordered!

So Beijing…hugely modern and epically past…with young women driving cars with fur covered steering wheels, and Kitty covered head rests. Squat toilets. Traffic patterns which are bewildering…the little green man doesn’t seem to give the pedestrian the right of way to cars and bicycles turning in either from the right or left, so dodging is required. Bicycles everywhere, with little trailers pulled behind, baskets for carrying stuff in the front, more stuff lashed onto the back. Huge outdoor screens even at the temples (maybe they were for viewing the Olympics?). Sigh….the three days really flew by!

This morning I arrived in Sydney after another 12 hour flight (this one strangely quiet), and managed to navigate the train to the center, and then a bus to the lodgings. What a difference from the hotel…very studentlike, with a twin bed, basic desk and closet, the bathroom comes without amenities, and it is under one of the flight paths for Sydney Airport! (one that I have just been assured is not used every day…it all depends on the wind…I should have prayed for wind in the right direction while I was at the Temple of Heaven!). But the room is very clean, it looks out onto a courtyard full of trees, and the location is fantastic – on a street replete with cafes, shops and restaurants (Indian, Japanese, Chinese, and lots of Italian…the traditional ethnicity of Leichhardt neighborhood) and the people who work here very friendly and helpful. Now I just have to get used to heat and humidity after the bone dry cold of Beijing!