Touring the Forbidden City in sub-freezing weather

** Countdown to our adoption: Only three days left before we get Matthew. **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

BEIJING, China (Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008, 5:05 p.m.) – Water in the moat surrounding the Forbidden City froze solid as people strolled past in heavy coats, but Pam and I managed to tour the site on a cold Saturday morning anyway.

Despite temperatures well below freezing, the light wind and bright sun made it seem warmer than our first two days in Beijing. Simply put: This was a tour Pam and I weren’t going to miss.

This is history on a grand scale, the home of China’s rulers – including the country’s last emperor, Pu Yi, who began his brief reign in 1908 at age 3 ruling over an empire from behind the walls of the Forbidden City.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Pu Yi abdicated the throne in 1912 at the age of 7 but remained imprisoned in the 180-acre Forbidden City in the heart of Beijing until 1924 – all the while living a life of luxury.

The Chinese have done a lot restoring this historic landmark since we were last in Beijing in March 2006. Back then, workers toiled in the early spring heat restoring the classical Chinese architecture and stone-covered ground.

A lot of work remains to be done – some buildings are still decrepit and in need of repairs and paint. But, for the most part, this remains as breathtaking today as it did when we first visited in 2006.

It’s also an important part of the culture, background and identity of our two children, Camryn, 3, who is staying back in Madison, Miss., and Matthew, 1, whom we are adopting on this trip to China.

Personal tour

We joined hundreds of other people Saturday who toured the Forbidden City.

We were two of the lucky few: We had our own personal tour guide who filled Pam with detail after detail while I snapped photos and shot high definition video.

We learned about old Chinese traditions, symbols scattered throughout the site, practices of former emperors and, of course, all about the emperors’ large concubines. Here are a few of the more interesting tidbits:

Lion statues: Two lion statues guard the entrance to one of the Forbidden City’s important throne rooms. One was male and the other female, with the female placing her paw sit on top of a baby for whom she was caring.

Fire control: Large iron vats are found throughout the Forbidden City. Back in the early days of the site, the vats held water that was used to extinguish fires that threatened the all-wood buildings.

Unending rooms: The complex has 9,999 rooms, one short of the10,000 rooms in Heaven. Nine, by the way, is a lucky number for the Chinese. The complex was built in the early 1400s over a period of 14 years.

Emperors’ concubine: The concubine lived on the premises in a separate room apart from the empress. If the emperor wanted to spend time with his concubine, they were allowed a total of 40 minutes timed by a lighted incense stick.

If you really want to be awed by the Forbidden City and learn more about Pu Yi, I suggest you rush out next month and buy “The Last Emperor” on Blu-ray high definition DVD from the Criterion Collection. If you don’t own a Blu-ray player, the release of this disc gives you a reason to buy one.

Heavy crowds

If you didn’t know better, you would have thought Pam and I were visiting at the height of the tourist season.

We weren’t, actually. It’s just that the Forbidden City is probably the biggest – or certainly one of the biggest – tourist attractions in the Beijing area.

Despite the frigid weather, hundreds of tourists from the United States, Europe and across China toured the site on Saturday creating heavy congestion at every turn you made.

Good luck trying to get a view inside one of the many rooms where China’s emperors held court and took care of state business. You had to politely push and shove to get a good spot for a photo or to shoot some video.

Other rooms in the Forbidden City, including the living quarters of the emperor, the empress and the emperors’ concubine, were sealed from the public. The authentic, antique furnishings were visible through plate-glass windows.

And Chinese security stood guard all over the place, all at taut attention and dressed in warm, winter coats.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.

Photo gallery from Friday in Beijing

** Countdown to our adoption: Only three days left before we get Matthew. **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

BEIJING, China (Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008, 6:30 a.m.) – I have one comment after watching the Flying Acrobatics Show: Ouch.

I don’t know how they did it. Pam and I attended a 5:15 p.m. performance that lasted a short one hour. We enjoyed it, had great, center orchestra third-row seats, but wished it would have lasted longer.

The show capped a day that included a walk in the bitterly, sub-freezing cold through the Wangfujing shopping district. I have included two ALL-NEW slideshows in the rail on the left; here are a few more photos you might enjoy.

Photo 1: No trip to the Wangfujing shopping district would be complete without a stop at the open-air street vendors who sell such tasty snacks as starfish on a stick, grasshoppers on a stick and scorpions on a stick. Sorry, though: Pam and I just couldn’t bring ourselves to taste one.

Photo 2: Shops line the alley about a block off the main shopping district. Here, people sell trinkets, small gifts, you-name-it. And the sellers can be quite pushy and insistent. Pam and I didn’t succumb to the intense pressure to buy (possibly because it was so darn cold).

Photo 3: The exterior of this department store in the district shows the elaborate Christmas decorations here and across town.

Photo 4: Now on to the Flying Acrobatic Show. Here is one of the first performers. Pam and I rushed back to our hotel room and tried this same pose. It took Pam about five hours and a few crowbars to untangle me. I still hurt.

Photo 5: Don’t try this at home. I found this stunt so interesting, I placed an empty Chinese Coca-Cola can on the table in our room, placed a small board I found on top of it and then tried to balance myself as I stood -- crushing the can and making a fool of myself. I’m just not flexible enough. I need to stick to writing.

Photo 6: Don’t even ask me how they did this.

Photo 7: I’m still hurting from just watching this stunt. And while it may not seem so in the rather pitiful photos I took, I can assure you this was a G-rated family entertainment with fully clothed performers.

Photo 8: After the show, Pam and I headed next door to the Xiu Lan Restaurant for dinner. Here, Pam enjoys freshly-squeezed pineapple juice because she was a good girl.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.

Odds and ends from our first Friday in China

** Countdown to our adoption: Only three days left before we get Matthew. **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

BEIJING, China (Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008, 6:55 a.m.) – Pam and I decided from the start of our second Chinese adoption that we wanted to prepare for this in the same way we did for Camryn’s adoption.

That meant arriving in Beijing a few days before our orientation meeting with Holt International Children’s Services staffers – giving us time to overcome jet lag and also allow us to experience as much local culture as possible.

We continue to battle jet lag, which, I believe, is worse than it was in March and April 2006. But we have tried hard to brave the cold weather to take in the sights and sounds that make up this sprawling city.

So, once again, I offer a few random thoughts and observations about our trip.

Language barrier

Pam and I hopped into a taxi Thursday outside the Carrefour grocery and department store in Beijing and showed our driver a card we had from our hotel with a request in Chinese to take us to the Lama Temple.

The driver, who I guess was in his late 60s, smiled, nodded his head, spoke Mandarin and indicated he understood. Then he sped off, dodging cars, bikes and pedestrians along the way to the Lama Temple.

That’s when I decided to try my hand at simple Mandarin: “Do you speak English?” I asked. “A little,” he said in Mandarin with a smile as he turned his head and gazed briefly at me in the back seat.

“I speak a little Mandarin, but not very well,” I told him in one of the few polished sentences in which I sound like an authentic, accented speaker of the language.

Our driver smiled and spoke. And we quickly hit a dead end.

I didn’t understand the driver and he didn’t understand me. I stammered. I fumbled for words. I tried to find something in English he knew. Nothing worked.

Then Pam and I arrived outside the temple and the driver pointed to the fare.

I opened my wallet and paid with crisp, new Chinese Yuan. Then our driver held his finger up and motioned me to wait before I hopped out with my wife.

He flashed a wide grin, nodded his head up-and-down, spoke clear, plain and in halting English: “Welcome to China.”

Neighboring rivals

As I placed fresh fruit on my plate at the Novotel Peace Hotel breakfast buffet on Friday, a lady saw my Ole Miss sweat shirt and immediately stopped me.

“Ole Miss,” she said, with a laugh. “You beat us. I’m from Little Rock here for an adoption. And you all beat us.”

“Yeah, with your old coach,” I said and returned the laugh, referring, of course, to Ole Miss Coach Houston Nutt – who led our football team to an 8-4 record and a bowl appearance.

The Arkansas resident, whose name I didn’t get because I was holding a plate in one hand and juice in another (plus, I had no notebook anyway), was beginning her adoption trip in Beijing before heading Nanchang.

Her daughter is a Jiangxi child, the same province Camryn is from. They will stay in the Gloria Plaza Hotel, where Pam and I stayed in April 2006 when we adopted Camryn.

We likely will meet up with the family in Guangzhou, where all Americans adopting children must go to finalize the American part of the adoption and get the necessary visa so their children can enter the United States.

Friday dinner

We returned Friday night to the Xiu Lan Restaurant two doors down from our hotel, where Pam and I dined quietly among locals in a small, quaint restaurant that serves good food at a great price.

For 118 Yuan, or about $17.35, Pam and I ate sweet and sour chicken (which also had a spicy touch to it), an order of fried rice and sesame seed balls. Just like our experiences in 2006, the wait staff brought our dishes one at a time rather than together.

The food was generous, filling and good. With just one person at the restaurant speaking semi-fluent English, it helped immensely that the menus had photos of the dishes we wanted to order. A nice touch.

The restaurant was decorated for Christmas, with paper bells hanging from the ceiling and a small table-top Christmas tree. At the entrance, a statute of the Buddha sat atop a table with burning incense sticks in front.

Christmas music filled the room – much like it did when we visited Wal-Mart (“Frosty the Snowman” and “Silent Night” played on the store’s sound system) and a huge, seven-story mall near our hotel (“Winter Wonderland” played there among others).

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.

Adventures in Beijing street food ... as prepared at Wal-Mart SuperCenter

** Countdown to our adoption: Only four days left before we get Matthew. **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

BEIJING, China (Friday, Dec. 5, 2008, 7:50 p.m.) – The aroma of fresh, grilled, minced onion and sweet pepper filled the air as it cooked sitting atop a 12-inch round paper-thin pancake.

A young woman, a mask across her face, gently used a wooden stick to fold the pancake on top of the onion, sweet pepper and a piece of flat, deep-fried dough – creating a square, piping-hot, inexpensive meal.

It was lunchtime in Beijing and a steady line of customers snaked down the aisle at one of the city’s three Wal-Mart SuperCenters waiting to buy what our tour guide later described as a traditional breakfast sandwich.

Pam was at the head of the line, eager for us to try our first taste of Beijing street cuisine – even though we bought it from inside Wal-Mart as opposed to the streets of Beijing.

Either way, for us, it was as authentic and adventurous as we were willing to get. Every bite we took was well worth the 3.8 yuan, or about 63 cents, we paid.

And it highlighted our late morning trip to Wal-Mart – yes, we finally found one of the Beijing’s three stores, spending close to two hours leisurely shopping for a few drinks and snacks.

Heading to Wal-Mart

When Pam and I were last in Beijing in late March and early April 2006, we spent hours at a Wal-Mart SuperCenter browsing and buying some personal items. On Friday, we visited a different supercenter in a different part of town.

The Wal-Mart visit came one day after a different taxi driver dropped us off at another store called Carrefour. This time, though, we braved a 15-minute, $3 taxi ride that zipped in-and-out of dangerous, traffic-clogged streets in Beijing.

The rules of the road in Beijing are simple: There are none. Traffic is bumper-to-bumper in this city of more than 17 million. And taxi drivers go where they want when they want without regard to driving lanes, other vehicles or even bicyclists.

But I digress. Riding in taxis through the severely congested streets of Beijing is a unique and sometimes frightening experience probably worth a separate post that I may or may not write before we leave.

I want to talk about our Wal-Mart experience.

This Wal-Mart is about the size of a normal American supercenter – including the one in Madison near out home – with about half of the retail space dedicated to general merchandise and clothing and rest centered on groceries.

Making an impact

As Pam looked through baby items trying to decide if we should buy any clothes or a coat for our son, I leaned against a table and thought about how much our American culture has influenced lives overseas.

Everywhere I turned I saw American brand-name products with Chinese characters on the packaging: Colgate toothpaste (packaged in a gift set with a glass tea cup and saucer), Lays potato chips (in several different flavors unavailable in the states), Oreo cookies, Wrigley gum.

And, of course, Coca-Cola.

Coke is the real thing – but only in places like China and Mexico where local bottlers make their drinks with real sugar rather than corn syrup. You haven’t tasted a Coke until you’ve tasted those.

And then there’s the beer. Among the rows of Chinese beer like Tsingtao are six-packs of imported Budweiser. I don’t drink much, but I found it bit amusing to see Bud with Chinese characters under the English name.

I even felt right at home when I went to pay for our basket of Coke, chips and a few other things. Wal-Mart had 60 separate check-out lines, but cashiers manned far fewer.

Savoring every bite

Before Pam and I paid for our items, we took one more swing past the meat counter and gazed at bags of fresh roasted duck, roasted chicken, other foods and – then – the breakfast sandwich being made fresh before our eyes.

We watched the young woman lift a ladle of pancake batter, pour it on top of a 12-inch round grill, spread the batter paper thin, coat the top side with raw egg, gently and perfectly flip it over so the egg rested on the grill.

She then brushed on a thin layer of hot, spicy seasoning, added the minced onions and green peppers and topped it with the flat piece of fried dough. Then she lifted the edges and formed a perfect square.

She looked at both of us and then took her spatula and split the sandwich in half – one for Pam and the other for me. One bite and it was incredible. Simple, tasty, spicy and great.

We hope to return here, if possible, on Sunday.

Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.

Making it easier to follow this blog

** Countdown to our adoption: Only four days left before we get Matthew. **

By TERRY R. CASSREINO

BEIJING, China (Friday, Dec. 5, 2008, 6:21 a.m.) – Don’t forget: If you enjoy reading about our adoption trip to China, click the link in the left-hand rail to “Follow this blog.”

When you become a follower of the Cassreino Online adoption blog, the blog will be added to your Reading List on your Blogger dashboard.

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Thanks. Look later for more updates.