On the bus, we had a tour guide who spoke English, and didn't seem to be entirely confident in our Chinese abilities, so she gave us the whole backstory of the garden in English, and whenever she spoke Chinese, she translated immediately afterwards. A month ago I probably would have been grateful for this, but at this point, I felt that it was rather patronizing, and I wanted to tell her to please please just speak in Chinese, we all understand you!! When we got off the bus she got ahold of a megaphone, and you could just see everybody wince as soon as they saw it. Fortunately we were on our own to roam in the garden, so it was okay after that.
If you haven't heard of it before (just kidding, of course you haven't), Grand View Garden was built in 1984 as a backdrop for the shooting of the movie version of the famous Chinese novel Dream of Red Mansions aka Dream of the Red Chamber aka Story of the Stone aka it's probably called other things too. Apparently they thought it was a kind of neato place, so in 1986 it was opened to the public for visiting. I was ready for some sort of beautiful botanical garden, but when we got there...well, I wasn't too surprised. It was very Chinese, and when I say that I mean that in addition to weeping willows and some flowering bushes, there were tacky fake flowering trees made of fading cloth and rusty metal skeletons. There were also a lot of fabric lanterns hanging around, and I'd guess with about 98% certainty that the flowers as well as the lanterns light up at night. After all, this is China, where Tacky Neon Lights are kind of the dominant decorating style. Hen hao!
Check out the natural foliage of spring!
Also, although the weather was warm and sunny enough to make the temperature inside the bus slightly uncomfortable, the sun went behind the clouds about 30 seconds after we stepped out of the bus, and it stayed there the whole time. Ha. Plus the foliage wasn't all out yet, so looking at the garden got kind of boring really fast, except there were really cool rocks! I took some pictures of the scenery, but Jacqui and I quickly degenerated into taking silly pictures of ourselves in any "natural" environment that seemed to call out for a Kodak moment.
Note: the statue in the fountain in the second photo is Li Bai, the famous alcoholic Chinese poet (the fountain spouts water into his cup). The thing I remember about Li Bai is that he died because he was really drunk one time (I think it might have been Dragon Boat Festival) and he was out in a boat at night and he saw the reflection of the moon in the water and tried to catch the moon and drowned. His name is suspiciously similar to the word "libation," although I suspect that they have no actual relation, just an awesome coincidental one.
Besides the landscapes in the garden, I also randomly secretively took pictures of Chinese people, who are frankly more interesting than bare trees and fake flowers:
When we had just gotten into the garden, there was a woman feeding yogurt to a small child, who was so cute that our tour group got a little distracted, and people wanted to take pictures of them, and eventually the baby got scared from all the attention from strangers and started to cry, therefore I was secretive with my picture-taking.
However, far and away the best part of our visit to Grand View Garden (I saved the best for last because this experience was completely unparalleled in silliness) was when Jacqui and I got AMBUSHED by money-seeking Chinese people. Now we Western touristy-types tend to get preyed on wherever we go, so we're kind of used to it by now, and we always just say "no thanks, we don't want to buy anything," and try to hustle away. So when when Jacqui and I wanted to pass through an area that contained some Chinese people wearing pretend traditional-looking clothing and looking suspicious, we tried our best to walk fast and not look interested. However, this time our best was not good enough. A small squadron of Chinese people grabbed us and quickly and forcibly dressed us in ornamented red robes and truly silly hats of above-average sparkliness. Jacqui was ambushed first, and they pushed her into a little conveyance that I ought to know what it's called, but I don't. It was a decorated box-thing with a window that was attached to two long rods so it could be carried by a few people. Anyway, once she was safely inside, they started playing trumpet in what I imagine is a traditional Chinese way, and Jacqui was paraded around a little square with great pomp and circumstance while a lady took pictures to try to sell us later. I stood on the side taking my own pictures as best as I could and laughing although I had been forcibly dressed up myself and knew I was next. I accepted my fate, although when I went to get in the funny little box, my tall sparkly hat got caught on the fringe of the doorway, and it took several Chinese people to free me. If I thought I was hard to embarrass before I came to China, I'm pretty sure I will be completely immune by the time I'm done here. Jacqui tried to get away, but they made her sit in a second little chair and they paraded us around together in a jouncy and extremely tradition fashion, asking me in the traditional way to sit further forward in my chair so the lady could get a better picture of me. I managed to get a sneaky picture of Jacqui from inside my box, but the lady wouldn't let her take a picture of me. Fortunately Paul had arrived a little bit after us and was documenting the whole thing in pictures, so he had better give me some of them. Too bad they didn't ambush him too. It's only fair. They tried to make me go around another time in the little chair thing, but I successfully refused.
After the whole thing was over, they tried their best to usher us back to where they were selling the photos, but we firmly refused and hustled away, cracking up, as soon as we could get out of our silly robes and hats. As of yet I do not have in my possession the photographic documentation of my own experience, but you may extrapolate from the picture I took of Jacqui from inside my royal box:
Note the Chinese people in the background, laughing at us. They are probably just jealous of our hats.
After getting back from the garden, I grabbed some dinner and went to the Good Friday service at church. Holy Week in China has been kind of interesting, because its presence is generally nonexistent except within the bubble of my church. This includes my dorm of American students, too - I put up a sign next to the elevator saying that people should ask me if they wanted to go to church on Good Friday or Easter, but besides Kim and Vanessa, who came with me next week, nobody has expressed an interest. This next week is midterms, so people are mostly worried about studying.
It's interesting, though...to be honest, when I'm home in the States, I'm not always thrilled about dragging myself out of bed or getting dressed and going out in the cold or even just taking the extra time to go to church or Bible study (although afterwards I'm always glad that I went). But it's been different for me in China...I guess I expected it to be harder because of the attitude towards religion here and because there wouldn't be anybody in Beijing who would know to miss my presence at church, so no peer pressure or anything. I thought that all the hustle and bustle and constant new experiences of China would distract me, or that after a long week of classes I wouldn't feel motivated to get up and to church on Sunday morning, but in fact it's exactly the opposite. Waking up for 8 am classes during the week means that waking up for an 11 am church service on Sunday is no trouble at all, but it's more than that. I have to confess, I usually spend far more time thinking about eating lunch than I spend thinking about the more important matters of my life. While this is still kind of true (what can I say...lunch is delicious), something about China has alleviated this tunnel vision a lot. I feel like I'm just operating on a different level than usual, and God's presence in my life is just so obvious to me. I'm more motivated and more responsible than usual, which is really cool, although it surprises me sometimes. Tomorrow I have to be at church at 7:45 because I'm in the Easter choir and we're singing in the 9 and 11 o'clock services. If I were at home, when would I ever be able to get somewhere at 7:45? But I can totally do it tomorrow, and it's going to be awesome! Feichang hao!
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1 comment:
How many Chinese people does it take to detach a Potter in a hat from a palanquin? (A twist on the old lightbulb joke, get it get it?!)
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