Medicinal Herbs - Apr 3

Had opportunity to visit a Chinese Herb Market. It was a wholesale market specializing in medicinal herbs. I know I was glad I could not identify all the items – even when I was told what was in front of me. Chinese medicine often calls for a number of ingredients to be put into water, boiled, then stored in jar to take regularly – like tea 3 x a days. Ingredients included things like snakes, caterpillars, turtles, mudbug shells, bones and various other animal parts – including a few human to the best of my understanding. (David and Jorge would have enjoyed this experience!).

Eastern vs Western

In general – I prefer Western – but I’m getting used to Eastern . (I’m talking about toilets – or Happy Rooms as we have been trained to call them on out tour). Have to admit, the happy rooms on the train were not very happy, but necessary on a 12 hr journey.

Train Ride

Train Ride –
Beijing train station was crowded with Chinese going about their normal activities (along with a few tourists). There were farmers carrying burlap bags over their shoulders, as well as mothers with their child. Kind of an orderly chaos as streams of people moved thru security checks and escalators moving toward their designated staging areas. Luckily, we had reserved “soft seats” and as result had a special waiting area. Our compartment on train was pretty comfortable. Two lower and two upper bunks – with two assigned to each compartment. We ended up with a party in my room as we had a few drinks and visited. We also invited our guide to take our top bunk instead of sharing with total strangers down the train. Was alittle hard getting to sleep, but eventually I got to sleep. I woke up early and enjoyed watching out the window with the sun rising – the mountains and farms began to be visible as we rolled along. Watching out I was able to see old crumbling homesteads. Villages, farmland and caves that’s were dug into the mountain sides. The fields had yellow blossoms I was to learn were rapeseed. Also went past some more industrial areas - power plants and more housing along the train stations. Some of the housing looked like hutong’s in Beijing – and there were a 6-10 floor residential buildings as well. Between these areas were wide concrete paved paths. As morning continued, saw joggers. Students going to school and others going to work. There were also a few modern looking interstate roads.

As we got closer to Xian, housing and industry began to get more congested. Upon arrival at train station, we were intermingled with locals. We walked along the outside of the city wall – separated by the moat. Along the wall were paths and also exercise equipment stations that many people were using.

Morning Rituals at the Temple of Heaven

This morning I visited the Temple of Heaven. The gardens were filled with many people exercising. Everything from Tai Chi, Ballroom dancing, ______ (like Da Ca in Vietnam_ and Tai Chi Rouli – with racket a ball. In addition there were people playing cards, performing Opera, playing musical instruments/ Basically, it seemed that people were in the park, participating with others that had similar interests to them. All seemed very relaxed and peaceful within the park. We were even invited to try out several of the activies.

We then continued to the Temple of Heaven, which had been restored for the Olympics. The massive dome was constructed without the use of nails. (Much more intensive than my old treehouse!). I learned about some of the symbolism – like the blue dome representing heaven and the round circles of the heaven being connected to the square base of the courtyard symbolizing the earth and connecting it to Heaven. We were also told that walking around the base was considered lucky. So we all made several trips.

Later today after visit to a local hutong for lunch, we’ll board overnight train for Xian. The journey continues.

New Friends in Beijing

I picked up my package at the IBM Office at Pacific Century Tower today – and had opportunity to meet with a few of my HR peers here in Beijing. Its nice to have HR family around the world. The team was very helpful and I enjoyed the opportunity to compare HRPartner roles. I was also able to share a little about my CSC experience in Vietnam. Thanks again to the team on the 26th floor!

Opera School and Opera

We visited Opera School today - and got to stand in classroom as students worked with masters to develop their skills. We got to see various ages, from HS to first year students in dance class. After watching these classes it gave me more apreciation for the Opera performance I saw in the evening. The opera signing is not what I'm accustomed to - but the control required was obvious.

Snow at the Great Wall

I climbed the Great Wall today -- in the snow!

Not at all what I would have expected. The section we visited is referred to as the Wild Wall – an area being maintained -- but not rebuilt. We passed several sections that had been rebuilt - but were told they were not real. It’s really massive - and when you think about all it took to build up & down the mtns -- its even more massive. Quite an opportunity to climb to one of towers and gaze out over a number of towers in the distance. I really recognize the difficulty involved in the initial construction. It was even tough to climb up with the add of steps, let alone carry material to construct the Wall.