A LITTLE GIRL NAMED MEGAN

Megan Eloise Chua, 10 years old. Her Chinese name, Chai Mei Yen is simply a translation of her English name in Mandarin, which in Fookien is pronounced as Bee Gan, meaning beautiful cheek/face. Indeed, Megan does have a pretty face. Not only that, couple that with her slim 5’3” physique plus that innocent charming sweet smile, it is no wonder that Megan is into modeling at such a young tender age. So far, she had already modeled for a shampoo and a detergent commercial with both harping on a family theme. Not bad for a 10 year old, for she is already earning money while most people at her age haven’t even had a clue as to how. At any rate, she is not just a pretty face or worse, a pretty bimbo. She displayed keen intelligence with sharp perception rare in her young age. It is too bad that most people who knew her predicted and even wanted her to be a successful ramp model someday but I find that to be a waste of her talent and abilities for she possesses mental qualities that would make her a great lawyer or doctor someday. In fact, she showed a huge interest in biology, able to name the world’s smallest creatures and their place of origins, short of telling me the scientific names of those animals (I doubted if she knew those scientific names at all). Perhaps, she could become a great doctor someday and humanity would be so lucky to have somebody like her. But that’s not all. Megan also played the piano and showed interest in classical music, specifically, Chopin’s music. She studies ballet, plays soccer, and practices golf. She would be an incredible lady when she grows up. However, I remember Megan not only for her pretty face and her intelligence but most importantly, the time we spent together during our vacation trip to China. I remember her to be that cute, innocent sweet young girl who constantly beat me in charade games. How could I forget her “impatience”, when it took me too long to guess the answers? When she got impatient waiting for our guesses, she would pretend to be sleeping, resting on her shoulders, snoring out loud but not after exclaiming that it takes me centuries to make a guess. Hahahaha. Or how could I forget the time when we’re climbing the Great Wall together, somewhere in the middle of the climb, she repeatedly asked the question (just like in the movie, Shrek), “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” She was so cute when she did that that I forgot about my tiredness and was energized to keep on moving just to get “there” and say to her, “yes, we’re here!” Oh! She makes our climb so much easier. Or how could I forget her ecstatic looks when we saw the pandas? She hovers around looking at those furry creatures like a butterfly over a rose. I remember telling her a joke right then and there and she laughed heartily at it. Or how could I forget how she looks when she was singing a song to entertain the tour group while we were traveling to our next destination? I had to get up twice from my seat to “wipe” the beads of sweat (if there were any at all since the weather was cold) from her forehead with my handkerchief. Hahahahaha. Ah, memories, so hard to forget, produces that longing….. I surely missed her even though we had a reunion sometime a month ago at Tagaytay Highlands. It is as if I wanted her to be with me all the time so that I could watch her grow, watch her blossom, and be proud of her. She was like a daughter to me. Strange, for how human bonds develop in so short a time. From perfect strangers, to somebody I wished I had…… I envied her parents, for they have a perfect daughter. Some guys do have all the luck, indeed. If I had a kid someday, I wanted him to be a boy but if by chance, I had a girl or a daughter, I wanted her to be just like Megan.

DAY 5: ONE FINE DAY

April 17, day 5 of my vacation in Beijing. I woke up early as usual, quite eager to explore Beijing after that great climb to the Great Wall the day before. I peered out of my hotel room window trying to memorize the cityscape and lo, what I saw was something quite “picturesque” that day. There seems to be a “fog” covering the horizon and it somehow transform the entire cityscape into a canvas painting with shadows of buildings barely visible on the background and the sun with it’s circular ball clearly visible. If not for the fact that it was daytime, I would have thought that the heavenly object was the moon! The whole scene reminded me of London (had never been there yet) as seen through paintings or comic book caricature. One could felt that superficial calmness in the images that betray the bustling city. The “fog” turned out to be a “sand fall”. Apparently, a day before, there was a sandstorm outside Beijing somewhere in Mongolia and that sand was “carried” the following day to Beijing. According to the news report that night, 16 grams of sand fell on every square meters of the surface. Everywhere I went that morning, a “sea of yellow sand” surrounded me. No buildings, no roofs, no cars, no trees, no handrails were spared from that “yellow” snow (for it was still cool that day with temperatures in the low teens). As I swipe my hands at the rails and feel the sand, they were not coarse at all but quite fine like that of beach sands except that I wasn’t in a beach. I don’t know how Beijing residents felt when they saw the sands but I find it quite novel if not “strangely” beautiful. Anyway, our first trip that day was to visit the local zoo or more specifically, the panda zoo. I saw a lot of pandas in my lifetime but until then, it was all in pictures (moving or still). I used to feel “remove” and impersonal when seeing a panda from a picture but to actually see a real one in person was quite a different experience with the feeling of “remoteness” vanished. It also helps that I had an enthusiastic and over eager 10 year old with me, for little Megan’s zest and curiosity was simply infectious. We ran around the zoo trying to catch a glimpse of the all 3 pandas. I felt this “need” to cross over and hug those lovable furry creatures but then again they are still bears and they are after all “wild” animals and with that, I change my mind and stayed put. We made a tour inside the “cave” to see the “living quarters” of the pandas, which was separated by a thick glass wall. There are quite cozy if I may say for a panda for it was spacious. At the end of the cave tunnel was a souvenir store selling stuffed pandas. I bought a panda pencil holder as a souvenir gift for my kid sister. Our next stop for the day was to visit the Summer Palace, Yi Ho Yuan, the imperial garden complex of the Manchu emperors. Too bad, like the rest of Beijing, it was under extensive renovation but nevertheless there are a few scenes to see. At the entrance of the garden complex was a rock, called the Stone of Longetivity. I don’t know the origin of that rock nor the epistemology of it’s name but I think that the rock was a meteorite or something. Even though the rock was well secured by a cordon, a lot of the locals are crowding it and touching it, probably hoping that some of the “immortality” stuff be rubbed on them. I too can’t resist myself from touch it, hoping that it may rub “a few more years” on me. According to the fact book, the Yi Ho Yuan was twice or thrice (or was it 10 times? Can’t remember) the size of the Imperial palace and it is located at the outskirt of the ancient Beijing (within the confines of the modern city). I can’t really make an accurate comparison of the Yi Ho Yuan with the Yu Garden in Shanghai for the former was under repair and hence, most of it’s features are off limits. The central feature of the Yi Ho Yuan is the great man made lake in the center of the complex. The lake wasn’t really man made for there was indeed a natural body of water at the site except that it was probably small. The imperial architects must have widened and deepened it and embellished with trees and thus creating that beautiful landscape and indeed, the place was beautiful! Another feature of the palace was the long covered walkway or the “Chang Long” near the lakeshore. On one side, one could admire the beauty of the lake while strolling the walkway and on the other side, one could “immersed” in the intricate beauty of the garden inside. Too bad, I didn’t get to enjoy the garden. Anyway, while we were sightseeing, two of our senior tour mates went missing, the geneticist’s parents. Well, it was Kitty’s (our tour guide) fault. She always went ahead of the group, walking straight and mindlessly, having no care what so ever about her charge. The geneticist and me went about frantically searching for her parents and I was telling myself and a few of the members to actually flunk the tour guide in the performance evaluation at the end of the trip (however, there wasn’t any performance evaluation, too bad!). We eventually found them at the end of the walkway and it is then that we heave a sigh of relief. There were a lot of people in there and the place was huge (a 100 hectares?). One could easily get lost inside if not for the fact that most of the place were off limits. Anyway, I noticed something else and that is the flooring tile. Actually, Megan “discovered” it. The tiles are placed in such a way that it formed a shape or a drawing. There are animals, mystical creatures, and even airplanes and boats. One could easily overlook the tiles but in this case with all the scenic spots closed, it became one of the things to see. At the end of the Chang Long, was the “imperial stone boat”. It wasn’t really a boat per se but a floating palace shaped like a boat, amazing piece of architecture, I would say. We took a boat ride back to the entrance, crossing the lake and on our way back, we passed by the lonely island in the middle of the lake. That man made island has a palace in the middle and was connected to the shore by a huge arc bridge. The island was relatively isolated forming a beacon of solitude surrounded by paradise. Megan said that the island was a place for hermits for it is “separated” from the world. Indeed, that was the intention. For an emperor who is burdened by the cares of the world, that small isolated island was his only get away from the world. I wished I lived there……… After that tour, we proceeded to have our lunch, the third and last of the great lunches we had during the trip. The place was called Bai jia fu (the home of the Bai family). The place was actually a Ching dynasty nobleman’s mansion complete with a garden. What makes the place unforgettable was the recreation of the “imperial experience”. All the waiters and waitresses are dressed as imperial eunuch or manservant (they are not castrated by the way) and imperial maids (or according to some of the tour members, princesses). On the gate are 12 very, very beautiful (white, young, soft skinned) and tall (they are at least 5’8” and they looked even taller with the ancient high heel sandals) “princesses” waiting for us and greeting us with, “Ni Jie Siang”, meaning Good Luck to You. They lower themselves by bending their knees and raised their right hand to their heads with their handkerchiefs while making the greetings. That greeting was formerly reserved for emperors and the royal family but now, everyone else could receive such honor (of course, if one could afford to pay the price). I could have taken a picture of myself with all those beautiful young women like the rest of the guys in the group did except that I ran out of memory spaces in my digital camera and I was quite reluctant to ask the younger single ladies (the doc and the geneticist) to take a picture of me with the “princesses” using their cameras, lest they say that I’m a “chick boy” (of course, I’m not a boy but a grown man). Dang! Too bad! They’re really, really pretty! We went inside the mansion passing through the courtyard. Every ten steps or so was a manservant waiting for us. Once we reached his station, the young man would bend his back forward and bow his head in submission to greet us, “Ni Jie Siang”. I could have just walked straight with heads high like royalty deserving such courtesy but somehow I couldn’t. I bowed my head slightly every time a manservant does his greeting gesture. Not because I felt that I don’t deserve it rather that I feel that no man should be made subservient to flatter another man’s vanity. Upon reaching the inner gate, we were met by 6 more beautiful princesses. Dang! I do surely regret not buying a memory chip for myself the night before when I accompany the ladies to buy theirs at Carrefour right across our hotel. Anyway, the “princesses” led us inside the main dining hall and boy oh boy! What a sight! The place was decorated ala imperial style. The dining chairs are covered with yellow seat cover embroidered with dragons, the imperial insignia. There is even a replica of the imperial throne in the middle of the hall. Of course, the throne is off limits and we just take pictures of ourselves standing in front of it (now, I could ask the ladies to take a picture of me without fear of being branded as a “chick boy”). The food though not really a “grand banquet” type (i.e., complete with pigeons, crabs, and others) but was nonetheless superb, delicious, and sumptuous. One thing to note, one shouldn’t be fooled by the ancient appearance of the place for it was just a façade. The restaurant is by all accounts high tech. The lighting fixture, the amenities are first class. Even the waitresses or the “princesses” uses a palm top to take orders. The head princess even wore an earpiece connected to a radio just like the ones used by secret service agents. The garden at the back of the main dining hall though small by comparison to the Yi Ho Yuan or the Yu Garden but is nonetheless pleasing to the eye and generally blend in with the atmosphere to recreate that imperial experience. One of the tour member commented about the experience. Anybody could recreate the architecture and the landscape of the place; they may even recreate the ambience by having their waiters and waitresses dressed in imperial robes but they cannot recreate the experience for there is only one Beijing, one imperial center of China. You can’t have that anywhere else in the world. It is in this spirit that Megan exclaimed after that wonderful meal, “that it is good being the emperor (of China)”. My reply to her was, “yes indeed but being emperor is not all the time and sometimes it could be bad.” She asked why and I explained that because being an emperor is that good and everyone wants to be the emperor but there can only be one. Of course, Megan didn’t understand that but she is right. It is good, correction, great to be the emperor even for just one meal! The itinerary that afternoon was the continuation of the day before, shopping, more shopping! The day before, we visited a jade store/factory before the climb to the Great Wall and after that, we visited a Chinese herbal drug store and a Chinese tea store. That day, we were scheduled to shop at a bargain center and later on to Wang Fu Jin shopping district. I could only dread so much so that I actually asked to be left at Beijing University when our coach passed by the campus but to no avail. I could only sit at the cold metallic bench inside the mall while waiting for the rest to do their bargain hunting. The doc’s father actually sat with me during the “ordeal” but in return I had to listen to his non – stop complaint about his wife’s shopping/spending habit! I don’t know what’s worst; to be bored to death inside a shopping mall doing nothing or to endure another man’s whining! I soooooooooooooo hate shopping!!! Thankfully, the old man got up to help out his wife carry her purchases and so that afforded me some “tranquil” moments. I eventually dozed off in the bench not only once but twice (that’s how long the shopping session was). After finishing one shopping session, we hopped off to the next shopping session (I HATE SHOPPING!!!!). I can’t take it anymore and so I went up to Kitty and ask her to drop me off at a bookstore nearby. She thought awhile and told me that there are 2 or 3 bookstores somewhere in Wang Fu Jin. Thank goodness, finally some semblance of sanity to an insane afternoon. As we got there, I immediately looked for the bookstores. The first bookstore was an English bookstores and frankly, the title it carried sucks! Manila bookstores are way too better than this. I went out to look for another store and after like an hour of insanely running around asking for directions (in Chinese by the way), I finally struck gold. The bookstore is located at the end of Wang Fu Jin in a 20 – story building. I don’t know how many floors the store occupies but who cares, I got what I’m looking for. And so, I spend almost two hours of that late afternoon reading and looking for books, Chinese books written using the simplified form. I looked up at the geography, history, military treatise, and philosophy section of the first floor. Time sure fly so fast and before I knew it, I had to go back to the meeting place. Oh, so many books yet so little time. I hurriedly but judiciously picked 4 books and bought them to the counter. These are “The History of Imperial Chinese Administrative System”, “The History of Imperial Chinese Frontier Administrative System”, “The Study of the Political – Administrative System of the 5 Dynasty and 10 Kingdom Period in China”, and “The Imperial Guards, a study of Beijing Constabulary Forces during the Liao, Kin, Yuan, Ming, Ching, and Republican China”. These are scholarly books (1 of them hardbound and all of them uses excellent paper quality) written by experts and professors from noted Chinese university. The price tag? 145 RMB or roughly 800 pesos, which is a great buy since books like that cost somewhere 1000 pesos here in Manila. It was with a heavy heart that I had to leave the place and hurried back to the coach……. We had our dinner afterwards. Truth to tell, the dinner wasn’t that superb although it wasn’t really that bad. It was just that we had such an experience that afternoon that somehow we can’t taste the food in our dinner. I happened also to bring out the group picture we had taken during our visit to the Forbidden City and had every member of the tour group signed their dedication as well as their contact info. Funny, but somehow I felt I’m going to miss this group. It was just only 5 days and yet, I somehow bonded with them. We were set to go back to Manila the next day and which is why I had them sign a dedication. Now, it’s been almost two months since my vacation and still, the memories are still as vivid as ever. It was truly something to cherish for the rest of my life, one of the hundred places to visit before ………

On The Da Vinci Code

Last Sunday, I got to watch the movie, Da Vinci Code, which is based on a best selling novel by Dan Brown of the same title. My conclusion after watching the movie is that the movie and hence, the novel is purely fiction. There is no truth to the author’s claim. I’m no believer and I’m writing to defend the faith rather that my interest with the subject matter is merely philosophical. Actually, I don’t find the idea of Jesus Christ having a descendant preposterous rather I find the “proof” put forward by the author flimsy. My reason? In the latter end of the movie, the movie revealed that the heroine is the descendant of Christ since her surname is St. Claire, which traces it lineages back to the Merovingian line and this is where the problem lies. The Merovingians are the first dynasty of kings that rule Gaul, the modern day France after the fall of the Roman Empire during the 5th century. The progenitor of the Merovingian fortune is Clovis, a grandson of Merovech, from which the name Merovingian was derived. Clovis is the king of a confederation of barbarians that invaded the Roman empire known as the Franks from which France derives it’s name. Like all ancient rulers, the Franks sought to legitimize their rule by claiming divine association. The Franks like all German barbarians at that time are Arians, a Christian sect that believed that there could be only one God and Christ is different from God the father and therefore, human albeit divine. They didn’t believe in the holy trinity. Clovis capitalizes on that prevailing belief to proclaim himself as the descendant of Christ, a very visible manifestation of the divine rights of kings. Since time immemorial, rulers tend to manipulate religion in order to garner the support and loyalty of a god – fearing and religious people. As an example, the Chinese call their emperors, the Son of Heaven, believing that the emperor alone possesses the mandate from heaven to rule the entire humanity. Roman emperors after Constantine the Great uses Christianity to legitimize their rule claiming that the Roman world is the mirror image of paradise and that since there is one God in paradise so there should be one Emperor as God’s vicar on earth, a designation contested by the Pope. Egyptian pharaohs believed that they are the son of Osiris, a god and this in fact induces, Alexander the Great to think himself as a son of God, specifically, Zeus. As late as the 19th century, religion still provided the necessary legitimacy needed by would be rulers. A case in point, Hong Xiu Chuan, who claimed that he is God’s second son and Christ’s younger brother, led a rebellion against Machu rule in China. The rebellion is known in history as the Taiping rebellion. In modern times, the Japanese emperor still claims descent from the Shinto goddess, Ameratsu. My point? Religion and divinity is always a potent and common tool used by kings to generate support, the Merovingians are no exception. To use the Merovingian genealogy as the basis of claim as Christ’s descendant is pretty weak. However, the idea put forward by the movie is quite compelling. What if Jesus Christ is not what we think he is? What if he is human and not at all divine? Intriguing, because the root word Christianity is derived from Christ. Would Christianity survive without Christ? The answer is simple, it won’t but I do wonder, why not? Why can’t it survive at all? Gautama Buddha is not at all divine but simply human. He never claims divinity and yet, the religion he founded to reform Hinduism survives up to this day. Mohammed the prophet wasn’t divine either but claims to be the messenger of Allah. Again like Buddhism, Islam is still going strong up till this day. My point? A religion survives not because of the person who founded it but rather on the basic tenets it profess whether such tenets are divinely inspired or self – meditated like Buddha because such tenets appeal to the common people. Christianity isn’t about the resurrection and the miracles of Christ rather it is about the idea of a loving (without discrimination and prejudice), forgiving (in spite of all the sins committed by Man), and compassionate God as opposed to the previous belief of an unforgiving and jealous God. God is not in the disease, the calamities, or the unfortunate mishap but is in every human soul that has compassion for others. Christianity may not be the same without the divine Christ but can’t Christianity be about the belief as expounded by Christ?

DAY 4: THE PILGRIMAGE

April 16, Easter Sunday, Day 4 of my vacation. The weather was great that beautiful Sunday morning. The temperature is in the high teens, not too cold nor was it was hot either. The wind was also calm (level 1 – 2 according to the weather report), a perfect day to climb the Wall. Like the day before, I was again late because nobody told me that we would be leaving by 0830 instead 0900 (Dang!). Despite that, I was in a good mood and really didn’t mind about it. Can’t help it but feel great for there is something about past relics that brings out the sentiment in me as a historian and a romanticist even though it is just “a mere stonewall”. Maybe, it is the fact that as a historian, I always wanted to “verify” about what I read and with what I actually see and try to appreciate the whole thing from the perspective of men from a bygone era. Anyway, before we even reached the Great Wall, Kitty, our tour guide brought us to shopping (of jades) at a Jade Factory. Oh, how I hate shopping (More on that later)! I was getting impatient with the dilly dallying of our guide but still I manage to keep my cool after all it was a great day. After something like an hour of shopping, we proceeded to Pa Tat Ling, the mountain range where the Great Wall lies. As our bus approaches the mountain range, I noticed that one of the slopes looked surprisingly like a dragon claw. In fact, the entire mountain looked like a sleeping dragon. According to Feng Shui, burying ones’ ancestors near the “mouth” of the dragon ensures that their descendants would remain on the dragon throne for all eternity. This is probably why the Ming Ling or the Burial Complex of the Ming Emperors is located nearby presumably near the “mouth”. As we approach the Shan Hai Kuan (Pass or Gate), I can’t help myself but recall the stories and legends surrounding the Great Wall. I don’t know why but I recalled one particular legend, the legend of the lady Meng whose husband was forcibly recruited by the Chin Emperor to build the wall. In her desperation to reunite with her husband, lady Meng embarks a journey to the Great Wall (which was under construction then) but she couldn’t find her husband and so she wailed and cried for 3 days and 3 nights (?). Her sorrow so touched heaven that it brought the Wall down and reveal the corpse of her husband underneath and so she was able to finally reunite with her husband. I doubt it if I could see the spot where that happen if it did happen at all but that is the point, so much history has passed in this place, so many people, so many stories, so many legends and yet only the stone wall remains up to this day. This is truly a monument that withstood the test of time. As we arrived at the Gate and alighted from the bus, I make a sweep of my surrounding and took in the incredible view. Indeed! This is a strategic place. The Shan Hai Kuan was nestled between two mountains in a valley beside a river. The mountains are steep thus making an attack on its wall a near impossible uphill battle. The road in front of the Gate is so narrow that no matter how huge the attacking army was, only a few columns could approach it. A handful of defenders would suffice to hold off the siege. No wonder, Shan Hai Kuan is called the “most strongest gate in the (Chinese) world” for it could withstand the most determined sieges and only a miracle could make that Gate crumble against an attacking army, which it happened during the end of the Ming era when the defending Ming general, Wu San Kuei opened the gates and “invited” the Manchu army in to “restore” order to the universe. The Manchu eventually establishes the Ching dynasty, the last Chinese dynasty and the rest is as they say is history. We lined up for our ticket (cost 35RMB but the guide paid for it since it is part of the package) and entered the Pass. Inside the Pass is a temple dedicated to Kuan Yee, China’s Warrior god, the god of honor, loyalty, and martial prowess as well as the patron saint of the common soldiers. Kuan Yee is actually a historical person. I planned to pay my respect for the noble hero (not to worship) but had to skip it due to the sheer number of people paying their “respect”. At any rate, I was up with the entire tour group as well as several hundreds of tourist on the lower section of the wall through the Gate. Again like in the Yu Garden, I had this sense of surrealism with me when I was at the walls. But then and there, I “discovered” a marble inscription containing the famous words of Chairman Mao, “Pu Tao Chang Cheng Fei Hao Han”. It means, “If you haven’t been to the Great Wall, you’re not a man (or a hero depending on the translation)”. Well, getting to the Great Wall was easy; you just need to get in a plane and ride a bus and presto, you’re here! Climbing the Great Wall is altogether different (due to its distance and steepness). Now, if one were able to climb the Great Wall, what would he be? Probably, it’s the challenge offered by Mao and the fact that, I rarely back down from a good challenge for suddenly, the “sentimental old fool” in me was gone and in it’s place was an adventurous egoist eager to take up the challenge. And so, with that, I began my arduous climb to conquer the Great Wall of China. Not all of the group members climbed, most of the “senior” citizens stayed put. Megan (entrusted to the Doc’s and my care during the climb by her grandma), the Doc, and I teamed up. I went ahead and they “catch up”. I was so full of energy. My adrenaline was probably pumped up for I practically “sprint” my way up. The climb was a challenge indeed! It was too steep with the angle is somewhere near 90 degrees! The steps though wide are unevenly separated. Some steps are just a few inches apart while in the steepest section of the climb, the distance between the steps could reached as much as 2 – 2 ½ feet! If not for the rails (a modern addition), I doubt that most people could climb the walls. In fact, some people literally climb using both hands as well. Somewhere in the middle of the slope, I was already panting from the arduous climb (dang! I’m in a terrible shape!). I felt like I had 10 workouts already! Funny, back at the lower end of the wall, people were laughing and joking around but by the time they reached the middle of the slope, everybody is silent except for their heavy breathings! At that section of the wall, I found a lot of the tourist resting on the steps even though the path is narrow (good for 2 ½ people to move around). Mindful of my companions, I proposed that we rest on that steps and catch our breath like what others did (I actually need to catch my breathe as well but I was just too proud to admit to it then). As we were resting, we took sight of the view “downstairs”. The first thing I see were the tourists, hundreds of them “charging” towards me. Each of them seemed hell bent as I am in reaching the top for there is nowhere else to go but up. The view “down there” is quite magnificent for from our vantage point, it would seem that the wall has become the “stair” for the “pilgrims” to reach Mount Olympus (the legendary home of the Greek gods). After resting for sometime, we continued our ascent to the top. I don’t if Megan did it intentionally or she just really meant it, for she started to repeat a popular question in the movie, Shrek. She repeatedly asked, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” She was so cute. The Doc and I played along and replied, “No, No, No, No, Yes! We’re here!” and laughed. It was fun and we were actually the only ones laughing all the way. It is things like that that makes the climb easier and merrier and memorable. Finally, we reached our first watchtower (the second according to Megan). We stayed at the small portico and survey the surroundings. I peered out of the wall and “discovered” a narrow dirt road. Actually, it looked more like a clearing, a trodden path one might say. Somewhere in the middle of that path, it split into two with one running parallel to the wall and up the mountain and the other running towards the wall that I’m in. could this be the path whence the barbarians took centuries ago? Maybe. At any rate, I would never know. We went inside the tower to find out how it looks like. The inside of the tower looked cramped and dark probably could hold 10 people or 20 at most if you want to have a “sardine”. We then went up the tower to it open top. The staircase going up is likewise steep and narrow, too narrow that it could accommodate one person at a time. And oh by the way, it doesn’t have a handrail. At the open top, we were treated with the beautiful view of the mountain slope with its yellow green grass and scenic mountain afar. We also “discovered” some “modern” art – graffiti to be exact etched on the wall forever proclaiming to posterity the visits of those authors. After lingering for a while, we went down the watchtower and continued our climb. The ascent to the second watchtower (the third according to Megan) was shorter and was relatively easier to climb but was nonetheless challenging and fun. By the time, we reached the second watchtower; there are far fewer tourists than the first tower about only a third of the number. We rest a little, looked around and then continued our climb. Somewhere between the second tower and the third tower (the third and the fourth by Megan’s insistence and I’m not about to dispute that), we came across a “plateau”, more like an open parade ground and by then we looked up at our watches and discovered that it is quarter before 12 noon, our supposed assembly time down at the Gate in order for the group to head out for lunch. Megan by this time is also beginning to feel tired and wanted to head back as well. Hahhhhhhh….. I’m almost at the top. If it were left for me alone, I would have forgone lunch and told Kitty to leave me behind and come back for me latter in the afternoon after I’ve made my climb. I could have also left my companions and proceeded alone (leaving Megan to the Doc’s care). But then and there, I realized that there are things more important than reaching the top. Things like responsibility, of being responsible to the one entrusted to your care, of being responsible to the one you care, to the one I cared and of course, lunch! I could only sigh. It was so close yet so far away. I had no choice but to get back to earth again but not until I did two things aside from getting some pictures. First, I went to the corner of the wall, looked out in the open, put both hands in my mouth and shout at the top of my voice against the wind, “I AM THE KING OF THE WORLD!!!!” (That was about the second time I did it, the first time I did it was when I’m at the Yang Ming mountain in Taiwan en route to the airport. We stopped for fresh air and for no apparent reason, I crossed over a fence and walked up to the edge of the cliff, looked down the ravine, take a step back and put my hands on my mouth and shout, “I’M THE KING OF THE WORLD” after which, I raised my arm in victory, beat that). Megan and the Doc looked at me bewildered (more like shocked) at my antics and tried to dissociate from me by moving to the side (I was actually planning to do the Tarzan’s call of the wild but that would be too “inappropriate” to the scene as we are in the Great Wall and not in the jungle). I did attract attention from the few people there but they just shrugged it off and continue their own enjoyment. Next, I pulled out a pen and with Megan, we “lightly etched” our names along with the Doc on the stone wall including the date for posterity (what’s the point of not writing? Everybody writes. Dang! I should have bought a marker or a knife instead). I took a last look of the top, hoping that it would forever etch into my conscience and turn my back and head towards the stair. And so with a heavy heart and an empty stomach, Megan, the Doc, and me make our way back to earth. Funny how the return trip seemed faster than the trip the other way around. Probably, it is gravity but then again it must be the lure of the lunch on a growling stomach but it could also be due to the sprint of joy for we all manage to achieve something that day even though it wasn’t earth shattering but momentous nonetheless in our lives. As we reached the base of the Wall, we visited the display of ancient Chinese weapons there and we took some pictures. The ladies decided to take the picture together and asked me to take it for them. They made that Charlie’s Angel kick – ass pose in front of the display, which is really cute (I wish that I had that picture). It is journey (or any other journey) like this with partners and friends that makes the journey easy and worth every moment of it. As we went our way to meet up with the group, we passed by a store selling “hero” certificates (in reference to the inscription). Megan wanted to buy one but I asked her, “what’s the point?” I told her that people who didn’t climb could buy that certificate to “prove” their feat but we don’t need it because our proof is inside us and that is our memory and no certificate could replace that (aside from that, we had pictures and our “etched” names preserved for posterity). “Pu Tao Chang Cheng, Fei Hao Han”, right on Chairman Mao, right on. Someday, I’ll be back and finish the climb and nothing is going to hold me back. I would definitely reach the top but then again, why stopped at the top when I could go even further?

POSTSCRIPT
When I was writing this piece, I realize how difficult was it for the ancient soldiers manning the Great Wall. The importance of the Great Wall cannot be undermined. For the Great Wall was the demarcation line between civilization and barbarity, dividing the agricultural farmlands from the desert, and serve as a bulwark of order against chaos. The ancient soldier was given this great burden and the task was by no means easy. Imagine soldiers wearing full armor, carrying spears, arrows, and swords as well as provisions running up and down the steep slopes of the wall without the aid of a handrail. It is bad enough to climb the wall, what more carrying all those things? There are times when winters are harsh and the snowfall heavy, soldiers are forced to “stay” at their post at the towers without relief for days perhaps. Imagine them shivering in coldness and hunger. The scenery although magnificent and awesome are all too familiar to them for they have watched the slopes turned from green to brown to white and to green again. Their routine task everyday may not be much since they’re just simply watching, waiting, wondering when would the barbarians come and perhaps at times, they would their gaze towards the north, inside the Great Wall, also wondering……….. wondering when they would go home…….. if at all.

DAY 3: “OLD” BEIJING

April 15,2006: Day 3 of my trip to Shanghai – Beijing. I woke up early at 0400 (roughly 3 hours of sleep) that day because I had to get myself ready for the flight to Beijing. The flight wasn’t until 0900 but the airport is at the outskirt of the city and it takes 2 hours (?) or so to get there and frankly, I don’t want to be late and missed the flight. And so, by 0430, I was all done and down at the lobby waiting for the rest of group. Apparently, I’m too early because I was the only “guest” in the lobby (aside from the 2 hotel staffs, a bellboy, a guard, and a janitor). I was about to read the book that I bring along when I realized that I was being “stupid”. After all, I could just have waited in my room till the 0600 meeting time. With that thought, I went back up to my room and watch TV (they had HBO by the way) until the appointed time. By the time I went down again, I was surprised to “see” everybody at the lobby “waiting” for me! They thought that I had overslept and had the operator call me and even sent a bellboy to “fetch” me. Poor me, I had to insinuate rather strongly that I was at the lobby by 0430 and had to go back up because no one was there yet but nobody believed me. Dang! I learned my lesson, never be too early to a meeting and never wait till the exact time to show up either! We had our packed breakfast courtesy of the hotel at the bus (the only time I didn’t have a “heavy” breakfast) and got to the airport just in time for the opening of the counter check – in (Whew! For a while I thought we’re all going miss our flight because of me). While checking in, we were surprised that our tour guide, Sally requested us to fill up a performance evaluation form. It is quite an oddity since such evaluation was never done before but I could see why. There has been one too many complaints about “bad” services by Chinese tour guides and the travel agency apparently wanted to ensure the quality of service, which is a great idea whose time has come. Anyway, Sally did really a great job and so we gave her all 5s (the highest score) on the evaluation except for the driver (he got a 4). All things went well at the airport and the plane took off exactly on time. I had to say I had this “misconception” about Chinese airlines (I’m on China Southern, FYI). I heard many people say that the planes are old and dilapidated. The services are bad and the travel “bumpy”, which generally gave passengers a feeling of insecurity. Well, none of them are true. The plane we were on was a brand new Airbus. The travel was rather smooth and uneventful actually. In short, it was a safe ride! The food though ok was something left to be desired. I was expecting a “hot” meal for breakfast but instead I got nuts (packed pistachio nuts) and more nuts for snack (apparently, they don’t serve breakfast on the first flight)! When we arrived at Beijing, the temperature is a little bit warmer somewhere in the vicinity of 10 – 12oC. Nonetheless, it was still cold because of the strong winds. The wind in Beijing is different from Shanghai since it was both gusty and dry. I could readily feel my face being “stretched” and “scorched” by the wind. Later on, we would learned from our tour guide that after being exposed to the wind for sometime, one would develop “rashes” on the nose and the surrounding cheeks making it appear as if we were “blushing” (which is true and therefore, never fool yourself into thinking that Beijing women are “shy” when you flirted with them). This is also the reason why facial moisturizers are the best sellers in Beijing! Well, we eventually met up with our Beijing tour guide, Kitty and boarded the bus to the city. As we got out of the airport and went to the city, the first impression I got about Beijing is that it is “conservative”. Unlike Shanghai, where one could see “slick” new buildings and sky scrappers literally littering the sky, in Beijing, the building architectural designs are more “normal” and “shorter”. Beijing also has its share of tall buildings and modern elevated highways, lighted streets and pavements but it dwarfs in comparison to Shanghai. In fact, Beijing looks “parochial” if not “provincial” or worst, outright “backward” when compared to Shanghai. Maybe it is because Beijing is the “old” political – cultural capital of China and therefore, the government has to preserve some sense of “dignity”, of “reserve”, of “history”, of “mysticism”, and of “conservatism” in this center of China. As Kitty puts it, “if you want to see the face of modern China, visit Shanghai; If you want to see the beauty of 500 year old China, visit Beijing and if you wanted to look at what 1000 year old China looks like, then go to Xian”. Even so, Beijing like Shanghai is in the middle of a construction frenzy. This is in preparation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and one could really see that the government is sparing no expense in “rebuilding” Beijing. Another thing I noticed about Beijing and to some lesser extent, Shanghai and that is the conspicuous public toilets. They looked like it was built somewhere in the 60s. At first thought, one might think that the public toilets are for tourist or for the “passing” city residents but its actually not. It is actually a neighborhood toilet, which indirectly suggests that most “old” houses here in Beijing and probably in most of China had no modern sanitary facilities. The government built all these to improve public health, which is actually a good thing when one considers the state of public sanitation in the Philippines, where there is a seeming absence of such in slum areas. I presume that the public toilets are free in “ancient” times but nowadays, they charged 0.50 RMB per use and by the way, they stink, big time (that is if you happen to pass by)! Furthermore, Beijing seems somewhat to be “sparsely populated” compared to the “crowded” party atmosphere at Shanghai. All of this gives me the impression of an “old” Beijing. Anyway, our first stop in Beijing was Chuan Si Te to get our lunch, the second of those great lunches we had during our trip. Chuan Si Te is famous for it’s Peking Duck (after all, where could you find the best Peking Duck in the whole wide world but in Beijing, the old “Peking”). According to Kitty, the secret to a delicious Peking Duck is not only in the herb and spices and how they cook it but also on the specific genus of the duck and how they are fed. These ducks are fed with the finest feeds and reared in cages so they could fatten up quickly. The end result? The Peking Duck we had was quite meaty with no fats, best of all, it is greaseless too! Outrageously delicious! The best Peking Duck I could remember. Aside from the duck, we were also served with 5 – 7 dishes with duck meat and innards as the main ingredients. All of them are delicious (dang! I just want to get back just to taste the Ducks!). I would say that I probably gained most of my weight gain from there (I’ve gained 4 kg!)! Chuan Si Te is not only famous for it’s Peking Duck. The restaurant is also renowned as the favorite banquet hall for foreign guests by the Chinese government. Along the corridor, one could see the pictures of presidents who came by and sample their famous dish. There is Richard Nixon, Carlos Menem of Argentina, Rajiv Gandhi of India just to name a few. There is also Henry Kissinger and several other top diplomats and generals. Among the “lesser” personalities who had the “honor” of being able to sign their name on the wall minus the picture are the ambassadors of the different embassies in Beijing. Oh, I’m so tempted to pull out my pen and sign my name beside them but I hesitated. Perhaps someday, I might have my chance (apparently, delusion is one of the side effects of eating too much of their Peking Duck). After that sumptuous meal, the tour guide took us to the famous Forbidden City, the Imperial Palace complex, home to 2 dynasties of sons of heaven. As we approach the “inner” city (not the Forbidden City), we came across the walls of the ancient city of Beijing (the present Beijing is thrice the size of the ancient city). The city walls, according to history, are guarded by 12 gates. The walls no longer stand although one could see certain sections of it but the majestic gates still stands and it quite imposing even by modern day standard. Too bad, like most scenic spots in Beijing, the gates are under heavy renovation. Not far away from the gates, is our destination, The Tienanmen Square and the Tienanmen gate, the first of the 5 entrance way to the fabled Forbidden City. If Beijing is the political center of China then Tienanmen is the political center of Beijing for one could find the Tienanmen gate itself with the ever watchful portrait of Chairman Mao hang on it’s face, the Great Hall of People’s Congress, China’s “main” government institution, the obelisk monument dedicated to the fallen heroes of the revolution; the Beijing Museum of Antiquities and Chairman Mao’s mausoleum, where they kept the body of the Great Helmsman refrigerated in a glass coffin (it’s rarely open to the public). Not far away are the homes of the communist top brass in Chong Nan Hai. Tienanmen Square is quite huge and is actually populated at all times. This is also the place where the Chinese government holds their flag ceremonies everyday. There is also something else that one would notice in the square, something so “unthinkable”. In this heartland of communism, one could see that capitalism has indeed taken root in China for conspicuously within the square are the trailers peddling everything from snacks, to colas and bottled water to camera films to newspapers (BTW, a 500mL bottled water cost 2RMB). I wonder what Chairman Mao would say if his could see these from his “post” at the walls of the Tienanmen gate (where his portrait hangs)? Anyway, we took some pictures at the square culminating with a group picture with Chairman Mao’s portrait at the background. We crossed the street to where the gate is to begin our journey inside the Forbidden City but first, we all had to take a “washroom break” (A fundamental characteristics of Filipino tourists). I don’t know about the condition of the ladies’ room but the men’s room is clean but stinky. It’s adequate when you consider the huge volume of “visitors” that it had to “accept” but barely satisfactory. I had seen better. Later on, I found out that tourist’s washrooms are actually “graded”. So far, in my entire trip in Beijing, the best washroom I’ve actually been to is graded with 4 stars. Most of them are 3 stars. From these, one could “imagine” the state of the amenities of the tourist spots in Beijing. Another observation I had is that the bulk of the visitors (about 75%) here in Beijing are locals and not foreigners, specifically domestic travelers from outside Beijing. This is a testament to the rising standard of living among the provincial Chinese (they looked a lot like farmers and peasants) since they could now afford to visit scenic places within their country. As we enter Tienanmen gate, I was beholden to see another huge gate at a distance and a square as huge as Tienanmen Square itself in between the first and the second gate. It is the same architectural lay – out with the second and the third gate, The Wu Men, i.e., the giant imposing gate and the huge square. The Wu Men gate is considered as the first “inner” gate of the Forbidden City and if my memory serves me right, it is here where the emperors beheaded “erring” ministers and courtiers. The Wu Men from the top view has a U – Shape design with guard towers on both flanks and the center. The blast doors of the gates are huge like 3 stories high and are “studded” with lines of brass balls on its face. From what I had seen so far, I came to realize one thing and that is the Forbidden City is not just the Palace where the Emperor lives, works and performs his divine function, it is also a citadel by itself. It is a citadel to protect the Emperor from the “invasion” of a rival claimant. For from a military standpoint, the design of the door with its brass balls is meant to lessen the impact strength of rams. The huge square could easily hold hundreds of troops and this could also tire out the invaders since they had to transverse the great distance. The gates especially the Wu Men gate is designed to entrapped the besiegers at the gate and shower them with arrows as the latter tried to break in. The fourth gate (the second inner gate) has a moat and is only passable by three bridges. On top of that, the entire Forbidden City is surrounded also by a moat. There is also a back door leading to a hill where the Emperor could escape into if things went badly (it actually happened when the last Ming Emperor fled and hang himself on a tree at the hill). This is one tough nut to crack (but it did crack from time to time in the past). The Forbidden City is also a “boundary” that separates the Emperor from the outside “earthly” world. For the majesty of the architecture has imbibed the Emperor with an aura of divinity exciting the awes of any humble mortal who enters the sacred place and caused them to tremble and worship the inviolable sanctity of the imperial person. This is clearly shown with the palace complex within the 5th gate. The palaces are both magnificent and awesome. Too bad, it is under renovation! Even so, the magnificence of the buildings isn’t lost. Not only that, the design of the City itself has incorporated the ceremonial rituals that only enhance the majesty of the Imperial Power. The stone staircase leading to the great hall is separated into two columns and has an intricate stone carving of 9 dragons playing the sun in between the two staircases. On the emperor’s left (my right since I was facing inside), is the staircase for the Mandarin civil officials of the empire and on the emperor’s right (my left) is the staircase for the Military officers of the empire to enter the hall (I wasn’t able to see the hall because it is under renovation!). In ancient times, nobody can “face” the Emperor straight up but only to “humbly” walk by his side. Lastly, the Forbidden City is a wall jealously guarded to protect the “purity’ of the imperial blood line from being “contaminated” and therefore ensure the rightful succession of a divine family. The high walls and huge squares are not only meant for invaders but also to would be intruders. The location of the chambers of the palaces and the quarters of the imperial harem at the inner half of the complex are designed with this consideration. However, the Forbidden City could easily be also a prison for the occupants especially the Imperial women. To ensure that these women aren’t at least feel “bounded” by this “prison”, scenic landscapes and beautifully designed gardens abound the inner half of the Forbidden City making the occupants feel that they had forsaken their freedom to roam the earth in exchange for dwelling in paradise. Inside the garden is man – made mountain intricately carved with a mansion on top. And as Megan noticed, the walls beneath the balconies and walkways are lined with mini dragonheads (she asked what is it used for), which are actually water sprouts (according to National Geographic). Not only are those dragonheads located at the walls but they are also located on the roofs. When rain falls on the balcony, the water would be drained through the flooring and pass through to the pipes and out of the mouth of the “dragons”. With that, imagine the scenery when it rains in the Forbidden City (I did asked Megan to imagine that also). It would be a magnificent water show with hundreds of fountains coming out of the dragon’s mouth. And so, this is why the place is called the Forbidden City. Nobody could get in and those who are in couldn’t get out either granted that they do wanted to get out at all. Too bad, the place is under renovation. I couldn’t get to see the place in it’s entirety. Actually, I could understand why it is under renovation. Just look at the brick floorings of the square. It is already uneven and depressed and some are even seriously damaged. This is due to the sheer volume of visitors who trod through the complex. Then again, the renovation offered me an opportunity to get a glimpse of the basic architecture of palaces, an anatomy to the ancient Chinese architecture, a rare view I would say. One of the palaces had it’s roof removed and I could see the Chinese uses concentric logs arranged in squares and put one on top of the other with each succeeding ones smaller than at the bottom forming a pyramid (trusses aren’t invented yet back then). The result was to create an angle for the bamboo to be placed upon and on top of which are laid with tiles forming that signature glittering Chinese style trapezoidal roof. There is a scene spoiler inside the Forbidden City and that is the “omnipresence” of Starbucks (actually there is only one Starbucks inside the complex). Like in the Cheng Huang district in Shanghai, it is somewhat incompatible with the romantic nostalgia of the past. Anyway, we were able to finish the tour under 2 hours not because there was nothing to see (due to renovations) but largely because our tour guide, Kitty kept on walking rather mindlessly with her head bow. She didn’t give us much picture taking time like what Sally gave us during our tour of Shanghai (though we manage to take pictures here and there). We actually had to run to catch up with her. I told the doctor to give her a grade of 2 in the evaluation at the end of the trip, which unfortunately never happened. After the visit, our next destination is to visit Beijing’s Hutong or ancient alleys. We rode on bike carriages (the Chinese version of the Filipino pedicab) in our tour of the Hutong. Nothing much to see though. The houses maybe old but they’re not the Ching era houses but rather the early Republican era houses (built sometime in the 1920s). We end up at the Drum Tower. The Drum Tower along with the Bell Tower is ancient Beijing’s equivalent of the London’s Big Ben or the Clock Tower for the purpose of the two towers is to inform the residents of the time of the day and the season. In ancient times, there is no clock or watch and people don’t have calendars also. The only way they could tell time is when the bells and drum strike. The Towers are like 10 – 15 stories tall (or was it 20?) made of stone and in ancient Beijing where every houses are one to two stories high. The Towers along with the City Gates, the Temple, and the Forbidden City stands out as the most imposing structures in ancient Beijing (it still is because most of the houses beside the tower are “low”). There are nine steps from the ground to the portico at the feet of the tower. The “9” signifies the place as an imperial architecture (9 is the highest number and it came to represent the Emperor). There is only one way to the top chamber of Tower and that is through the staircase. Now, the staircase is one of the main attractions of the Tower for it is VERY steep. The angle of the staircase is like 60 – 75o and according to Megan, has 70 steps (I told her to count her steps, which she really did!). Each of the steps are only 6 inches in width (only half of your foot can land on it) and the distance between the steps is like 2 feet apart or even more (imagine how 70 steps would enable one to climb 10 – 15 stories high?). The staircase is also dark (there are no lights) and if not for the handrails (probably a modern day addition), one might slip and fall. Now that would really, really hurt! At the top chamber, there on display are various drums of different sizes and material of the sheath (that’s why it’s called the Drum Tower). The biggest is something like 6 feet in diameters (it’s actually bigger than me and I’m 5’8”!). There is also a “clock”, more precisely, a water clock. The clock is made of a series of three water tanks, each elevated on top of the other and under the third tank are two more tanks on the same level and lay side by side to each other. The water is filled on the topmost tank and is drained through an orifice to the second tank, which now drains water to one of the “ground” level (a.k.a. the fourth tanks). That tank has a mini statue holding a gong. The water coming out of the second tank would fill a cup attached to the back of that statue and as it fills, the weight of the water would push the cup down and through some strings would pull the gongs apart until the cup is full and spilled empty causing the entire cup assembly to “jump” and return to it’s previous position. The action releases the tension and causes the gongs to clap and thus signal that a minute has passed already. There is another hole in the second tank and it empties to the third tank and the third tank accumulates the water and empties it to another ground level tank. This tank is half covered and has a ruler “floating” on it through a slit in the cover. The ruler has a marking indicating the time of the day (Chinese divide the day into 12 or 2 hours apiece). As the tank is filled with water, the buoyant force would “push” the ruler upwards and reveal the “exact time of the day”. Ingenious! The ancient Chinese has actually expertly manipulate the gravity through the position of the tanks, the flow rate of water through the manipulation of the size of the orifice of each tank, the smart string set – up of the cup assembly, and the effects buoyancy of water as well as density to calculate the time! Ingenious indeed! An observer is probably needed to “watch” over the time. Once the time “came”, this observer would tell the drummer to start beating! A record keeper (probably residing at the Bell Tower) would keep records as to how many times the drum has sounded already. After so many drums, the bell caretaker would then ring the Bell. I surmised that the different types and sizes of drums are used not only to signify the time of the day (whether it is morning, afternoon, or evening) but to also inform of the season itself for the introduction posted showed different drums are used on different seasons. It is possible that the ancient Chinese understood the effects of temperature on the speed and quality of the sound and that is why they use different drums. Very clever! This makes me realize how science and technology has evolved since then. Used to be, our forefathers required a platoon of “experts” who dedicated their lives to their profession to tell us what time is it. Now, all we had to do to tell time is to look up at our wrist! Now that’s advancement! Well, Megan, the doc, the geneticist, and I went to the balcony after viewing the drums to see the surroundings. And boy! It scared the sh*t out of me! The balcony is sloped downwards by about 5 – 10 degrees and the balcony rails are below my waist! In fact, they have a second railing a few inches away from the railings to prevent people from getting near at it in the first place. One could actually felt that he/she might fell off the balcony! Pretty scary! Given the steep staircase and the “dangerous” balcony, it takes a lot of guts to be a drummer or a bell ringer back then, I think. After the visit to the Drum Tower, we next went to see an acrobatic show. We got caught in a traffic and actually got to the show late. The show was in a old dilapidated theater and was actually half way through when we got in. Megan and I sat at the topmost balcony seat in the middle aisle. The show was more like a ballet show rather than an acrobatic show for it has choreography complete with graceful dance numbers and a story line but make no mistake about it. It is an acrobatic show. The acts performed involve “participants” bending their bodies 180 degrees and forming designs like flowers and circles. They even have a bicycle show where there are 10 bikers on a single bike! Amazing! My favorite part of the show is actually a romantic number. Here, the participants are tied to a silk drape and are lifted from the ground. In one scene, the guy pulls the lady up literally like “sweeping” her off from her feet. Quite romantic (the storyline included). The show was nice and the ladies are young and pretty (too bad, they’re quite young or else I would have courted one of them). After that, we had the first of the series of those uninspiring meals during our stay in Beijing. Afterwards, we were bought to our hotel at Beijing Century Nikko Hotel (a 5 star hotel). My room is nice. Smaller than the one I have in Shanghai but still spacious. My bed is good for two people (the bed at Shanghai is good for three) but that doesn’t matter for I’m living alone. The bathroom amenities on the other hand are superior than those of Huating and there I had my second hot bubble bath in three days!

Conversations With Ol’ Pal Anthony

After dinner on the second day of my vacation trip, the entire group retire for the night at the Huating hotel to get packed and get to bed early since we are to leave the hotel by 0600 the following morning and check in the airport in time for our 0800 flight to Beijing. However, I had other plans for the evening. I was going to meet up with a “long lost” friend and classmate of mine, Anthony Wee. A few years back, Anthony got assigned to Shanghai to oversee operations for an IT company and has stayed in Shanghai since then. We (as a class) came to miss him at our annual class reunion during the mid – Autumn festival. It is for this reason that I called him up once I got to Shanghai and arrange a get together. Well, Anthony if I remember well is quite “skinny”. Actually, we both were the “skinniest” students during our high school days (I weigh something like 88 – 90 lbs). Imagine to my surprise when he entered the door of the hotel, he didn’t changed at all (Dang!)! He is still thin while I had since “ballooned’ from “stick like” figure in high school into a mammoth that I am now. It made me quite envious of him. How did he maintain such a figure after all this years? He even looked taller than I remembered and thin (did I already mentioned that?). Anyway, it was always a good thing to see an old pal after so long (I think it was more or less 10 years now). We went out to a local restaurant/bar nearby to get a cup of tea. We exchange pleasantries as well as exchange updates on our friends and classmates back home. Anthony has quit his job (the one that assigns him here at Shanghai) and has since landed presumably a “better” job as an IT project manager of a multi – national company. He is living in Shanghai for 5 years now and I would say, he has actually settled in and felt quite “homey” to his new environs. To prove that point, he felt “safe” here in Shanghai for he could walk around in the wee hours of the morning without fear of being mug. It is actually difficult for me to imagine such “freedom” being a tourist. Locals on the other hand could feel that way because of familiarity. Actually, this could also be a testament of the Shanghai government’s relentless effort to maintain public order in the megapolis. Another thing about Anthony and that is he seems to be quite “pragmatic” nowadays than say when we were in high school. Actually, at our age, that wouldn’t be much of a surprise. However, his cheerfulness, his optimism, and his “sunny” face are very much the same like in high school. We chat for like 2 – 3 hours over a pot of Chamomile tea (and his over mango sundae, I think). Inevitably, our topic touched on Shanghai. I inquired about what he thinks about the view of comparing Shanghai to New York. And he answered by saying that like New York, Shanghai has also a culture of “no culture”. Pretty interesting comparison, because for the past day and a half, I noticed that there are several large banners and posters put up by the city government around the city extolling it’s citizen to jointly build a “civilized/cultured” megapolis. Honestly, I couldn’t understand the statement for the very few people that I’d met in Shanghai and they are pretty handful aren’t as “uncultured” as what was implied. Of course, I couldn’t make a general conclusion since I’ve been in Shanghai for roughly 36 hours more or less. Another thing about Shanghai according to Anthony was that Shanghai women are quite independent and “strong”. Shanghai women has a reputation of being “neng kan” (capable and talented). The women in general received higher pay than the men and it is common to see men “staying home” and taking care of the children, as a “houseband”. There are instances where the men actually moved in with the women (the custom here in the Philippines is actually the other way around). Could it be this is what Sally, our tour guide was saying about Shanghai men being “tee tieh” (caring and understanding)? Most likely, if Anthony’s observations are to be taken into account! Sally actually went further to offer an advice that “men should marry Japanese brides and women should marry Shanghai men”. (It is a very dangerous proposition actually as it may trigger an exodus of women from the Philippines to Shanghai looking for a “tee tieh” husband. If that unfortunately happens, I better move to Japan!). In conjunction to that point about the status of Shanghai women, Sally pointed out that most Shanghai people here adhere to the one child policy even if they had a daughter (Chinese policy allows them to have a second child if the first one was a daughter) and for that reason, Shanghai has already entered the ageing population phase wherein the number of old people outnumbers the working young ones. Anthony indirectly confirmed that observation also. Years ago, I had a lady friend from Shanghai who happens to be my group mate in MBA. She also put forward the same explanation to me when I inquire her as to why she is the only child. It seems to me that Shanghai people are very modern in their thinking just like their buildings. Could this be the reason why they don’t have a culture? If culture is defined as a behavioral pattern collectively exhibit by a group of people, then no culture doesn’t mean that people are “uncultured” but rather that there is no discernable collective behavioral pattern. Instead, there are a variety of behavioral patterns that coexist and some of which might even be contradictory to each other. This is probably true given the fast paced nature of life in Shanghai. It was so fast that no “permanent” behavioral pattern could take hold. Everything would seem fluid. Then there is also the fact of an ageing population, which would invariably draw provincials into the city and thus give rise to a character of “no” culture or the absence of any coherent behavior. Anyway, I was just thinking out loud. Well, after sometime, it dawned to me and Anthony that it’s getting late and so we head back to my hotel, which we got there almost midnight. Instead of parting, we actually continue where we left off. Only this time, our topic centered on the local Filipino community. Sad to hear though that the Filipinos here are not in solidarity with each other due mainly to social differences and the unruly behavior of some of its members (apparently, even in the Filipino community, the culture of “no” culture prevails, i.e., absence of a discernable collective behavioral pattern). Well, we could chat even more if not for the fact that it is already 0100 in the morning and I had to be up by 0400. We took a photo together, shook hands, and said our good byes. I wish I had more time to learn more about Shanghai and probably party with Anthony but I don’t. Too bad! Anyway, Anthony is coming back home this Christmas and I’m looking forward to a party.

DAY 2: WHY LEAVE?

April 14,2006: day 2 of my vacation to Shanghai – Beijing. I woke up rather early that day, sometime around 0530, which is way before our tour’s common wake up call at 0700. Well, I’m always the early riser but somehow this has more to do with me being excited about the trip. I peered out of the window from my hotel room and saw a group of people doing Tai – Chi across the street and at the stadium. Oh, I really like to join them but I can’t since I don’t know how to get there. There is a fly over in between the hotel and the stadium and the road doesn’t have a pedestrian sign (I might be caught jaywalking if I did cross it) and there is no pedestrian bridge nearby. It is therefore with a heavy heart that I dropped the idea altogether. I went to have breakfast after my morning “rituals” and happen to meet up with the geneticist and her parents and had breakfast together. The breakfast buffet at Huating is quite sumptuous when compared to the breakfast I had at Beijing Nikko Century Hotel. The former has more variety to offer than the latter. I had a lively chat with the senior citizen (the geneticist’s father) over breakfast. Our topic of the day is the pace of life in Shanghai including the pace of their work and action. People in Shanghai like those in Hong Kong work fast and they walk fast also. By comparison, the pace in Manila would be somewhat “leisurely” if not tortuously slow. We left the hotel at around 0900 to continue our tour over Shanghai. Our first stop is the Silk Factory, where we will be shown how the silk is being manufactured as well as the making of quilt. Well, on the surface, the tour appears to be a factory visit or a plant visit but in reality it is one of the many shopping expeditions that were stuffed in our tour (part of tour package actually) and unfortunately, for me, I happen to HATE shopping! What can I do but to go along and “bear” with it. Our tour guide, Sally (just remembered her name) introduces us to this lovely company guide (I wonder if she is married but I forgot her name) who would be telling us how the entire silk manufacture is done. She first introduces to us the sericulture and intimidated that the secret to a “beautiful” silk is in the Mulberry leaf that is being fed to the silk worm (her English is good!). The worm then forms a cocoon and is of two types. The first type is the single worm cocoon. These cocoons have “heads”, where one can “pick up” the fine strands when the cocoon is soaked in hot water. 5 – 7 of these cocoons’ strands are intertwined to form a silk thread. The second of cocoon are those formed with two worms. Here, one cannot find the “head” to pull the string from. Instead, the cocoon is “cooked” and torn. Our guide actually commented that the twin worm cocoons are “romantic” because the two are tied together for the rest of their life eventually die together “till death do them part”. Her words actually sent shivers up my spine not that I abhor the idea of being together till death us part but the idea of dying. Isn’t it being together and living happily ever after sounds more Romantic than say dying together in a hot bath (more like boiling bath)? Anyway, once the cocoon is torn, it is then stretch and pulled while it is still soft and worn and stretch further over a wooden arc. The guide ask for a volunteer to do the “stretching” and the doctor volunteered and dang, that thing is tough for she could barely pulled it over the arc. The lady worker doing that task must be pretty strong to be able to do that. Around 5 “stretched cocoons are overlaid on top of each other at the arc. 4 female workers then pull those stacked “stretched” cocoons in different directions. This is to stretch it into the size of the quilt. About 5 – 10 layers make one quilt. Again, the guide asks for 4 volunteers to “pull” the “stretched” cocoons. 3 barely pulled it because it was tough but the geneticist manages to tear it (dang, she’s that strong). After the “little” show, comes the sales talk about their quality and the advantage of having a silk quilt over a cotton quilt. The silk quilt is warm during winters but cool during summer (Yup! She’s right on that. I put my hands underneath the sheet and felt it) plus it is non – allergenic. The end. Now, comes the shopping session (Oh, I so hate shopping!). Sat at the lounge the whole time (like more than half an hour) along with some of the male members of the group. Actually, I don’t mind “sitting” nor do I mind listening to somebody’s talk as long as I could learn a thing or two but when somebody starts to diatribe about his married life, well, that is another story entirely. Trust me, it’s boring and quite sickening. I excused myself the moment I saw an opening and wander around. Eventually, I bought two CDs on classical Chinese music (I’m into classical music). One titled “River” (which I recently discovered to be defective) and the other, “Song of the Mei Garden (Mei Yuan Yin). The latter contains two of my favorites, Mei Yuan Yin and Kwang Lin Xan, which if my memory serves me right is the oldest Chinese music, having been composed sometime during the Han dynasty (ca 200BC). Spent 42 RMB on it (Dang, these people don’t even issue receipts!). Anyway, after a long wait, we went to the local bar district. This is the place where one can fine turn of the century buildings and from the number and kind of establishments, it appears to me that this place is to host to a vibrant night life except that there wasn’t much of a “life” when I was there (because it’s in the morning). The first colonial building that we saw was purportedly owned by Jacky Chan (according to Sally). Fine piece of architecture I would and well preserved too. Anyway, Sally gave us 15 minutes to explore the area (didn’t remember the name of the street) and take pictures. We split up into groups and I joined with the geneticist and her parents since I’m traveling alone. I did take several pictures but largely hold back because I am keeping it (memory space) for the Great Wall. There was an area more like a plaza where one can find Starbucks. There is nothing to see at the plaza but the surrounding buildings (including where Starbucks is in) had patios at the second and third floor lined up with coffee tables and chairs. Because of its westerly (direction) orientation, I could only imagine what the view would be like during sunset when one is sitting at the patio sipping coffee and overlooking at the plaza. Pretty nice I suppose if not romantic. Anyway, the entire group met up 15 minutes later at Starbucks where Sally was waiting. The first thing she told us was that she has just spent the first of the 200 cups of Starbucks that her salary could afford. So that is how Shanghai people measure their salary, by the number of Starbucks that they could drink (her salary is about 3 – 4000RMB). Using Starbucks as a GDP (Gross Domestic Product, a economic growth indicator) leading indicator? Not a bad idea at all. At least, it was better than the Philippines where the leading indicator is the number of cases of San Miguel Beer being drowned (according to my macroeconomics professor at MBA). So I supposed that if you’re in Shanghai and you wanted to know a person’s salary but felt awkward to “ask” directly, we could instead politely ask for the number of Starbucks that his or she could afford (Starbucks tall size cost 20RMB). Well, going back, we next went to the People’s Square, which is an open park beside the Shanghai Museum of Arts. The place is actually quite pleasant and peaceful, a piece of green in an ocean of concrete that is Shanghai. Nice place for an early morning jog because of the clean air, and the wide streets plus there is a lot of people around. On our way back to the bus, we saw a flock of white doves on the ground feeding and a lot of kids (and grown ups too) surrounding it, playing with the birds just like in one of the American parks. Oh, what a beautiful scene, coming from where I‘m from, these are the scenes that I could only “see” on TV. I could understand why Megan wanted to chase after the birds, for I too wanted to do so but we refrain from doing so because of our fear for the dreaded bird flu. I mean we don’t know if those birds carry the flu virus but better be on the safe side than be sorry. Too bad though. Anyway, we finally proceeded to have our lunch, one of the 3 memorable lunches I had during my vacation. The place is called Basher and is owned by a Brazilian Chef, Chef Carlos. The restaurant model is a eat – all – you – can buffet type. They have a buffet table filled with great dishes of around 10. The sweets and fruit section are somewhat “few” and left to be desired but the main course of the buffet are the grills that is being serve by attendants at the tables. Chef Carlos himself led the attendants and serves his freshly grilled meats at our tables. Once at the table, we are to get a tong and grab hold of a piece of the grilled meat and the attendant would slice that piece of meat off for you. Dang! They had Angus beef, Shawarma beef, tenderloin beef, lamb meat, pork casserole, roast pork, ham, shrimp balls, fish (it never reached our table because it was “finished off” way before it reached us) and others. Dang! It was so delicious and everybody including me got so full that we actually had to beg Chef Carlos to stop serving us because we can’t ate another bite (with food like that, it’s no wonder that I’d gained 4 kilos during my entire stay)! After that sumptuous feast at Basher, we next went to see the port area located at the British section of Old Shanghai, where we took the cruise down the Pudong River the night before. There we saw the magnificent buildings we saw during the cruise. We took some pictures. After a little while, we crossed the street to the other side to the infamous (in my book) Nanjing East road, the shopping district of Shanghai. I so hate shopping! (Actually, I was thinking about drawing up a nuptial agreement with my future wife regarding shopping. The agreement would go like “never drag me to shopping unless it’s an emergency such as my clothes couldn’t fit because I’ve gotten too fat or somebody stole all my clothes and I’m left with the underwear I’m wearing. Otherwise, don’t even think about it!”) I really couldn’t understand the logic behind shopping. What’s the big deal anyway with shopping? Why buy something you don’t need? Enough with the hypothetical crap, as usual, I’ve teamed up with the geneticist and her parents and we’d gone window – shopping and also to look for mitten as my hands are freezing (got info from Anthony it was snowing in Beijing a couple of days ago). To my disgust, all of the stores are selling spring clothes in a weather where the temperature is 8oC?! I hate shopping! After waiting for what seems like eternity for the trio of bargain hunters to meet up with us from their expedition, we finally went to visit the Yu Garden, where the adventure of the day begins. The Yu Garden is located at the old Cheng Huang Miao district. Cheng Huang in Chinese means “City God”. In ancient China, all walled towns and cities has one Cheng Huang Miao. It is a local deity that protects the city from natural disaster and brings in prosperity. The area contains some of the oldest house in Shanghai, mainly Ching dynasty era architecture. To see one of those buildings is exciting enough but to actually see an entire neighborhood? Now that is quite a marvelous sight. However, nobody lives on those ancient abodes anymore, all of them are stores and restaurants. Capitalism definitely has seeped into China. The Yu Garden, the objective of our trip, is at the center of the district. In fact, I think the entire district was built around the garden. Once I got in the Yu Garden, I was immediately taken aback by its beauty. It is simply indescribable (even at my standard). Words are insufficient to describe it’s beauty. I have never seen anything like it. The closest comparison that I could think of is that the Yu Garden is the Chinese version of the Garden of Eve, a paradise on Earth. Indeed, the official who built this garden during the Ming dynasty intended it as a retirement house for his parents, so that they may forget the ills of the world. Indeed, the place exudes that tranquility, that harmony, that balance. Getting inside the garden was like being transported to another world cut off from the old world. No noise from the street just outside its walls. Ahhhh, I wish I lived here! No wonder this garden survived the ravages of war and occupation, for the beauty that is the Yu Garden conquered the conqueror. The British and the Japanese warlords made this place their official residence. The Yu Garden is not only a rare architectural gem but is also a still shot of ancient Chinese culture. Being the historian, it couldn’t escape my eyes the intricate sculpture and carvings and what it represents. Very few visitors pay attention to the roof of the buildings. For at the top of the buildings, one could see sculptural depiction of religious and mythical themes, of ancient heroes and villains, of gods and mortal men. The most famous of the roof carvings is the Dragon roof over the walls. The length of the Dragon roof extends to like 15 – 20 feet(?). in ancient China, the Dragon is the symbol of imperial authority and only the Emperor could use it. To use it was tantamount to usurpation of imperial power and therefore deemed as a declaration of rebellion. When the Ming emperor learned of the roof design of the garden, he was furious and summoned the official to explain. The official answered that the design is not a Dragon but something else. Pressed to explain, the official said the Dragons has 4 claws, the beast on my wall on the other hand has only 3 claws. Therefore, that beast is no dragon and the Emperor actually acquiesced to the explanation. Somewhere in the middle of the garden was a very old Ginko Biloba tree. It was 400 years old! Surprisingly, it is still sturdy. Oh I could just wonder, how many generations of children has played under its leaf? How many children in all those years have climbed its trunk? If I could only touch it (it was fenced off because it is considered a 5 star or was it 4 star cultural treasure), I could surely feel the touch of those people far remove from my time. As I was standing there in the middle of the garden, I could dream what would it be like living in a place like this. Standing in the middle of the garden basking under the sunlight of the spring sun. Breathing the fresh air and inhaling the fragrant scent of the flowers and all the while listening to a quite classical music like the Mei Yuan Yin. And in the afternoon, sit beside the pond, enjoying a cup of tea and reading a nice book. Oh, paradise! However, all good things always have to come to an end. As I stepped out of the garden as our tour of the place ends, the gates immediately closed behind me for we are the last of the visitors for the day. Somehow, I felt a sense of regret. Regret that I leave. Why leave? Can’t help but murmur to myself that someday I’m going to buy that place! The geneticist apparently having overheard what I said, quipped, “but it’s not for sale”. To which I replied with a sigh, “Yes, you’re right”. She then suggested that “why not built one like it?” Now, why I didn’t think of that? Sure, I could! I just need an acre of land, built a few ancient Chinese houses, dig a pond, plant a few Ginko Biloba tree, embellish some coral reefs, and then add a Dragon on top of the roof. That’s easy. The scene of the temple area just outside the Yu Garden looked surreal to me. For from a distance, it looked like the scene of ancient Chinese life (if you ignore the wardrobes). Ching era houses, crowds of people walking, buying and selling. It is surreal because there are some things that remind you that you’re not in some romantic past but very much in the present like Starbucks! I had a hot chocolate inside Starbucks (remember it’s freezing outside). Cost me 20 RMB for a tall size. Our next stop was to go shopping yet again (I SO HATE SHOPPING!). Sally offered to take us to a warehouse selling fake branded luxury goods (In China, they slapped a 40% luxury tax on all imported luxury brands, little wonder then as to why the “standard” department stores are bereft of shoppers). On our way to the “secret” warehouse, we happened to passed by a street littered with bridal stores and a few blocks later on the same street, pregnant wear stores abound. I cracked a joke then that it is convenient for Shanghai people to start a family since they just had to pass the street starting from the other end by buying bridal wardrobes and at around the block, look for a hotel for the nuptial reception and honeymoon, afterwards, they could continue their journey down the road to shop for pregnant clothes! And if my guess is correct, there is a baby wear up ahead, then the teen wear and so on and so forth. Of course, we didn’t get to see it because we made a turn. Upon arrival at the “secret” place, I volunteered to stay put and keep the driver company but was prevailed upon to join them “to get an experience” whatever that means. And so with reluctance, I went inside the covert store. Dang! The whole place has all sort of fake luxury goods. You name it they have it. Watches, handbags, leather belts, lighters, etc. Gucci, Ferragamo, Tudor are some of the names that I come across that I’m familiar with. Anyway, they didn’t buy anything and so do I (I hate shopping). And so, the owners usher us into another room filled with “better” products. I have poor taste in fashion but according to my tour mates, the quality of the goods is as good as the real thing and so is the price. They are asking for 400 – 500 RMB for a handbag, which translates to roughly 3000 pesos more or less. Again, according to some of my tour mates, the price is exorbitant and is almost the same price as the real thing. Can’t help myself but to sneer at the situation, I actually quipped in Filipino, “Wala yan, mas mura pa sa 168!” (meaning, that’s nothing, it’s cheaper to buy at 168 mall!). To which, I solicited a bout of laughter. And so with my heads high (others are quite disgusted actually at the “charade”), we left the place. We had dinner afterwards, which is good but quite as good as the one we had during lunch. On our way home, I recall the brief visit I had this afternoon at Yu Garden. I was to leave for Beijing early the next day and somehow, I actually wanted to stay. I’m only here for one and half day and although I hated shopping, I find myself surprisingly attracted by Shanghai specifically the Yu Garden. All I ask is for one more day at the Garden but I can’t have it. I had to leave. Why leave? Well, the answer is quite simple; we live on Earth not on paradise and reality bites.

DAY 1: SHANGHAI AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

April 13, 2006, day 1 of my vacation trip to China. I got to the airport as early as 830 even though my flight was scheduled at 1130 in the morning. The newspaper (Philippine Daily Inquirer) advises everybody leaving the country to be there 3 hours before the boarding time to avoid unnecessary delay caused by the strict airport security. It turns out to be a real sick joke! There wasn’t much of a line and everything went smoothly. I was at the boarding gate by 930 and had to endure more than 2 hours of waiting (my flight was a little bit delayed) under the sweltering heat (apparently the government has turned down the air conditioning to save on cost). Thank goodness, I bought one of my management books to read (also since I’m traveling alone, to keep me company at night if I got bored and lonely). At least, I wasn’t going to bore to death inside the airport. I thought that things would be a lot tolerable once I’m inside the plane. To my chagrin, the same thing happened. Before the plane was in mid air, the temperature is hot and probably near “grilling” point if I were to exaggerate a little! Apparently, PAL is also on a cost cutting mode. Dang, what happen to customer service? I’d arrived at Shanghai two and half hours later. The first thing I saw while the plane is approaching for a landing at the Pudong airport was that the farms surrounding the airport had hothouses in the field. I surmise that the temperature must be too cold in Shanghai for the vegetation to grow successfully. At any rate, I was going to find out exactly how cold was the weather. The moment I stepped out of the airplane, cold wind coming from the open hatch of the connecting port greeted me and brrrrr, it was pretty, pretty cold (the temperature is like 7oC!). Too cold, that my denim jacket wasn’t enough to keep me warm. Luckily, I did bought along a winter jacket courtesy of my sister who does her homework checking the weather the night before I left. Even so, I still felt the chill because I was wearing a Nike running shoe made of cloth (for ease of walking) and not my regular leather shoe. Dang, I do sorely miss my leather shoe then. And my hands are also freezing. I didn’t bring any mittens along the trip and had to hid my hands inside my pocket to keep it warm. Going back, I met up with my tour mates and our tour guide. The first thing we did as a group was go to the toilet! It seems that everybody is dying to drain their bladders! Much latter on, we were to learn from our tour guide that one of the “peculiar” and expected characteristics of a Filipino tourist is in their penchant to go to the “washroom” very often. After that, we deposited our luggage to a bus waiting outside. The very moment I stepped out of the airport, the wind blew and boy, oh boy, it was so cold! I felt like a frozen Popsicle but that wasn’t the worst yet. We left our baggage and took the MagLev (Magnetic Levitation) train, which is operated based on the principle of superconductivity and electromagnetism. According to our guide, the German built train is the world’s fastest bullet train and we are about to find out exactly why. As the train started humming, it began to accelerate and in just a few minutes, we’ve reached a maximum speed of 432 km/hr and it took us just 7 minutes and 20 seconds to traverse 20 kms from the airport to the city center. Dang, that was indeed fast! It was so fast that we had to wait like 10 minutes for our bus to rendezvous us at the station. After getting into the bus, we headed to the Pearl of the Orient TV tower in Pudong, which take us across half of the city. On our way to the tower, we passed by a giant sundial in the middle of the circle, a magnificent piece of art I would say. As I was looking around at my new environment, I noticed that there are a lot of new buildings as well as new ones still being built. Not just a few nor a handful but quite a lot actually as in the entire city! The new buildings were like less than 5 years old! The oldest is probably a decade old. These buildings are not only new but they are also architectural gems as well. Their designs are not only impressive but are also awesome and grandiose! One of buildings has a giant lotus for it’s top. Another still under construction has a “sexy” wavy figure. The city hall, which they called the White House looks more like a museum of modern arts rather than the seat of government. Then there is the impressive, towering, ever conspicuous, black monolith that is the Grand Hyatt hotel at 88 floors, the 4th tallest building in the world. According to our tour guide, there is a new and much taller building that is being constructed near the Grand Hyatt. One in which will be crowned as the tallest building in the world when it is done by 2008. However, in spite of all these, one thing that is noticeable about the new buildings and that is most of them are empty. I figured that it maybe that the property prices are way beyond the capacity of ordinary Shanghai residents. Ordinary folks might be living in the outskirts of the city for I noticed that there is also an equally frenzied construction of apartment buildings at the suburbs. The implication of this frenzied building activity but with no apparent buyers is that the return on investment will be low or probably even negative. It means that real estate developers are losing money; money, which was borrowed from financial institutions like banks, which in turn derive the loans from deposits of ordinary Chinese. What I’m seeing here is the beginning of an asset bubble being formed (buoyant property prices that seemingly defy gravity) and if the negative return persists, bank runs will follow, precipitating into a financial crisis, which coupled with the size of the Chinese economy could be worst than the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, probably a magnitude of 10 in the Richter scale. What makes my analysis worst was that all of this frenzy was encourage by the government especially the Shanghai government. One could hear the incessant comparison by the tour guide to New York, the premier city of the world. They are no longer content in comparing themselves to Hong Kong or even Tokyo but New York. Take the MagLev for instance, it was losing money (due to slow passenger take up and subsidized fare) but the government persists. It was for “show”. They are trying to project an image of modernity and confidence. Being modest in Shanghai seemed quite out of place these days. Just look around and one will see why. Taken in that context, one wouldn’t be awed by the entire scene of frenzy but rather worry. Can’t help but think the implication of a bubble burst and its effect on the world economy. A bubble burst would result to falling or negative growth, pull out of foreign investments, massive unemployment. All this would force the Chinese to export their way out of the rut and would probably do so by devaluing the Renminbi, which in turn could trigger a region wide “competitive currency devaluation”. Cheap Chinese imports would flood the Philippines (if it is not flooded already) and thus put tremendous competitive pressures on the manufacturers like me and coupled this with cost pressures due to the weakening currency, the future would looked very bleak indeed (Couldn’t help it, I’m an MBA)! As we arrived for our tour, the bus parked at the APEC building, which by itself was an impressive architectural work. The building’s façade is Gothic in appearance much like the Lincoln memorial but with windows and walls and complete with columns. On either side of the building are two huge globes. One might think it’s a barbell but it actually is not. The entire designed seemed “proportionate”, the globes are neither too big as to dwarf the sandwich building or are too small as to look like dumbbell weights. It’s quite pleasing to the eye. The Pearl of the Orient tower on the other hand looks more like a “trophy”. According to our tour guide, the epistemology of the name is derived from a Chinese poem about the spring drizzle. The droplets look like pearls hitting on the jade plate that is the leaf. The seven spheres on the tower represents the “pearl” while the base of the tower is the jade plate. Base on the information on the leaflet that I took, the tower is 468 meters tall making it the tallest TV tower in Asia and the third in the world. There are three places to go in the tower to have a panoramic view of Shanghai. One is the Space Module, located at 350 meters above ground. According to some, one could Chin Huang Island far out in the China Sea from that vantage point. Another is the Revolving Restaurant at 267 meters, the highest elevated restaurant in Asia and the last is where our tour is heading, the Sight seeing floor at 263 meters. The ticket cost if my memory serves me right is something like 100 RMB (or was it the admission price for the restaurant, at any rate, the ticket is already included in our package), roughly 670 – 700 pesos. As I reached 263, I was quite amazed by what I saw. The view of Shanghai at the top is quite exhilarating. Sky scrappers literally littered the skies and it is not just a few of them or “scattered” around in clusters but seems to “cover” the entire Shanghai as far as the eyes could see. A few years back when my mom visited Shanghai, she told me that Hong Kong “looked” a lot better. However, from up here, the story is different. In a space of few years, Shanghai in my view has overtaken Hong Kong as the bustling megapolis of Asia. One could see a “growing” city complete with the busy streets along with the heavy traffics and the numerous constructions, the dazzling “light shows” from the buildings (its almost dark at that time), and the bustling harbor literally underneath my eyes. The naked ambition of a proud city is all too plain to see from my vantage point. Here at the top of the world, one would not only “see” Shanghai but the face of the New and Modern China as well. On our way out of the tower, I was to encounter another face of Shanghai and indeed, probably the rest of China – the hustlers. A set of crystal penholder, with lights and paperweight in the shape of the tower souvenir is selling at 200 – 300 RMB inside the tower but that same souvenir however is being peddled for 50 RMB by the street hawkers just outside the tower! They swarm at you, trying hard to convince you to buy to the extent that they seemed to be harassing you. One of our tour mates actually bought several of them from these hawkers and guess what, she bought them for 20 RMB (or was it 15 RMB?). What a hustle! Dang, if one is not skilled at bargaining (expert level required), one could really fall for their sales “trap”. Next in our schedule was the tunnel sightseeing tour. The tour would takes through the underwater tunnel and to the other side where our bus is waiting. The tunnels are “decorated” to dazzle the passersby and relieved them of their boredom, I supposed. Anyway, at the entrance of the gate, the themes of each tunnel rides are prominently advertised. One of them is a dazzling light show coupled with techno music and other is about Ancient Chinese Sex Culture (I wonder if it’s a tunnel tour or a bund tour, anyway, it is a very interesting topic). For a few of us in the group, the idea of the tour through the Ancient Chinese Culture caused quite a problem not because we are all prudish but rather because little Megan is 10 years old and me and a few others don’t want to “unwittingly educate” her at a very tender age. Well, we came up with a solution to our little dilemma, which is to cover Megan’s eyes while we are “sightseeing”. It turns out that we worry too much because we took the light and sound show (dang!). The tunnel length is actual short but the travel is extremely slow. It took us 15 minutes to get to the other end. The vehicle that took us there is small, good for 15 people. It was glass panel on all sides and with only 2 seats. It is automatically driven without a driver and you have a very beautiful lady ushering you in the train. I would say that the light and sound show is quite refreshing and gives one the feeling that he or she is entering a futuristic time warp of sort. As we alighted at the other end of the tunnel after the show, I would admit I’m a little bit disappointed. After all, sex and history taken together is a very, very, very interesting topic (I’m a historian). Too bad, I won’t be able to “study” about it. We had our dinner next. The dinner is quite sumptuous (more like a feast actually) with 7 or 8 dishes, soup and eat all you can rice plus soft drinks. The food was actually nice and ok but not great. One thing I notice about the food culture here in Shanghai (and in Beijing as well) was that they served the soup at the end of the meal as opposed to the Philippines wherein the soup was served at the start of the meal. They also don’t put serving spoons on each dish. We all have to “volunteer” our soup spoon for public use instead. After the dinner, we all went to take ferry cruise down the Pudong river. The ship we took is twin deck wooden(?) hull motorized ship. Took us probably half an hour to an hour to cruise a significant section of the river. Dang, the night view is great. All the buildings along the river coast are lighted, some even “performing” a show. According to our guide, the city government ordered the building owners to “cooperate” in order to project an image of vibrancy. It is amazing that they are actually doing this in spite of the fact that China is suffering from power outages. Anyway, the lower deck is enclosed, has chairs and is quite cozy and comfortable but is peopled with “seniors” (as in people older than me). At first, I stayed down, since it was cold outside but I suddenly realized that what in the world I’m doing? Here I am in Shanghai having paid my way to it and only to cloister myself with the “oldies”? Updeck, the beautiful doctor and little Megan are having a blast from sightseeing. Well, the choice was quite obvious. I went up. However, the very second I stepped unto the deck and embraced the wind. Well, it wasn’t cold but simply very, very, very, chilly. I couldn’t feel my nose. My fingers are stiff and numb even though they’re inside my pocket. My knees were probably shaking from shaking from the chill. My winter jack was totally useless, for it cannot keep me warm. I felt like standing naked inside the cold room although honestly, I haven’t tried that (cut me some slack for the exaggeration, ok?)! There is a shed near the center of the deck and it somehow protect the people inside from the chilly wind and I would have stayed there for the duration of the cruise if not for the fact that the good doctor and little Megan were “outside” taking pictures of the scenery (dang! Aren’t they cold at all?). And I am supposed to be the “man” and yet I cower inside the shed? Boy! So I stayed “out” with them and “occasionally” (like 60% of the time) served as their photographer even if I suck at taking pictures (for which little Megan called me “the low tech boy” for not knowing how to take pictures with a modern digital camera but I’m flattered to be called a boy)! The ship passed by a real 5 star luxury cruise liner. Call me a simpleton but this is the first time that I actually saw a luxury liner and boy, its huge! Gigantic would be a better term. At the topmost deck was the dinner section and I saw two beautiful women having dinner together beside the window. From my vantage point, I actually can’t tell if the women are indeed beautiful but what the heck, I waved at them. To my surprise, they actually waved back at me! Afterwards, we’d reached our end point and just about wrapped up our tour for the day. The tour guide brought us to our hotel, The Huating hotel, one of the 17 five star hotels in Shanghai (there is a six star hotel, which is the Grand Hyatt hotel). The hotel looks nice, modern in it’s design style with certain elements of minimalism. My room (I’m staying alone) is quite cozy, rather spacious. The bed is actually good for 3 persons. Lucky me (of course, I paid extra for the it in my tour package but still). The bathroom amenities though nice seemed to be “outdated” compared to the bathroom amenities in my hotel at Beijing. At any rate, the first thing I did when I got into my room was to turn the knob on and fill my tub with hot water and soap. It formed a little bubble and I soak in it to “defrost” (one reason that why I didn’t get sniffles that others in the group got). As I was soaking, I try to recall the events of the day and ask myself this question, Shanghai = New York? In all fairness, I’d never been to New York but given with what I’ve seen and the people I’ve met plus the rate of expansion, I would say 5 years or give another 2 years to that (if what I saw in TVs about New York is any indication). I might be exaggerating a bit here about my assessment but the pace of Shanghai is going right now is no exaggeration at all.