Sad Lhasa

Lhasa is a sad city. The fact that it was the center of Tibetan Buddhism and is still a very sacred place did not cheer us up all that much. It's a busy town, with Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet's holiest shrines and the spiritual heart of the city, in the middle of it. It's golden-roofed Temple is surrounded by the Barkhor kora (pilgrim circuit), lined with all manner of shops and stalls selling prayer flags, holy scriptures, jewelry and an assortment of other Tibetian goods together in a festive atmosphere.

Nearby the temple is Beijing Donglu, the major street that runs through town. Its sidewalks are filled with the smells of yak butter, goat meat, and incense among others. Beggers and monks sit against the walls, along with the spittle, garbage and dried urine left behind by others. These sites look familiar to us, having walked similar streets in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, and with this experience behind us, we continued on.

As uncomfortable as it is to walk through such human hardships, what nailed down our impression of Lhasa came when we visited Potala Square, a wide-open public space facing the magnificent Potala Palace. Sitting in the square opposite the huge icon of Tibetian culture stands a towering sculpture of "public art". The Chinese characters written down its side are forever engraved to read "Tibet Peace and Liberation Commemorative Monument".

In another words, the Chinese honestly believe that they have "saved" Tibet from the evils of religion and their feudalistic past and have brought them infrastructure in the form of hospitals, schools, roads and the like. As we stood in the square, a large group of Chinese Army soldiers joyfully took snapshots of each other in front of the monument. It was a symbolic image, with no doubt as to who ruled this land. Across the street, running the length of the outer walls of the Potala Palace hung two huge red banners celebrating the 100th birthday of Den Xiaoping. One of them said "Celebrate [the birthday] with the people of Tibet and continue to prosper". This must be a slap in the face to the Tibetians who come to prostrate themselves daily in front of the Palace.

Before 1950, when the Red Army invaded Tibet, Dalai Lama 14th and a hundred thousand Tibetans fled with him to India. More than one million of the Tibetans who remained in their homeland were massacred, Potala Palace, a huge social and governmental infrastructure, had been alive with thousands of people. Now the Potala is essentially the Chinese government's booty museum, managed by a handful monks and a Chinese staff. The palace lacked any voices or signs of life, sitting empty and dead. Looking down from the roof of this grand building to the ruins below we imagined how it once was alive with Tibetan life.

Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism are now a brand name in the global tourism industry and attract a wide variety of foreign visitors (including us!). The trend and popularity also extends to large numbers of the ruling class Han Chinese, who are enjoying the freedom of travel as their wealth increases. One could imagine that the standard of living among Tibetans would also increase along with the tourism money pouring in, but that was, unfortunately, not evident to us at all. Our observations, rather, reminded us of the fate of the Native Americans, or that of the Ainu tribe in Japan.

What seems to never change is Tibetans' faith in Buddhism, Dalai Lama, and the gods symbolized in their mountains and lakes. I would like to believe that their never-changing faith is the shining light among them.

China Creates

China seems to be in the center of the news media. The majority of information out of this country is centered around economics, politics, and industry. Its long and colorful history and its traditional, diverse cultures are also the focus of media attention. Its name is mentioned frequently in the days following the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympics. But what about modern art in China? We peeked into parts of the art scene that has been quietly yet steadily progressing in Beijing.

Central Academy of Art in Beijing is one of few elite art schools in China. Those students who were admitted came through its narrow gate, having being recognized for their skills and potentials. Its School of Design receives fifteen thousand applications, and only five hundred are accepted. That's very competitive, where less than half a percent of applicants gets a nod (.033). The college offers many curriculums varying from traditional Chinese art, calligraphy, sculpture, painting, to digital media. There are a quite few foreign students studying abroad here as well. In addition to the mainly Chinese student body, the school hosts several international students from Japan, Malasya, Thailand and other mainly Asian countries.

Not far from the art school is an area of art galleries and artists' studios mixed into an industrial neighborhood. Some of the industries are still open, and have been operating since the Cultural Revolution. Artists have moved into the abandoned factories, creating an interesting environment for creative activities and displaying art. Imagine modern paintings and sculptures displayed in warehouse like spaces that still sport old propaganda slogans in giant red characters praising Chairman Mao. The art is new and full of originality. Many collaborations with European artists and curators take place in the area. Mixed into the gallery spaces and factories are trendy and fashionable cafés and restaurants.

I believe that modern art is a good indicator for advanced nations' cultural priority, freedom, and reserved strength. While this does not imply that developing nations have no interesting art scenes, they remain quiet in the area of new forms of self-expression in general. In many cases, developing countries stick to their traditional arts, which is often the charm for its visitors.

The industrial China is a contractor of huge scale manufacturing for itself and other countries based on high efficiency and low costs. Originality and creativity don't have much to do with this productivity. As we all know, these two elements are required in order to be noticed in the modern art world. In Beijing, many progressive artists are expressing their creativity, accumulating reserved strength and harnessing their minds to appreciate these new art forms.

Belly Full

Our bellies are full! Chinese food is said to be one of the world's three great cuisines, and we have been enjoying it everyday. We've been eating in restaurants for every meal, because our lodging is a college dormitory without a kitchen. Each restaurant and street food vendor offers a wide variety of ingredients, flavoring and cooking styles. It's a lot of fun eating in China, once the language issue is overcome. Being Japanese is an advantage as I'm able to read some (not all) of the Chinese characters.

The Chinese diet is well balanced. While they can select from different meat and fish dishes, they always eat them together with pure vegetable dishes. They value the seasonable vegetables grown in tune with specific times of year. Spiciness and greasiness vary from restaurant to restaurant and dish to dish.

It's the customers who create the meal by choosing several dishes, balancing tastes like bitter, salty, sweet and spicy. When a group of four adults dine together they may have one appetizer, two vegetables dishes, and three to four meat or fish dishes. We gasped at the amount of food that people around us ate at first, but now, we too order three or four dishes and do a pretty good job of devouring each of them. Chinese cooking is a strange thing, considering the amount of oil in each meal it's a wonder we don't suffer from heartburn. There is one thing for sure, after 4 or 5 hours we're hungry again!

There is a restaurant across the street from the dorm that is known as one of the best noodle shops in town. Each time we visit we're treated to a live performance of noodle making from the front showcase window. The noodles are ordered according to the sauce you put on top and whether you would like the noodles warm or cold. The noodles come plain, surrounded by several dishes of bean sprouts, soybeans, green onion, stringed turnips, cucumber and diced celery. The waiter asks you which condiments you'd like, and dumps them on top of the noodles before serving you. He leaves the sauce for you to add to your liking. Pour the sauce on top, mix well and enjoy! Their chewy texture is fabulous and the cold variety makes a wonderful lunch on a hot humid day. Our favorite toppings are beef juice in miso paste and peanut sauce.

The price of food is also a blessing to cost-constraint travelers, like us. It's cheap. As long as we don't indulge in highly priced restaurants, three meals for two can be managed under 10 US dollars per day, without much pressure to keep the cost down. Our favorite breakfast is a kind of egg pie called "ji dao guang bing". It's a pancake stuffed with fried egg topped with sweet miso paste, green onions, cilantro and bits of red pepper. Freshly made and piping hot they cost about 15 cents. Drinks like soda or fruit juice cost more than the meal itself. The aforementioned noodle dish is about 1 US dollar per bowl.

After a bit of trial and error, we've found a formula for picking good restaurants out of the tens of thousands here in Beijing. When buying simple foods like breakfast or snacks, they must be freshly made, ideally in front of you, while you wait. For lunch and dinner, our highest priority is the cleanliness of the restaurant. A bright atmosphere with many people eating inside is essential. If the pot of tea served is not steamy hot, it's not a good sign. We found that the locations of a restaurant, be it on a main street or back street is not so important as long as it's clean, bright, crowded and serves hot tea.

By the way, vegetarians can enjoy wonderful dishes in any restaurant in Beijing. Our guidebook lists a few recommendations for vegetarian only places, but, overall, they are totally unnecessary. Looking through several menus we learned that they are organized in categories, listing first their specialties, then appetizers, soups, meats, fish, vegetables, deserts and drinks. All a vegetarian has to do is to turn to the vegetable dish section and make a choice (but then, reading the selections is a challenge, but many menus have pictures of the dishes, and this makes it much easier). Chinese vegetarian restaurants, we found, are places where they serve mock-meat and fish product based on soy and gluten. When beautiful, fresh vegetables and tofu can be had at many restaurants, why bother?

Under the Grey Sky

"China is incredible!" my stepfather repeatedly told me in amazement. He had recently visited the country to observe it's manufacturing sector, which has been radically growing for several years, and has recently accelerated into high gear.

During the first few minutes of our arrival we could see the new economical growth and outrageous development here in Beijing. There are so many people in our view, many new high-rise buildings under construction in all directions, and brand new cars on every street.

The expressions of the people are bright, with smiles and laughter filling the sidewalks. And all of this is moving around under the huge dome of the grey sky that hovers over the city. These were some of our impressions, immediately after our arrival on a train from Ulaan Baatar.

Unlike Europe in a cold summer and dry Mongolia, the humidity is 100% in Beijing. Add smog to that and we have a kind of air so thick that you can literally cut it with your own hand. On a sunny day, the visibility is no more than two kilometers. Even buildings nearby are in a grey haze due to this hazy air quality. We are maneuvering through the city mainly by taxi and on foot in this atmosphere that is different from any other cities we have visited so far.

We plan to stay in Beijing for two weeks. However, our time for exploring is limited, because Lyn is collaborating with students at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in conjunction with her SIGGRAPH artist-in-residence. When we walk in the city, we like to avoid the main streets and wonder into the backstreets, called Hutongs. Once we get away from the touristy spots the real lives of Beijing begin to come into our view. The city is quite safe to walk anywhere and so many of the elements in the people's lives here remind me of my childhood in Japan.

When was the last time I saw middle-aged men in a neighborhood sitting around a chessboard on the sidewalk, waving fans, and drinking beer? At dusk, I can hear and smell cooking that comes from houses nearby. Young housewives yell at trouble-making little boys. Older women are gossiping loudly, seemingly all talking at the same time. And vendors come in and out of the neighborhood; selling goldfish in bowls and crickets in a little bamboo cages.

There seems to be a park, small or large, in every neighborhood. The people who utilize those parks are mainly in middle age and older. Some take their grandchildren and some others walk their little dogs. Others group up for various forms of exercises, such as walking, Tai Chi, sword dance, fan dance, and social dance. Men surround Chinese chessboards or play cards. They use these parks daily and they all seem to enjoy being there. No parks seem to be just a manicured, pretty waste of space.

We saw photos taken by young Chinese photographers in Berlin, depicting rapidly changing urban sceneries and contrasts of the old and the new. The Beijing that we are looking at now has so much of the expressions that we saw in those pictures. Once we recognize that the similar changes are taking place all over China, we would have to say, "China is incredible!" On the other hand, it is beyond our imaginations how these changes in China would affect itself and the world in the coming years.