3- China for me

3 - China for me
Beijing
Suhale and Jai came to drop me at the airport. “Dadi, r u going to the Olympics?”
“Yes but they are over. But I will get a hat for you. And a T-shirt, and a bat and a Ball”. He said,” OK” Adit had woken up at home and reminded me on the Cell, “Dadi you have to get me Gold, Silver and a bronze medal”.
I laughed and said “for that you will have to go yourself and win”.
“Fake ones” he said and I laughed.
Remembered Suhale many years ago had taken part in the ‘Olympics of the mind’ in Elementary School and won some project in the US.

As I write this I get a call from the Maurya Sheraton, “Hi” he says,” I just called to say that I just received an award from Jyotir Scindia ‘The best young emerging company in the BPO sector in India-2008’ ‘’. “Wow son, well done!”

As we landed at Beijing, there stood a huge globe resting on 2 dragons announcing “One world one dream, the Paralympics”.
In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann organized a sports competition involving World War II veterans with a spinal cord injury in Stoke Mandeville, England. Four years later, competitors from the Netherlands joined the games and an international movement was born. Olympic style games for athletes with a disability were organized for the first time in Rome in 1960, now called Paralympics. In Toronto in 1976, other disability groups were added and the idea of merging them for international sport competitions was born.
The number of athletes participating in Summer Paralympics has increased from 400 from 23 countries in Rome in 1960, to 3806 from 136 countries in Athens in 2004, to 7,000 from 148 countries now at Beijing in 2008.
The whole route about 60 kms of the highway to the Hotel was lined with Banners of the Olympics. In fact the whole city was. All the Parks had exquisite floral formations of Sports sculpture in Green and all colors of the rainbow. Huge LCD screens, on big buildings including ‘the great wall’ were screening events 24hrs. of the day.
"Sacred flame, you are burning in my heart; are you hearing me? I'm singing for you." said Wang Yimei, a ten-year-old with a hearing impairment, speaking with her hands in the most moving language in the world. The burning flame understood her message as did all those who watched.
It was indeed a treat to watch the visually challenged, the amputees, and those on wheel-chairs on a basketball field and other events. The Paralympics integrated dignity, value and humanitarianism and the inspiration and fortitude of those with disabilities.
Beijing From Now to then :

Home to over 2000 years of imperial rule, Beijing was built to awe the populace with the power of the emperor. The central axis of the city is 7.5 km long, cutting through Beijing in a line from north to south. Almost all the streets are constructed according to this axis maintaining the harmony of the design.

The Great Wall
As you fly into the city, the Great Wall rises up beneath, slithering its way like a dragon along the tops of the surrounding mountains past the Gobi desert to the Yellow sea over 6000 kms. Long.

Symbolizing China's ancient civilization it is the7th new wonder
Construction of the Wall first began during the period of the Warring States about 300 BC. Formerly it was built at strategic points by different kingdoms to protect their territories. After the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty unified China, he had the walls linked up.
About 1 million people, one-fifth of China's population at the time, worked in scorching summers and harsh winters, the wall a symbol of pride and invincibility.

While Sudhir wrote to us his adventure on the Badaling section, we went to Mutianyu. There is a ski lift that took us the lazy seniors to the great watch towers and scenery around. We took the ‘Tobaggan’ down which is a long twisty slide, scary to begin with, but wild and fun once you get the hang of it.

As usual there are little shops and hawkers at the entrance. We had a delicious snack looking like a Rummali roti, on top of it they break an egg and spread it with a spicy sauce and crunchy stuff, a bit like a pappadam and then they fold it...hot and yummy.

Tiananmen Square
Chairman Mao shines bright on the Gateway and presides over Tiananmen Square, the largest urban square in the world. This vast space, measuring 40 hectares, has a historical significance to rival its size.

The May 4th demonstrations in 1919 against the Treaty of Versailles took place here. So too did anti Japanese protests in 1935. Mao inspected his troops here during the Cultural Revolution and in 1976, one million people gathered in the square to pay tribute to the Chairman. Tiananmen Square is largely Mao's concoction Today, visitors remember the square mostly for the images of the May,1989 student demonstrations which were relayed throughout the world.

This is not only the physical centre of China, but also the centre of power and politics. The Chinese flag is raised at sunrise and lowered at sunset when PLA soldiers march up and down, drilled to perform at 108 paces/ minute! The number of soldiers guarding the corners almost imparts a sense of intimidation. In the centre is Chairman Mao's tomb, his body lying embalmed for paying respect to him and other heroes of the Revolution.
Forbidden City
This is the Palace Museum. It is the largest and most well preserved imperial residence in China today. Under Ming Emperor Yongle, construction began in 1406 and took 14 years to build. The first ruler who lived here was Ming Emperor Zhudi. For five centuries thereafter, it continued to be the residence of 23 successive emperors until 1911 when Qing Emperor Puyi was forced to abdicate the throne.
The ancient astronomers divided the constellations into groups and centred them on the North Star. This was the Constellation of Heavenly God.
The palace has morality written all over its wings; hall of mental cultivation, palace of tranquil longevity, of gathering elegance, of celestial and terrestrial union, of manifest harmony and of modest ladies.The Kings chamber had 9 beds for his eunuchs, concubines & the empress.

I remembered Forbidden City from the Oscar winning movie ’last emperor’. In it Pu Yi was tutored by Peter O’toole. Although he was driven out and became a citizen in the end, Bernando Bertolucci immortalised Pu Yi,as also the Forbidden city.

The Summer Palace
is beautiful with the Gardens and the Lake of Clear Ripples. It was constructed in 1750 by the emperor of the Qing Dynasty in honour of his mother's birthday. After 15 years and one seventh of the nation's annual revenue spent, it served as a testimony to China's scientific and technological achievements and renamed ‘the Garden of Nurtured Harmony’ which it truly is.

Temple of Heaven
Magnificent and colourful is a delightful place. It was completed in 1420 and was originally a platform for the Son of Heaven (the emperor) to perform sacrifices and solemn rites. The Temple buildings and the parklands reflect ancient Chinese religious beliefs that imagine heaven as round and earth as square. The temples themselves are round and the bases square. Among the gods worshiped were the god of earth, the god of water, the god of agriculture, the god of religion and the god of civilians. Offering sacrifices was a serious task, as was atoning the sins of the people

The parklands and the Temple are an exquisite place to spend some time and dance with the Tai-chi experts, kite flyers and violin and accordion players.

One of the unique features of Beijing which has been China's capital for five dynasties is the Hutongs, which means small lanes in the Mongolian language. In these lanes, quadrangles, each consisting of a courtyard surrounded by one-storeyed tile-roofed houses exist, which are the living quarters of ordinary people even today.
A round in these lanes by a Rickshaw is part of the Day trip we took. It is like any old city in any small town in India, perhaps my own grandmother’s old house in Ludhiana where I was born.
There are still no modern toilets. There is close community living, groups of senior men and women sitting around playing cards, chess, checkers or plain gossiping.
I talked at length to a lady in a family we visited. She of course also knew no English. She told us she was 63, an architect, love-married to an architect, mother of a son who lived in Shanghai, still working, living in another area but was visiting her 92 year old father who lived here with her widower 67 yr old brother who was making mo-mos in an earthen oven / tandoor. “Do u believe in Feng-shui?” She nodded her head and said, “Not really, most educated people have left these things behind”.
Met the 92 year dad outside cleaning the street with a standing Broom. He nodded and smiled and said, he likes to clean as it cleans the environment to throw away those cigarettes Stubbs that young people smoke. Also, “it keeps my body moving which is good.”

Once back to the Hotel in the evening, I had to put my feet up but there was no way I wanted to miss Sun Li Tan or Bar Street. It was a melting pot for the locals and those around the Globe, both young and not so young. There were jazz players, Portrait painters, lots of Budweiser and Heineken, outdoor Café and eating joints both for casual and elite. Lots of Music indoors and outside by the side of the Lake with its shimmering lights and swaying crowds which was hard to resist even for my tired feet.

Time had come to return ------ I am half awake-----reminiscing—between flights---
I've witnessed at first-hand what may well be the fastest, most far-reaching national metamorphosis in human history. There is no way one could encapsulate the myriad forces that have driven China's blindingly fast rise.
In 1960 a prime minister who promised that income would double in ten year turned out to have underestimated: the target was passed in 1967. In 1985 she became the world’s largest creditor nation.
Deng pushed industrial growth at any cost, short of giving up one-party rule. Investors kept pouring in from Hong Kong and Taiwan, unfazed by questions of human rights, to build factories and take advantage of cheap migrant labor.
Now try to imagine such explosive transformations happening all across a country of 1.3 billion people. The China that appeared on the world's TV screens today is centuries old, but it's been made anew in just the last three decades. Thirty years ago China was an immense ruin of enforced ignorance and abject poverty, the psychic rubble that remained after Mao's misconceived attempts to reshape Chinese society.
Industrialization has leaped to unlikely places with speed of a computer virus and the shifts of initiative in
the next millennium may be into the hand of worldwide elites or of a few masters of cybernetics,
moulding world culture from a specific location through millions of modems.

The Sun has come up again on this side of the world and the culture of the present and the
Future emanates from the depths of Asia and – increasingly and decisively, not from the Atlantic but
from the shores of the Pacific.

Veena Kapoor Sept. 2008