Hukou — A Beijinger living in Provincetown

Tags

beijing, China, Family

My friend Yi who now lives in the USA has started a very interesting blog on his life in China. If you wish to learn more about how that country functions and what are the issues as seen my a citizen, have a read. I have known Yi since 2005 and he is a very nice and smart fellow.

 

In a previous post, I mentioned Hukou (Wikipedia). In China, they say it is to maintain “social order”, but it is mainly a way to control the populations in big cities. Each family has a “Household Register”. There’s one page for each individuals of the household. The information includes name, birth date, gender, ethnic group, […]

via Hukou — A Beijinger living in Provincetown

No washing machine

Tags

art., beijing, Berlin, history, life, Rome, St-Petersburg

Our washing machine died with a clunk and a whine last Thursday, we were able to secure a new washing machine almost within one hour. The drawback delivery takes 7 days, oh my! So the clothing has been piling up as well as sheets and towels. We are really dependent on this machine, now we know. But the delivery will be made by Friday so patience and no panic.

I really miss good conversation with friends face to face and the laughs and gossip. Zoom is NOT the same thing.

Scaffolding coming down this week at the main gate portal of the City Palace. Friday is the capping off of the building which can be followed on webcam. Starting at 6 am Berlin time, weather permitting.

https://cam01.berlinerschloss-webcam.de

For the last few postings I have been writing about the City Palace in Berlin and its final phase of re-construction. You may have wondered why so much interest in this one building. In fact I have been following several other projects in Europe.

One such projects is Buckingham Palace in London, the Official Residence of the Queen. There is little info on what is going on, but it is a major refit of the place from plumbing to electrical system to cleaning and painting and general repairs. Rooms have been dismantled and furniture and paintings removed for safe keeping. The Queen left London because of the pandemic but also because her London Residence was under repair and not fit to live in due to all the noise and workmen etc… Windsor is her real home, private and comfy. She and her husband only live in a suite of rooms in one wing of the Castle and not in the entire place as you might see it from the outside, still it is pretty grand. Many other people live at Windsor in what is term Grace and Favour apartments. The Queen also has other relatives live in London at Kensington Palace and St-James Palace again in apartments, all are at the pleasure of Her Majesty.

Another project is the Alexander Palace built in 1793 in an Italian/Palladian style in Tsarkoye Selo outside St-Petersburg, the work is now reaching completion after many years of complete reconstruction of what was essentially a ruined building. The last private home of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and children before their arrest and deportation in 1917. This has been a massive work of research and archeology, restoration of furniture, original fabrics, flooring, tiling, etc. all this made possible because of voluminous archives kept on the building. This site has a huge following in Russia and around the world.

The Roman Forum is another place I love to explore and read about, about 95 years ago it became the pet project of Benito Mussolini who poured financial resources and had the best academic work on unearthing this area of what was ancient Rome. To this day several Universities and team of archeologist work for years and sometimes a life time on one area. Even now with the building of the new Metro Line crossing the Forum under Via Dei Fori Imperiali more treasures are discovered. I had the good fortune to visit some of those sites being under study and excavation, it is a real marvel.

While in Beijing, I visited various sites around the former Imperial Capital, temples, palaces and the Forbidden City compound. I lived there about 3 years prior to the Olympics. The City itself was under massive construction and re-building. Entire neighbourhoods of 3 million people each would be vacated in a matter of 48 hours with the help of the Police and Army. The Temple of Heaven and the great park around it was a favourite site. The Communist Party with the increase in tourism re-discovered the roots of Chinese culture and its historical past. So recreation was the name of the game, unfortunately so much had been lost between 1967-1976 under Mao ills advised but politically convenient cultural revolution, that doing studies and repairing the damage proved difficult, so the repairs were done very quickly and often of poor quality. What really mattered to the Communist party was money from Western tourists and pushing a re-written history of China always glorifying the Party and the leadership.

In Jordan, I would visit just outside Amman about 35 km away the antic city of Jerash or Gerasa in the Bible. Built by the Romans and prospering as an important commercial link and military city, the Jordanian Government had archeologists work at restoring the extensive ruined city, its temples and theatres. There was a lot of archeological material artefacts just lying on the ground forgotten by time.

Istanbul and the Topkapi Palace grounds is also well worth exploring and how well preserve it is, including the treasury with its incredible amounts of precious stones. If you take a look in the once private areas you will discover a Polo Pavilion and grounds enjoyed by the Sultan, the entire place as a very Oriental feel. The Turkish people migrated from Central Asia one thousand years ago, keeping their Oriental culture.

I am endlessly fascinated by architecture, archeology and factual history. It has always been a hobby of mine.

On a rainy day

Tags

beijing, China, congress, Music

Today was a windy and rainy day typical of Autumn on PEI. I had a few things to do like going to the garage to get my oil changed and get the tire pressure checked. Do a bit of work on the campaign which is drawing to a close but much remains to be done. I found this video on YouTube, recorded by CCTV (Central China TV) it shows the dawn raising of the Chinese flag ceremony of on 1 January 2018 on Gate of Heavenly Peace Square or Tian An Men Square which is more rectangular.

There cannot be a more symbolic square in China, fronted by the outer gates of the Forbidden City with its 3 archways, the central one being higher than the other two and reserved exclusively for the Emperor, on the left side of the square is the National museum whose vocation has been changing in the last 20 years and on the right side the Great Hall of the People used for the Chinese People’s Congress and for State functions. At the Southern end of the square is another gate Qian Men (Front Southern Gate), since 2006 the City of Beijing has re-built completely the area in what it must have been liked 100 years ago under the Imperial regime with traditional architecture, opera theatres and old traditional shops, somewhat like Chinese Disneyland. In the middle of the Square is Mao Tse Tung Mausoleum which is only open a couple of days a year and is in need of restoration as it appears frozen in time since his death in 1976.

Every day the flag is raised on Tiananmen Square but New Year’s Day is seen as auspicious. While serving in China, I got to see quite a few of these ceremonies. The one which remains with me is the day I went to the People’s Congress meeting in the Great Hall of the People. Our Embassy was in the area of Dongzhimen Wai (East Straight Gate) in the Chao Yang district, I remember being taken down the third ring road during the time the People’s Congress was sitting in March. The government of China would invite Embassies to send observers.  All along the way two lanes of the four lane ring road were reserved exclusively for official cars and a police officer in full uniform was posted every 100 meters, you need a lot of manpower to do that. Our car then turned unto the avenue of Eternal Peace which leads to Tiananmen Square. Again an honour guard all along the route over several kilometres. Upon entering the square gigantic displays of flowers, honour guards to direct the official cars to the main door of the Great Hall of the People, large red carpets climbing the stairs.  Once inside all the walls are in white marble but in keeping with the Soviet Style of architecture it is all over sized dwarfing people. The walls also had large tapestry showing scenes of happy workers receiving bouquets of flowers from happy children and peasants. Other tapestries had patriotic scenes or nature scene rendered in socialist realist style, high in colour.

1920 Photo of Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City is in the background and the gate in the foreground was demolished in 1957 when the square was remodelled as we see it today.

 

In the Great Hall itself where the sessions took place thousands of delegates sat in a large theatre facing the stage where the Head of State, Premier and Ministers including other senior officials of the Chinese ruling bureau sat, each with his or her cup of tea, attendants bring tea continuously. On the large balcony above a 100 piece military orchestra would play patriotic music when signalled to do so. We sat at one end of the balcony observing the ritual of voting on laws or listening to speeches. It was all choreographed. The 56 ethnic minorities living in the People’s Republic of China are also represented in the Assembly and each one is made to wear its ethnic costume so as not to confuse them with the dominant Han Chinese delegates in dark business suits.

The day we attended the Congress a law was passed forbidding Taiwan from seceding from the motherland. Another signal that China is serious about its one China policy. I remember watching the vote, it went like this; In favour 2998 and 2 abstentions, I always wondered who abstained. However another vote was on accepting the final report from the Supreme Court of China on its activities for the year. In this case the vote went this way; 2875 in favour, 110 against and 15 abstentions. After each vote the military band would play. It was all very exciting to see.