Knowing that it had been closed to foreign tourists until very recently, Communist China – with its ancient culture, art and historical sites has always fascinated me. When an opportunity came my way to visit China, I was delighted. My husband, a Lucent Technologies Technical Director, had been chosen to head the Greater China Engineering Operations for Lucent/China as an expatriate for 2.5 years in January 2004.
I traveled to China for the first time in May 2004 by Northwest Airlines from Newark to Tokyo via Detroit and then to Shanghai, a total flight time of about 19 hours. The flight was delayed in Detroit, which led us (me and our son Vick) to miss the evening flight to China. We had to stay overnight in Tokyo, which delighted Vick, a fan of Japanese cartoons. The airline provided the accommodation at the Ramada Inn at Narita airport. The next morning, as we landed in Shanghai’s gleaming new Pudong International airport, I looked out of the window and I saw neatly designed buildings and skyscrapers. There was a geometric precision about these square and rectangular shaped blocks that resembled the toy cities my little Vick used to build with Lego blocks. This weeklong stay was fascinating.
My husband was waiting at the airport with his driver Mr. Wang beside him. Wang knew very little English, but was very gentle and polite. We communicated by any means, from nodding our heads to making hand gestures. I soon learnt that in China it is impossible to communicate with the natives unless one has a working knowledge of Mandarin. In the course of my short stay I found out that the people were aware of this shortcoming and they were making all efforts to overcome it. Perhaps this accounted for the mushroom growth of English classes all over the city.
As I embark on my last trip to China on April 8th, 2006, lot of thoughts come to my mind. This is my 8th trip to China in a period of two years. The last two years were a mixture of joy and sorrow as well as stress and anxiety. Our family was scattered all over the world – Niren in China, our daughter Gargee, a M.D. candidate in New York City, and initially I along with 9 yr-old Vick were holding the fort in Bridgewater, NJ. Extended families were all in India. It was quite a challenge, but we managed to survive by the Grace of God. I was proud to see my husband Niren, an Assamese in such a commanding position in China. This was my console. I honor his ambitions!
Tour de Shanghai
As Niren had other activities with Vick including school tours, I boarded the tourist bus from the Yangtze Renaissance Hotel to take a whirlwind tour of Shanghai. Along the way, we picked up tourists at various hotels and we were finally at the Portman-Ritz Carlton Hotel on Nanjing Lu. This famous Nanjing Road (Lu means Road in Mandarin), for years Shanghai’s principal shopping street is similar to New York’s Fifth Avenue. Many of the buildings along Nanjing Road are still in the colonial style while others have been modernized. Lots of expensive boutiques line the road. A top-floor coffee shop charges 40 Yuan ($5) for a cup of coffee. More expensive than the States.
The tour took us to the Shanghai Museum, the famous Bund (embankment on the Huangpu river, Pu means river in Mandarin), the Jade Buddha temple, Yuyuan Gardens, the People Square and other attractions in the Puxi section of Shanghai (Xi means west of the river). We had an English-speaking tour guide and had group lunch at the Shanghai Mansion in Chinese traditional style with “lazy Susan” dining tables. I was very selective in what I ate. It was an international group comprising of Americans, Australians, British, Koreans and Singaporean. Our daughter Gargee, who visited Shanghai a month before me, recommended the tour. The tour gave me a very good flavor of Shanghai and Niren and I decided to make Shanghai our home-away-from-home for the next two years.
Niren took me and Vick to the Jin Mao tower, which housed the Grand Hyatt hotel, the tallest hotel in the world. Inside the building is a glittering hollow and as we looked down, it felt like we were in a Star Wars Zone. The trip to the Oriental Pearl Tower, the first TV tower in Asia was fascinating and as we had tea at the revolving restaurant, the glimpses of nighttime Shanghai was inevitable.
Next few days were spent villa hunting and shopping at the famous Xian Yang Gift Market, which is similar to Calcutta’s New market with varieties of articles from traditional Chinese tea-sets to Designer items. This market fascinated all of us.
Most of my trips to Shanghai were consumed in training our four different ayis (maids) in the art of Indian cooking, with emphasis on Masar tenga anja (lemon fish). Since there are few Indian restaurants and no Indian grocery store, I had to make sure Niren and Vick (who joined Niren later) had a good home-cooked Indian meal every day like in the US.
During one of my several trips to Shanghai, Niren and I also attended the F1 Car racing event at the newly built Shanghai Circuit. I was fortunate to be part of this great event.
The highlight of my last trip was the Huangpu river cruise in a night setting. The Shanghai skyline is marvelous in the night with glittering lights, and the scene including the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Jin Mao tower.
Everyone we met had an extra warm smile to share when we disclosed to them that we were Indians from America (Mei Guo). They admired my mekhala-chadars/sarees, the silk from which they were made and my bindi. They spoke about Hindi films and music. They spoke about a developing cordial relationship between the two countries. They mentioned that another name for Integrated Circuit (IC) is India-China. They pointed their index finger to their head and indicated by body language that Indians are intelligent. They made us proud of being Indians.
In 2005, Niren and I were glad to host my parent’s Dr. Jyotiprasad and Preeti Medhi, Niren’s elder sister Ms. Nikulata (Gulu) Sarma, and my brother Dr. Deepankar Medhi and wife Dr. Karen T. Medhi as guests in our Shanghai home – a truly American home in Pudong (Shanghai), the so-called Manhattan of China. They all really enjoyed their stay in China.
My ode to Shanghai and China…
It was interesting to see a 5000 year-old civilization transformed into a modern society. As the first Assamese American family to be part of that society was remarkable and inspiring.
Souzhou trip
With a group of American tourists, I visited Souzhou, a small city on the Yanqtzee delta famous for freshwater pearls. As soon as we entered the city of canals, it reminded me of Venice in Italy and Amsterdam in Netherlands. Surprisingly, it is called the Venice of China! As soon as we got off the tourist bus, we were off to pearl fishing. We boarded a small boat and picked up some oysters from the waters and rowed back to shore. The fisherman took us to the pearl/jewelry market along with the oysters. The pearl stores are awesome, but I have never seen such mountains of beautiful pearls in my life. In front of the spectators, the oysters were cut open. They were filled with 5-10 pearls each. The pearl in the center was perfect round and of natural color. Ones on the sides were shaped flatter and were colored pink or purple depending on the veins of the oysters. That’s when I came to know about the various shapes and colors of pearls. I love pearls and this was a very memorable experience. The pearl shopping trip was exciting.
Hong Kong trip
While in China in 2004, I was fortunate to visit Hong Kong, which is part of PRC China now. The Hong Kong trip was a business trip to visit AT&T’s Asia-Pacific headquarters in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. I flew from Shanghai to Hong Kong by China Eastern Airlines; the flight time was 21/2 hours. As the plane landed in Hong Kong, it was wonderful scenery to see the skyscrapers lining the mountains. It felt like the plane is landing on water, as the runway is a narrow strip of land bordered by the sea. Besides office work, I did not get to do any sightseeing. However, I had a stroll around Causeway Bay in the evening, where I saw shopping centers like Sogo and the famous Windsor Mall. These shopping malls are humongous compared to malls in USA or Europe. I had also seen Harrods in my past visit to London. It is a very cosmopolitan city and was relieved to be able to communicate in English, unlike rest of China. The streets were filled with smells of various kinds of food being cooked in the wayside eateries. It was a quite a memorable experience.
My Beijing trip
In June 2005, I visited Beijing for couple of days and stayed at the North Garden Hotel, near the famous Wulfuxing Lu. Niren, Gargee and Vick had visited Beijing earlier, so Niren arranged for me to visit the capital city and arranged for a private taxi and English speaking driver. Very little English is spoken in Beijing.
The Temple of Heaven built in 1420 AD during the Ming Dynasty was the first monument I visited. It was built by an agrarian society to make their agricultural offerings to Heaven. The temple has long stretches of corridors leading to a semi circular Northern part symbolizing the Heavens. The square southern part symbolized the Earth.
I was undoubtedly thrilled to witness first hand a piece of magnificent Chinese architecture but there was something else I saw that left a warm feeling of pleasure. As I walked up the long corridors I observed that they were filled with people, all belonging to the older generation. They were engaged in doing something or the other. Some of the elderly people were playing cards, others were making exquisite crochet handicrafts that they were selling to the numerous tourists who cared to show any interest in what they were making. Some of them were staging street dramas and others were exercising.
Atop the Great Wall of China! Chang Cheng, the Chinese call it. This is the only man made structure to be visible from the moon, from outer space! I went to visit the section of the wall at Badaling. Famed for its sheer size, this imposing ancient and magnificent fortification runs across the ridges and deserts for about 7,300 Km from East to the West through Northern China. Our guide told us that the first man to walk across the length of the wall took three years. The construction of the wall began in the seventh century BC, and was completed in the third century BC. This feat of construction is impressive, considering that it was not simply built with earth but with finely trimmed stones and gray bricks. The wall averages 7.8 meters in height and 5.8 meters in width at the top, wide enough for five horses or eighteen people to walk along it abreast. One estimate has it that 80 million cubic meters of packed earth and 60 million cubic meters of bricks were used to construct the wall.
The Wall has about 10,000 towers at regular intervals. In the past soldiers used to stand guard on these towers. The news of the enemy approaching would be passed all along the Wall through smoke signals. Fifteen to twenty soldiers manned each tower. A whole army of soldiers was exclusively raised to protect the Wall. Standing on this magnificent man-made wall, which is a symbol of China’s desire to protect itself from the outside world, a defence against foreign invasions for over 2000 years.
The Ming tombs are the mausoleums of the thirteen emperors of the Ming dynasty. We visited the tomb at Dingling, as it is the only tomb whose underground palaces have been excavated. At the entrance leading to the tomb I saw some giant sized pairs of stone statues of camels, elephants, generals and ministers. We were told that these statues represented the belief that even after death the emperors ruled the land. In the rear hall of the majestic underground palace, buried 27 metres below the surface, were the coffins of the Ming Emperor Zu Yijun and his two empresses. The valuables of over 3000 burial objects had been removed to the exhibition halls for preservation and security reasons. Our guide told us that a system similar to the Indian Sati was practiced during the time of the Ming dynasty when one of the many empresses would burn on the funeral pyre of her husband.
One of the must visit places at Beijing is Tiananmen Square. Built in 1952 it covers an area of 100 acres approximately. It is the largest monument in the modern history of China and the world’s largest public square. In 1989, this square was witness to a series of pro-democratic student demonstrations that were forcibly repressed by the government, resulting in the loss of the lives of hundreds of students. The People’s Heroes are Immortal written by Chairman Mao is engraved on a two-tiered marble monument. West of the Square is the Great Hall of the People. Built in 1959, this building is the site of the National Peoples Congress meetings and other political and diplomatic activities. To its East is the Museum of the Chinese Revolution and Chinese History. To the South is the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall in which the body of Mao lies in state. At the North end of the Square is the Tiananmen tower, which was the gate to the Forbidden City – the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It had taken fourteen years to complete this largest palace complex in the world. The dominant colour here is yellow, the colour of the Chinese royalty. Twenty- four emperors ruled the country from here. The palace complex was called the Forbidden City because peasants living outside were not allowed to witness the life of the people living inside it.
The last place of tourist interest I visited was The Summer Palace, the largest imperial garden in the world. It is an authentic example of classical Chinese architecture. Spread over 290 hectares, it has a lake, hills, painted corridors and halls, towers, pavilions and kiosks. Emperor Qinglong built it as a gift for his mother’s birthday. A panorama of the whole city can be enjoyed from the balcony on the top floor.
Hanzhou Trip
The most profound effect on the religious aspect of the art of the Six Dynasties in China was Buddhism, which was brought to China from neighboring India. This is very prominent in Hanzhou, the seat of Buddhist learning in East China.
The first examples of Buddhist art to be seen in China were the small statues brought there by Indian Buddhists. By the 4th century, an influx of styles and subjects created a new category of Buddhist art and architecture within the Chinese tradition. In western China, important wall paintings based on sacred stories can still be seen at the monastery at Dun-huang. Monumental sculpture, a contribution from northern India, gained popularity and led to the creation of massive stone carvings of Buddhist deities in the mountains of Henan and Shaanxi provinces. By the 6th century, Buddhism had permeated nearly every facet of Chinese cultural life. Although Buddhist art dominated much of the Six Dynasties’ achievements, secular traditions were also changing. Ku Kai Chi, considered the father of landscape painting, worked during this period.
No account of a travel through China will be complete unless something is said about their cuisine. Although noodles do form a part of their meals, it is plain boiled rice that is their staple food. Soup is not the first course of their meal. It is had all through it. Vegetables – boiled, stir-fried or simmered – form a substantial part of their meal. The non-vegetarian dishes made of various meats, including fish and chicken. Each region in China has its own special food and their cooking technique contributes to over 5000 well known dishes. Peking Roast Duck is another dish that one must try, although I did not dare to try. The duck used for this is of a special breed. After it is cleaned, the duck is roasted over a fire made with the wood of fruit trees. The process leaves the skin crisp and the meat fresh, tender and rich. The old saying “when in Rome do what the Romans do” holds true in one’s travel anywhere in the world. So when in China do what the Chinese do – eat with chopsticks. Though it might appear difficult, believe me, it is not so. With a little practice a Chinese meal will taste better if we had it with chopsticks and the finishing touch was with jasmine tea or green tea.
People here owned multiple storied apartments with all amenities. But there was none to live in them. The single child policy enforced by the government was successful. The problem of population growth had been controlled. Farmers are permitted to have a second child if their first issue was disabled or happened to be a girl. In spite of their modern approach to life, their deep-rooted craving for a male child was still there.
At the end, my statistical career forced me to leave a note on some statistics in China. According to the 2001 survey of OVERSEAS INDIAN POPULATION, only 305 Indian are in China, compared to 1.6 million in USA, 1.2 million in UK and 950,000 in U.A.E.
So I am very fortunate to be one of the few persons of Indian origin to visit China.
By Shakuntala (Moonmoon) Choudhury (April 16, 2007).
Photos by author.
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