Clicca qui per la versione italiana
Saturday morning, two subway lines and a 40 minutes ride took me to Haidan, the north-western suburb of Beijing, a sort of satellite town.
In the middle of nowhere, the subway station emerges as a gambling-house entance.
On the other side of the road, a construction site (a construction site in Beijing?!), all around bare land, a couple of dogs, a man with his small charriot for bike repairing, a couple of car-wash. Ah, and some billiard tables.
I decided to walk to the park entrance, partly because I hate public transport, partly becase I was curious about the area.
I don't know why but everywhere I go, I found myself in the middle of huge crossroads, expressways you are forced to cross, underpasses for brave at hearth.
After a brief wandering in this no-man's land, I finally founded the longed entrance. Once crossed the expressway the landscape changes.
Between the park and the street flows a pretty wide river, skirted by freshly planted trees, fishermen and people getting ready for a swim.
The walk is rather enjoyable (if one can forget about the loud horns). Bought and checked the ticket by a couple of incredibly unhappy ladies, I finally entered the park. Immense.
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| Collina della Longevità / Longevity Hill |
I did not bring my tourist giude with me because I already had too much weight to carry along and, besides, every tourist attraction here in Beijing displays a large number of maps all along the tourist route, as well as offer a small sketch on the back of the entrance ticket.
Every tourist attraction, except the Summer Palace.
The weather was just wonderful, except for a particularly strong wind; after just twenty minutes I was wearing my scarf and I was longing for my gloves, already packed in my luggage.
As far as photography is concerned, though, the wind was just perfect, the willows were wawing in a really choreographic manner.
The park had been invaded by old grandpas and grandmas who dedicated themselves to the most various activities, among wich acrobatics with diablo.
I have no idea why but the Chinese version produces a sound very close to a swarm of ferocious bees.
One of the grandpas was a diablo-genius, he did some exercises that would have had great success in a Cirque du Soleil show.
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| Lago Kunming / Kunming Lake |
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| Lago Kunming / Kunming Lake |
The park develops around the roughly round-shaped Kunming Lake and it is cut into two halves by a causeway.
I took the causeway and crossed all the six bridges with fairytales names that form it; Willow Bridge, Silk Bridge, Jade Belt Bridge, Bridge of Pastoral Poems, Lake-Dividing Bridge, Mirror Bridge.
I walked with happy families on a day-trip, old men with small radios, young couples holding hands.
Some of the bridges had really steep and dangerous stairs. One in particular had those small steps that look like a slide.
I did not help down an old man in front of me just because I was afraid I could fall on him!
The Palace itself is situated at the end of the causeway.
There were groups of tourists from every possible nationality everywhere, all of them lead by a vigorously flag-waving tourist guide, and choking up the Long Corridor (where, someone says, some nice motifs are painted) as well as the whole North shore.
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| Lago Kunming / Kunming Lake |
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| Lago Kunming dal Ponte dei Diciassette Archi / Kunming Lake from the Seventeen-Arch Brigde |
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| a girl practicing some kind of martial art - una ragazza pratica una qualche arte marziale |
Once in a while, you could see a girl practicing some kind of martial art...
At a crossroad I met what looked like a group of nuns on an organised trip.
As it turned out, it was a group of ladies from Yunnan wearing traditional Pumi costumes.
I decided to follow them and, at their first stop, I asked one of them if I could take a picture of her.
At the beginning she said no, but then another lady behind her stepped up to be photographed. Laughing, then the first lady agreed.
Once I took the picture, I was assailed by the whole group, each wanting to have a photo taken with me.
How could I have possibly answered no? The following 15 minutes were spent in the refined art of photography.
First there was Me and Woman number 1, then me and Woman number 2, then me and Woman number 3 and 1; me and Woman number 4 and 5, me and Woman number 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Then I gave my camera to the official photographer. I wanted to have some fun too!. In the meantime, they pulled and pushed me from one side to the other and grabbed me so as to prevent me leaving before the end of this sacred rite. ("Only in China!")
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| ladies from Yunnan wearing traditional Pumi costumes - costumi tradizionali Pumi |
Following the same path, I reached the top of the Longevity Hill. On the left side, a tibetan style temple and another temple housing three Buddhas (and a souvenir shop just in front of one of the deities. That did not seem to bother the faithful worshippers)
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| Tempio del Mare di Saggezza / Temple of the Sea of Wisdom |
On the right side, a wall separates the small path from the Buddhist Incense Tower. Between them, a group of sharp rocks. The view is worthwhile.
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| Torre dell'Incenso Buddista / Buddhist Incense Tower |
The Tibetan temple gives the tourist a rare moment of peace and serenity in the middle of such a overcrowded park. The wind had calmed down a little, the sun was shining, the air was the "purer" one can get from a city which counts seven milion inhabitants. The bells on the rooftops rang driven by the wind and the voices of the tourists were far away. A separate world.
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| Complesso Tibetano / Tibetan style temple |
The enlightenedd tourist comes then down the hill towards the Suzhou Street and the soap bubble explodes. The flow of families and tourists carries him to the entrance of this "famous attraction", a forced path through all kind of souvenir shops and Suzhou-style restaurants (Jiangsu).
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| Il complesso tibetano visto dalla sommità della Collina della Longevità. / The Tibetan temple from the top of Longevity Hill |
Sellers get aggressive and annoying, up to the point where is more appealing risking to fall into the water than having one's name forged on whatever support. Waitresses, spotting the tourist, arm themselves with their menus and wave them in the tourist's face, shouting 'coffee'. When did coffee became a typical Suzhou-style dish? "One of the waitresses even offered an 'iced coffee' to this Italian-style coffee devotee. The shock almost made me fall into the river."
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| Padiglione di Bronzo / Bronze Pavillion |
It was almost 2 p.m. and I was pretty tired (I had been walking since 8:30!). So, I headed towards the Garden of Virtue and Harmony, picturing in my mind trees and flowers. The 'garden', though, came out to be the place where Empress Dowager Cixi entertained herself and her illustrious guests.
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| Il palco del teatro del Giardino della Virtù e dell'Armonia / Stage of the Garden of Virtue and Harmony's Theatre |
The main building of the complex is the theatre. Majestic, sumptuous, luxurious. Perfect. The park offers two different entrance tickets, one all-inclusive and one only for the park. Every palace has then his own ticket. For this reason, most of the visitors are to be found in the complexes free of charge. The garden is among is not among those, which is why there were not many people around. So, I confortably arranged myself on the tiers facing the stage, relaxing in the sun. Expecially for us tourists, a few music performances were staged, traditional Chinese, acrobats show and dancing. If I hadn't been laying on the filty steps with my back on a pillar, I could have felt just as a Chinese noblewoman paying a visit to the Empress.
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| Lago Kunming / Kunming Lake |
In a moment, 3 p.m. arrived. Two hours to the closing of the park and the whole western shore to sxplore, not to mention the small island in the middle of the lake, a small museum and the walk back to the South Gate. Impossible. I chose the museum (included in my ticket) and stopped for a quick visit to the island. To island is connected to the shore by the Seventeen-Arch Bridge, where kind Chinese people offer themselves to take you a picture. Using your camera. This is a thing I will never understand. I have my camera with me, I am surrounded by people (even by friends, sometimes) why should I pay one of those nice fellows to take a picture of me?
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| Una cameriera in abito tipico del Jiangsu.
Suzhou Street. A waitress wearing a Jiangsu-style dress |
The way back to the subway was both the best and the worse moment of the day.
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| Torre dell'Incenso Buddista / Buddhist Incense Tower |
The best because the sun was slowly declining, its reflection lingering on the water rippled by the wind, now back to its morning vigour.
The worse because I was leaving.
More and Larger photos at Kingscalendar (Altre foto sul sito Kingscalendar)
Chiara Braccagni
Clicca qui per la versione italiana
Larger and Different Photos (English / Italian Version)
2nd File of Different Photos
See also:
In 2007 Chiara Braccagni spent 4 months in Suzhou as an Italian teacher at the SuZhou Polytechnic Institute of Agriculture before returning to Italy to Graduate from college.
After graduating from Interpreter School (Trieste) she returned to China (Beijing) where she did further Chinese studies to gain Oral Proficiency. She is currently and temporarily working in the Italian Embassy in Beijing.
She likes to travel, explore and look for good excuses not to go back home.
Her articles appear in both Italian and English with larger Photos at KingsCalendar Stories from China
