My God, honey, there are fifteen different "fu" meanings
- Vijay (at the Kolon's), Beijing
We got up, all bright-eyed and busy-tailed to conquer the day. Scooping up Carl from the Kolon's, we headed towards Panjiayuan Market to look for an early kill.
This place, flea market it may be, was totally funky. After yesterday's seriousness, we were ready for some bargaining. I was already riding a high, having bought my own erhu, got a great deal with the case, rosin, bow and CD, I was just warming baby, for the onslaught!
Panjiayuan is a collection of rows of bric or brac, but these are mainly replication of classic work. Case in point - looking for a Qin looking bronze horse riding the swallow? Can't afford to even get an entry ticket into Sotheby's? No problem. Haggle down the 200 yuan down to at least half, you get yourself a bronze horse replica that had been lovingly shoved and lifted in repeated motion through a sand bag by an old unemployed lady in some village. You go home happy, you supported the local livelihood!
But you have to bargain here, and unashamed to do so. Otherwise, there was really no point in turning up. We did a zig-zag strategy but abandoned it half way through row 5 (I think) and decided that we will opt out of the jade rows. Carl was delirious. When I found my first kill, an obscenely obese reproduction of a sitting horse with a small head, I was sold! Got a great bargain but the seller didn't let me off the hook without giving me a scowl. Oh well!
Second kill came close after I got myself another Qin period bronze prancing horse. But I got into a glitch bargaining for my Ommanipedmehung statue at its first joint. 70 yuan and not budging! I turned into the next stall. Same outcome! Now I was quite picky on the finishing and detail, so I tried to console myself that these statues weren't really that awesome right? And it turned out a smart decision. A few steps down the row I found the most perfect replica and it was retailing for 50 yuan. My brains were exploding from short circuit but I tried to muster up the best performance to look really pissed at the price. The guy was not budging from it and I had to (again) put on a show as if I was reluctantly paying for it. But once we were out at the tea house, I was laughing like a pelican.
There were all kinds of fancies to quench your fancy thirst. Old horse saddles, gigantic lion statues, bow and arrow set from the Mongols, masks (and I mean not the opera type but war!), swords, photography, art, traditional dresses, shoes (cute imperial boots), hats, chests (I kicked myself for forgetting to get some for my jewellery), and the list went on. But by the time we were ready to head out to meet Eric for some Taiwanese grub, we caught a cab outside to only see the harsher side of the Panjiayuan's fun. There were non-Beijingers, looking more like Mongolians, selling animal fur rugs slapped across their shoulders. Now that I strongly take a stand against animal trade, I felt a tinge of sadness at the raw reality of things. Here I was, going all giddy on my bargain with those guys inside the Panjiayuan, and there were these guys outside who weren't earning enough to even pay for the rent of the unit. They may even be the middle man, hence getting less of a cut of the commission! Am I getting dramatic? Should these guys be condemned to hell for killing that poor snow fox? Yeah, maybe I should think that way. Damn them, curse them!
Eric, as usual, was the master at taking us to places we never thought existed in the heart of the city and of course, making our stomachs happy at the same time. He was fun to chat with, loved his sharing of his art collections (old kites to Tibetan art -all way above my income tax bracket), and it was right up my alley when he took us to the old warehouses of the emperor in the olden days. It's all different nowadays. Speckled with all sorts of cuisine houses, traditional music playing in the atmosphere, it almost had a classic up market feel to it, and I bet that it would be. Now, maybe that's why I didn't see it in Lonely Planet!
Anyway, we, as usual, had way too much to eat but Taiwanese grub is good stuff. I already am cooking up my next evil plan to conquer Taiwan.
As the day built up, we dropped Carl back at his home at Chaoyang while we cabbed it to the Lama Temple. The Yong He Gong combined the traditional Han and Tibetan architecture. Its construction dated back to the late 1600s during the Qing dynasty and served as the official hangout of the court eunuchs. It was then taken over as Yin Zhen (Emperor Kangxi's son) as his court. After he became Emperor Yongzheng, as according to traditions, he went to the Forbidden City, and it as converted into a lamasery for Tibetan Buddhism monks. When Yongzheng has risen up to heaven, his coffin was placed in the temple. Qianlong (his successor) bestowed it the imperial status. From there, it grew to become a residence for a large numbers of Tibetan Buddhist monks from Mongolia and Tibet, and became a national centre of Lama administration.
Having survived even the Cultural Revolution, I am again, confused upon pondering on the strained relationship between China and the Dalai Lama. So far, every significant historic feature that I have been to, held on to the Tibetan Buddhism history where relevant, and yet I can't fathom why the current guanxi is so bad. Obviously there is a lot of Tibetan influence on China's history, heck, even Panjiayuan sold a damn lot of these artefact and art work. Maybe some things are just meant to be understood in the longer term.
As a last stop, we headed towards a hip Hutong that housed all the young entrepreneurs of Beijing. Boutique hotels, bars, courtyard beer gardens. Peeped into a window and you see one working furiously off his laptop while his girlfriend read away her book.
It's completely bohemian, and I want to live there!
We finally made it back to the Kolon's to enjoy a glass of wine and said our teary goodbyes. They had been the best of hosts and we were made to feel like this was second home. The ride back to the Grand Hyatt was quick and I have already begun to feel that I will miss this place too much.
