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Show China: Typical market in a small border of China and Inner by HEIDI WEST Record staff writer Sixteen Parkites and six Califor-nians Califor-nians spent three weeks in China in June and early July this year, and by all standards even those most difficult to satisfy the trip was a success. "We had a lot in common, and we're still all speaking," joked Val Chin at a recent gathering of some of the sixteen and friends to view a slide show about the trip. Val and her husband Steve, whose father was born in Canton, were the organizers of the trip. They had been with their boys Josh and Cam three years earlier, and "came back just bubbling" about their experience, says Val. . The Chin's enthusiasm was catching, cat-ching, and by request,! they return- ed this year with a whole group. Steve's parents, Stewart and Jenny, Jen-ny, were two of the Californians who came along, and, lucky for the group, were able between them to speak both fluent Cantonese and Mandarin. "Not much (in China) is in English," notes Val, who adds that the language barrier makes it tough to travel in China alone. "It's almost imperative you go with a group," she says. The Parkites traveled with a tour guide, but because they had IS or more in the group were able to arrange ar-range their own tour with the company. com-pany. They took the opportunity to add a small industrial village called call-ed Da Tong and the rolling plains of Inner Mongolia to the list both of them distinctly off the beaten path, and both ultimately rewarding. J! At the Summer Palace outside Beijing, a marble boat built by the Dowager Empress is docked. The money to build the boat had been slated to support the Chinese Navy. IN Val Chin spent 7 Sixteen Parkites take an il . a . i I Ill is a S ! .! I.-, 'V. I village outside of Da Tong, a Mongolia. The tour began with a stop in a more traditional city for tourists to visit, though on the east coast of China in the major industrial port of Shanghai. An image Gary Cole, who was a fellow China traveler with the Chins and co-narrated the slide show on the trip Aug. 23, was of the streets of Shanghai choked with thousands and thousands of bicycles. "They were black and white steel bicycles called 'flying pigeons'," he said. "They must have weighed 60 pounds a piece." Cole also spoke of the "unbelieveable contrast" in Shaghai. "There would be open farmers markets across from multi-million dollar hotels," he said. "In the market, a buyer would pinch a chicken to see how fat it was, then tie it around the 'feet and carry it live upside dowh on a bicycle." The group went armed with postcards of Park City, balloons and Park City hats to hand out to curious onlookers. "They know New York and California," says Val. "But, you say Utah and they don't know what you're talking about." Another curiosity seemed to be the women in the group. There were at least two very tall women, who were also blonde, says Val. Those light locks were a real oddity in the country. But, the Chinese just could not get used to another part of the American female anatomy. "They couldn't believe how big my feet are," laughs Val. From the coast, the group traveled travel-ed inland to the central eastern city of Xian, China's ancient capitol. 1 ; -Tff(i: ' u i L A iLii . ' -r, v r ' ( vvl. 1L- time with Chinese kindergartners ,v ' ... ...... coal - producing town on the Among the sites of Xian were a jade carving factory and the "terra cotta statues." When the group entered the factory, "no one was doing a thing," says Val. "Then a bell rang and everyone magically started working." The Chins explain ex-plain that Chinese workers are given a ten minute break every hour or two, and that people will often just put their head down on their desk or work table for the entire en-tire time. But, the terra cotta statues are the city's main draw for tourism. The hundreds of statues stand in rows, are six or seven feet tall, and for the most part are carvings of military figures men, horses and chariots. The were built of clay in the the third century B.C. to protect pro-tect the newly dead emperor in his tomb two miles away. ' Each is distinct from the others a unique face, hair, uniform, stance, weapon, etc. And, each has been painted to bring it to life. Any of the collection made of wood has since disintegrated, and chariot racers are left reaching for reins long gone. Much of the paint has also faded, although chips of the bright colors used are still visible visi-ble in some cases. The terra cotta statues are part of an excavation project by the Chinese. They have been buried for thousands of years and reportedly were originally covered by a roof which was then intentionally concealed con-cealed under a soil mantle. The roof caught fire at one point and collapsed, and the sL-ues were lost to history until 1978 when a farmer struck one while digging a well. Now, many of the individual car- :J V odyssey to the Orient RIGHT: From left, Steve Chin, Harry Reed and Bob Richer bid for the Great Wall. vings are uncovered, but the Chinese are taking their time with the project. As money becomes available, more are revealed, noted Val. From Xian, the group hopped through Beijing and took a train ride to the coal-producing city of Da Tong. The town is on the border of China, and is physcially between an inner and outer wall of the country. coun-try. Not far from Da Tong, the tour spent a day in what is known as the Hanging Temple, a Buddist way station perched high on the side of a near-vertical cliff. They were allowed to touch the statues, feel the walls and climb all the steps-access steps-access Val and another China explorer, ex-plorer, Nancy Witt, noted would eventually ruin much of China's splendor if it wasn't controlled soon. "They've got to wise to this," noted Val. The group also visited the "Grottos" "Grot-tos" outside of Da Tong, a series of over 1,000 caves with Buddhas inside. in-side. The mountain was "literally carved out," said Witt, and the story of the Buddha projects from the caves in bas relief. The idea for the carving came from a Buddhist nibiik who had'1' visited India, said Witt. "He came back and the carvings were done in a matter of 20 years," she notes. From Da Tong, the Parkites traveled by train to Ho Hot in Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia is a self-governing self-governing independent province loosely attached to China, said Val. The group found the Mongolians, unlike the more somber Chinese, to be "full of life, love to eat, love to drink and love to have fun." Most of the area is rolling grassland, "real blue sky country," says Val. The nomads who graze their flocks in those rolling hills have set up a series of markers throughout the area which both indicate in-dicate direction and serve as a shrine. "It's very easy to get lost out there because everything looks the same," she says. frt IT ,rt'il.-;Tli?iSUt'ii 'in. Directional marker on the Inner Mongolian grasslands. The group was hosted by a few of those fun-loving Mongolians at a three-hour lunch where they ate "mutton in every imaginable combination" com-bination" and drank "white lightening." lighten-ing." After surviving that lunch and witnessing some incredible horsemanship demonstrated by Mongolians warrior style, Cole noted "these were the people the Chinese were afraid of." The Chinese fear of ferocious Mongolians was the reason the Great Wall was constructed all along the border between them, says Cole. About an hour out of Beijing, Bei-jing, the group's next stop, a restored portion is available for tourists to visit. There are about 3,000 miles of the Great Wall in existence, ex-istence, notes Steve, but not much of it is restored. There were several Park City realtors on the trip, and the group caused well,., quite a stir when they started hanging out their real-estate real-estate company signs on the Great Wall. To add to the confusion over Park Record Thursday, September 3, 1987 Page A13 REALTO fil In a remote village outside of Da Tong, the visitors attracted at-tracted curious stares. til- . -rJ niniiiiii.il' 7 The Hanging Buddhist Temple outside of Da Tong is still used as a way station to a more prominent temple on the other side of the mountain. It was built 1500 years ago. Photos these strange white visitors, the ladies began a little aerobics routine on the top of the wall while the men laid out their signs. Hmm... white lightening flashbacks, maybe? The group also saw the Forbidden Forbid-den City, a walled portion of Beijing Beij-ing where county's rulers have lived. liv-ed. Until very recently, commoners were not allowed within the gates of the Forbidden City, and so it is now crowded with Chinese tourists who want to see. The city is mostly devoid of vegetation, and sports several gleaming white marble courtyards. "It's really quite barren," bar-ren," notes Val, who adds the bas relief carvings in marble are an elegant exception. The cities of Canton and Hong Kong were last on the group's list of places to visit before they returned to Park City. Both were bustling. In Canton, the whole city seemed to be under construction, they noticed. Cole particularly was struck by the framing of all the -in 11 l! I' ! I i in 1UU U 1. by Val and Steve Chin buildings it was of bamboo. "They use a bamboo scaffolding to build anything from one-story to skyscrapers," he said. Overall, Val noticed China was "really on the march" economically economical-ly and in other ways. Whereas three years ago she had seen many thin people, "now they have a surplus." There are no beggars, people are generally employed, and the country coun-try ensures the poorest places in its newest housing projects. There are also signs of successful capitalism in the country. Several of the markets are "free markets" and moat of the big hotels in China are joint-ventures with capitalist European Euro-pean countries or the U.S., says Cole. People "openly admit" Mao Tse Tung's cultural revolution, where so much ancient Chinese art and history was destroyed, "was a disaster," says Val. "Socially, they're thinking," she observes. "People have said the Chinese seem dour, but I didn't see that. To me, the people are happy." 11 |