A Trip to Changyucheng (长峪城) Village, Exteriors: Bundles of Wood, Grist Mills, Mules, and Mountains

This summer people all over the world could see on their television sets how Beijing has changed and modernized at lightening fast speed in recent years. And the same can certainly be said for most of China’s other major cities.

In Changyucheng village, however, signs of this kind of change were few a far between. The only examples were the satellite dish located near the village's administrative office, some solar powered lights, and a few pieces of brand new outdoor exercise equipment.

This equipment was located at the spot where our bus parked and dropped us off. The village thus had a small outdoor exercise area, which was more than a little ironic, seeing as a) most of the people living here are rather old (more on that in a later post) and b) get plenty of exercise doing normal farm chores. In fact, they are certainly way more physically active than your average Chinese Yuppie (小资) living in Beijing.

Our guide, Hong Gao, told us that the solar powered lights and exercise equipment had been recently installed by the Beijing Government—this place is part of the self-governing Beijing municipality. Thanks to its history, the Beijing Government views Changyucheng Village as a tourist attraction and has tried to spruce the place up a bit.

However, save for the minor modern touches, I'm pretty certain that the village looks very much like it looked in the 1950s and 1960s. So coming here was very a lot like going back in time. For example, one thing that was much more conspicuous than the lights or exercise equipment was all the big bundles of wood beside the houses and stacked against and on top of the stone fences (see the photo at the top of the blog post). When I asked our guide, Hong Gao, about this, he replied that the wood was used for heating.

None of the houses, it turns out, have any kind of normal heating, not even coal stoves. But all of them do have old-fashioned brick beds (火炕). The wood is burned in these beds to keep people warm and cozy at night. Since the village is located in the mountains, winters here are even colder than in Beijing. And gets mighty cold during the winter down in Beijing!!

Despite being nestled in the mountains, Changyucheng is a farming village. People here grow wheat (小麦) and corn (玉米). An old-fashioned stone grist mill (磨粉机 or 磨粉面) is used to grind the corn and wheat. I saw two of these grist mills during our stroll through the village and one of them is in the photo below.

Indeed, modern farm equipment (农业机械) was conspicuous in its absence. I didn't see a single tractor (农用拖拉机), not even an old beat up one, during our visit here. Of course, the plots farmed in the village are quite small, so farm machinery wouldn't be of much in this place. I did see plenty of donkeys (驴) and/or mules (骡子). Readers can tell from the grist mill photo that the mill's heavy grindstone (轮形磨石) is pulled by these donkeys or mules.

For some reason, I didn't do any close up photos of them and can't really tell the difference between the two animals. So readers will have to settle for the photo below. It was shot from a very low ridge overlooking some of the houses and the courtyard where two of the animals were standing about.

The old-fashioned grist mills and farm animals brought back one of my most vivid memories of Henan Province—I spent my first year in China there. Henan is the most densely populated province in the Middle Kingdom and has largely been bypassed by the country's recent economic boom. The main reason for this is that too many of its people farm very small plots of land. One day, when riding the bus from Zhengzhou back to my then hometown, nearby Xinzheng City, I noticed some farmers separating wheat from the chaff by hand.

The last two photos in this blog post will provide readers with a first better impression of Changyucheng Village's physical environment. One photo is looking east, while the other is looking west. Both were taken from more or less than same place. It's obvious that there are not a lot of houses extending either direction. The photos thus make it clear that Changyucheng Village's valley isn't much of a valley.

Thus the amount of land for growing wheat, corn, and vegetables (青菜) is quite small. While some almond (杏树 xing4shu4) and fruit trees (果树) grow on the lower mountain slopes, there really isn't much in the way of a crop surplus to be sold on the market. I'll have more to say about that and how it's affected the village and our visit to it very shortly. Stay tuned!

The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.

长峪城 (chang2yu3cheng2).
小资 (xiao3zi1). The first character is one Chinese word for “small”, while the second character appears in the word for wages/income (工资; the second character is gong1). Hence it also means “petty bourgeoisie”. However, in the new China, it has increasingly been used to refer to young urban people who hang out at coffee bars and yearn for a hip, sophisticated, and affluent lifestyle—in other words, “yuppies” (at least this is what one Chinesepod.com listening lesson claimed). Who says that socio-economic change and changes in language are unrelated?!!
火炕 (huo3kang4).
小麦 (xiao3mai4).
玉米 (yu4mi3).
磨粉机 (mo2fen3ji1) 磨面机 (the middle character is mian4). 磨 is a shortened form of the word for grindstone (see below), while 粉 can be translated as powder—it also appears in the Chinese word for chalk (粉笔; fen3bi3)—and 机 is a character that appears in most words describing instruments or machines. One example is the word for mobile phone, or 手机, which literally means hand-held (shou3) machine/device.
农业机械 (nong2ye4ji1xie4). The first two characters mean “agricultural”, while the latter two mean “equipment.”
农用拖拉机 (nong2yong4tuo1la1ji1). This literally means tractor (拖拉机) used (用) in farming (农).
驴 (lü2).
骡子 (luo2zi5). Both this and the above character contain a character within the character, i.e. the one for “horse” (马; ma3), which provides a clue about its meaning.
轮形磨石 (lun2xing2mo2shi2). The first two characters mean “round shape”, while the last two mean “grinding stone” (石 is the Chinese word for stone/rock). For those who are curious, Mandarin does have an equivalent to the English idiom “nose to the grindstone.” It's 埋头苦干 (mai2tou2ku3gan4). This literally means to be “immersed in difficult work.” The first two characters alone mean “up to one's ears”, “Up to one’s ears in work” is 正埋头工作 (zheng4mai2tou2 gong1 zuo4). The first character means “in the middle of,” while the last two mean “work” (both the noun and the verb).

青菜 (qing1cai4).
杏树 (xing4shu4).
果树 (guo3shu4).

I would like to thank my wonderful friend 路红艳 (lu4hong2yan4) for helping me translate some of the less common words, especially “grist mill.”

A Trip to Changyucheng (长峪城) village: The Place and its History

In addition to going to two temple fairs during this last Spring Festival, I did a short day trip outside of Beijing. I went with a group of 16 other people to 长峪城 village. This name literally means “Long Valley Castle.”

The photo at the top of this post shows why this place is called “Long Valley Castle” village. No, that wall isn't part of the Great Wall of China (长城). It is a remnant of the old Ming Dynasty castle (城堡) that was built here before the village.

As one call tell from the way the wall snakes up the hill, this castle occupied a much larger area than its run of the mill Medieval European counterpart (everything here, from the population to the monuments, is oversized!). The castle was used to shelter the garrison manning the nearby section of the Great Wall. If the sentries stationed on the Great Wall spotted invaders, the main body of troops would be rushed there to man the defenses.

The village is located in the mountains northwest of Beijing and is about 100 kilometers from the capital. The city of Changping (昌平), which is home to the famous Ming Tombs (明坟墓), is just beyond the first mountain pass (山口) beyond the village. This mountain pass was the place where the ancient “Silk Road” (丝绸之路) trade route met the Great Wall and passed through it on to Beijing.

This trip was organized by a Chinese travel agency whose name is “90 percent travel.” Like yours truly, the young Chinese fellow in charge of this activity, Hong Gao, studied at the University of Southern California (USC), and I found out about this excursion through the Beijing USC alumni chapter.

The other 16 people making this trip were also all laowai, save for a young Chinese lady from Hong Kong; she works in the Hong Kong Government's Beijing office. The other laowai included a few fellow Yanks, as well as people from Britain, the Philippines, Nigeria, Sweden, and Australia.

The trip cost 250 RMB ($36-37). It included transportation to and from 长峪成, lunch, which included dumplings and local food, a guided walking tour around the village, and a performance by the local people of the village's unique brand of Chinese opera.

I'll have more to say about all this in the next few blog posts. There will also be lots more photos of this place and its people. Stay tuned!

The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.

长峪城 (chang2yu3cheng2). As noted in the text, this name literally means “long” (长) “valley” (峪) “castle” (城). The latter character is a shortened form of the word “castle”, which can also be said as 城堡 (the second character is a falling/rising tone “bao”). By itself, 城 commonly means “wall”, so the Great Wall of China is the 长城, or literally “long wall”—it is, of course, very, very long indeed! And the Chinese word for “city” combines 城 with the character 市 (shi4). Since the latter character means “market”, the character combination for city literally means “walled market.”
明坟墓 (ming2fen2mu4). Readers who looked at the previous blog post will know that 明 means “bright”, so the Ming Dynasty (明朝), was literally the “bright” or “brilliant” dynasty (the character 明 appears in the Mandarin word for “clever”, 聪明 [cong1ming2]). The last two characters in 明坟墓 mean “tomb.”
山口 (shan1kou3). The first character is the Chinese word for “mountain”. As one can see, it looks like a mountain. The second character by itself means “mouth” or “opening.” Since a mountain pass is an opening between two mountains, 口 is combined with 山 to form the Chinese word for “mountain pass.”
丝绸之路 (si1chou2zhi1lu4). 丝 means silk and looks a bit like two strands of thread, while 路 is the basic Mandarin term for “road” or “route.”

My first Chinese Temple Fair: Last year's visit to the Chang Dian (厂甸) Temple Fair

While I went to the Ditan Park Temple Fair last year, my first temple fair in 2008—and during my stay in China for that matter—was the one at Chang Dian. This temple fair is held on a small stretch of the Nanxinhua Jie (南新华街). This street is located south of the Nr. 2 subway line's Hepingmen (和平门) subway station. The part of the road closed off to traffic for the temple fair ran south from the subway station to the Luo Ma Dajie (骡马大街).

I went to the Chang Dian Temple with a Chinese friend. This person is a young lady named Li Na (李娜) who graduated last year from the Beijing Forestry University, where she studied human resource management. I got to know Li Na because she worked as an intern (实习生) in our company's HR (人力资源) department. This extremely bright and attractive young lady is now working for a rival company, the French integrated oil well and borehole services provider giant, Schlumberger.

Like the Ditan Park Temple Fair, the one at Chang Dian typically very, very crowded. The photo above shows the “people mountain, people sea” (人山人海) milling about on the Nanxinhua Jie. That shot was taken from an outside stairwell leading up to a Teahouse (茶馆) on the second floor of a building on the west side of the Nanxinhua Jie.

This particular point on the Nanxinhua Jie has two alleys running off it to its east and west. The first alley is home to lots of art galleries (画廊) and art bookstores (美术书店). You can see this alley in the middle of the photo at the top of this blog post. Li Na and I visited a couple of these galleries later on that afternoon. I found that the art and other items they had for sale were way out of my price range. Even the cheapest teacups (茶杯) and small, Chinese style handheld fans (折扇) cost 30 RMB ($4.40 at the current exchange rate). This stuff is a lot cheaper at most normal stores and shops.

The paintings and sculptures were even more exorbitantly priced. A small jade (玉) sculpture (雕) of a miniature lion (狮子) cost 50,000 RMB ($7,300). Most of the paintings Li Na and I saw were what the Chinese call “国画”. This art depicts traditional Chinese landscapes, namely misty mountains, trees, rivers and lakes. The average asking price for these paintings was 360,000 RMB ($52,600).

And of course no Chinese art gallery would be complete without some calligraphy (书法). I remember that the price for one piece of calligraphy that had just four characters (汉字) was 120,000 RMB ($17,500). As the Chinese would say, “这么贵!” or “so expensive!”

The other alley running off to the west mainly had teashops (茶店) and teahouses. Li Na and I walked into a couple of these teashops. In one of them, a Latvian (拉脱维亚人) fellow was trying to communicate with the shopkeeper, or “Laoban”, with hand gestures, as he couldn't speak any Mandarin (普通话). This man also couldn't speak any English, but like most people from the Baltic states he could speak German (德语). So I stepped in and put my rusty German to use and translated (翻译) from German to Mandarin and back. After we were done, the Laoban complimented me on my Chinese, saying it was “挺好”, or “pretty good.”

I bought some “pu'er” tea (普洱茶) at the other tea shop we visited while strolling down the alley. This type of tea is grown in southwestern China, mainly in Yunnan (云南) province. It's a very dark tea and is sold in chunks. I've tried many kinds of tea since coming here and think that pu'er is hands-down the Middle-Kingdom's best drinking (最好喝) tea. It has a really nice woodsy (木头) flavor (味道). I've also heard that drinking it is very good for your health.

Unfortunately, pu'er tea is rather expensive. I bought a not too small chunk for 20 RMB after Li Na informed me that this price wasn't too steep. Due to its good flavor and health benefits, more and more Chinese people are drinking pu'er tea. This consumer trend has made the folks who sell it quite rich.

One of my former Erwai teacher colleagues, tall and thin fellow from Seattle named Scott Searer who sold tea there before coming to China, knows one China's biggest pu'er merchants. Scott calls this fellow the “pu'er king” and informed me once that this merchant has a very rare antique Ming Dynasty (明朝) table (桌子) in his apartment. This table alone would fetch more money if it was sold than would the “pu'er” king's expensive luxury apartment. He could certainly afford to purchase that 国画 and 书法 sold in Chang Dian's art galleries.

The photo above was shot in the teahouse and teashop alley. While there were plenty of people strolling about there, it wasn't nearly as crowded as the Nanxinhuan Jie. I could actually walk up the street food vendors and buy some food. It was past noon by the time we started walking back down the alley and I was really hungry. So Li Na and I stopped and I bought a 煎饼果子, which is a thin pancake wrapped around a vegetable and egg filling. They're pretty tasty snacks and the photo below shows them being made.

Other kinds of food for sale included not only the usual grilled lamb kabobs, but a Xinjian Province specialty, 新疆糟糕, which is nuts and dried fruit, mainly raisins and apricots, held together by jujube paste. The vendors selling this snack did not have their own stands. They instead threaded their way through the 人山人海 and hawked their big slabs of 新疆糟糕—this stuff comes in slabs and the vendors cut off pieces of it for their customers—from pushcarts. They were thus 手推车卖盒饭人.

Like other temple fairs, lots of stuff was for sale at the Chang Dian Temple Fair. The stand in the photo below was selling Beijing Opera Masks (京剧面具). And people looking for a different and special kind of pet could buy live grasshoppers (蚱蜢) in a bottle.

By around 3:00 or 3:30 in the afternoon, Li Na and I had seen all we wanted to see at the Chang Dian Temple Fair. Rather than going right to the Hepingmen Subway station, we decided to stroll over to Tian’anmen (天安门) square. We first walked north up the Beixinhua Jie and then headed east along the Western Changan Jie (西长安街). While walking along the latter street, we passed by the outer wall of China's equivalent to the US White House, the so-called Zhongnanhai (中南海). This closely guarded compound is where the Middle Kingdom's top leaders have their villas and offices. It gets its name from being located around the small lake that lies just south of Beihai Park (南海 means south lake).

After we got to Tian'anmen Square, I asked Li Na to pose for a photo. She really has a lovely face and this shot got the skin tones just right!

That structure in the background of this photo is Tian'anmen Square's Monument to People's Heroes (人民英雄纪念碑). This particular monument was designed by the brilliant Chinese architect, Liang Sicheng (梁思成). Liang was China's first western trained architect, and he studied at the University of Pennsylvania during the 1920s. He remained in China after 1949 and was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution (文化大革命). Like many other people who suffered during this dark episode in China's history, Liang was subsequently rehabilitated (he died toward the end of the Cultural Revolution).

It was certainly good to go to Chang Dian not only to experience my first Temple Fair since arriving in China, but also to see the area, particularly its art galleries and teahouse and teashops. I look forward to making future visits to this place.

The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.

厂甸 (chang3dian3).
李娜 (li3na4).
实习生 (shi2xi2sheng1).
人力资源 (ren2li4zi1yuan2). The first two characters literally mean “human/person power,” while the latter two are the Mandarin word for “resources.”
人山人海 (ren2shan1ren2hai3).
茶馆 (cha2guan3).
画廊 (hua4lang2). The first character is the Mandarin word for “painting” and looks somewhat like a framed picture.
美术书店 (mei3shu4shu1dian4). The first two characters literally mean the “beautiful arts,” while the latter two mean “bookstore”. 书 is the Chinese word for book.
茶杯 (cha2bei1).
折扇 (zhe3shan4).
玉 (yu4).
雕 (diao1).
狮子 (shi1zi5).
国画 (guo2hua4). The first character means “nation/country” or “national.”
书法 (shu1fa3).
汉字 (han4zi4).
这么贵 (zhe4me5gui4). The last character is the word for “expensive.” If you’re haggling with shopkeepers (老板, lao3ban3), this is a very handy phrase!
茶店 (cha2dian4).
拉脱维业人 (la1tuo1wei2ye4ren2). The last character, which resembles a crude stick drawing of a human being, is the Chinese word for person. It's a classic illustration of what might be called a “picture” character.
普通话 (pu3tong1hua4). These characters should be literally translated as “common” or “universal” language/speech.
德语 (de2yu3).
翻译 (fan1yi4).
挺好 (ting3hao3).
普洱茶 (pu3er3cha2).
明朝 (ming2chao2). The first character means “bright” and is also the given name of China's most famous basketball star, the Houston Rockets center, 姚明 (Yao2 Ming2).
桌子 (zhuo1zi5).
煎饼果子 (jian1bing1guo3zi5).
新疆糟糕 (xin1jiang1zao3gao1). The first two characters form the name of Xinjiang province.
手推车卖盒饭人 (shou3tui1che1mai4hefan4ren2). The first three characters are “pushcart,” the fourth one is the Chinese word for “sell”. When 卖 is combined with the next two characters and the character for person, they together mean “food vendor.”
京剧面具 (jing1ju4mian4ju4). According to a Chinese friend, a more frequently way of saying Bejing Opera Masks, at least in oral speech, is 脸谱 (lian3pu3).
蚱蜢 (zha4meng2).
天安门 (tian1an1men2).
西长安街 (xi1chang2an1jie1). The middle two characters mean “eternal peace.”
中海南 (zhong1hai3nan2). This compound surrounds a pair of lakes just south of Beihai Park.
人民英雄纪念碑 (ren2min2ying2xiong2ji4nian2bei1). Monument to people's heroes.
文化大革命 (wen2hua4da4ge2ming4). 文化 means “culture/cultural,” 大 means big or great, and 革命 is the Mandarin word for revolution. Mandarin word order takes some getting used to!!

Another Spring Festival, Another Ditan Park (地坛公园) Temple Fair (庙会), VI: People (人民)

Alone among the four parks arranged around Beijing's four cardinal points, Ditan Park remains a functioning temple and place of worship for Daoist believers. While there are still a fair number of Daoists (道教徒) in China, Daoism (道教) has been largely eclipsed by Buddhism (佛教), Christianity (基督教), and Islam (伊斯兰教). However, unlike these other faiths, which were imported from outside of China, Daoism is the Middle Kingdom's only major home-grown religion.

During the Temple Fair, Ditan Park's sacrificial alter (祭坛) is open only to Daoist worshipers. The photo above shows these people engaged in worship (崇拜). They lighted incense sticks, bowed down to worship (鞠躬) and paid respects to the gods and their dead ancestors (祭祀).

However, well over 90 percent of the visitors to the Temple Fair go there to have fun, not to worship. That said, the folks I photographed below—they are definitely what the Chinese would call 老百姓, or “ordinary people”—seemed rather glum. I photographed them because they were holding those fake flowers (假花) and wheat sheaves (假麦秆) mentioned in that very recent post about things for sale at the Ditan Park Temple Fair. According to my good and very clever Chinese friend, 路红艳, the wheat sheaves are carried home because they symbolize a good harvest (丰收) and wealth (财富).

Finally, at both this year and last year's Temple Fairs, one could spot some odd local life here and there. A few of the younger teenage and twenty-something visitors put on garishly colored and spiked hairdo (爆炸式头发) style wigs.

Like many Chinese people who agree to be photographed by laowai, the fellow in photo below did the V for victory sign. If the photo were larger, you could easily tell that he was wearing a rug over his real hair—readers will just have to take my word for it here. In any case, he surely put on the spiked hair just for fun and as a joke; it certainly wasn't done to convey feelings of anger and alienation.

This is not to say that the “punk” (朋克) look and scene is entirely absent in China. One day, while riding the 107 bus back home from Hou Hai (后海), I spotted five or so “punks” standing on the Goulou Dajie (鼓楼大街). These people were the real deal—they had Mohawk (莫霍克) hairdos and wore black leather trousers (黑色的裤子) and jackets (黑色的夹克). This clothing had the trademark white metal studs.

I vaguely recall that these punks were all fellows. They certainly looked a bit fierce and scary (凶狠) and one clearly wouldn't want to have his/her daughter dating any one of them. Being in a crowded and moving bus, I didn't have the chance to take a photo, and I suspect that doing so would not have been a good idea anyway.

The numbers of young Chinese who are angry and alienated is certainly growing at the moment. People looking for a good literary depiction of such youth here in the capital should read Chun Sue’s recent novel, BEIJING DOLL, which has been translated from Mandarin by the estimable Howard Goldblatt (he has also translated the work of Su Tong and Mo Yan, who were mentioned in an earlier, very recent post). And the city has a thriving underground hard rock scene.

That said, fortunately the whole punk skinhead culture has yet to catch on here the way it has in parts of Europe and North America. China remains a rather socially conservative place, too conservative to tolerate that kind of thing. However, the Middle Kingdom is undergoing rapid social change and while most of these changes are for the better, some of them are not.

The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.

地坛公园 (di4tan2gong1yuan2).
庙会 (miao3hui4).
人民 (ren2min2).
道教徒 (dao4jiao4tu2).
道教 (dao4jiao4).
佛教徒 (fo2jiao4).
基督教 (ji1du1jiao4).
伊斯兰教 (yi1si1lan2jiao4).
祭坛 (ji4tan2).
崇拜 (chong2bai4).
鞠躬 (ju1gong3).
祭祀 (ji4si4).
老百姓 (lao3bai3xing4). As stated in an earlier post, this literally means “old one hundred names.” Since there are only about 100 commonly used family names in China, this term came to denote ordinary people.
假花 (jia3hua1). The first character means fake, the second means flower.
假麦秆 (jia3mai4gan3). Again, the first character stands for fake, the second two for sheaf of wheat.
路红艳 (lu4hong2yan4).
丰收 (feng1shou1).
财富 (cai2fu4).
爆炸式头发 (bao4zha2shi4tou2fa1). This literally means “exploding” (爆炸) style (式) hair (头发).
朋克 (peng2ke4).
后海 (hou4hai3). For those not familiar with Beijing, this area is the capital's new bar district and entertainment zone. It's centered around the two long and narrow lakes located north of Beihai Park.
鼓楼大街 (gu3lou2da4). 鼓楼 is the Mandarin word for Bell Tower, which lies at the end of the 鼓楼大街, or street. In ancient Beijing, the Bell and Drum Towers were the tallest structures in the city.
莫霍克 (mo4huo4ke4).
黑色的裤子 (hei1se4de5pi2ku4zi5).
黑色的皮夹克 (hei1se4de5pi2jia1ke4).
凶狠 (xiong3hen3).

Another Spring Festival, Another Ditan Park (地坛公园) Temple Fair (庙会), V: Entertainment! (文娱活动)

One big reason why Temple Fairs are a popular family outing here in Beijing is that they feature lots of entertainment and fun activities. The fun activities include being carried about in a traditional, red-colored sedan (轿子). While carrying sedan around a small circle, the carriers (轿夫) will rock it back and forth once or twice.

The rocking brought back to my mind that memorable opening scene in Zhang Yi Mou's (张艺谋) early classic film “Red Sorghum” (红高粱). Fellow Zhang Yi Mou film aficionados will remember that the movie opens with the lovely Gong Li (巩俐) being taken to marry the local winemaker. She does not love this man, who is old and a leper to boot, but her father has been promised a mule if his daughter marries the winemaker.

On the way over to the groom's house, the sedan bearers rock the sedan and sing raucous songs. When they get to the sorghum field—the local wine is made from sorghum—the area's most notorious bandit holds up the party and abducts the bride from the sedan. She is then rescued by one of the sedan bearers, only to then be raped (被强奸了) by him.

This fellow, incidentally, is the narrator's grandfather both in the film and the Mo Yan (莫言) novel. The film just draws upon a few incidents and parts of Yan’s novel, which is a big, complicated and sprawling work of fiction. The novel's narrative style is also quite a bit like the “magical realist” fiction done by Latin American writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabelle Allende (at least in her first novel, THE HOUSE OF SPIRITS), Jose Donoso, and the like.

Well, time to get off that tangent and back to the Ditan Park Temple Fair. At last year's Ditan Park Temple Fair, I saw young kids having loads of fun on an ice slide (冰滑梯). As the photo below shows, there was an ice carving (冰雕) of the five circle Olympic logo (奥运五环标志). However, this particular ride was missing in the 2009 Ditan Park Temple Fair.

There were also plenty of games (游戏), particularly around the fenced area below the worship alter (more on that in the next post). Lots of stuffed animals (布娃娃) were hanging down from top of these game stands. I would be willing to bet a month's salary that these stuffed animals were prizes (奖品) for winning contestants. These animals, I might add, included teddy bears (玩具熊).

In addition to all the games, this part of Ditan Park had a number of outdoor stages (户外舞台). Visitors to the Temple Fair could watch performers (演员) sing (唱歌) (at both the 2008 and 2009 Temple Fairs), juggle (玩抛杂耍) (2009 Temple Fair), toss tall wooden poles (扔木柱) to each other, and dance (跳舞). Speaking of the latter, the 2008 Temple Fair featured scantily clad (穿的衣服很少) Xinjiang (新疆) female dancers (女舞蹈演员). However, I didn't see such ladies dancing at this year’s Temple Fair; perhaps they performed (表演) another day.

The performance in the photo below was a two person act. A young woman sang folk songs, while a Mao (毛泽东) look alike walked about the stage and smiled and waved to the crowd. I suspect, my readers will have a hard time recognizing this fellow in the photo below. It is times like these that make me really regret not having a telephoto lens for my camera.

And last but certainly not least, both this year and last year's Ditan Park Temple Fair featured an entirely different kind of entertainment. Needless to say, I didn't go in, as it seemed like a complete rip-off. But the posters (海报) provided me with some rather interesting and good photo opportunities.

The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.

地坛公园 (di4tan2gong1yuan2).
庙会 (miao3hui4).
文娱活动 (wen2yu2huo2dong4).
轿子 (jiao4zi5).
轿夫 (jiao4fu1).
红高粱 (hong2gao1liang5).
巩俐 (gong3li4).
被强奸 (bei4qiang2jian1). The first character is used in Chinese passive voice sentences, typically when something bad happens, as in “My bike was stolen” (我的自行车被偷了; wo3de5zi4xing2che1bei4tou1le5). 我的 is the word for my, 自行车 is the word for bike, while 被偷了 means stolen. This, of course, occurs routinely in Beijing.
冰滑梯 (bing1hua2ti1). 冰 means ice, while 滑梯 is the word for children's slide.
冰雕 (bing1diao1). The city of Ha'erbin (哈尔滨), which is way north of Beijing and has bitterly cold winters, holds a famous ice sculpture festival (冰雕节) every winter.
奥运五环标志 (ao4yun4wu3huan2biao1zhi4). 奥运 means “Olympic”, 五 is “five,” 环 is “ring”, and 标志 is the word for “symbol.”
游戏 (you2xi4).
布娃娃 (bu4wa2wa2). The first character has several meanings, two of which are “cloth” and “cotton.”
奖品 (jian3pin3).
玩具熊 (wan2ju4xiong2). Translated word for word, this means “toy (玩具) bear (熊)”.
户外舞台 (hu4wai4wu3tai2).
演员 (yan3yuan2).
唱歌 (chang4ge1).
玩抛杂耍 (wan2pao1za1shua3). According to a very good Chinese friend, since juggling isn't that popular in China, this English word is almost impossible to translate into Mandarin. 玩 means play, 抛 is one Chinese word for “throw,” while 杂耍 means “acrobatics.”
扔木柱 (reng1mu4zhu4). 扔 is one word for “throw” or “toss”, while 木柱 means pole.
穿的衣服很少 (chuan1de5yi1fu5hen3shao3). Translated word for word, this means “worn” (穿的) clothes (衣服) very few (很少)”. One problem with learning Chinese is getting used to a very different word order!
女舞蹈演员 (nü3wu3dao3yan3yuan2). 女 is the Mandarin word for “female.”
表演 (biao3yan3).
毛泽东 (mao2ze2dong1). The 泽 in the Great Helmsman's name can be either the noun “marsh” or the verbs “enrich” or “favor.” The last character means “east.” I think everyone can figure what Mao's parents had in mind when they choose this name for their son!
海报 (hao3bao4). For those readers who are curious, the Mandarin word for snake is 蛇 (she2) and a poisonous snake is a 毒蛇 (du2she2). These snakes were 缠绕 (chan2rao3)—wrapped around—these attractive and scantily clad women. I remember that one issue of China's closest thing to a Western style skin magazine, 男人装 (nan2ren2zhuang1), “For Him”, magazine did this kind of photo spread (I didn't buy it, a Chinese friend showed it to me!)

Another Spring Festival, Another Ditan Park (地坛公园) Temple Fair (庙会), IV: Things for sale (卖的东西)

As mentioned in the first blog post about the Ditan Park Temple Fair, lots of stuff is for sale here. The items range from fairly nice arts and crafts, like the wood carvings in the photo above, to the downright cheap and kitschy (as in the photo below). Readers will remember that the fellow with horns in front of the stand (摊子) from the earlier post about the year of the cow.

In addition to the crafts and kitsch, Temple Fair goers can purchase flowers and stalks of wheat (or is that barley? Who knows?). However, these flowers were not real, but paper flowers, and the wheat or barley stalks were made out of plastic. How fitting for a country literally swimming in fake things (很假的东西), ranging from Rolex watches to pirated DVDs!

The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.

地坛公园 (di4tan2gong1yuan2).
庙会 (miao3hui4).
卖的东西 (mai4de5dong1xi1). 卖的 means “for sale,” while 东西 is the Chinese word for “things/stuff.”
摊子 (tan1zi5).
很假的东西 (hen3jia3de5dong1xi1). The first two characters mean “very fake”.

Another Spring Festival, Another Ditan Park (地坛公园) Temple Fair (庙会), III: Lanterns (红灯笼) and fans (折扇) galore

As the photo from last year's Ditan Park Temple fair indicates, big lanterns, or 红灯笼, are strung up across the old trees over every path in the park. These lanterns are very much like the ones in Zhang Yi Mou's (张艺谋) classic film, “Raise the Red Lantern” (大红灯笼高高挂). They certainly lend a festival atmosphere (节日气氛) air to the Temple Fair. And this year's Ditan Park Temple Fair not only featured the Red Lanterns, but had lots of very large Chinese-style hand-held fans (折扇) as well.

The Chinese characters used in this post, along with their Romanized spelling (Pinyin) and tones are listed below. A number 1 indicates that the character has a flat tone, a number 2, a rising tone, a number 3, a falling rising tone, a number 4, a falling tone, and a number 5, a neutral tone.

地坛公园 (di4tan2gong1yuan2).
庙会 (miao3hui4).
红灯笼 (hong2deng1long2).
折扇 (zhe3shan1).
大红灯笼高高挂 (da4hong2deng1long2gao1gao1gua4). This film is based on a novel by the contemporary Chinese author, Su Tong (苏童; su1tong2), “Wives and Concubines” (妻妾成群; qi1qie2cheng2qun2). As readers who are familiar with that movie's story know, the novel's title is more indicative of the plot of the film.
节日气氛 (jie2ri4qi4fen1).