Visiting Chengde: a virtual walking tour

December 2, 2008

We visited Chengde in July of this year. Chengde is about 3-4 hours northeast of Beijing by train in Hebei province, and makes a nice weekend outing. Chengde is located in a river valley with the Wulie River runing along the eastern edge of the imperial summer resort. Chengde's old name is Rehe (the Europeans called it Jehol) or Warm River after the hot springs and streams located inside the imperial resort.

It was hot and hazy when we arrived in Chengde, and as these picture below show, Beijing doesn't have a monopoly on pollution. In his book, Mapping Chengde: The Qing Landscape Enterprise (University of Hawaii Press), Philippe Foret says on p.99 that Chengde has seen an expansion of cement and ceramic factories as well as the building of a titanium processing plant and it shows. The first picture shows a bend in the Wulie river, along with all the residential housing going up in the city. I like the third picture because it shows the office building housing the Chengde Environmental Protection Agency (you can barely make out the Chinese characters) with a thick layer of smog covering the city behind it. Obviously, the Environmental Protection people have some work to do in cleaning up the air in this historic city!





















Here's a picture of the entrance to the hotel we stayed in, the New Century Rehe Hotel. It's actually located inside a shopping mall and to get to our rooms, you had to go through this door and climb up a flight of dark stairs to the 3rd and 4th floors where the rooms were. Not highly recommended, but it was cheap, about U.S.$30 a night.



THE MOUNTAIN VILLA

After leaving our "hotel", we made a beeline for the central attraction: the imperial summer resort built by Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong, also known as Bishu Shanzhuang, which translates roughly into "Fleeing the Heat Mountain Villa". I assume the emperors were fleeing the heat of Beijing, and indeed it did feel cooler inside the villa due to all the trees. We entered the front gate, known as Lizheng Gate, shown here along with an introduction the villa.




Below is a map of the villa. The Lizheng Gate is down at the bottom. On the right hand part of the map (north and east), you can see the 8 Outer Temples (waiba miao) that we visit later. Note also the Wulie river running alongside the eastern edge of the villa, and the lake district on the lower right. To the north of the lake district is the prarie district, while to the west is the hill district. As Foret details in his book, each of these districts evokes different parts of the Qing empire: the lake district evokes the area of China known as Jiangnan, the prarie district is a reminder of the Mongolian plains, and the hill district evokes the northern frontier from which the Manchus originated.




The pathway through the Lizheng Gate leads to a series of 9 courtyards with 5 halls. The first hall is the Hall of Simplicity and Sincerity which was built in 1711 out of aromatic cedar as a place for the emperor to rest. One can imagine the Emperor Kangxi catching a quick snooze in that yellow throne while being serenaded by these musicians.


























The Chinese never miss an opportunity to remind us of their national humiliation. Walking through the courtyards, I came across this sign. The signing of the Beijing Treaty was followed later that year by the burning down of the Summer Palace in Beijing by British forces. As we'll see, parts of this resort were also damaged by invading Japanese forces during World War II.



Emerging from the courtyards, you come out onto the Lake District which is supposed to evoke the landscape of the Jiangnan region in eastern China.






































A footnote about the lake district. According to Foret (pp.51-52), there is a hill built here called Jinshan Hill (Golden Hill) that forms an important axis with Qingchui peak, otherwise known as Club Rock (see pictures below). Qingchui peak is supposed to have cosmological significance because of its parallel with the sacred Sumeru mountain in Buddhist cosmology. The problem with Qingchui peak is that it lies to the east of the 8 outer temples and thus lacks a central location in Chengde. Foret argues that this problem was solved by building Jinshan Hill (complete with temple) in the middle of the summer resort so that it runs in a straight line from Qingchui peak through the middle of Pule temple (one of the 8 outer temples). Jinshan thus substitutes for Qingchui peak in a central location and serves as a metaphor for Sumeru. Make sense?



















Here are some naughty children feeding some sika deer which roam wild in the resort. There are signs telling people not to feed the deer or get close to them, but this being China, people usually tend to ignore the signs and do what they want.










One thing I didn't realize was how much this resort was used as a kind of public space. There are all kinds of people congregating here just hanging out, singing, doing their own thing. Here's a group of people singing and playing instruments while others sit and watch.























Walking north from the lake district, you come across the prairie district. We saw these yurts with a people standing around, so we took a peek out of curiousity. It turned out to be a touristy talent show with a "Mongolian cowboy" belting out some Mongolian folk songs. That was followed by a group of little girls dancing around in Mongolian costumes. Do I hear Genghis Khan turning over in his grave?

























Walking west away from the Mongolian cowboy, we entered the hill district. This is a very large area, and we didn't have time to see much of it, but we did take in the Zhuyuan temple (or what was left of it) which was destroyed by Japanese troops during World War II. You don't usually get to see ruins in China because the Chinese are so efficient at reconstructing historical sites, so to see some actual ruins was a treat.

























THE OUTER TEMPLES (waiba miao)

The following day, after a good night's sleep in our luxurious accomodations (did I mention we didn't have water for a few hours?), we took a bus to some of the outer temples that encircle the imperial resort.

Our first stop was Puning Temple, which I have to say is one of my favorite temples in China, and the only active temple among the 8 outer temples. According to Foret, Puning houses the local Buddhist association (the Communist Party supervises the Buddhist temples through these associations). (On a historical note, Foret on p.51 says that during the Qing dynasty, many of the 8 outer temples did not have a permanent religious community and were under supervision of the Imperial Household Court, while the clergy of some of the other temples were largely Mongols.) Surprisingly, no one else in our bus wanted to wander in, so we had to rush through the temple grounds while the rest of the group waited for us on the bus.

Puning Temple, also known as the Great Buddha Temple or the Temple of Universal Peace, is a blend of Chinese and Tibetan temple architecture. It was built in 1755 to commemorate Qianlong's pacification of the Zungar tribes in Xinjiang. While Puning is said to be modelled on the earliest Tibetan Buddhist monastery (Samye), it looks in many respects like many other Buddhist temples we've seen in China, although the rear portion of the temple grounds and the facade of some of the outer walls have some Tibetan influences. As Foret notes, the fusion of Chinese and Tibetan features was as much for Tibetan visitors to the Qing summer court as it was for Mongols who were themselves followers of Tibetan Buddhism. In this sense, as Foret notes on p.53, temple construction in Chengde served the Qing's policy of incorporating Tibetans and Mongols into its empire. One sees the incorporation of Chinese, Tibetan and Mongol themes in many of the Chengde temples.




























When you first enter the temple, you are met by chubby Milefo, the Laughing Buddha (see picture on left), which apparently is typical of Lama Buddhist temples. Behind that is the Hall of Heavenly Kings housing three images of Buddha. But what takes your breath away is the next hall, the very tall and elaborate Mahayana Hall (see picture on the right) which houses one of the most beautiful Buddhist statues of Guanyin Buddha (the Goddess of Mercy) anywhere. The golden statue is 22 meters tall and made out of 5 different kinds of wood: pine, cypress, fir, elm, and linden. The statue shows Guanyin with 42 arms, with each palm bearing an eye and each hand holding an instrument, skulls, lotuses, and other Buddhist devices. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take a picture of the statue. You'll just have to take my word that it was a sight to behold.










Going further toward the rear of the temple, I discovered a band of musicians and architecture with more of a Tibetan influence. Note the white block-like shapes, the stupas, Tibetan prayer wheels....


















































After Puning, we quickly jumped on the bus which took us to the temple that was on everyone's itinerary: the Putuozongcheng Temple, which is a miniature version of the Potola Palace in Lhasa. Foret (p.51) notes that this temple is the most important temple in Chengde in terms of size: it is ten times the average size of a Chengde temple. The temple was constructed in 1767-1771. It really is a beautiful temple although the views of the temple would have been nicer on a clear day. Here are some pictures of the entrance to the temple, followed by a large stele pavilion which has Chinese, Mongol, Tibetan and Manchu writing on it (see if you can guess which is which!), a triple archway topped with 5 stupas, the skull of a yak(?), and stone elephant whose knees are bent at a fantastical angle.












































































































The most striking structure is the Red Palace which contains most of the main shrines and halls in the temple complex. Running down the front of the Red Palace are collections of prayer flags.






















Here is a view looking westward from the Red Palace toward the hills encircling the imperial summer resort that we had visited the day before. One imagines that during the 1700s, the air was a bit clearer than what we experienced on this hazy July day in 2008.

Letter from Beijing: China and Tibet

Here's an op-ed I wrote for the Poughkeepsie Journal which should come out sometime this week.

April 13, 2008

LETTER FROM BEIJING

It’s been almost a year since I wrote in these pages. I had just arrived in Beijing and the major issues were safety concerns about Chinese exports to the U.S., environmental pollution, and the Beijing Olympics. The first two issues are still there but have been eclipsed by the protests in Tibet, and their effect on the Beijing Olympics.

We will be here for the Olympics and are watching this global drama unfold with great interest, and some anxiety. We have an uneasy feeling that there may be more than sporting events taking place in Beijing for our entertainment come August.

The Chinese government now has its huge propaganda machine at full throttle. In the first days of the Tibet protests, there was little news and many Beijing residents knew nothing about the protests. Then suddenly, the news about Tibet began to appear with every conceivable spin on the protests and the response by the international community.

In the eyes of the Chinese media, the Tibetan protests were violent, the Dalai Lama was behind this violence, and pro-Tibetan protests abroad were the work of a small number of Tibetans. Most Chinese here accept this view, although a small group of Chinese intellectuals did call for an independent investigation of the protests.

For those of us here with access to other sources of information, a very different picture emerged. In this picture, the Tibet protests started off peacefully before turning violent, the Dalai Lama called for dialogue, and the outrage over China’s treatment of Tibet was not limited to a small number of Tibetans. Instead, we were hearing from a wide range of human rights activists, political leaders, and other prominent voices in the West.

Some of these anti-Chinese protests and criticisms have been thoughtful, but others have engaged in China-bashing that borders on racism. One CNN commentator has called the Chinese a bunch of goons, and said that China hasn’t changed at all.

Complicating these two contrasting images is a third picture of Chinese around the world rallying in support of the Chinese government. These Chinese do not understand why the world is picking on China just when it’s having its big coming-out party. They point out there are other oppressed groups, and dictatorships much worse than China. They ask why China is being portrayed as the big bully when not long ago it was a poor country picked apart by Western and Japanese imperialists? Why doesn’t China get credit for expanding opportunities and freedoms for a billion plus people and bringing hundreds of millions out of poverty?

This response by Chinese who have access to other sources of information should make us think twice about how we in the West respond. This event is unlike the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests where Western critics were joined by many Chinese at home and abroad. In the case of Tibet, any Western criticism must contend with a unified front consisting of the Chinese government and Chinese people. Tibet is also unlike the food safety scares where international criticism prompted the Chinese government to make changes in its regulatory system. The Chinese government is unlikely to budge on Tibet which it sees as an issue of territorial integrity.

So am I saying that we should not criticize China, stand by and do nothing? No, I would encourage people to make their voice heard but to do it in a way that will both apply pressure and promote dialogue. China does care about its image and international opinion. But I would advise against China-bashing, which is counterproductive and will only make the Chinese government dig in its heels. It is important that we express our outrage, but more important that we do so in ways that engage China and the Chinese rather than turn them away.

The one thing I would add to my closing words is that we could all benefit from learning more about the history of Tibet and China. For a short primer, see this New York Times editorial by Elliot Sperling, a Tibet specialist, in the April 13, 2008 New York Times.

Don't Know Much About Tibetan History

By ELLIOT SPERLING

Bloomington, Ind.

FOR many Tibetans, the case for the historical independence of their land is unequivocal. They assert that Tibet has always been and by rights now ought to be an independent country. China's assertions are equally unequivocal: Tibet became a part of China during Mongol rule and its status as a part of China has never changed. Both of these assertions are at odds with Tibet's history.

The Tibetan view holds that Tibet was never subject to foreign rule after it emerged in the mid-seventh century as a dynamic power holding sway over an Inner Asian empire. These Tibetans say the appearance of subjugation to the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries, and to the Manchu rulers of China's Qing Dynasty from the 18th century until the 20th century, is due to a modern, largely Western misunderstanding of the personal relations among the Yuan and Qing emperors and the pre-eminent lamas of Tibet. In this view, the lamas simply served as spiritual mentors to the emperors, with no compromise of Tibet's independent status.

In China's view, the Western misunderstandings are about the nature of China: Western critics don't understand that China has a history of thousands of years as a unified multinational state; all of its nationalities are Chinese. The Mongols, who entered China as conquerers, are claimed as Chinese, and their subjugation of Tibet is claimed as a Chinese subjugation.

Here are the facts. The claim that Tibet entertained only personal relations with China at the leadership level is easily rebutted. Administrative records and dynastic histories outline the governing structures of Mongol and Manchu rule. These make it clear that Tibet was subject to rules, laws and decisions made by the Yuan and Qing rulers. Tibet was not independent during these two periods. One of the Tibetan cabinet ministers summoned to Beijing at the end of the 18th century describes himself unambiguously in his memoirs as a subject of the Manchu emperor.

But although Tibet did submit to the Mongol and Manchu Empires, neither attached Tibet to China. The same documentary record that shows Tibetan subjugation to the Mongols and Manchus also shows that China's intervening Ming Dynasty (which ruled from 1368 to 1644) had no control over Tibet. This is problematic, given China's insistence that Chinese sovereignty was exercised in an unbroken line from the 13th century onward.

The idea that Tibet became part of China in the 13th century is a very recent construction. In the early part of the 20th century, Chinese writers generally dated the annexation of Tibet to the 18th century. They described Tibet's status under the Qing with a term that designates a "feudal dependency," not an integral part of a country. And that's because Tibet was ruled as such, within the empires of the Mongols and the Manchus. When the Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, Tibet became independent once more.

From 1912 until the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, no Chinese government exercised control over what is today China's Tibet Autonomous Region. The Dalai Lama's government alone ruled the land until 1951.

Marxist China adopted the linguistic sleight of hand that asserts it has always been a unitary multinational country, not the hub of empires. There is now firm insistence that "Han," actually one of several ethnonyms for "Chinese," refers to only one of the Chinese nationalities. This was a conscious decision of those who constructed 20th-century Chinese identity. (It stands in contrast to the Russian decision to use a political term, "Soviet," for the peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.)

There is something less to the arguments of both sides, but the argument on the Chinese side is weaker. Tibet was not "Chinese" until Mao Zedong's armies marched in and made it so.

Elliot Sperling is the director of the Tibetan Studies program at Indiana University's department of Central Eurasia Studies.

The Foreign Legation Quarter in Beijing: a virtual tour

September 17, 2007

One of the more interesting walks through Beijing is the former Foreign Legation Quarter which lies to the east of Tiananmen Square. The Legation quarter was the area where the Western powers and Japan had their embassies during the latter part of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th. Manchus, Mongolians and Koreans also resided in this area. It stands as a vivid reminder of foreign occupation and the site of one of China's most humiliating episodes: the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers belonged to a religious society that called themselves the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists" (Yi He Quan) who believed they could use a combination of martial arts and animistic magic to fight and expel foreigners from China. The Boxers slaughtered Christian missionaries and Christian Chinese converts throughout north China, and their attacks reached a climax in Beijing in the spring of 1900 with attacks on missionaries and Chinese Christians in and around the city. By June, foreigners and Chinese Christians took refuge from these attacks in the Foreign Legation Quarter where they held out for 55 days waiting for help. When the Qing imperial court refused to suppress the rebellion, the foreign powers responded by calling in an allied expeditionary force known as the "Eight Nation Alliance" (baguo lianjun). The alliance started in the port city of Tianjin and made their way into Beijing by August 14 where they broke the seige of the Legation Quarters and occupied Beijing. In the following year, the Qing imperial court signed the humiliating "Boxer Protocol" where they promised, among other things, to pay a staggering indemnity to the foreign powers that is estimated to be about 333 million U.S. dollars.

We start our walk here at Zhengyang ("facing sun") Gate, which was damaged during the Boxer Rebellion. This gate forms the southern entrance to Tiananmen Square, and is the largest of the 9 gates that were part of the inner city walls that were taken down in the 1950s. Take the subway to the Qianmen stop and when you get out, you'll be outside this gate. Walk through the gate into the square, and you'll see Mao's mausoleum in front of you. Turn around and this is the view you should see.


To your left (looking east), you should see this building which is on the western border of the Legation quarter. To get there, take the underground tunnel that leads to the other side of the street.










When you get to the other side of the street, enter into the alley way that leads past this building. This alley is Dong jiao min xiang and is the southern border of the Legation quarter. Continue walking east along this alleyway. To your right, as you walk past this building (which houses the Management Committee of the Tiananmen District government), you'll pass the area that was the U.S. legation. You won't be able to see much because of the walls.








Update: In September of 2008, I brought another group of students to tour this area and we found that the former U.S. legation area had been turned into a posh, upscale restaurant complex that includes a French, Italian, Spanish and Japanese restaurant. I guess you could say it's a form of culinary colonialism!

Below left is a picture of the flyer for the complex, called Legation Ltd. (According to one source, the Americans had a baseball field built on the grounds of this complex.) On the right is a picture of the former U.S. embassy building which now houses the French restaurant.























One thing you'll notice when you walk through this neighborhood (if you can read Chinese) is that it is home to many government and public security (the name of China's police) offices. Many of these buildings are off limits and you'll see guards standing at the gates to ward off any curiousity seekers.


Further up the street you'll find this building to your right. It's used to be the National City Bank of New York, and is now the Beijing City Police Museum. Across the street, you'll see an imposing modern structure which is the Supreme People's Court. It used to be the site of the former Soviet legation. If you go to the entrance of the alleyway just to the west of the Supreme People's Court, you'll see etched on one of the walls "USSR Embassy Compound Lane".



Further up Dong jiao min xiang, you'll come to an intersection. This building will be on the northeast corner. It is the former Yokohama Specie Bank, one of several banks in the Legation quarter, and now home to a Chinese company.









Turn left at this intersection up Zhengyi Road, and on your right, you'll come to this gate which marks the entrance to the former Japanese legation. As the black and white plaque on the gate states, this compound is now home to the Beijing city government. The last emperor Pu Yi apparently holed up here when he was forced out of the Forbidden City in 1924. A little further up, on your left, you'll see the gates to the former British legation.






Go back down to Dong jiao min xiang and continue east. On your left, over these walls, is the site of the former French legation. Go further up and you'll see the gate which is flanked by two stone lions. The buildings in the legation were destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion and the lions are all that remains. Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia holed up here in 1970 and again in 1979 when Cambodia was attacked by the U.S. and Vietnam.







Past the French legation, you'll come to an intersection. On the northeast corner rise the spires of St. Michael's Catholic Church. Across the street from the church are the grounds of the former Belgian legation.

Turn left up Taijichang Street and go to the third alleyway on your right. On your left, you'll see the headquarters of the Beijing city Party Committee, the real seat of power in Beijing politics.


On the third alleyway on the right, called Taijichang Toutiao, look for this brick with the words "Rue Hart". This street was named after Sir Robert Hart who was the Inspector General of the Chinese customs service from 1863-1907. Hart had a residence across the street in what is now the Overseas Friendship Association headquarters. Further down Rue Hart, one can find the former Danish legation on the right, and the former Austro-Hungarian legation.



Go back to Taijichang Street and continue north until you get to the next big intersection. Here you see the start of Wangfujing, Beijing's main shopping drag, and a great place just to walk (no cars are allowed for several blocks) and window shop. On the northwest corner is the Beijing Hotel, and a few blocks up on your left, you'll find the Foreign Languages Bookstore, a nice place to browse for English-language books on China and other subjects. Enjoy!



For more pictures of the Foreign Legation quarter, go to my Flickr website at www.flickr.com/photos/theshiehs and go to the collection entitled Beijing, and you'll see a set entitled Foreign Legation Quarter.