A Postcard from Beijing

Shantang Canal, Suzhou

I thought that I would spend 3 hours transit in Hongkong by reading Eat, Pray, Love; acting as an intelligent as I could so noone would thought that I am an ‘Indonesian Migrant Worker’ who don’t know my way to the gate. But as I left that book in a tiny single room hotel in Beijing, I am now acting this way: opening my notebook, and talking narcistically in cyberspace about my journey in China – once again, to you.

Let’s start with a bad postcard. China is no doubt a country with its highest economic growth in the world. It is not just a statistic. It is true and I believe it is going to be like this at least for the next decade. But behind its glory,  I feel pity for Chinese people.  Here in China , in the city or  in the rural area, the development is vast: industrial estates,  infrastructures, new buildings. Slowly, they forget about how blue is the sky of the earth. One  my chinese counterpart said that the last blue sky in his town is only a memory! At that night, while I was having a chinese foot massage, my mind couldn’t think what should I do as an Individual to save the earth. May be now I am going to think thousands times before buying a new handphone? a new cloth? Will I feel better?

However, once the job finished, China, of course has many beautiful places that are preserved perfectly. Suzhou – the lower of Heaven city during the Ming and Qing Dinasty is indeed a city that brought me back to the time. With its old gardens and the old kampoong houses in Shantang canal community, I could start to imagine all those chinese flying heroes which two decades ago- back in my village- I saw from a Betamax-VHS rental video in my door richest man house, standing on my toe ( bahasa Indonesia: berjinjit-jinjit) or sneaking on someone else’s armpit, tried hard not to miss every scene. Indeed I have felt lucky to be a man like I am today, but thinking that I am probably the only kids at my village who visited these, I couldn’t stop to pray to God again how lucky I am. I am indeed just goddamn lucky, especially for the next visit.

Between Tiannamen Sq and The Forbidden City

Great Wall

Beijing. Actually I couldn’t believe I was there. It wast just only a week ago when the ticket was issued that i changed my mind to fly back from Beijing, instead of Shanghai. So here i was, very unprepared about the -5 to 5 degrees winter time. Luckily, there was a very loyal driver who couldn’t speak english who dropped me to the Silk Market where i could heard the only Bahasa Indonesia spoken in China ‘Apa kabar?’ and found a cheap winter coat – though I don’t know what I am going to do with this in Jakarta. But the coat just saved me from the bloody cold wind of the Great Wall, which it was told that the winter time is one of the best time to visit. May be they are right – as I saw white ice beautifully covered the mountains where the wall is stood. But to me the best of Beijing was not coming yet. Not this. Not Birdnest nor Watercube ( though they were worth to be visited).

Great Wall and Me

But it was a Forbidden City. This palace is grander than any palaces I have ever visited – and for sure  it is rich of the stories. All the palaces inside the Forbidden city is a story: power, love, hatred, and betrayal during the last two dinasties: Ming and Qing. I spent almost four hours  walking along each  and every alley  while listening the audio tour, and feeling ‘The Last Emperor’ ( one of my favorite movie), named as Pu Yi, who was in the throne when he was six and lost his power when Kuomintang – lead by Chiang Kai Sek – took over the power.

Carpe Diem!