Fifteen day of celebrating were coming to an end. It hadn’t been not stop celebration but there had been much activity and focus on the small rituals which had provided immense fun. On Monday morning and facing the end of New Year on Wednesday we were in the mood for treating ourselves and I went to the market across the road at 7 am to get Jianbing for breakfast. The cold was excruciating, I was thankful we were only across few yards away. It was probably in that moment that I made the decision not to venture out that day despite plans to visit a library in the north of Xidan and instead I resolved to stay indoors. On my way back with breakfast I discovered a parcel from Bruce in England had finally arrived bearing a belated but welcome Christmas gift of a wooden jigsaw. Staying out of the cold seemed the ideal day to make do the puzzle.
The Lantern festival is the 15th and last day of The spring Festival and originated during the Han dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE) It fell on the 12 of February this year which, of course, in the lunar calendar is the 15th of January. in looking at this calculation I suddenly had the illuminating thought that theoretically we can, like royalty celebrate our Birthday’s twice in the year. The traditions for the Lantern festival are; lighting lanterns to symbolize letting go of the past year and welcoming the new year, eating traditional foods, such as yuanxiao, which are small glutinous rice balls, posing and solving riddles, watching lion and dragon dances and participating in parades and fireworks.
Our mode of celebration was visiting Peng’s parents for Lunch and other than eating fried glutinous rice balls we eschewed the alternative forms of finally seeing off the dragon. I did however feel a little morose when we helped his parents take down their decorations and then went home to dispose of our own.
I am not sure if it was the shaking off of the old year or a change in temperature but by Thursday I felt a surge of energy and having arranged to meet my friend Stuart to visit the Zhihua temple in Chaoyangmen I felt the urge to cycle all the way. I wanted to hear the Monks at Zhihua Zi play the Jing Music that the temple is famous for and through splendid blue skies making the streets look wonderful I peddled in complete happiness.
On a previous visit to the Zhihua Temple (Temple of Wisdom Attained) built in 1443 at the order of Wang Zhen, a powerful and corrupt eunuch in the Rites Supervising Office of the court of the Zhengtong Emperor, I had discovered that on a daily basis a group of musicians, buddhist monks, perform a centuries-old ritual music known as Jing which has been handed down over 27 generations. The instruments used include guanzi (oboe), dizi (bamboo flute), sheng (mouth organ), yunluo (a set of ten small tuned gongs mounted vertically in a frame), and percussion including drums and cymbals we listened to the moving sounds ancient music played by the 27th generation of musicians to continue the centuries old ritual.
As we were waiting for the performance to begin I was feeling quite pleased with myself for having found a spot at the front with a pillar directly behind me so I was not blocking anyones view and from where I had a great view of the performers. The musicians took their places and at that moment an old man pushed his way along the front row and positioned himself in front of me. I was more than annoyed by his manoeuvre and if we were living in a lawless society his carcass would be rotting on the floor of the temple. However we are civilised people and I subdued the anger and used a selfie stick to irritatedly push my camera past him. Feelings of animosity boiled in me and clearly in some of the bystanders too who actually complains to him. it spoilt the first few minutes of the performance till I relaxed and enjoyed the wonderful unique sounds of the instruments and the expertise with which they were played. At the end of the performance I couldn’t clap my hands as they were full of gadgets so I beat my palm against my chest in admiration. The man turned to me his face glowing with happiness and a gesture of brotherhood mimicked the heartfelt beating of my heart. We didn’t have the language to describe our feelings but the gesture demonstrated a sense of his pride in his heritage, and joy that it was shared with a foreigner and I felt so ashamed of my pointless rage.
Peng needed to visit his office to collect some merchandise for his upcoming trip to Shanghai and Hong Kong and its location in the North west of Beijing led us to find a suitable restaurant to celebrate Valentine Day. Zhongguancun, known as the silicone Valley of China, was a short cycle ride away and as it turned out had a number of fashionable dining spots. it was the first time I ventured into this area of Haidian though I had gone beyond to old summer palace which lay just beyond. Its name comes from the habit of important Ming dynasty Eunuchs of finding a burial ground near the picturesque Yongding River. They were called Zhong Guan Er and it deviated to Zhong Guan Cun. We ate a delicious meal at Jinfu Yanking Lizhai specialising in Sichuan Cuisine. We, had coffee with rose petal bagels in a trendy new your style cafe called Beigels, and then went home
On the 2nd of March Peng will be running in the Tokyo Marathon and on Saturday he had a practice run round the Grand Canal at its start in Tongzhou I took the opportunity to meet with ex colleague Kaz at the Grand Canal museum. The Canal, another UNESCO world Heritage site, has an impressive history as the oldest and longest man-made canal in the world. Originally built in 468 BC, with renovations and enlargements in the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) respectively. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is 1,794 kilometeres long. It starts at in the north and ends at Hangzhou in the south, running through Tianjin, Hebei Province, Shandong Province, Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province along its way. It links five great rivers, the Hai River, the Huai River, the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Qiantang. This was some of the information I picked up at the impressive museum. It was another beautiful day and after we had exhausted the exhibits we found a cafe where we were able to sit outside, drink our coffee, indulge in a welcome debate about the politics of America and wait for Peng to finish his run.
With Peng departing for his business trip on Tuesday we had an easy day on Sunday starting with an early morning Jianbing from the market where I discovered they are also selling tofu pudding which was too good to miss and I treated us. Mostly the day, after my online teaching lesson with Elsa, revolved around packing and writing and reflecting on the amazing time I had over the Spring festival. There was a sense of relief that it was over but there were some wonderful memories in the mix and I truly looked forward to another year of surprises and splendour in this wonderful country.
