China: Sleeping Giant Awakens

Shanghai’s Bund is one of the city’s major tourist sites.

The Great Wall of China.

Story and Photos By Stan Wawer

Welcome to 1960s Los Angeles. China has become a major player on the world stage of capitalism, but it needs to solve its pollution problem and find ways to feed its 1.3-billion people.

China’s economy continues to grow by about 10 percent per year, based on low-cost labor and little regard for the environment. Burning is still allowed. Farm fields and trash are openly burned. Automobiles are replacing bicycles albeit bikes are still the main mode of transportation for most Chinese.

Waste is pumped into its rivers making China’s water undrinkable, including tap water in five-star hotels. Beijing’s smog is at a level equal to that of L.A. in the 1960s.

The communist government is working frantically to find ways to feed its masses, but only about 5 percent of the population has a standard of living above our middle class.

“You would need about $500 a month to live a good life in China,” said Arthur, one of my two guides on a 10-day China trip. That would be poverty level in America.

China’s leaders are aware of the problem, but the country is the low-cost producer of everything, which leaves the environment to fend for itself.

For China, going green means a rise in production costs. I purchased a Hermés silk tie for $50 at the Chinese government silk factory. The tie retails for more than $200 at Hermes in Paris.

According to the World Bank, China is home to 16 of the world’s most polluted cities, seven of the top 10. China’s primary pollution culprit is coal smoke. About 70 percent of the electricity generated within the nation is produced by coal-fuel power plants. China burns more than 7 million tons of coal annually, most of which is of poor quality.

While trying to feed its 1.3 billion people, one-fifth of China’s agricultural land has been lost since 1949, as a result of soil erosion and economic development.

Chinese officials and business leaders need to work together with farmers and other citizens to resolve what is rapidly becoming the largest nationwide environmental crisis ever seen on Planet Earth.

Beijing residents are now warned of “haze” in daily weather forecasts so they can take measures to avoid air pollution.

The municipal meteorological authorities include haze levels on hazy days when the humidity is under or at 80 percent. Haze is divided into three grades — light, moderate and heavy (sound familiar), said Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Station.

Guo said haze formed when the concentration of dust, smog and other harmful matter was high in the air during days without wind.

Haze contains substances harmful to the respiratory tract and lungs. The public is recommended to stay indoors during moderate and heavy haze days. Beijing reported 10 haze days in December, or one-third of the total recorded in the capital last year.

Shi Hanmin, head of Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said that local environmental authorities would take further steps to control air pollution and had set an ambitious target of 245 “blue sky” days this year after beating the 2006 goal.

Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the bureau, said that intensified efforts made by environmental protection agencies are helping reduce pollution from coal burning.

According to the bureau's website, the municipal government will put air quality improvement, the public's biggest concern, on top of its agenda this year.

Tourists are pouring into the country at the rate of 124 million last year, especially into Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou, as more airlines are adding flights. There is much to see and do in China and the people love Americans. But how long will Americans keep coming if they can’t breathe the air or drink the water.

I remember the burning eyes and the first-stage smog alerts of 1960s Southern California, summer days with brown funk blocking out the sun and views of the San Gabriel Mountains. That’s Beijing today.

Pollution notwithstanding, everyone should see the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City before they die. But don’t do it the way I did. Our group’s tour guide, Sunny, whisked us off to the Forbidden City upon our arrival in Beijing following a 13 and a half-hour flight on Air China and crossing the International Dateline. Our rooms at the five-star Beijing International Hotel were not going to be available until after noon. Representatives from 34 African countries were staying at the Beijing International Hotel for a six-day summit.

More than 50,000 people visit the Forbidden City daily, 100,000 on holidays. Twenty-four emperors lived there through the Ming Dynasty, the last one in 1924 (remember the movie, “The Last Emperor?”).

Lying at the center of Beijing, the Forbidden City was the imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is across the street (north) of Tiananmen Square. Rectangular in shape, it is the world’s largest palace complex and covers almost 183 acres. Surrounded by a 20-foot deep moat and a 20-foot-high wall are 9,999.5 rooms.

“Building started in 1407 and was completed in 1420,” Sunny said. “If you slept in a different room every night, it would take you 27 and a half years to sleep in all the rooms.”

Only women (concubines) could enter the Forbidden City. The boys who were in charge of the concubines were eunuchs.

Each emperor had about 300 concubines, chosen when they were between the ages of 12 and 15. Twenty of the most beautiful concubines were buried alive around the emperor. The other 280 concubines were sent home. It wasn’t much fun being a concubine, especially if you were among the 20 most beautiful.

“When an emperor died, the son became emperor,” Sunny explained. “When he turned 16, he married and selected new concubines. The emperor selected the 20 most beautiful of the concubines before he died. Something like a will.”

Most of the emperors were paranoid, fearful that someone was trying to assassinate them, thus the moat, high walls, unique and delicately structured towers on each of the four corners of the curtain wall to afford views over both the palace and city outside and concrete down to depths of 20 feet so that no one could dig a tunnel under the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City is divided into two parts. The southern section, or the Outer Court, was where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation. The northern section, or the Inner Court, was where he lived with his royal family.

Until 1924 when the last emperor of China was driven from the Inner Court, 14 emperors of the Ming dynasty and 10 emperors of the Qing dynasty had reigned in the Forbidden City.

Having been the imperial palace for five centuries, it houses numerous rare treasures and curiosities. Listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage Site in 1987, the Forbidden City (Palace Museum) is now one of the world’s most popular tourist attractions.

It was said that a million workers, including 100,000 artisans were driven into the long-term hard labor. Stone was quarried from Fangshan, a suburb of Beijing. A well was dug every 164 feet along the road in order to pour water onto the road in winter to slide huge stones on ice into the city. Since yellow is the symbol of the royal family, it is the dominant color in the Forbidden City.

The Badaling Expressway takes you to the Great Wall out of Beijing. En route we stopped at the Ming Tombs (1368) where 13 emperors are buried. At the Ming Tombs, we visited Zhu Di, the Emperor Yongle (1360-1424 AD). He was considered a good emperor.

Building of The Great Wall started 2,700 years ago. It is about 4,000 miles across 11 provinces and it was constructed through 20 dynasties. Listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1987, the Great Wall belongs to the world. The Great Wall embraces such broad dimensions that nothing else can compare with it.

It is said that the Great Wall of China was built with tears and blood. More than 1 million men died building the wall, and with no place to bury them, according to Sunny, they were ground up and used for mortar.

The wall has an average width of about 13 feet and average height of about 33 feet. Dismantled Great Wall bricks would reach around the world if laid end to end.

I walked the Juyonguan section of the wall with its 2,000 steps straight up. Some steps are steep, making the climb even more strenuous. There was a lot of huffing and puffing going on and that included young Chinese boys and girls who looked as though they were in excellent shape.

Chairman Mao Zedong had a saying, “You’re not a real man if you haven’t climbed the Great Wall.” Originally this saying was used to bolster his revolution in trekking north. But, today, the slogan has been reduced to a promotional slogan for the Great Wall of China. In Badaling, the “real man stone” can be found with the saying engraved in it. And, of course, you can buy a T-shirt with the slogan.

The tour also took us to Hangzhou’s West Lake, home of the Chinese Moon Festival.

Originally a shallow sea inlet, this 1,483 acres of water became the famous West Lake. Beautiful pagodas overlook the lake. One is 2,000 years old. West Lake was Chairman Mao’s favorite place for R and R. He spent two or three months at a time at the lake. When he was staying in one of the pagodas, no one else was allowed on that side of the lake.

Arthur pointed out the many benches around the lake. “People come between 4 and 5 p.m. and sit and then sell their spot to lovers who want to watch the romantic sunset and the moon,” he said.

The lake and its environs have all the elements of a traditional Chinese garden but on a grand scale. It is held in the embrace of hilly peaks on three sides. The ever-changing picture of West Lake has been described as “intoxicating.”

No visitor to West Lake and Hangzhou can fail to learn something of this city's most famous products, silk and tea. Since the Tang Dynasty (618-907) silk products from Hangzhou have found their way all over the world. The National Silk Museum is the first Chinese national museum to be dedicated to silk culture and is the largest of its kind in the world. It was here that I purchased that Hermés silk tie.

A similar museum is dedicated as homage to tea. Located at the West Lake Dragon Well Tea Plantation, the National Tea Museum provides a fascinating insight into the history and production of Chinese tea. Often referred to as the “wonders of West Lake” Longjing (Dragon Well) tea and Hupao (Running Tiger) Fountain is each worthy of the attention of the visitor. It was here that California Sen. Dianne Feinstein once visited and purchased green tea.

Longjing Village was beautiful and peaceful. The village is on the Fenghuang Hill, In Hanzhou Zhengjiang Province. It is said that residents in ancient times believed that a dragon dwelled their and controlled the rainfall. As a result, people went there from all the surrounding areas whenever there was a drought to pray for rain, from as early as the Three Kingdoms Period (221-280).

Another natural spectacle to be found here is the tidal bore of the Qiantang River that has enthralled people for centuries. Overlooking the river estuary stands the 13-story-high Six Harmonies Pagoda. Dating from 970 and built on the site of an earlier pagoda that served as a lighthouse, the name refers to the six codes of Buddhism i.e. harmony of the body, speech and thought and the renunciation of personal pleasure, opinions and wealth. A climb to the top of the pagoda carries the reward of an impressive view over the river. I have that going for me.

Crossing the river is the Qiantang River Bridge. This is the first two-tier bridge to have been designed and built by Chinese engineers in modern times. The other great feat of much earlier engineering is the Grand Canal. Linking Hangzhou in the south with Beijing in the north, this is the longest man-made waterway in China and surpasses both the Suez and Panama canals.

There is much to see in China. It is a fascinating country — with or without the smog.