“Commune by the Great Wall”

For a good look at the hotel: http://www.commune.com.cn/

The original concept: get 12 architects to provide 12 original designs and build 12 unique villas spread around the hilly, rugged woods along the Great Wall! Then replicate several times these villas to constitute an ensemble of some 50 such habitations, add a central facility housing common services (registration, restaurants, meeting rooms, etc.) and you have “Commune by the Great Wall”, a fascinating secluded hotel, ideal to hold a conference such as the one I came for (gathering some 100 to 150 people). No chance that people will escape from attending sessions – the place is one hour and a half driving to Beijing!

Stayed in the Courtyard villa (10 rooms; was in 305).

Great place to run…and to see the Great Wall, either going from here to one of the 2 nearby sections that are open and equipped for tourists (coming by bus), or right on the premises, by walking up a natural path to an unrestored section of the Wall – great view of the Wall running on top of surroundings hills, and of the hotel complex, with its scattered villas…

This hotel would be a good base, if we ever return to Beijing to visit the Great Wall and the nearby Ming Tombs - would have to ask to stay in one of the original houses...

Sept 17, 2011

L’ «Œuf» de Pékin – Centre national pour les arts de la scène (ou NCPA)

Ai assisté lundi soir à un concert de musique traditionnelle chinoise donné par l’Orchestre national de Chine lors de la Fête de la lune, ou Fête de la mi-automne, à Pékin.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Centre_for_the_Performing_Arts_(China); and http://www.chncpa.org/ens/

(picture by Evilbish)

Çà se donnait au nouveau Centre national pour les arts de la scène, l’ «œuf» comme on le désigne ici! Un immense dôme, de verre et de titane, entourée d’eau – on accède aux différentes salles à l’intérieur par un souterrain (çà doit être toute une tâche que de le garder propre, ce dôme, surtout dans une ville aussi poussiéreuse que Pékin!...) Bâti sur la grande avenue Chang-An (avenue de la Paix éternelle), en plein cœur de la ville, tout juste à côté du très monolithique Grand Hall du Peuple et en face de la résidence du « leadership » chinois, à ZhongNanHai (cachée et gardée par des murs à la couleur vermeille traditionnelle de la vieille Chine – la même que celle de la Cité Interdite voisine!) . Presque sorti de l’imagerie de la science-fiction, le dôme recouvre plusieurs salles de spectacle – opéra, concert, théâtre Construit à grands frais – près de 500,000 RMB par siège, a-t-on calculé! – selon les plans de l’architecte français Paul Andreu; plutôt controversé au début! Mais je pense que les détracteurs se sont réconciliés à l’idée, depuis son ouverture en 2007, et que l’ «œuf» a trouvé sa place dans l’iconographie de l’architecture locale.
(La ville par ailleurs est parsemée de récentes prouesses architecturales – toujours à grand frais! Qu’on pense au « nid d’oiseau » du stade olympique (au coût de plus d’un demi milliard de dollars…un peu cher pour 15 jours – que peut-on en faire maintenant?), ou encore l’imposant édifice CCTV (on dirait les jambes d’un corps sans torse!) ce nouveau centre névralgique de la télévision chinoise, tout juste opérationnel, depuis quelques mois peut-être, et construit au coût cette fois de plus d’un milliard de dollars. Tous deux, fruit d’architectes étrangers…)
J’y allais pour voir cette merveille d’architecture, je dois dire, mais j’ai quand même été séduit par cette musique chinoise, au point d’y retourner (mais pour un temps seulement – le dîner m’attendait!) après l’entracte. Très mélodieux et même enlevant par moments. Je ne pense pas que l’acoustique de la salle de concert soit particulièrement formidable – à en juger par le « délai » dans la voix de la présentatrice – mais tous ces pipas (luth), erhus (violons), et même la zheng (cithare)! Dirigé avec panache je dois dire par Xu Zhijun. J’inclus ici le programme :

1) Festival Overture
2) Pipa and orchestra A Moonlit Night Along Spring River (ancient piece)
　Pipa: Zhao Cong (national level-A actor)
3) String quintet Happy Night
　Erhu: Zhan Lijun
　Liuqin: Wei Yuru (national level-A actor)
　Yangqin: Shen Xiangyang (national level-A actor)
　 Pipa: Yu Yuanchun
　Zheng: Zhang Lu
4) Erhu and orchestra Moon Over the Two Springs
　Erhu: Tang Feng (national level-A actor)
5) Dance of the Yao Tribe

——Intermission——
6) Erhu, cello and orchestra Waterside
　Erhu: Yang Chao
　Cello: Tian Weiyang
7) Bamboo flute solo Herdsman's New Song
Bamboo flute: Wang Ciheng (national level-A actor; winner of the Excellent
　　　　　　　　 Repertoire of the Ministry of Culture 2010)　　　　　
8) Moon Over the Lotus Pond
9) Vocal and orchestra A Moonlit Night Along Xiangjiang River
　Vocalist: Wei Jinying (winner of the Excellent Repertoire of the Ministry of
　　　　　　 Culture 2010)　　　　
10) Deep Night (Peking Opera tone)
　Jinghu: Liu Bei
　Jing erhu: Wang Nan
　Sigu: Zhu Jianping (winner of the Excellent Repertoire of the Ministry of
　　　　 Culture 2010)
11) Dragon Dance
　Leading percussion: Zhu Jianping, Zhang Ming, Yu Xin, Li Zixi


Je me suis procuré un coffret de musique chinoise traditionnelle mais je n’y ai pas retrouvé exactement la musique du concert, un peu plus stimulante à mon avis…

Pékin, le 12 septembre 2011

Running and swimming in Beijing

Beijing is not the healthiest place where to exercise outside; as we all know the air is rather polluted! (Still, there are areas in the city where, if the air is not totally pure, you can enjoy doing it – see below the recent review published by China Daily, “Runners’ retreats”.) Inside activities are probably less challenging health-wise, like swimming (see review of where to do it, published in this month’s Time Out Beijing – “Making Waves”.)

For the first 3 days of my stay this time, in the city proper, I did not to worry: the Fairmont is well equipped: a large, clean, state-of-the-art gym, plus a 25-meter long pool (and, as in many hotels where I have stayed over the years, under occupied!) Such beautiful facilities!

Once at Commune by the Great Wall, well there, one has Nature! Ran a couple of times along the road, downwards one way, all the way upwards on the way back!

Beijing, September 17, 2011


Runners' retreats
By Tiffany Tan (China Daily; 2011-09-12)

From Chaoyang Park to the Ming Tombs, Tiffany Tan takes a glance at some of the favorite outdoor training grounds for running lovers ahead of Beijing's annual international marathon next month.
With the annual Beijing Marathon just a month away, participants are stepping up their workouts. To prepare for the 42-kilometer challenge, they usually do daily "short runs" of 10 kilometers and weekly "long runs" of 20 kilometers, often in wide, open public spaces. Beijing members of running8.com, the country's largest online network of amateur runners, share their favorite training grounds around town.

Olympic Forest Park, Chaoyang District
The 680-hectare park, north of the Water Cube and Bird's Nest in the Olympic Sports Center, is the most popular site with local runners. Again and again, they commend its wide trails, green surroundings, fresh air and atmosphere of camaraderie among runners.
"Runners consider it their paradise," says Long Xugou, who joined the group a couple of years ago.
Recent, welcome additions to the park are synthetic surface tracks that have been laid on its 3-, 5- and 10-kilometer running routes, as well as signs marking the distance between each kilometer.
If there's one complaint about the place to note, it's that the park does not provide lockers for valuables, so only bring what you can run with.

Chaoyang Park, Chaoyang District
Chaoyang Park, probably the top pick of Beijing's foreign runners, is but a distant second among the Chinese. Still, at 290 hectares, it's one of the capital's largest parks and sees a lot of competitive runners on its grassy fields and winding trails.
"It's the Promised Land for runners on Beijing's east side," says Eric Band, citing the park's lakes, ponds and greenery. But he adds that it does charge an admission of 5 yuan.

Temple of Heaven, Dongcheng District
Once used by the Ming and Qing emperors to implore the heavens for good harvests, divine consent and atonement of sins, the Temple of Heaven is set in a 267-hectare walled park, where neighboring residents like to take walks.
For Wei Gongming, one of Beijing running8.com's administrators, it is among the best places to go for a run in the city - even if he has to pay 10 to 15 yuan to enter. "The greenery, consisting of centuries-old pines and cypresses, is amazing," the 35-year-old says, "and the quiet and seclusion make runners feel carefree and happy."
But he cautions runners to be careful they don't knock over the many elderly men and women doing their exercises.

Yuyuantan Park, Haidian District
Yuyuantan, with its centerpiece lake, as well as springtime cherry blossoms, peach blossoms and tulips, offers urbanites a scenic run on the west side. At 140 hectares, it's the smallest park recommended here, but each lap around it should still give runners a good 4-kilometer workout.
"It's quite ideal for training for long-distance runs," Long Xugou says. The view and space come at the cost of 2 yuan.

Ming Tombs, Changping District
This is a location that's definitely not meant for that daily or weekly run; rather it's something to keep in mind when you need a routine change during the warmer months. Located 50 kilometers northwest of central Beijing, the imperial burial grounds, as prescribed by fengshui, are surrounded by hills, mountains and a body of water, the Ming Tombs Reservoir.
"It's quiet and secluded, and you can swim, then go for a run," says Shi Yan, one of the newest additions to the Beijing runners' group.
Wei would rather take a dip after a run, and suggested rounding off the trip with a visit to the local farms.

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved

Hotels in Peking – a changing scene!

Wow! What a change! Granted, if you choose to compare to some 40 years ago, there will be changes, but still. In the 70’s there were essentially 2 hotels that were open to foreigners in Beijing: the rambling composite (5 parts built at different times since the beginning of the 20th century) Peking Hotel, on Chang’An, near TianAnMen,

and the H’sin Chiao (Xin Qiao) Hotel, in the old Legation Quarter.

Here is how a tour book (Odile Cail, Fodor’s guide, “Peking”, 1972) described them then: “The rooms in both are gloomy and badly furnished…the lighting is feeble…the carpets are threadbare…the plumbing is archaic, but nearly all the rooms have a bathroom – though it is rare that both the toilet and the shower to be working properly…the service is generally slow…but the staff are full of good will and are anxious to understand you even if they can…be prepared for a waiter to come to your room without knocking at any hour of the day or night…!”. One gets the drift! It was cheap, a few dozen of Yuan if that much (the Canadian $ then was worth about Yuan 1.35 as I recall – it takes now 6.5 Yuan to make a dollar!), but you got what you paid for. you could count on a clean room though, I should add.
Not that you did have much of a choice either between the two: you stayed where your ‘host’ had managed to get you a room. For right up to the early 80’s, you would show up at the airport, and if your host was not there to receive you, you would not know where to go!

Beside these 2 hotels, there were 2 more that were available while we lived there: the Minzu Fandian (Nationalities Hotel) and the Qianmen Hotel. We were more familiar with the first one, where they had a "European" restaurant.

It reminds me of the celebrated DongFeng hotel in Guangzhou (Canton), the first hotel I ever stayed in, in China. This was the “headquarters” for the foreigners who came to the semi-annual Canton Fair. (In that the Communists had not changed the century-old practice of isolating the trading activity to a specific place and a specific time!) This was my first incursion in The Middle Kingdom, fall of 1978, for several days while “manning” the Canadian suite during the bi-annual fair for the benefit of the then few Canadian businessmen. Very strong first impressions…the heat, the net that covered the bed at night, to protect against mosquitoes, the noisy streets – the incessant music of the klaxon, early in the morning (I think it was the law – you were responsible to alert other cars or people on the road of your presence…Also it was still the practice of warning people of the presence nearby of foreigners, by shouting “waiguoren”! as this older man did when I walked around the city, to go and see the small island of Shamian. Was on language training in Hong-Kong then, and I had come up to Guangzhou for the occasion (before shooting up for my first intro to Peking).

Already, in the mid 80’s, there were many more hotels – the Beijing Municipality boasted then that there were some 64 of them – this must have included the Beiwei (one bathroom per floor!) where I remember the Power Ministry had lodged a Quebec electric power delegation in 1980! Perhaps only a dozen of them were frequented by foreigners, most of those being joint-ventures – this was indeed the era of foreign joint-ventures (‘You foreigners venture, we Chinese join!” as the saying went at the time amongst foreigners, to illustrate the uneven and risky nature of such arrangements!) The first of these hotels was built with Canadian money (that of a Mr. Noble, a construction entrepreneur, from Toronto I think), the JianGuo. Noble had made money out of another real estate deal in Beijing, and since he could not take his profits out of the country, he invested it in that hotel!

For official delegations, there was not a problem: it was totally controlled and they were put in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, a secluded complex in parkland, in the west side of the city.

(Picture from rahuldlucca)I believe it became commercially available in the early 80’s. (As I was told then, “speak towards the chandelier if you want a change of towels”!) The Intercontinental Hotel – “Financial District” must be in that area as well, although I went somewhere else, as the “deal” was better…

Nowadays, there are thousands of hotels, a hundred of which I would have no problem staying at! All major international chains have one if not several venues here – for one, The Raffles has taken on and restored parts of the old Beijing hotel (Block B and Block E); plus a whole bunch of luxury boutiques ones, nested away around the city in hutongs and courtyards (the Yi House, Hotel Côté Cour, The Emperor, with its “Yin Bar” at the top, overlooking the roofs of the Forbidden City, the “retro chic” Red Capitalist Residence, Stark-style and modern Japan-inspired The Opposite House, etc. – see the Beijing 2012 Wallpaper City Guide), and countless “local standards” ones. There is even an Aman by the Summer Palace – I am staying at the Fairmont Hotel, just south of Jianguomenwai dajie. It looks brand new (this Canadian-managed chain has done such a good job in restoring the Peace Hotel in Shanghai – see blog, October 2010). Very luxurious; has a great gym and a 25-meter inside pool. Upgraded to a suite on the Gold floor, plus a deal: 3 nights for the price of 2 (a measure of the competition, plus the fact that business must be slow – this is no longer the peak of the tourist season!)

Beijing, September 12, 2011

Beijing – in the fall of 2011

Roaming around Beijing from meetings to meetings is like roaming in my past, some 30 years ago, when I lived here as a diplomat (1979-81)…except that if Beijing was a big city then, it is now huge: more than 18 Million people in the greater area! And things have changed so much – I notice now more than on my previous visits (I have been here many times since I lived here).

A few other illustrations of the changes: They are now building the 7th ring road, when they had just completed the 3rd one when I left in 1981! Sanlitun, then on the north-eastern fringe of the city where Embassies and diplomats were suitably isolated, has become the “trendiest” place in town, with its “SanliTun Village” complex of modern stores, eateries and cinema houses (picture below)

– this is where I attended the opening of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour in China (at the MegaBox) with the Ambassador, my former colleague with whom I “re-opened” Shanghai 25 odd years ago to a Canadian presence (got to watch a few films of “extreme” adventures – The Longest Way, Fly or Die, and WildWater, the latter with shots of the Grand Canyon water rafting. see http://www.banffchina.com/)

A stone's throw away from where I used to live (Block 2-1 on Sanlitun Dong San Jie),

is this very hype hotel, The Opposite House, built by modernist Japanese architect, Kengo Kuma, a square structure shrouded in translucid glass panels, in various shades of green; I had lunch at their café.

Not far from there is “1949 – the Hidden City”, a series of restaurants and other facilities have been lodged in what used to be a factory in the industrial part of Sanlitun, which has been “retooled” (as they put it!) in 2008 to create this “neo-industrial chic”, commune-like, venue, nested amongst non-descript high-rises. (The Peking duck at the Duck de Chine restaurant is said to be one of the better served in the city…)

The concept is not new as the Dashanzi Art District (or better known as “798”), a little bit further North and further East was also, a few years before, developed on the ground of a disaffected factory. It is now the arts’ Mecca of Beijing were numerous galleries and “ateliers” are established amongst cafés and eateries – I took a moment to meander in the UCCA complex, located in a 1950’s industrial Bauhaus factory, a non-profit art center for contemporary artists (it sponsors all sorts of exhibitions, events and education programs) founded and built by arts collectors Belgian couple, Guy and Myriam Ullens, in 2007 (picture below).

(IP lawyer – he represented Google in China for a while – David Ben-Kay, who attended the conference, a long-time “China hand”, told me he built his house around there as early as 2003 – with Google house allowance, no doubt! – even before “798” existed per se – he now runs a business “incubator” facility there – Yuanfen-Flow New Media Art!) A new boutique hotel, the Yi House (and its Mediterranean cuisine restaurant, Fennel), has very recently opened, on the outskirts of 798.

Would have been fun to go back and visit old staples such as The Forbidden City or the Temple of Heaven, but better stay on my memories of these places, which by now must be crowded with visiting tourists (I remember spending a very leisurely afternoon, meandering in the numerous palaces and courtyards in the Forbidden City, with our photography teacher…). Besides, I have to leave the city and go to the site of the conference, Commune by the Great Wall, an hour and a half, westward, on the outskirts of the city…

Beijing, September 17, 2011

P.S. a few restaurants worth apparently to go to (a couple of them I have tried): Dali Courtyard (Yunnan food; rustic); The Courtyard (on the moat of the FC); Maison Boulud (in the former – before 1949 – US Embassy compound); Duck de Chine (at 1949 – the Hidden City); Tiandi (fine dining, on Nanchizi Lu, east side of the FC); Paper (contemporary Chinese; Gulou Dongdajie); Noodle Bar (at 1949); Da Dong (kaoya; 3 restos; go for NanXinCang); Capital M ( M on the Bund owner; near TianAnMen Square, near old gate); Bei (at The Opposite House hotel); should have checked also Green Tea House where I dined with Joseph Caron, Ambassador then, in the early 2000s.