Chinese Language Blog

What could you accomplish with a full 24 hours in Beijing? Probably a lot more than you think! In this video, I take you on a whirlwind tour of the Chinese capital, hitting plenty of the famous sights, enjoying tons of local food, living like a local in some of the parks, and partying like a rock star with one crazy night full of music, drinks, and people.

VOTE FOR THIS VIDEO BY SHARING IT ON YOUR FACEBOOK, TWEETING IT, OR USING STUMBLE UPON, PINTEREST, OR GOOGLE +!!

While that may seem impossible to achieve in one day, I assure you it is very doable. You just need to have the motivation, the energy, the know-how, plenty of coffee during the day and some stronger stuff at night. Of course, an afternoon nap (午睡 – wǔ shuì) was crucial to the success of this day, and that’s a common habit among locals anyways!

If you enjoyed this video, PLEASE help me out and take a minute to cast a vote for it. Here’s how to do it:

1. First, click this link. That takes you to my entry.
2. There’s a green box next to the video that says “Vote for this entry.”
3. Click any one of the five social media options to cast your vote – SHARE it on Facebook, TWEET it, STUMBLE UPON it, PIN it, or add it to Google +. Simply watching the video on YouTube or LIKING it on Facebook is not enough!
4. If you have a website and you want to help out even more, you can post this code to your site for a cool interactive “vote for me” box. (<a href=”http://www.mydestination.com/users/sashabeijing/bbb” ><img src=”http://cdnstatic-2.mydestination.com/Images/bbb/badge.png” width=”150px” height=”150px” alt=”Vote for me”></a>) It will look like this…

“Hi everyone, my name’s Sasha and my destination is Beijing. Today I’m going to show you just how much you can do with 24 hours in Beijing. This is the heart of China. The place where Mao Zedong established the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

After the flag raising, take a stroll along Qianmen Street. it’s 8 o’clock. I’m cold and hungry. It’s time for some Beijing breakfast. Enjoy a classic Chinese breakfast of steamed stuffed buns, porridge, and soybean milk.

Next, head to the Forbidden City. This massive complex served as the imperial palace for Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Just north of the Forbidden City, you’ll find Jingshan Park. For just 2 RMB, you can enjoy morning exercises in the park and head to the top for stunning views of the city.

To get around Beijing you’ll want one of these cards. It’s good for the buses, subways, and most taxis.

A visit to the Drum and Bell Towers gives you a panoramic view of old Beijing neighborhoods, and you can also catch a drum show.

In between the towers, you’ll find Sculpting in Time, a great place for a coffee.

Well it’s 12:30. You know what that means – time for lunch!

Pack in with the lunch crowd and munch on shredded potatoes, cucumbers, and wonton soup.

It’s 1:30 now and we’re here at Shichahai, a series of three man made lakes in the city center. It’s a great place to walk around anytime of year. You can also rent a bike. Cruise through Beijing’s traditional alleyways.

It’s 5 o’clock and we’re getting the party started early at one of Beijing’s very own microbreweries. At Slow Boat, you can order a flight to sample their many craft beers.

For dinner, head to Ghost Street, where you can warm up with a Chinese favorite and a great dining experience – hot pot.

Kick off your night with a stroll along NLGX, a hip area full of shops, street vendors, snacks, and bars. Drop in Salud to sample one of their creative shandies or a glass of mulled wine, while you listen to Spanish music.

Turn it up to 11 at Temple, one of Beijing’s most popular bars with live music every weekend.

Down the street, you’ll find 4corners, a creative space that focuses on food, drinks, art, and people.

After midnight, the place to be is Sanlitun, where crowds gather to share two of the finer things in life, street beers and street food.

Take a quick rest in one of Beijing’s countless net bars, and then get crazy in Dada with an all night drum and bass party.

Well it’s almost 5 AM and a dim sum breakfast is the perfect way to end the day. This popular Cantonese joint is open 24 hours.

Finally, stroll around Ditan Park and reflect on your awesome day.”

2011 was a year of revolution. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street, mass protesting, rioting and police suppression have marked this past tumultuous year. With economic recovery still slow across the globe, and with breakthroughs in social media and  mobile tele-communications, people have grown fed up with “business ass usual” and they’ve started talking.

Now nearly anyone, with a few thumb strokes, can start organizing and leading grassroots campaigns to fight the injustices they see around them. Social media has mobilized the masses, and the degree of press coverage is making everyone accountable. Twitter, as it turns out, topples tyrants.

So a few months back, when protests in Wukan or 乌坎 (Wūkǎn), started drawing media attention, people started asking the big question: why? Well here’s the backstory to the Occupy Wukan Movement.

The Backstory:

The Story of Occupy Wukan begins with the jurisdictional breakdown between provincial (state level) and central (federal level) authority. While central party members are often watched with scrutiny for any small slip-up, provincial leaders are turned a blind eye to, and as a result have become exceptionally corrupt throughout China. In Wukan, local corruption has been the catalyst that has sparked protest and retaliation.

Since the abolition of agricultural taxes in 2006, local government has been increasingly raising money through land sales to the extent that this is now a primary revenue stream (and speculation has run rampant because). Conflicts between farmers and local officials have risen throughout China, often because of land seizures (or “land grabs”) for these increasingly more valuable properties.

Over the years, these greedy land grabs have confiscated or stolen property right out from under the villagers. Villagers claim that 400 hectares of farmland have been appropriated without compensation since 1998. They petitioned various levels of government in vain over the years, accused local cadres of “pocketing more than 700 million yuan” of money destined for compensating them since 2006 but local officials blamed villagers for trying to fragment a harmonious society (for them). With little political recourse and growing sense of urgency, villagers decided to unite in the face of blatant corruption. What followed would mark the beginning of the Occupy Wukan movement.

The September Protests:

After years of stewing anger, frustration finally boiled over. On September 21, 2011, hundreds of villagers participated in a sit-in protest against local officials outside government offices in Lufeng. The small protest group–initially about 50 people–yelled slogans and hoisted banners and placards with slogans like “give us back our farmland” and “let us continue farming”.Then as the crowd grew in strength, protesters became restless and started damaging buildings and equipment in an industrial park in the village and blocking roads.Policemen were dispatched, and one villager said that they severely beat some teenagers who were banging on a gong to alert fellow villagers of the protest.

Three villagers were arrested during the first day’s violence. The next day, the police station was besieged by more than 100 villagers demanding the release of the detained villagers. Violence soon escalated as the news that several youngsters had been seriously injured after being set upon by government ‘thugs’. Within no time, hundreds of irate villagers armed with makeshift weapons to besiege a local police station where 30 to 40 officials were sheltering. Hundreds of well-equipped riot police were dispatched; they engaged in a stand-off with the peasants.

Video footage shot by villagers in Wukan showed people of all ages being chased and beaten with truncheons by riot police. One Wukan villager described the police and other security staff as “like mad dogs, beating everyone they saw” including women, children and the elderly:

The footage was instantly broadcasted throughout China and instantly drew ire and backlash from China’s netizen community. Soon, the Wukan protesters had won over public opinion in China and through PR and political pressure forced the issue of local greed and corruption onto the national stage.

For more on the Occupy Wukan movement, check out the NyTimes’ Video Journal on Wukan. In the following posts we’ll discuss the December riots, controversial deaths of movement leaders and lasting affect that the Occupy Wukan movement will have on Chinese society in the years to come. Stay tuned.

Follow Steve on twitter: @seeitbelieveit

As we celebrate National Day (国庆节) in China, it seems like a an apt time to reflect upon Chinese nationalism or 民族主义 (mín zú zhǔ yì). China is one of the most patriotic nations I’ve lived in (with an exception of the United States) and as a result, nationalism is rampant.

Just read the newspaper headlines out of China. Maybe it’s a Chinese troller captain that was picked up by Japanese coast guards, maybe it’s refusal to allow the Dhali Lama’s presence into mainland or maybe it’s just a bunch of people getting together to reflect on the direction that China is heading in–nationalism is a way of life in China.

The breakdown of the word “nationalism” in Chinese divides into: 民族 or “ethnic group” and 主义 or “philosophy/creed/belief” or just simply “ism”. Chinese nationalist roots come from two dominant, yet different sphere’s of influence: Confucianism or 孔教(Kǒng jiào) and Patriotism 爱国主义 (ài guó zhǔ yì)－literally translated as “love country-ism”.

While Confucian roots are ancient, they still heavily influence modern lifestyles. After all, the legacy of thousands of years of philosophy (on par with Greek and Roman culture) is pretty hard to forget. Within Confucian “proto-nationalism” a person is defined by the structure of their community and the five (5) cardinal virtues relating a person to their family (filial piety including relation to mother, father and siblings), and those relating to your community and your superiors. Now this may not sound very nationalistic, but when you consider how it defines your role in society, the structure of your place within and your duty to that society, then a nationalist credo emerges. After all, nationalism is the adherence to a community, whether it is “folk based” (cultural) or “imagined” (societal).

While this “imagined” sense of nationalism  is strengthened in a modern China, it doesn’t quite explain why China is so fervently patriotic. In fact, since the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese people have been united under the banner of economic prosperity. As a result, “economic nationalism” has supplanted most communist and Maoist ideology, redefining the role between citizen and government. It’s not surprising that Beijing leadership looks maintain “harmonious and sustainable growth”–a clever way of saying 8% or higher GDP growth, while combating inflation and fighting employment. In the words of Billy Clinton: “it’s the economy, stupid!”

While nationalism can be guided and directed by the Chinese government to suit specific goals, it can also grow into an uncontrollable entity that constrains leadership and even threatens authority (much like the events in the Middle East and North Africa). People take to the streets because they have a vested interest in their nation, but what happens when it’s a population of 1.3 billion? Talk about power to the people.

Chinese citizens want to see their country grow great again, and once again be the “center nation” (中国) to which all other countries look to as a model. The way they do this is a blend of economic nationalism tinted with “neo-confucian” sensibilities.

If you are interested in learning the “March of the Volunteers” which is the official  Chinese National Anthem, check out the video below:

Here are the lyrics:

起来！不愿做奴隶的人们！
把我们的血肉，筑成我们新的长城！
中华民族到了最危险的时候，
每个人被迫着发出最后的吼声。
起来！起来！起来！
我们万众一心，
冒着敌人的炮火，前进！
冒着敌人的炮火，前进！
前进！前进！进！

Pinyin:

Qǐlái! Búyuàn zuò núlì de rénmen!
Bǎ wǒmen de xuèròu, zhùchéng wǒmen xīn de chángchéng!
Zhōnghuá mínzú dàoliǎo zuì wēixiǎn de shíhòu.
Měi ge rén bèi pòzhe fāchū zuìhòu de hǒushēng.
Qǐlái! Qǐlái! Qǐlái!
Wǒmen wànzhòngyìxīn,
Màozhe dírén de pàohuǒ, qiánjìn!
Màozhe dírén de pàohuǒ, qiánjìn!
Qiánjìn! Qiánjìn! Jìn!

Happy National Day everyone!

Follow Steve on Twitter: @seeitbelieveit