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Sept. 8, 2005 The East-West Line of the Beijing Subway, which runs west 10 or 15 miles from downtown, and now, after recent expansion, east a few miles too, has a stop called Junshi Bowuguan (The Military Museum), on the west side. Alighting from the train and climbing the stairs you find yourself at the intersection of Chang An Lu and Yangfangdian Xilu. From there, it is about one mile along the latter street to Beijing Xizhan (West Station). Originally, Yangfangdian Xilu was a cluttered little street, with dim stores in ramshackle buildings and vendors’ stalls out in front, all over the sidewalk. There was some automobile traffic, and a horde of carts and bicycles, all intermixed with pedestrians, who, dodging the stalls, often walked in the street. Beijing Xizhan is a huge, splendid train station of absolutely the most modern design, and has no rival in the world, as far as I know anyway. Unfortunately, bus service along Yangfangdian was infrequent, so that it was most convenient just to walk the mile. Some months before I left Beijing, reconstruction of the whole length of Yangfangdian Xilu was begun, and just before I left, the stretch had been converted into a row of tourist agencies, ticket offices, hotels and restaurants in a very fashionable motif, but the street and the sidewalk were still torn up, with maybe another month or two before the project reached completion. The trains for Xinjiang (Sinkiang), in the West of China, and Hong Kong, in the South, depart from Beijing Xizhan, and during the course of my stay in China, I must have been there a dozen times. On the north side of Chang An Lu stands the Beijing Bowuguan itself, a large imposing building that could be a museum anywhere, set on a lawn of 10 or 20 acres. All the times I glimpsed it as I went to the train station, I really didn’t pay very much attention, for I hadn’t come to China to tour museums primarily. I was more interested in meeting Chinese people, studying the Chinese language and seeing everyday China at work. In the late Spring of 1998, I went on a series of walking tours of the city of Beijing. I would take a bus or a subway train to some spot chosen at random around the city, then walk to another random spot 6 to 10 miles away, and finally bus back, marking off my itinerary on a map on the wall of my apartment, until I had covered the whole inner city, one end to the other. On one of these walking tours I passed again by Beijing Bowuguan and decided to go in. In the entrance, stood the mandatory statue of Mao Zedong, about 20 feet tall. This was no great surprise, of course. What did surprise me, though, were the four photographic portraits, each 10 feet wide and 20 or 25 feet high, of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. I had no idea that as late as 1998, there were still people in the world who hailed Stalin as a leader or thinker. Marx and Engels I could understand, but Lenin, and especially, Stalin? I don’t know if the Chinese government intends to do anything about those photographs in preparation for the Olympics, but I feel certain that, if they don’t, it will create a lot of unfavorable attention from Westerners. There were many exhibits from the World Wars. Important in the minds of the Chinese is the Boxer Rebellion. In 1898, an alliance of eight nations, Japan, Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy and the US invaded China, most of them cutting out spheres of influence for themselves. This was showcased extensively, as were the two Sino-Japanese Wars, the first, concluded in 1895, when Taiwan and Manchuria were ceded to the Japanese, and the second, which was synonymous with World War II in those parts, entailing massive carnage. All the historical dynasties of China were represented there as well. Chinese invented gunpowder, of course, and rockets or cannon were first used during the Mongol siege of Beijing in 1211. You can see all this too. The Mongol or Yuan Dynasty in general was also accorded many exhibits. But the Ming, Qing, Song, Liao, Jin, Tang and Han Dynasties all had space in the Museum as well, and there were exhibits from the Warring Kingdoms, Spring and Autumn Period and earlier. In some of the museums that I visted in Beijing, the labels were in Chinese only. So with a Chinese reading speed of about 5 or 10 words a minute, I was slowed down quite a bit. Also, in reading Chinese history—and I did read some—one encounters many obsolete or obscure characters, especially as names of people and places, without any idea of how they may be pronounced. I can’t remember if the Junshi Bowuguan had all-Chinese labels, but I suppose they’ll be doing something about it if they did, to get ready for the Olympics. The most striking exhibit, though, was Stalin’s picture. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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