My life as a spectator

There is one thing that I knew I would have to do when I came to China.

See Pandas.

I mean, how could I not? They are slowly dying off the face of this planet, why shouldn't I go see them in their homeland.

Going to the Beijing Zoo on Friday afternoon was an eye-opening experience. First of all, because it was so hot on Friday afternoon, all the pandas were indoors, and not outside. Second of all, they come from 四川 (Sichuan Province), and so they are actually about as "at home" in Beijing as I am...

But it wasn't the pandas that was astonishing. (I mean, yes, they were cool, cuddly, and adorable, but I had seen Youtube videos of them.) What was scary was where the great cats lived.

When we first went to see the tigers, we stepped into a rather stuffy room about the size of a big lecture hall. The tigers, lions, pumas, panthers, leopards, etc. were all in cages that were just big enough to let them pace about anxiously. One of the Tigers was indeed very anxious.

It was extremely upsetting. Sure, the only zoos that I really remember are the Bronx Zoo and the Central Park Zoo, both of which are quite good. But I had expected Beijing to have a pretty kickass one, especially given how hard the city was trying to impress the West during theOlympics. I mean, the Pandas had gotten a special "Olympic Building," why were these cats getting such awful treatment?

The answer was soon made clear to us: they didn't live in these cages. This was feeding time. Two workers made their ways through to each of the cages, and through large hunks of meat into the hungry animals.

When we left the enclosure to make our way to the Elephants, we saw one of the tigers who had been so frantic earlier outside. It bellowed, and I can't be sure if it was happy to have eaten, or complaining about the vicious sunlight.

On Saturday, several of us went to 北海公园 (Beihai Park), a staple of our first year Chinese course packet. It was ridiculously hot, but it was also wonderfully beautiful. We picnicked in the shade, and then climbed up a hill to get a closer look at the White Pagoda, and a birds-eye view of the lake. It was stunning.

(The View of the lake, and the Pagoda)

In the evening, we went to see the 京剧 (Peking Opera). We actually went to the same place where I met up with Brearley Folk for dinner, right before they themselves went to see the opera.

It was an incredible experience, and very colorful. They had English subtitles off to the side, some of which were very amusing (like when three characters translated to something like "stealing money from the corrupt local official").

The music of the opera was very piercing. I found it interesting that they only had one person singing, who was (I believe) a girl (she certainly only played girl parts). She was the only one who was micro-phoned, and her voice was so high and loud that she didn't really need it.

(An old man and a girl on a boat. He is helping her find her lover.)

The acrobatics were incredible. Several people did simultaneous backflips and, during a fight scene, they juggled weapons back and forth as though it were no big deal.

(A girl fighting off a demon and a soldier in order to deliver the silver she stole from the corrupt officials to someone who only wishes to help the poor and the dying.)

It was a truly fantastic thing to see.