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China 2015 Food Diary, Day 8

When I got off the train at Badaling to see the Great Wall of China, I stepped into an arctic blast.  By the ticket office, a woman was selling pancakes from a counter window.  It wasn’t a fancy affair; it was meant to be eaten by hand.  It wasn’t the most flavorful thing.  But it was warm, and that’s all that counted.

After spending time at the Great Wall, I had lunch in a restaurant in the tourist village at Badaling.  I must have been sat in the section for foreigners because the tables were set with forks.  There were no chopsticks to be seen.

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China, A Little History, Part 9

Boxer Rebellion

St. Joseph's Church in Beijing was destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion as a target of anti-Christian ire. The current church was rebuilt after the war. Beijing, China, Asia.
St. Joseph’s Church in Beijing was destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion as a target of anti-Christian ire. The current church was rebuilt after the war.

The infamous Boxer Rebellion.  But what was it?  Ultimately, it was a war between China and virtually the rest of the world’s powers.  Guess who won.  Hint:  it wasn’t China.

The Boxer Rebellion started off as sort of the opposite of the Taiping Rebellion.  The Taiping Rebellion began as an uprising by a somewhat irrational [Read more…]

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China 2015 Food Diary, Day 7

In the morning, it was the apple’s turn to be picked from the fruit bowl in my hotel room.  Then I was off to the Temple of Heaven.  It was another bitter cold morning in Beijing.  So I was thrilled when I stopped into a gift shop at the Temple of Heaven and saw these hot filled steamed buns (bao) for sale.  I got one, and it really hit the spot.

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China, A Little History, Part 8

First Sino-Japanese War

Part of Beijing's extensive canal system, which links areas throughout Beijing to the sea via Tianjin. During the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan was able to create an offshore choke-point, cutting off Beijing's maritime access. Summer Palace, Beijing, China, Asia.
Part of Beijing’s extensive canal system (seen here near the Summer Palace), which links areas throughout Beijing to the sea via Tianjin. During the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan was able to create an offshore choke-point, cutting off Beijing’s maritime access.

During the second half of the 19th century, while China was reluctantly opening and modernizing, Japan’s modernization was going from zero to sixty.  (That’s zero to 100, if you’re using the metric system.)  Moving up in the world, the Japanese were eagerly looking beyond their island shores.  They particularly turned their eye towards very close-by, resource-rich Korea, which had been under under China’s sphere of influence for centuries.  Both [Read more…]