"Father Christmas" Overwhelmed by Adoring Chinese Fans

Dateline: Northern China, Sunday, December 24, 2006

On Friday night, Mr. S. Claus, affectionately known as "Santa", made an unscheduled stop in Beijing, China on the first leg of his World Tour. At approximately 8:30pm, CN time, Old St. Nick appeared at the Nolita YMCA in Beijing's Chongwen district as the Y's Christmas party was concluding.

The Nolita Y holds its annual event with gusto and this year's was no exception. Over 200 children of all ages were enjoying the joyous singing, dancing and other merriment when a Y official, Candy, announced a surprise guest. The Y had received word only a day before that "The Jolly Guy" might drop by. After a short introduction, "The Bearded One" leaped onto the scene with Mrs. Claus following behind as is custom for women in Asia.


What happened next resembled near hysteria. It was clear that many of the "children" had never seen the Honorable Mr. Claus before as he generally arrives under the cover of night. After a couple of warm Ho Ho Hos, most of the crowd rushed "The Man in Red" to hug him and by chance receive one of the goodies from his big, red bag. Witnesses said that Mrs. Claus dashed for cover to avoid injury leaving her adoring spouse to fend for himself. As of press time, no one was hurt in the melee although Y officials had to be concerned.

"I'm getting 'a big long in the tooth' to receive this type of 'rock star' treatment" Mr. Claus wittingly said. "But you can't beat this type of excitement!", he went on, "I feel young again!".

Party attendees remarked that Santa looked trim and fit for a man who has traveled extensively over the last 50 odd years. Some astonished partiers said that, like the Rolling Stones, the way Santa looked he could go on forever.

Earlier in the day, tourists at The Great Wall reported a red blur in the area. Similar sightings were observed at other popular Beijing area spots like The Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. This reporter confirmed in an exclusive backstage interview at the Y that "I thought I'd enjoy Beijing while visiting China" Mr. Claus said.

After the goodies were distributed, Santa spent a few moments having his picture taken with a few excited fans before dashing out the door onto his reindeer-piloted sleigh.

To bring the crowd back into control, YMCA staff distributed ice cream which cooled things down. As party guests enjoyed their ice cream, several heard a hearty "Merry Christmas and to All and to All a Good Night" across the Peking sky.

Anonymous Reporting by You Know Who

And the Fragrance Remains With You . . .

In English Corner, we discuss topics that are of interest to each individual group. The participants attend to increase their vocabulary and to practice their speaking and listening skills. We have discussed topics like Friends, The Environment, Travel, Education, Sports, Technology, Music, Religion and various others. My students are well-educated and interesting and I learn something from each of them every time we meet. Monday's group meets at the Beijing YMCA Metro office and has 10 - 14 participants of all ages from university students to a retired music teacher. Friday's group is pre-teens ranging in age from 11 to 13 and Saturday's group is comprised of 4 or 5 professional people several of whom work for financial institutions and a professor who teaches marketing. Most of the students have taken English names which were either assigned to them by their English teachers in school or which they picked themselves.

I saw something on TV the other day that said: "As a volunteer, you give roses to others . . . and the fragrance remains with you." Certainly the fragrance of this experience will remain with me forever!

MONDAY
Front:Mary, Carole, Parker, Emma, Annre
Back: Alice, Candy, Philip

FRIDAY
Piggy, Linda, Hoover, Cookie, William, Michael, Mike, Davy, Shirley, Tom (seated) P. C. and Uncas (back row)

SATURDAY
First Picture:Alan, Alexander, Richard.
Second Picture: Daisy, Alan and Richard

Yong He Gong (Lama Temple)

The Lama Temple was originally built in 1694 as the the private residence of Prince Yong. It was turned into a monastery after its owner became Emperor in 1723. It soon became a center of Lamaist religion and art. This temple is the most elaborately restored sacred building in Beijing. It belongs to the Yellow Hat sect, whose spiritual leader is the Dalai Lama. It has five halls and three gates laid out in a north-south axis. The design is symetrical. In each successive hall, the central Buddha is more imposing. In front of each hall, are incense burners. The burners are outside the hall as incense is not permitted to be burned inside the buildings. Also no picture taking is allowed inside the buildings so unfortunately I was unable to get any good images of the Buddhas. In the Pavilion of Ten Tousand Happinesses the Buddha is 23 meters high carved from a single piece of sandalwood. To see the head of the Buddha, you need to stand very close and rock back on your heels. Today about 70 monks live at the monastery. As you walk around the complex, you see many worshippers offering incense to the Buddhas and bowing in reverence. They are simple gestures which seem profound in their actions. In the pictures, you can see that the season has definitely changed from autumn to winter.

The Middle Kingdom

Middle Kingdom or Middle Country, Mandarin Zhongguo, is the Chinese name for China. It dates from c.1000 B.C., when it designated the Chou empire situated on the North China Plain. The Chou people, unaware of high civilizations in the West, believed their empire occupied the middle of the earth, surrounded by barbarians. Since 1949, when the Communists took power, the official name for China has been Zhonghua renmin gongheguo [middle glorious people’s republican country] or, in English, the People’s Republic of China. -- The Columbia Encyclopedia.

Have you ever had the experience or feeling of being alone in the world, like a dream? You're dropped off by a taxi in an anonymous strip mall and silently signaled to go in a particular direction. You slowly walk down a long, barren street where there are no cars or people to be seen. Barriers direct the way. Identity papers must be presented. The only guidance is from uniformed guards who are more likely to gesture than to speak. Noise seems to fade into the background. Walls are topped with barbed wire. Finally, across the street from the Bulgarian Embassy, you find your destination -- The American Citizen Services section of the American Embassy.

It is difficult to explain the bizarre feeling of isolation when all one is doing is trying to find the embassy. No longer are you, or America, the center of the world. You are now in the Middle Kingdom. There are no signs or flags heralding the embassy of the most powerful nation on earth. Of course, this is for obvious reasons but a little disconcerting when trying to find the comfort and security of your own country.

The purpose of my visit was to renew my passport. When I recived my visa for China, I didn't realize that my passport needed to be valid for at least six months after my re-entry to the U.S. I don't know the reason for this but I wanted to get my passport up to date so that I don't have any problems.

You never know what to expect when venturing out into the world and my visit to the embassy was no exception. While waiting to get called for my passport, there was a Chinese woman who was apparently trying to get a visa or a valid passport to the U.S. She had been there before and was trying to go back. However, she could provide no contacts in the U.S. When asked what she did there, she said she was a teacher and her students had funded her previous stay. The embassy representative kept telling her she had to provide 3 names of people she knew in the U.S. but she didn't have any names or phone numbers of students, friends, or colleagues. However, she insisted she wanted to go to the U. S. and had her airline tickets. Not only that, but she insisted she wanted to go to San Francisco, not to Houston where she had been previously. When asked where she was staying in China, she said she had been staying at her father's in a different province but now she would stay in the airport until her visa came through. She said she had $200 and could use it for taxi fare to get back from the airport to the embassy the next day.

This drama was going on intermittently while my passport renewal application was being processed (and I thought I had troubles!). Unfortunately, it's not for us to know the outcome of this story, although I was tempted to stay and see it play out for the rest of the day. Somehow, I got the feeling that there would be no satisfactory resolution for this issue and it was better left to the imagination.

For me, the whole process went very smoothly and in a week or so I should have my new passport. So don't worry, I'll be home in April.

Down In the Alley

There are about 360 named hutong (alleys) in Beijing. They first appeared during the Yuan Dynasty about 700 years ago. The siheyuan (courtyard house) is a traditional dwelling of four single-story rectangular buildings arranged around a courtyard. The gateways are beautifully shaped and the entrance door with stone carvings indicated who lived within the siheyuan. The one pictured was the entrance to the home of a warrior. The hutong buildings are a dark grey color, offseting the splendid reds and golds of the Forbidden City. Originally, they housed a single family but now each one houses up to five or six families. For many westerners, the idea of an alley conjures up in the imagination a shadowy place with sinister figures lurking in the background but the hutong are quite safe. It is very pleasant to stroll around the maze of alleys without the traffic and noise of the main streets of Beijing and observe the comings and goings of the people who live there -- laundry drying in the courtyards, bird cages hanging from the eaves, men delivering coal to the various residences, grandparents caring for toddlers. Many hutong are being razed to give way to high-rise apartment buildings. There are some efforts to preserve and keep safe some of the hutong. However, due to the rapid growth taking place in Beijing, it is uncertain as to how many hutong will survive. And while foreign tourists may romanticize the hutong life-style, relocating may not be entirely unwelcome by many of the hutong residents as, while the residences do have electricity, they do not have the convenience of indoor plumbing and central heating. Toilet facilities are in a separate building and are shared by the community and the siheyuan are heated by coal stoves.
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Ladies Who Lunch

Shu Junyi (Daisy) is a participant of my Saturday night English Corner program. Last week she invited me to lunch at her apartment. She very thoughtfully picked me up at my building and we went by taxi to her apartment. Shu Junyi has a beautiful apartment on the 18th floor of her building. It is light-filled and spacious with beautiful hardwood floors. It has two bedrooms and an office. She is married and has one daughter. Recently she took a trip to Europe with her daughter and we looked at the pictures of the trip. She has a girl helper from the countryside who prepared a wonderful homemade lunch. In the picture you can see three kinds of dumplings, broccoli, tofu, a kind of healthy bean soup with peanuts and in the middle of the soup was a plum. Also with lunch was a fruit salad with apples, pears, bananas and citrus fruit. After lunch, we looked at more pictures which Shu Junyi had on her computer. It was a wonderful day and I'm glad I have a new Chinese friend!