A MUSLIM NYONYA IN BEIJING (5) Arts and Culture

As an art lover, I enjoyed the rich arts and culture of the Chinese people. Wish I have enough RenMinBi and more people to help me carry my bags (1 person limited to 20kg, huhuhu). Alhamdulillah I managed to get some of the things I had planned to buy and see things I had hoped to see.

Here's the lovely embroidered pictures which will definitely brighten up a room. Wish I could take all back home, hehehee.

The girl who was embroidering this piece of art told me that it will take her 4 months to complete the picture. Wah-lao! 4 months? Such patience. Her stitches were so neat and delicate. No wonder the pictures are expensive!

I got one of these marble name chops made, with my Islamic name in Roman and Chinese characters. The friendly lady wrote mine as "aa-lik-ya" meaning pretty and elegant (I elegant? hahahaaa)

The Chinese people are such patient workers. Here's a lady handpainting a Cloissone (enamelware) vase which has to undergo several long and delicate process before it can be displayed and sold.

The Tea House lady demonstrated how to make a good teapot of tea and different ways of drinking them. Types of popular tea are Pu-er, Empress tea, Jasmine tea , and Rose Tea. How to ensure the water is boiling hot? Use a pee-pee boy, hahahaa... that's a clay doll of a naked peeing boy which when hot water is poured on it, will start to dot-dot-dot.. (Sorry, can't show its image here, offensive to some, hehehe)

I found some lovely papercuttings at the shops. This is an art passed down through generations in certain families in China. This complicated and symmetrical piece took the artist (also the salesgirl) 4 hours to complete using a small pair of sharp scissors.

After searching, I found a sandalwood fan with a picture of the Great Wall.

Pretty chopsticks to take home. They're good for eating noodles, given as souvenirs and can even be used for self-defence (remind me to keep a pair in my handbag :P)

China is famous for jade but make sure you get them from reputable factory or shops. We learn to recognise real jade from fake ones.

I wanted to get myself some Islamic Chinese calligraphy pieces like this one but was told that roads leading to area selling them had been closed due to snow. Too bad, maybe next time. It's so difficult to find these in Malaysia.

We went to watch an Acrobatic show. Interesting. Am really impressed with the bian-lian (face-changing) performances. Still can't figure out how the artistes could change their painted faces from one mask to another at the fraction of a second - right before your eyes!

We went shopping at the Markets in Beijing. What fun we had bargaining China's style, hehehe (learn to smile and laugh even as you bargain). Some of us were chased by eager salesgirls and a few were pulled back when we walked away after some tough bargaining ("Ok, ok.. you get it for your price"hahaha). I like the way they display thair merchandise in the small shops - so neat and eye-catching. And we could find all sorts of things in the Markets - clothes, traditional items, souvenirs, watches, electronics, etc all sold at affordable prices in one single building. Hmmm, wish we have this concept back in Malaysia.

This is the last of my entry about my trip to Beijing. The Chinese have managed to preserve their arts and culture for generations and I'm grateful to be given to chance to see some of them. Of course, I should also mention about the food massage I had at the Chinese Traditional Medicine Centre (ermm, great), the Fresh Water Pearl Centre (learn how to recognise a real pearl from a fake), the Burning Cream Centre (watched a man's hand being burned and healed within minutes, and ended up buying some cream, huhuhu), the Silk Store (touched a silk cocoon and upon shaking it, realised that the dead silk worms were still inside, euww) and the Jade and Chrystal shop (watched a man cut designs on a jade piece using a machine - awesome!), which we went to as part of our tour.

Alhamdulillah despite all trials and tests we had managed to reach there and return home safely. If you're planning to go soon, do note that it's snowing now and you can try skiing. It's lovely in spring but dusty by the end of the season.

Oh yes, I went with the TM Tours and Travels Sdn Bhd, which is based in Kuala Lumpur. Am very satisfied with their services, and we flew with MAS.

My next trip oversea? Hmmm tell you later..pray that I'll have more halal rezeki from Allah. Got plenty of work to do this coming school year.. aduhhh!!!

image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bian_Lian

for more pics: http://www.slide.com/r/1g6Dzbu53D-Idz0kO0fZiChIwX0GXWTh?previous_view=mscd_embedded_url&view=original