(Above photo: Pilgrims prostrating in front of Jokhang Temple)
Travelers to China’s skyscraper cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong may think they have seen and done all there is to do in China. Other travelers may even venture beyond to cities like Xi’an, Guilin, and Hangzhou. But those looking to escape the more traditional and explore an incredibly unique destination and culture on a deeper level should definitely consider Lhasa in Tibet. A time of year Imperial Tours recommends for visiting is during Losar, the Tibetan New Year Festival.
Tibetans come to this most holy of destinations during this festival to make their once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimages to Lhasa, and they choose this time of year because many of them are farmers who are unable to work their fields in the winter. These pilgrims come from all across Greater Tibet, for example the Amdo and Kham regions, and therefore dress differently and ceremonially according to their provenance. It’s a terrific time to see and mingle with many different regional types of Tibetans all in one place.
As you can imagine, Lhasa at Losar comes alive with color, vibrancy, and spirituality. Oh, the spirituality…you can feel it in the air and cut it with a knife. Some of the pilgrims have walked the entire way from their homes, sometimes hundreds of miles away across Tibet, doing full body prostrations with every 4th step to show their devotion. The Tibetans you meet are incredibly friendly, warm and welcoming. The sites you will see are awe-inspiring from the massive Potala Palace to the holy Jokhang Temple. And some of the sights you will see may take you a bit out of your comfort zone, like butchers plying their trade right on the sidewalk or kids throwing firecrackers to scare away evil spirits or bonfires set in the middle of the street (this is a way to get rid of the old in order to make room for the new). But the frenzy of the new year is juxtaposed with the calm of everyday Tibetan life. The sounds of the spinning prayer wheels and the smells of incense and yak butter tea will fully immerse you into the culture and Buddhist traditions. You might even want to have a meditation session with a monk in a chapel on a pilgrimage route overlooking the Himalayas.
Click here for a glimpse at a sample Lhasa at Losar Itinerary. This itinerary assumes two people traveling but of course, any aspect of it can be customized to suit travelers’ dates and interests. For a longer trip, you may want to add Chengdu, Lijiang and/or Shangri-La.
Cai Guo Qiang, one of China’s best-known artists, opened his blockbuster The Ninth Wave exhibition with a literal bang on August 8th as his signature multicolored ‘daytime fireworks’ exploded over the Huangpu River. Located at the Power Station of Art on the river bank, the impressive scale matches the huge exhibition spaces that this relatively new venue offers.
The highlight of the exhibit is the eponymous The Ninth Wave, an ark filled with stuffed animals, which brings to mind Noah’s Ark but was actually inspired by Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Also featured is a literally groundbreaking exhibit entitled Silent Ink – a 2,960 square foot lake carved out of the museum floor and filled with calligraphy ink. In the style of a traditional Chinese ink paintings, various gunpowder paintings imagine a post-apocalyptic Shanghai, overtaken by nature and without human life. Using animal and plant motifs, Cai references traditional Chinese forms of artwork alluding to a time when people lived in harmony with nature. Hopefully, Cai’s ark of near dead animals along with his other environment-related works will continue to draw attention to one of China’s biggest priorities as he states, “their not being dead leaves possibilities and space for imagination.”
The exhibitions runs through October 26th and is a must for art lovers visiting Shanghai.
I recently joined a tour led by the co-curator of “Images Through Time”, a temporary exhibition of photos that showcased Hong Kong‘s past, many dating back to the very early days of British rule in the mid-19th century. I have always been interested in photos of old Hong Kong, yet many in this exhibition were unique and were themselves only recently acquired from the Moonchu Foundation in the U.K. Having spent my childhood years here – it was fascinating given that I could relate to many of the present day locations depicted. For a visitor to the city, the parallels may be less significant, but the photo history nonetheless gave some interesting context to much of present day Hong Kong, and is a great way to explore the ex-colony’s often forgotten past. Thanks to the city’s openness, photography studios were extremely popular from an early day, and allowed for an almost continued documentation of political, social, and physical changes that have taken place over the centuries. In fact, despite Hong Kong’s relatively short history (its population having grown from only 7,500 in the mid-19th Century to some seven million today) – the stories depicted are a telling tale of the hard work and aspirations of its early migrants, and of course the British influence that has molded this ‘Special Administrative Region’ to what it is today.
Photographic works of old Hong Kong are frequently on display in the city, and representing a range of photographers. Earlier in the year, the Maritime Museum showcased an excellent collection by John Thomson – a Scotsman who ultimately settled in Hong Kong in 1868 and made significant contributions to documenting the region’s history. Some of his, as well as other’s works are also on display among the permanent exhibits at the Museum of History. The museum moved to its present day location some ten years ago. Now located next to the Science Museum in Tsim Sha Tsui East, this was my first visit to the ‘new’ site – and my initial reaction was that it’s a LOT bigger. I rushed through in 3 hours, but could have easily spent much longer.
By and large the museum is focused on Hong Kong… briefly starting with its Geographical (even Palaeolithic) history, and moving on to its history within a greater China (Zhou, Qin, Han… Ming, Qing etc…) – and then of course its more recent history including the British arrival at Possession Point, subsequent opium war & lease of New Territories. There is a section covering the Japanese occupation; another covering the handover and the recent decades since. There are huge sections looking into Hong Kong’s financial role, separate sections covering the main ‘ethnicities’ traditionally settled here (the so-called Punti, Hakka, Hoklo etc…), and lots of material covering local culture (past & present), education, festivals, even transportation. Overall, the exhibits are engaging and very well put together. There are not too many artifacts to look at however, so whilst the purpose of this museum is not to stare in awe at some expensive ancient vase, or look at historical relic after relic such as at the Shanghai Museum – the entire museum is tastefully curated with many accurate depictions of real life scenes. Exhibits are all annotated in good English, alongside Chinese descriptions, and various photographs of old Hong Kong are displayed throughout the museum.
For anyone who is in the city and looking for more than the standard day of sightseeing, or those who wish to discover more about the city’s heritage, a good half day at the Museum of History comes highly recommended by me. For those interested in old Hong Kong, do check in to see what photo exhibitions might be on during your stay, or perhaps to enjoy a private tour with one of the city’s historians or co-curators.
2014 marks Art Basel Hong Kong's second anniversary. This year's premier edition will trace twelve decades of art history across four sectors: Galleries, Insights, Discoveries, and Encounters. Over 50% of the galleries participating will come from Asia-Pacific, making this festival the best way to access the region's hottest artists all in one place.
Imperial Tours and Mandarin Oriental are teaming up once again to enable you to enjoy Art Basel Hong Kong in style. We have created an itinerary which offers VIP Access to Art Basel and as well as the chance to experience the intrigue of Hong Kong. This package for two includes:
This Art Basel Hong Kong Itinerary can be customized in any way, from adding additional nights to incorporating other unique Hong Kong experiences, like taking high tea with a fortune teller or employing a personal shopper to help you find hidden gems. We can also have one of our art experts accompany you through the festival or to galleries and exhibitions ancillary to the festival.
If you are going all the way to Hong Kong, why not make a quick hop over to Shanghai or Beijing before or after the fair? More great art can be found in both destinations. And if you are spending fewer than 72 hours in either destination, you don't need to obtain a visa.
To view our Art Basel Hong Kong itinerary, please click here. If you'd like to book this trip as is or have us customize it to suit your needs, please send an email to web_inquiry@imperialtours.net.
To carry on reading about this trip, please visit the New York Social Diary website.
On October 9, 2000, five explorers set out in the middle of the world’s fifth-largest desert, the Taklimakan, as a team to walk the entire length of the Ming dynasty Great Wall of China. After a few weeks, winter set in and the terrain was covered in snow. By March the following year as winter lifted, only one remained – Argentinean explorer and photographer Diego Azubel, who continued to trek alone for another nine months arriving at the East China sea at the end of the following year. This was Diego’s first trek in China. (His second took him across the Tibetan Himalayan mountains and through the Nepalese civil war… don’t ask)
Now married with a trilingual daughter, I asked Diego what it takes to walk the entire length of the Great Wall of China?
Good shoes, and a lot of time!
But as with anything else, you need to be sure that you want to do it. You need commitment. Because these walks, more often than not, take much longer than expected, and test you in ways you probably never experienced before. Also, as opposed to climbing up a mountain where there is only one way up and usually small windows of opportunity when the weather allows you to do the climb, in a long horizontal walk it is very easy to ‘take a detour’ or a break. And when you do, it is harder to come back.
Why did you want to walk the Great Wall of China?
I first came to China in 1997 and left with the intention of coming back. While I was in London editing a story on slavery in Mauritania, an opportunity to walk the Great Wall of China arose, and I felt I had to take it. I had always been the type to take on new adventures, and walking the entire length of the Great Wall of China sounded very attractive.
How does the Great Wall inspire you?
I love going back to The Great Wall. Whenever I go back I get a feeling of joy when I see it from a distance. It brings back memories. Very nice memories.
During my journey I developed a relationship with ‘her.’ I guess after 15 months of spending every day by The Wall, it would have probably been stranger if I didn’t develop some kind of relationship than if I did. And because I humanized her, talked to her, and sometimes I even thought I heard her talk back, I kind of felt less alone despite being alone. And when I felt tired, both physically and mentally, I felt I wasn’t allowed to complain. Somehow it always reminded me of what it took to build the Wall. Very often I came across graves on the side of the wall, and although these are much newer than the wall they did remind me of the many men and women that died building it. I felt I would be disrespectful to do anything but finish what I had started.
What did you learn from walking the Great Wall?
Many things. The first one that kept popping into my head during the walk was that if I didn’t get up every morning and move my own feet, I was never going to reach the end. If I didn’t move my feet no one was going to move them for me. It is an obvious thought knowing that no one will do it for us if we don’t do it ourselves, but being there and knowing that if I didn’t get up every morning and literally put one foot in front of the other to walk I would probably still be there… it doesn’t get any clearer than that.
What is it about the Great Wall that has captured the attention of the world?
Number one would probably be the old myth that it can be seen from space. But also the fact that there is so much history behind it as well as so many stories, some of which are still being argued as to whether they are true or not. And of course, it is a symbol of China, one that China itself markets very well. So if one comes to China, one will probably schedule a trip to the wall. And like Mao said: he who has not climbed the Great Wall, is not a true man.
You took photos and videos of the Great Wall? Where and how can people see these photos and video?
The photos can be seen on www.thegreatwalk.com and the video was shown on the National Geographic channel a few years ago. It will be available for viewing on thegreatwalk site very soon.
Have you spoken to many groups about this experience? What kind of groups and what has their response been?
I have given talks to various groups of people ranging from explorers festivals to schools to corporate events. So far the response has been very positive, and it is also great for me because I get different questions every time. I can see that people are interested in different things.
My favorite was getting a bunch of questions from a 7 year old boy while I was giving my second talk a couple of months after finishing the walk. It was at an outdoors festival in Birmingham. I could see people looking at me with smiles on their faces but not asking any questions. Then this boy started. Where did you sleep? How many kilometers did you walk? How long did it take you? What did you eat? And after every answer he would go “Wow…’ After a few questions from him, the audience loosened up and began asking him to ask me their questions.
Mr. Ma came to our office to teach us the traditional craft of Chinese egg carving. This involved the laborious process of drawing, in pencil, the character “fu” (“prosperity) on a hallowed egg, then using a blade to slowly chisel away the peel of the egg. While at first frustrating, each of us eventually became so involved in our eggs that it was almost meditative.
While carving our eggs, we started chatting with Meixin, one of the founders of Gift of Hope. She was asked the question, what is your skill? Her response was, “My skill is talking, translating and contradicting doctors”. It was the latter statement that most intrigued us and we asked her what she meant. She said that when she was a baby, she suffered a severe fever and her parents were told that she would not live more than a few months. When she did live, her parents were told that she would never speak or walk. Today, Meixin’s English is better than most Chinese people I’ve met and she walks with a severe limp, but walks.
She then went on to speak about why she co-founded Gift of Hope. She said that that about 5% of Beijing’s population is handicapped, but one doesn’t see them. She said that Chinese are Buddhist and in Buddhism, if you are born with a disability, it is because you have done something wrong in a past life. Therefore, parents are often ashamed of their disabled children and they are kept inside, away from disapproving eyes.
Meixin and her fellow co-founders of Gift of Hope are on a mission to dispel this myth. They bring together people with various disabilities and teach them traditional crafts such as egg carving, silk knot-tying, lantern making, calligraphy, paper cutting, etc. They are given a sense of self, a sense of community and are made to feel valued by being able to then give back to the community by teaching children, foreigners, anyone interested, their crafts.
It is people like Meixin who we like to introduce to people visiting China. She has a presence, a sense of confidence and vitality that few people possess and it is a China story that we want to share with people. Not only is she helping people but she is reviving the traditional crafts which are quickly disappearing.
Hong Kong has long – unfairly in my opinion – been dismissed by many as a destination dominated by business or conference travelers. Now officially a part of China, the world’s largest art market, but with regulations and red tape much more easily navigated than on the mainland, the city is really stepping up its cultural offerings to the benefit of not only its sophisticated and well-traveled populace but also to the millions of international visitors that it attracts from all over the globe.
Imperial Tours recently collaborated with two well established California institutions – the Berkeley Repertory Theater and the South Coast Repertory – in putting together a tour for their board members, patrons and supporters centered on the 41st Hong Kong Arts Festival which took place in the city throughout March. The focus of the trip was Chinglish – David Henry Hwang’s hilarious China-set comedy that was produced by the two theaters and was enjoying its first run outside the USA. Whilst the play’s plot, which involves a naïve American expat mingling with government officials in a provincial Chinese city, is probably too politically charged to be showing on the Mainland anytime soon, Hong Kong made a welcome home for the production which quickly sold out its entire seven night run at one of the city’s biggest theaters. Many having been involved in the production from an early stage, almost all of our visitors has seen Chinglish multiple times – but were fascinated to see the different reaction it received from a Hong Kong audience that is much closer both geographically and culturally to the events taking place on stage.
In addition to Chinglish and a host of other interesting performances the group also explored other facets of Hong Kong’s art scene with a introductory talk given by a professional art consultant who specializes in both contemporary art and Chinese antiques and paintings. We learnt about the Hong Kong Government’s huge investment in the arts. The West Kowloon Cultural Park, for example, is sited on reclaimed land in Victoria Harbour and designed by Foster & Partners and is currently under construction at a cost of approximately USD3 billion. Once finished, the park will include 17 arts venues including a major new museum and several theaters, making it a true creative hub for the region. The introductory talk was complimented by visits to a selection of the most interesting galleries where we were welcomed and shown around by curators. The US-based Asia Society has a beautiful Hong Kong site, hidden in a very leafy and quiet corner of the Admiralty area. Their center opened just a year ago, and the gallery is a combination of minimalist contemporary architecture and a wonderfuly renovated ‘explosives magazine’ where the British army once stored their weaponry. Other visits included the Hong Kong headquarters of Sotheby’s to view antique clocks and a final stop at the gallery of Hong Kong University, where an introduction to some key pieces of 20th century traditional Chinese art provided a fascinating conclusion to the day.
Each performance and activity served only to emphasize not only the material and cultural wealth of Hong Kong, but the sheer diversity of the artists and performers that the city continues to attract in increasing numbers. Imperial Tours was honored to be able to show off this fantastic city to the visiting theater companies – and we look forward to future opportunities to welcome art lovers, whether traveling in groups or on private tours.
Travel is important because it fundamentally transforms us. Sometimes, that includes the literal sense. It was over 11 years ago that my love of foreign films led me to a class on Chinese Cinema. Much of the coursework focused on the works of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers, but the one film that struck me visually was Farewell My Concubine. Winner of the 1993 Cannes Palme d'Or, it's a story of two men who meet as apprentices in a Beijing opera troupe and the woman who comes between them. Events in the film run parallel with the Beijing opera (also named Farewell My Concubine) that is woven into the storyline.
In Chinese opera, there are twice as many female role types (or dan) as there are male. The term dan means "female impersonator"; however, this was not an early version of Ru Paul's Drag Race. In the feudal society of old China, women were forbidden to perform on stage, let alone enter the theater. This resulted in male opera singers performing the female roles in Beijing opera.
When my boyfriend was unable to accompany me on my first visit to China, I found a reluctant travel companion in my Mom. China was not on her bucket list, so I needed to plan something special to commemorate this mother/daughter trip, something totally different and unique that we could bond over and remember always. Though widely popular amongst younger travelers on family itineraries, I knew when it was our time to visit Beijing I wanted to have our faces painted and to don traditional Beijing opera costumes.
The process to apply the makeup is 3 hours. It begins with a heavy layer of white foundation and powder because the Chinese admired fair skin. This foundation is also applied to our hands. Rouge accents are applied on the cheeks and swept upwards, with the eyes themselves circled in rouge. Eyebrows and eyelids are lined and darkened, while lips are drawn small and round. In order to make the ends of our eyes tilt upwards, our hair was pulled back and fixed in place with adhesive tape, then covered in fake hair.
The hair application begins with elm tree shavings soaked in hot water. A gel is formed and used as an adhesive to apply the fake hair on 
the forehead and side of face, giving the male actor a more feminine appearance. This was our least favorite part of the experience, when my Mom referred to the sideburns coated in gel as "slithery eels".
We scanned the closet of elaborate layered gowns before deciding on our favorites. Were we ready for our private photo session? Not quite. A former star of the Beijing opera was on hand to demonstrate hand gestures and vivacious eye movements characteristic of the dan role: expressing joy or excitement, identifying oneself, and expressing salutation. The highest aim of performers is to put beauty into every motion, so the eyes are used to conduct non-verbal communication. A shift of the eyes or a slight nod of the head conveys meaning. Even the manner in which a dan holds her hands represents the petals of an orchid flower. I'll be honest; it's a lot harder than it sounds.
The result was an amazing collection of portraits, saved on CD for us to cherish always. The reaction on people's faces when they see our pictures is priceless (followed by "That's really you?!?"). You don't often get that kind of reaction from travel photos. It was probably the best souvenir we've ever brought back from our travels.
Some say the Beijing opera is a dying art in China because it evolved into Revolutionary opera during the Cultural Revolution and most modern audiences don't understand the historical contexts. You'd be surprised to learn the girl who applied my makeup was no more than 18 years old. In the San Francisco bay area, younger generations are connecting this traditional art to travel. Just ask 16 year old Tyler Thompson, an unlikely star of Chinese opera star from Oakland:
"It's made me want to know about a world outside of America or California or Oakland. It takes you out of your box."
So there you have it: a travelogue of a mother and daughter bonding over dressing up like men who performed as women. Nothing appeals to your inner child like the lure of theatrical makeup and costumes. There's even an App for it!
