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    Culture of China: Glimpses of the Forbidden City, 798 Art District and the Yema Hotel, Urumqi

    Culture of China: Forbidden City, 798 Art District, Beijing and Yema Hotel, Urumqi

    Written by: Dr. Dushka H. Saiyid
    Posted on: February 02, 2015 | | 中文

    Open-air display at 798 Art District

    Visiting Beijing for work in the dead of winter, with temperatures often below zero degrees centigrade, we only had time to visit the tourist hot spot of the Forbidden City, and the lesser known 798 Art District.

    Culture of China: Forbidden City, 798 Art District, Beijing and Yema Hotel, Urumqi

    The Forbidden City, so named because ordinary people did not have access to it, is situated in the centre of Beijing. It faces the Tiananmen Square, where all the ceremonies and parades of the Peoples Republic of China are held. The weather had not deterred the tourists, mostly Chinese, but they were nowhere near the scale of visitors during the summer months. Built in the early fifteenth century, it was the palace of the Chinese emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties till 1912, when the last emperor, Puyi, abdicated, his life brilliantly captured in Bernardo Bertolucci’s film, The Last Emperor. The Forbidden City was both the residence of the emperors, and also the ceremonial and political center. UNESCO declared it to be the largest collection of ancient preserved wooden structures and a World Heritage Sight in 1987.

    Culture of China: Forbidden City, 798 Art District, Beijing and Yema Hotel, Urumqi

    The Forbidden City

    The Emperor was considered to be the son of Heaven, the emperor’s palace a replica of the Purple Palace of God, and his palace the center of the world. It is recognized as one of the five great palaces of the world, besides Versailles, Buckingham, Kremlin and the White House. However, unlike other palaces, it is a complex of 90 courtyards and halls spread over 180 acres and surrounded by a moat; an embodiment of the traditional Chinese palace architecture.

    Unlike the Forbidden City, the 798 Art District wore a deserted look, maybe because we went there during office hours on a cold weekday.  Lots of galleries, small and big, dot what was once an industrial area full of factories built by the East Germans. These disused factories provide ample space for the contemporary art and multimedia exhibitions; somewhat reminiscent of Soho in New York City, which had originally housed warehouses and factories but has since morphed into a home for artists, art galleries, and more recently into upscale shops.  

    Contemporary Chinese art has evolved creating a new visual language, drawing on traditional art with its use of ink brush and ceramics. As we weaved our way through the galleries, we found the art pricey, though uniquely Chinese, with superb technique and craftsmanship. Forbes, commenting on Chinese art wrote, “There’s a fantastic new generation of artists in China whose creativity and originality only demands to be seen”. All the galleries had names in English, a sure sign that Chinese art had gone global. Not surprisingly, China has become the second largest market for art and antiques in the world, and the 798 Art District has been at the centre of the revival of art and its commercialization.

    URUMQI

    Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang province, was our next stop. Situated in close proximity to the Central Asian Republics, the influence of that region is visible. Like all Chinese cities, Urumqi has the usual modern architecture, and highly developed infrastructure, reflecting the global image of a rising China.

    Culture of China: Forbidden City, 798 Art District, Beijing and Yema Hotel, Urumqi

    A stable at Yema Hotel

    We stayed at the Yema International Business Clubhouse Hotel, owned by two enterprising brothers, Chen Geng and Chen Zhifeng. The ambience of the hotel transported us into a different world with its rustic wooden construction and décor of antiques like urns and wooden carts, that hark back to an age that has disappeared.  An art gallery consisting of paintings by local artists, supplements the collection of antiques and curios: portraits of farmers with deeply lined faces, an amalgam of paintings of the common people with their peculiarly local features, and an electrifying painting, deifying a local hero on a full gallop as he shoots an arrow. There were intricately crafted dolls of warriors, dressed in traditional clothes, with fierce and warlike expressions. A number of small sized sculptures of Lenin, and a huge portrait of Marx, were a reminder of the Soviet influence and communist past of this region.

    The temperature was below zero, and it was dark already, when we were taken for a walk through the Yema Ancient Ecological Garden. There were dimly lit, but perfectly organized wooden walkways through a garden with a collection of petrified Populus wood, thousands of years old.  We maneuvered our way through  icy patches, and were led into comfortably heated and clean stables with a variety of different breeds of horses that we had never seen before: dwarf-like short horses; a hardy Mongolian breed, the steed behind the success of Changez’s conquering hordes; and I think I spotted a beautiful but rare black thoroughbred Akhal-Teke, found in Turkmenistan.

    We had only caught a fleeting glimpse of the varied culture and history of China that had now emerged as a force majeure on the international scene. Chen Zhifeng typifies the new Chinese man: a soldier in the Peoples Liberation Army who had become a successful businessman, and through his collection of art and antiques, was conserving the rich heritage of this vast country.

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    As the new year begins, let us also start anew. I’m delighted to extend, on behalf of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and in my own name, new year’s greeting and sincere wishes to YOULIN magazine’s staff and readers.

    Only in hard times can courage and perseverance be manifested. Only with courage can we live to the fullest. 2020 was an extraordinary year. Confronted by the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Pakistan supported each other and took on the challenge in solidarity. The ironclad China-Pakistan friendship grew stronger as time went by. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor projects advanced steadily in difficult times, become a standard-bearer project of the Belt and Road Initiative in balancing pandemic prevention and project achievement. The handling capacity of the Gwadar Port has continued to rise and Afghanistan transit trade through the port has officially been launched. The Karakoram Highway Phase II upgrade project is fully open to traffic. The Lahore Orange Line project has been put into operation. The construction of Matiari-Lahore HVDC project was fully completed. A batch of green and clean energy projects, such as the Kohala and Azad Pattan hydropower plants have been substantially promoted. Development agreement for the Rashakai SEZ has been signed. The China-Pakistan Community of Shared Future has become closer and closer.

    Reviewing the past and looking to the future, we are confident to write a brilliant new chapter. The year 2021 is the 100th birthday of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. The 100-year journey of CPC surges forward with great momentum and China-Pakistan relationship has flourished in the past 70 years. Standing at a new historic point, China is willing to work together with Pakistan to further implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, connect the CPEC cooperation with the vision of the “Naya Pakistan”, promote the long-term development of the China-Pakistan All-weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership with love, dedication and commitment. Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of Pakistan said, “We are going through fire. The sunshine has yet to come.” Yes, Pakistan’s best days are ahead, China will stand with Pakistan firmly all the way.

    YOULIN magazine is dedicated to promoting cultural exchanges between China and Pakistan and is a window for Pakistani friends to learn about China, especially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is hoped that with the joint efforts of China and Pakistan, YOULIN can listen more to the voices of readers in China and Pakistan, better play its role as a bridge to promote more effectively people-to-people bond.

    Last but not least, I would like to wish all the staff and readers of YOULIN a warm and prosper year in 2021.

    Nong Rong Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of
    The People’s Republic of China to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
    January 2021