Journal of a Sabbatical

China Trip 2000

it's a trend

Today's Reading: The Story of the Stone (a.k.a. Dream of the Red Chamber) by Cao Xuequin

Photos:

Copy of original photo documenting the living Metasequoia - that's a shrine around the base of it

Metasequoia specimens

Red and yellow flowers for National Day set out around the garden and outside the restaurant

I took 55 pictures today so I am starting to feel productive but also starting to realize how long this is going to take.

Today's thrill was photographing the Metasequoia specimen. It had a photograph of the living tree that Hu discovered in Moadaqi as well as a drawing in the folder along with the specimen. I could imagine Hu's excitement when he saw a tree that was only known through fossils alive right there in front of him.

The collection is like a who's who of famous botanists. Lots of the stuff I worked with today was collected by E.H. Wilson from the Arnold Arboretum expedition in 1907. I think I read somewhere that Wilson was actually nicknamed "Chinese" Wilson. I think more Chinese than Americans have heard of the Arnold Arboretum. When I tell them I come from Boston, they all say "Oh yes, Arnold Arboretum." If you ask somebody in Jamaica Plain (the Boston neighborhood where Arnold Arboretum is) for directions to the Arnold Arboretum they can't tell you even if they're standing right in front of it.

I got locked in at the herbarium at lunchtime. The staff went to lunch and locked the doors not noticing I was still in amidst the conifer collections. Fortunately Carol came 'round to ask if I wanted to go to lunch and we managed to get the door open by twiddling locks on both sides.

Great lunch. We tried a different restaurant from the one where we usually eat. This was the place where Qin took us for the farewell dinner (that's farewell for the folks leaving for Kunming, not for us state at homes) the other night. It's about a block north of the guest house where we live and it's better and cheaper than our official place. The food was great. We had this cold lotus root in a lemony vinegar sauce that was out of this world. Also steamed bread with thick sweetened condensed milk, ma po tofu, and a big plate of pan fried dumplings. The lotus root was really something special and the ma po tofu was spicier than at our usual place. The tea was more flavorful too. For all this we paid 25 Yuan (about $3.25). Too bad Rosalie elected not to join us.

As usual the weather is hazy and humid in Beijing. The sky is dreary and overcast. The mountains are barely visible. What happened to the clear crisp autumn weather?

Pots of red and yellow flowers appeared overnight massed at all the entrances to the garden, in front of the restaurant, everywhere for National Day on October 1. When we went to downtown Beijing on Sunday we saw workmen decorating with vats of flowers, red lanterns, and flags. Strings of lights are already up all over the main streets of the city.

Walked past the main gate of the north garden this afternoon to see where the camel guy plies his trade. This is the guy I saw riding his camel down the street the first night I was here. Turns out he sells camel rides at the botanical garden. What I want to know is where he keeps that camel at night. If he rides it home, he must live near here, but there doesn't seem to be any place he could stash a camel. Where the camel goes at night is a mystery right up there with what the heck that deafening noise like a geyser is in the restaurant kitchen.

I ran into Professor Zhang, that hot-ticket woman I met at the banquet the other day. (Uh, was that yesterday?) She was in the herbarium this afternoon. She thinks what I'm doing is a great idea. It's a trend! Botanists think it's a great idea. Computer people think it's insane. I ran into her again later when I was leaving the building for the night and this time she gave me her business card and apologized for not having any with her yesterday. Since I don't have any business cards at all, I felt funny that she apologized. I mean what would I put on my business card? Botanical lackey? Faithful assistant? Camp follower of botanists? Botanical groupie? Botanical roadie?

And where does that guy keep the camel at night?