Nan Luo Valley [南锣鼓巷] - Ancient Buildings, Modern Lifestyle @ Beijing, China

The write up on the tour itinerary plainly mentioned the experiencing of the typical old Beijing lifestyle at Nan Luo Valley; in reality, it was barely halfway there. 

Built in 1267 during the Yuan dynasty, the 700-year old street took the position as being the oldest and the best preserved in Beijing. Again, i have no argument against these bare facts. 

What i took issue was that there was no way i can experience the old Beijing lifestyle, at least not at night! The 786-meter long walkway was packed with hip cafes, lifestyle shops etc and appeared to be more popular with the younger generation.

Other than the untruthful information on the itinerary, i have nothing but praises for Nan Luo Gu Xiang; it was an ideal place where i can leisurely stroll from shop to shop, pop in every now and then to uncover hidden gems and stop by the snack shops for a serving of freshly fried smelly tofu! 

Handmade cloth shoes - at least this will fall under the traditional footwear that is more aligned with the rich historical background of the place. 

Some of the shops have quirky names like this tea shop - 找茶 means to find tea in Chinese but in its common phonetic usage, it actually refers to making trouble.

Military attire for that uniform fetish monster festering in your psychotic mind? Things were not cheap and could even be more expensive than Singapore.

One of the side roads that led to the more traditional hutong dwellings - note, this would be more appropriate a place to catch a glimpse of the ancient Beijing lifestyle!

Backpackers' accommodation; this shall be one place for consideration when i next visit Beijing. You may find out more details from their website [http://backpackingchina.com]. Update me on your review!

If memory serves me well, this was part of a club or cafe. Anyway, this could be a perfect setting for filming art films set in the war torn 1930s. 

Another side road; albeit with a bit more vibrancy. 

The signboard was displayed wrongly on purpose! It seemed to be a shop selling chicken wings (which were sold out by that time) and it was written on the couplet that it would be a waste to visit Nan Luo if you don't eat the chicken wings! Damn!

I could have walked a few hours along the street.

And the time given to us by the guide was 30 minutes.

=_=

The Kheng Chiu Tin Hou Kong And Burial Ground ["Baby Tombs"] - A Walk with Singapore Paranormal Investigators (Part 2) @ Choa Chu Kang Cemetery [蔡厝港坟场]

Time to take a breather from all those China postings and let us get going on part two of my cemetery walk with Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI) to Chua Chu Kang Cemetery!

Due to time constraint, we had to skip the Christian section that day. Guess it would not be long before Chua organises another cemetery walk again!

Trees in blossom displaying tiny yet beautiful patches of pink! If not for the cemetery grounds, this place would be filled with Singaporeans at sunset.

Entering our next section via Cemetery Path 7, which also happens to be pathway towards the Cemetery Office for Singapore's only operating public cemetery.

Alex thought the drooping leaves on the round-crowned tree looked very special. By the way, we were walking towards an area known as Baby Tombs. Despite driving through the Chinese cemetery on a number of occasions, i am unaware of any section specifically reserved for babies!

Located along Cemetery Path 1, it was a sight to behold! In a way, i felt somewhat depressing to see so many little tombstones dominating the landscape! 

绿野亭坟场 (directly translated as Green Wilderness Pavilion Cemetery) - these five Chinese characters would make it easier for me to search for information online!

The small concrete structure houses a common deity in Singapore known as 大伯公 although it was not mentioned anywhere that this is a temple.

A sheltered tablet for wandering, homeless spirits. 

Each 'baby' tomb has no name and no other information except for a 4-digit number. Forget about buying 4D as there are simply too many of them!

I was initially under the impression that the baby tombs were a result of hospital abortions; hence the primitive stone-block look and neat arrangement.

This caught my attention in the midst of standardised uniformity; a headstone with the name of the deceased, his hometown and possible the date of death. Slightly more informative yet it lacked another date for me to calculate the age! 

Ah ha! This one was made in such a way to surround the "baby tomb" and provided all the required information that somewhat debunk the urban legend that they were baby tombs! At least in this instance, the guy was 45 years old when he passed away. 

An online search brought me to a document with important details that 绿野亭坟场 [original location was off Outram Road, somewhere near Tiong Bahru road] was officially open in 1840 and the land was acquired by the government in 1956! At that time, it had a total of 11,518 tombs for relocation to Choa Chu Kang! 

As with Ying Fo Fui Kun, the remains are likely cremated and buried in this cemetery. Why the lack of a proper headstone then? My guess is that many tombs (some over a century old) would have been in a state of neglect in 1956 and the colonial government was pretty desperate for more land to build housing in post war Singapore, leaving little time for the cemetery committee to notify the descendants of those buried.

Little time doesn't mean no time - to the left were some sizeable headstones and from polished look for a few of them, they continued to be visited by their descendants! 

It was a tight fit though, bearing yet again evidence that the remains were cremated. Culturally and religiously, Chinese in the past would prefer to be buried than cremated and i can just imagine the hurdles the Committee had to go through at that time. 

Having said that, i did find standalone tombs (like the above) in the vicinity that were big enough to accommodate a coffin. 

Another example even though this was a strange mix - it seemed like they came from different locations [note the ones with the words "my noble boy" and the symbolic ba gua] and were cemented together in this cemetery.

Bukit Brown is not the only cemetery with Sikh statues! 

A locked up pavilion close by had this notice put up by the Management Committee of The Kheng Chiu Tin Hou Kong And Burial Ground; the only English reference to this area dotted with "baby tombs" although i am still not sure if this is separated from the Green Wilderness Pavilion Cemetery, which is predominantly a Hokkien/Hakka cemetery whereas Kheng Chiu is a geographical reference for the Hainanese.

White memorial tomb indicating the relocation in 1958.

-journey to be continued-

Day Two - My 8D Beijing/Chengde/Tianjin Highlight Tour (8天皇城北京/承德/天津精选游) with Hong Thai Travel [康泰旅行社]

Our first stop after finishing breakfast was to visit the jade shop! This is part and parcel of the agent commissioned shopping trips i touched on a few weeks ago.

Instead of simply bringing you to a shop with a wide array of expensive jade pieces nicely displayed in glass counters for sale, there were always educational talks on these ornamental stones which can turn out to be quite interesting.

Given our past experiences we had in China, we were smart enough not to buy anything that would likely be dumped at one corner of the house and forgotten for a long time. 

Brought to Dingling - one of 13 imperial tombs that hailed from the Ming Dynasty! This might have been more enlightening if we were spared time to visit the museum that was located onsite. Click my post here. 

The fertile land surrounding the 13 Ming Tombs was very conducive to grow fruits and the opportunity for some fruit picking was highlighted in our travel itinerary.   

Please don't get your hopes high and thought we could have our free pick of high value fruits like peaches, persimmons etc. If you have no idea what it is, you are not the only one as I was equally clueless! They are Chinese dates! 

Key to picking the ripe dates was to select those with a reddish shade. And we were given a limit of at most twenty dates although adherence to this rule was not strictly enforced. 

I ate a few on the spot and found the taste to be somewhat similar to apples albeit crunchier! 

Of course of course, nothing is ever free in China and there must be a 'price' to pay for the twenty dates; the tour guide had prepped us beforehand that we could buy fresh, insecticide-free fruits like apples, peaches etc straight from the owners!

Leaving the area for lunch! Two Ming Emperors' mausoleums can be seen from the above photograph. Can you spot them?

Makan time! I would not be blogging on my meals (except for Quanjude) taken during this Beijing trip as i have no absolutely no idea where the restaurants are located, what the dishes are known and the price of each dish!

Our next stop - scaling the Great Wall of China! It was tiring but so worth the effort! More details have been posted here. 

Driving back to central Beijing! 

Had dinner at this posh restaurant. Out of my three China trips, i was most satisfied with the food offered in this trip to Beijing. Having said that, i was having a serious craving for Singapore food when i was there. 

No night activity (thank god) as i was still suffering from a lack of sleep! By the way, want to guess what the structure in the picture is? I would be covering it in Day Four!