An Interview with Zheng Zai Dong and Braille Without Borders
China travel news, Guilin hotel reviews, contemporary Chinese art, and a profile of Braille Without Borders, a charity supporting blind children in Tibet.
Dear Guy,
This April issue includes:
- An exclusive interview with contemporary artist Zheng Zai Dong, accompanied by a slide show of his recent “West Lake” series.
- An introduction to a fantastic new restaurant inside a 1,000-year-old temple in Beijing.
- Details of the Hotel of Modern Art near Guilin.
- A review of competing hotels in the Guilin area.
- A profile of the two young people behind Braille Without Borders, a charity revolutionizing the lives of blind children in Tibet.
Additionally, we congratulate the actors and actresses nominated for this year’s Academy Awards with a gift of a private Imperial tour to China. We look forward to welcoming them.
China Travel News
Airline Industry Recovers in 2004. China Booms!
Okay Airlines, a new budget airline in China, was recently launched. With two Boeing 737-900s and plans for another four, this privately owned airline plans to link lesser-known provincial airports. This is not China’s first budget airline, but it is the first of a new breed of low-cost carriers that seek to compare themselves to western models. We note that their maiden flight touched down one hour late.
Facts and Stats on the Chinese Outbound Travel Market
The China outbound market is growing by an average of 21% per year, with Australia, France, and the United States as Beijingers’ top three overseas destinations. The average expenditure of Chinese tourists is also increasing: since 2003, mainland Chinese have been outspending American tourists in Hong Kong. According to Glenn Tilton, CEO of United Airlines, China is creating six million new air passengers every year.
China Requests U.S. Help to Curb Smuggling of Chinese Art
While Christie’s and Sotheby’s report a doubling in sales of Chinese antiquities and art between 2003 and 2004, China’s government is showing new steel in curbing the theft and smuggling of objects from China’s provincial museums and grave sites. Under a proposed new customs regime, American visitors would only be able to import items less than a hundred years old.
Imperial Tours Airport Pick-ups
Imperial Tours is now arranging to pick up all your customers from the airplane gangway as soon as their plane docks at Beijing International Airport. This service will be automatically included in all our itineraries arriving at this airport.
Customers who wish to expedite their passage through Chinese customs at Beijing Airport by using a special channel can apply for this service, which Imperial Tours offers for an additional charge.
Airline News
The 36% increase in passenger traffic between the U.S. and China between 2003 and 2004 is provoking competition between financially strained U.S. airlines for new air routes.
Continental Airlines has announced that it received approval to become the first U.S. passenger carrier to offer daily, direct flights to Beijing from its hub at New York/Newark Liberty International Airport beginning June 15. Meanwhile, American Airlines’ successful application for a direct flight from Chicago to Shanghai came at the expense of Atlanta, from which there is still no direct service to China.
In the European market, Lufthansa German Airlines started a new daily non-stop flight between Frankfurt and Guangzhou on March 27, linking the two countries’ industrial heartlands.
Cathay Pacific, the British carrier based in Hong Kong, reported that 2004 provided its second-best year of profits ever. Since then, it has bought a 10% stake in Air China, mainland China’s flag carrier.
News from the WTO
The least known of the three WTOs, the World Toilet Organization, is delighted by the US$48 million that Beijing has earmarked to build 2,800 brand-new public toilets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Hotel and Restaurant News
Restaurant News
Shanghai for Glamour, Beijing for Glory
With Jean-Georges and Sens & Bund stealing the limelight in recent months, it has seemed as though Shanghai was taking all the press in China’s vibrant restaurant scene. Beijing has responded wonderfully with Jin Feng Gu Yun. Situated inside the precincts of a Buddhist temple with a history of over a thousand years, the kitchen — inside which the restaurant is located — was used in the eighteenth century to serve Qing dynasty emperors.
This restaurant, now between its soft and hard opening, is hard to find and so not appropriate for independent travelers to Beijing. Although its food and ambiance are wonderful for corporate entertainment and high-end foreign visitors, the wine list is currently limited. We have been assured that this will be remedied before the restaurant’s grand opening in May.
Travel to Lhasa with a Private Chef of Historic Significance
Imperial Tours is pleased to welcome Chef Jin to its China-based staff. Chef Jin previously worked as the Executive Chef at the Peninsula Palace Hotel in Beijing. He is qualified to the highest level in both Chinese and Western cuisine.
As well as taking responsibility for Imperial Tours’ privately catered meals — such as our signature white-linen banquet atop the Great Wall — Chef Jin is available to accompany private tours around China, especially trips to Lhasa.
History buffs will find it fascinating to meet Chef Jin since he formerly worked as the personal chef of General Zhang Zhen, a key military leader during China’s civil war and a supporter of Deng Xiaoping during the reform era thirty years later.
Hotel News
Marriott’s Worldwide Expansion Continues Apace in China
With 30 hotels in China already, Marriott foresees itself adding six or seven new properties annually.
Review of Hotels in the Guilin Area
The third in our hotel review series looks at Guilin. This is prompted by the recent opening of the Hotel of Modern Art.
Hotel of Modern Art, Yuzi Paradise — “Very seldom do I walk around with my mouth hanging down. There’s major art money in Fort Worth but they don’t have anything like this,” commented Valerie Riefenstahl of Sanders Travel during her recent visit.
Yuzi Paradise is a contemporary art production and exhibition complex located within 1,650 acres of stunning karst scenery. With a functioning atelier producing glass, bronze, ceramics, stoneware, prints, and photography, this contemporary art center boasts 115 monumental sculptures by internationally renowned artists from 25 countries. It offers a fascinating journey into China’s contemporary art scene.
The Hotel of Modern Art has only just opened and is in the process of applying for five-star status. The new hotel wing with standardized rooms is not scheduled to open until June 2005. Currently, Imperial Tours is using rooms in the owner’s private residence for FITs by special arrangement.
Sheraton Hotel, Guilin — Originally constructed by the Korean company Daewoo, the Sheraton Hotel in Guilin has long been the premier five-star hotel in Guilin. However, the bedrooms are now quite dated. That said, the service at this hotel, run by Guilin’s most experienced staff, is good.
The Waterfall Hotel, Guilin — This three-star hotel was completely rebuilt and renovated to Chinese five-star standards at the end of 2002. However, maintenance is not what it could be, and this comparatively new hotel is already starting to look down at heel.
Bailelai Paradise Resort Hotel, Yangshuo — Once a quiet market town, Yangshuo has mushroomed into a bustling tourist center. The Bailelai Paradise Resort Hotel has expanded with it, introducing four-star bedrooms in 1999. Its major selling point is the option to accommodate guests amid the area’s scenic countryside rather than in Guilin city.
Calendar
Beijing
April 20–23: Beijing’s International Tourism and Travel Market at the National Agricultural Exhibition Center creates a forum for businesses keen to tap into the opportunities of China’s outbound travel market.
May 3–7: Yang Li Ping, one of China’s best-known contemporary dancers, performs his own works at the Poly Theater.
May 7–8: La Bayadere, performed by the Royal Ballet Van Flanders of Belgium at the Tianqiao Theater.
May 15: Patricia Kaas performs a solo concert at The Great Hall of the People by Tiananmen Square.
June 18: Britcham Ascot in Beijing combines the sartorial grace of Britain’s Royal Ascot horse race with the competitiveness of Hong Kong Jockey Club’s racers at Beijing Jockey Club’s race track.
Shanghai
April 15: The Byron Berline Band performs at the Shanghai Center Theater.
April 26–27: Laura Fygi’s Shanghai Nights at Shanghai’s Concert Hall.
April 27: Romeo and Juliet, a ballet by Ballet Preljocaj, France, at Shanghai Majestic Theater.
May 4–9: The Stolen Show, a series of contemporary dances performed by Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal at the Shanghai Center Theater.
May 5–7: La Vie Parisienne, an opera by Opera Comique Theatre Musical Populaire at the Lyric Theater of the Shanghai Grand Theater.
Odds N Ends
China’s contemporary art scene has been hot for some time now, with major collections in Hong Kong and Basel receiving world plaudits. As a result, international dealers are snapping up works as they appear at top galleries in Beijing and Shanghai.
Recently, we conducted an interview with one of China’s most successful artists, Zheng Zai Dong, at his Shanghai studio. The interview was translated from Chinese.
Imperial Tours: Your recent series depicts various landscapes. Which mountain ranges do you paint and why?
Zheng Zai Dong: Chinese landscape painting asks an artist to add an element of his individuality to the depiction of a landscape. For this reason, since ancient times Chinese artists have favored less celebrated mountain ranges. For example, I would not paint a landscape of Huangshan because each view is so celebrated in its own right that it would be impossible for me to paint my own interpretation.
Imperial Tours: You have painted this stunning series of West Lake paintings. Why have you never painted the scenery around Guilin?
Zheng Zai Dong: Guilin was considered a barbarian area until the Ming dynasty. Prior to that time, Chinese artists did not consider painting it. Although I have done a series of small sketches, I have never been inspired to give it the same attention as Hangzhou’s West Lake.
Imperial Tours: Many of your paintings refer to Buddhist themes and stories. Are you a Buddhist?
Zheng Zai Dong: I am not a Buddhist. I use famous Buddhist themes and stories in my paintings, but usually to play with them or satirize them.
Imperial Tours: Tibet has some stunning scenery. It is also a fashionable destination for Chinese artists. Why have you not painted any Tibetan subjects?
Zheng Zai Dong: Chinese and Tibetan painting styles are very different. I have traveled to Tibet and find it very beautiful, but it has not inspired me to paint it.
Imperial Tours: Where would you like your next trip to be?
Zheng Zai Dong: Li Bai, the eighth-century poet, is celebrated for the poems he wrote during his travels from Nanjing southwest into Anhui province. You can still follow the trail of his poems. No one else follows this route, so this would make the trip even better.
Discovery: Braille Without Borders
Meeting Sabriye Tenberken and Paul Kronenberg, founders of Braille Without Borders, is an amazing voyage into fearlessness, resolve, and compassion. Their no-nonsense approach to helping the blind people of Tibet has earned them the respect of the many organizations that originally said this could not be done.
Sabriye, who became blind as a young adult, invented a Braille script for the Tibetan language as part of her studies at Bonn University in Germany. When she arrived in Tibet a few years later, she was as surprised by the high incidence of blindness as by how poorly equipped local institutions were to deal with this enduring problem.
Braille Without Borders is characterized by pragmatism. By working with a Tibetan scholar, Sabriye further developed her syllable-based Braille script for Tibet’s community of the blind. As soon as Paul transferred this into a software program, Sabriye implemented it at the Preparatory School for the Blind that they have set up in Lhasa.
Apart from teaching Tibetan blind children and adults vocational skills — from handicrafts to music, agriculture, and information technology — the educational programs they have created at their school and farm instill confidence and hope in young people who would otherwise find themselves in a forbidding situation.
That Sabriye has achieved so much that various countries’ aid agencies are asking for her assistance is inspirational for her young students. Similarly, Paul’s compassion and engineering skills have helped implement a dream dedicated to revolutionizing the lives of so many blind persons.
During our visits to Lhasa, Imperial Tours takes guests to visit the Preparatory School for the Blind and to meet Sabriye and Paul, when their schedules permit. Whenever Imperial Tours visits a charity, we make a donation on behalf of our clients so that guests do not feel as though they are being asked for money.
We hope you enjoyed this newsletter. As always, please write back with any feedback you would like us to incorporate.
With best regards,
Guy Rubin
Managing Partner, Imperial Tours
