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AlbertaTime in
China #4 - Beijing - Shijiazhuang; MaRong and Norman Bethune
(Sunday, Oct 10/2011)
Watch content: Three new watches at the end of the post and...
Taihang watches were made in Shijiazhuang :D ...I have three of them:
The Taihang "for military" watch as made available to junior officers in the PLA (one of my first catches from Cameron Ma)...
and a civilian version:
..and another civilian piece:
...and all have a very
similar version of this beautiful caseback...and, as I said, there's
more watch content at the end of this post.
Now to the other reason for this post...
Background:
In late 2008, I'd been bitten by the VCM bug but I had also noticed
that although Chinese collectors might have a good number of VCMs, even
very serious Western VCM collectors usually only had a very few pieces,
even when the interest was strong and had been developed for quite a
while. I think one collector I know had around 10 pieces, and most
collectors had even less than that, Also, back then, Ebay was great for
price on VCMs but that was only on the rare occasion one would actually
turn up, and even free is not much good when you can't find one.
So I put my mind to thinking...there had to be some way to get more VCMs. Ebay sure wasn't cutting it. Where. were. the. watches?
Well...China,obviously.
But that meant finding a way to find the watches in China and then, once
found, to figure out how to actually buy from China. After a short
exploration I found Taobao...but that didn't help much. I was totally
confused by the idea of agents (although that's much easier now) and
there was no direct way I knew of to contact the sellers. All I could do
was look at the hundreds of pretty watches I'd just found. And drool.
And obsess.
I didn't know about Trade
Manager/Alibaba/AliWangWang and didn't know anything about the
legalities or logistics of contacting a Taobao seller and/or arranging a
sale. I was also chock full of misconceptions about China generally
anyways, and so I also didn't want to cause an international incident or
insult or cause trouble for someone I didn't even know how to approach
anyways. (If that sounds naive, that's because I was...very. But it's a
curable condition--nothing to be ashamed of. 8-))
Anyways, obviously
by now,I wanted the watches more than I was afraid, so that led me to
doing some Internet sleuthing to try to find one, just one, email
address linked to any of the very few Taobao sellers I could find at
that time. That way I could email a seller and maybe get something
going. I finally found that one email address: it belonged to a
Mr. Cameron Ma who I hoped was the same named Chinese watch seller I'd seen on Taobao.
Over the next two days I crafted a very formal request to do some
business regarding some watches I was interested in, using Bing and
Google to translate the formal letter into something like Chinese, and I
sent an email in both English and Chinese.
Although I didn't know it at the time, it was an email that changed my life.
Mr. Ma responded in
English and, over a few more mutually tentative emails, we put together
a deal. The first results can be seen at this WUS thread on February
25th 2009:
My new Chinese Mechanicals, a post which elicited this response from WUS moderator Chascomm:
What? You just threw out a net and they swam into it? :-d
Okay...so now it's a
little more than 2 1/2 years later, the AMCHPR is firmly established,
and above all, far more important to me than any other reason (including
watches), I came to China to meet my Chinese brother in Shijiazhuang.
Since very soon after our initial contact, Cameron Ma (MaRong) and I
have become very valued friends, we are in contact often and, as MaRong
says on his website "We'll be good friends forever"
Background over...onward:
This was the last cool building I was able to photograph (from the taxi) as I left Beijing for Shijiazhuang...
...and I just about missed this. I think it's an awesome idea for beautifying the surround to a construction site. >:(
I was hurrying so I
didn't take any shots outside the Beijing train station, but I slowed
down when I got inside because I was confronted with this:
Excellent. All I needed to do was sort this out. :'( (The question mark in the corner made sense :()
...but I managed, and
about an hour later (because I had given myself time for errors) I was
comfortably seated on the Fast Train to Shijiazhuang-ville 8-) and I
can tell you that even though these are the cheapest seats available on
the train, they're way more comfortable than economy on a 777 to China.
The trip was fast and
inexpensive, costing about $15 USD for a one and a half hour trip
covering 180 miles or 289.62 Kilometers ;D but that speed makes it
difficult to get good scenery photos. I tried, and got stuff like
this...
..and, finally, this shot as we pulled in to Shijiazhuang.
A few minutes
later, on a muggy, foggy and overcast October 10th I finally arrived at
the Shijiazhuang station. Now, keep in mind when comparing Beijing and
Shijiazhuang that
Shijiazhuang is a quite new city,
really only becoming a city of consequence in the late 1940s, compared
to Beijing's centuries of existence. Also understand that Shijiazhuang's
initial importance in recent Chinese history was because it was the
location of an
early decisive victory for the People's Liberation Army (PLA)on November 12/1947 (as seen on the statue coming up).
A short taxi ride later I
arrived at my hotel. I forgot to take a daytime shot, so this
night-time shot will have to do. (For information: it's a nice, very modern room--much more modern than the Lishi Hotel, and cheaper, too--that is costing me about 1700 RMB or $275 for five days.)
A few hours later, after MaRong was finished work...the friends are finally face to face. May I please introduce
Taobao seller CameronMa (and a very, very happy me)...
...and Ma Rong's wife Qi Ran:
Some time later, Cameron and his wife took me to a beautiful dinner and then we headed out into the Shijiazhuang night...
...hunting for some KTV
(karaoke bar) entertainment...we passed this one (you might notice a
familiar logo top left and bottom middle)...
...settling on this KTV establishment...
Cameron and his wife Qi Ran are both fine singers and since I really, really enjoy Chinese pop music, I had a great time! :-[
The next day, Cameron and
his wife invited me to their home for tea, but very near their place I
noticed a school for Chinese youngsters and got these shots...
This is the Mas and me enjoying traditional Chinese tea
I really want to let you
all know that the Ma's hospitality to me in Shijiazhuang has been more
than excellent. Quite frankly, it's been astonishing to me and I don't
have words adequate to describe how grateful I am, except to state I'm
being cared for like family. (Thank you both so much!)
Because it's a new
city, there aren't the type of historical sites in Shijiazhuang like
those Beijing has to offer, but those interested in fairly recent
history my be aware of China's reverence for Canada's Dr. Norman
Bethune, who is one of the people recognized at Shijiazhuang's
Revolutionary Martyrs' Cemetery (along with Eric Liddell, and Dwarkanath
Kotnis) for their medical work during China's war with Japanese forces
during the
Second Sino-Japanese War
(1937-1945). Bethune is famous, among other things, for developing a
very early and influential precursor to modern M.A.S.H. units.
Because of the strong
Canada/Chinese connection, the Mas invited me to tour the the Martyr's
Tomb, and on the way I snapped this (I've seen numerous similar
incidents since arriving in China :o)
The following are all shots on the grounds of the Cemetary/Memorial...First, me at the entrance...
...then a stone that I can't read (anyone?)...
...a large memorial column...
...PLA officers just finished having their photo taken at the site...
..a floral gardens at the Memorial...
...the Two Amigos, and a statue of Dr Bethune...
...They didn't have wagons like this when I was a kid... :(
...and a shot of a garden area at the site...
The next day, as the Mas both had work commitments, I was footloose and
free to do my usual walking around shooting day-to-day shots of the
city, trying to get a feel for normal life in Shijiazhuang.
First, a shot of bikes
outside the grounds of (I think) a school...unlike in the hutongs of
Beijing, some of these (but not all) have locks...
These next shots...
...well, people who have
been to Beijing but not Shijiazhuang might not believe me, but traffic
in Shijiazhuang (and driving habits) are worse in Shijiazhuang.
I think it's probably because (unlike in Europe or North America, where
driving has been commonplace for "normal folks" for over a century)
driving is very new to most Chinese people. Even ten years ago, MaRong
tells me that cars were rare in Shijiazhuang. Well, they're not rare
now...not rare at all, and Chinese drivers haven't learned to "play
nice" with each other on the streets yet :o
How do I describe it...maybe this will help explain: horns are used more often than turn signals.
In many ways, this is my most accurate Shijiazhuang traffic photo:
I found the equipment in
this next shot in Beijing as well, quite a number of them. They're not
playgrounds; they're public exercise equipment. Good idea (but maybe not
in a society where folks will sue if they hurt themselves ???)
Just off a main street,
one of Shijiazhuang's outdoor street markets for food. The quantity and
quality of vegetables amazes me, and there's excellent baked goods too,
and meat and..well, anything else you need too: spices, bottled drinks,
you name it. I was able to buy four huge (and delicious) peanut cookies
for 4 RMB...that's about 6 cents.
The Hebei General Hospital...
..a scenic bike lane (well, mostly bike lane...I think that's what it's meant for according to the sign I saw) but it's not uncommon at all to see a car use it to shortcut.
Anothe street market
shot. The friendly person walking towards the camera saw the maple leaf
pin I had on my shirt and made a point of smiling wide and saying "ni
hao...Canada...wonderful country" to me, and I can't count the number of
times people said "ni hao" or "hello" as I walked around.
MaRong tells me that
Shijiazhuang sees very, very few non-Chinese people, and I think that's
true because I know many people in Shijiazhuang seemed a little...shocked is too strong a word...but surprised
isn't ???when they saw me. But not once did I ever feel unwelcome and
everybody I did business with (looking around shops, buying this or
that) was a pleasure to deal with and full of smiles.
Just a nice looking building...
Looks ancient. Isn't.
It's one of two identical and traditional gateway "door guardian"
statues guarding the entrance to a ly new firsmall apartment/housing
block.
Almost right across the
street from my hotel is this very modern department store that, apart
from everything being in Chinese, wouldn't be out of place in any modern
city.
And I can vouch for the
awesome food at this place that's right beside the department store...a
huge rice and meat plate with spiced cucumber and soup, with a nice,
very mild beer for 40 RMB (about $6.40)
I love China!!!
Now...some watch content,
like I promised. Some of my newbies...I finally got batteries for my
watch shooting camera and used daylight through the hotel window to
catch these three that were purchased at the markets in Beijing.
First, a Zhenzhu ("pearl")...I really like logo!
I don't know if this is the right crown or not...
...and I couldn't get the caseback opened so no movement shot.
I'm always a sucker for a nice ZuanShi and the SM1 movement rawks
...and, finally, a wonderful Jinmao (Golden Anchor) with a gold-tone dial treatment...
I've heard that some of
these did come with unsigned movements so I think it's just as likely
original as not. Either way, I think it's a beauty.
More to come...a trip to
the Taihang mountains tomorrow if all goes well. I won't be able to get
to the Guoliang Tunnel as I'd hoped because no tour is available that
fits my itinerary :( but all else has gone so wonderfully well this
trip, that's a disappointment I can easily live with. I'll still get to
visit the Taihang Mountains (as seen on the caseback of the Taihang
watches showed at the start of this mammoth post)
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