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)