Painting in the People’s Republic of China Before They Took Back Hong Kong

Everything may have changed

Twenty-nine years ago, during the time I lived in Dubai, the opportunity to see China with one of my daughters finally arrived, after many years of planning. Well, probably not so much planning as vaguely hoping everything would come together someday. And then it did ̶ my daughter flew over from Vancouver, we met in Hong Kong, and off we went.

Most tourists on a first trip to China choose to go to Beijing and Xi’an for their centuries of history, including, of course, their Twentieth Century history. Thus, these two cities and their surroundings filled the first fascinating days of our tour. (But from a painter’s point of view, our final destination — the incredible mountains of Guilin ̶ was the very best part of the trip.)

The drive from Beijing airport was an eye-opener. We had heard that there were eight million bicycles in the city, with a population of ten million at the time. And, as luck would have it, all were in use that day — about half of them fully loaded with ducks, coal, furniture or small families. There are almost no traffic lights and no way to understand why this all worked.

The first afternoon was spent at the beautiful Temple of Heaven. This island of serenity in the heart of the city was built in 1420, a site for sacrifices and harvest prayers. Hundreds of hectares of evergreens and flowering trees line a stunning sequence of blue-tiled altars, prayer halls and vaults linked by broad marble bridges and pavilions. A very long sequence, by the way — it was with some relief that we realized the transportation which deposited us at the South Heavenly Gate would pick us up at the other end.

The next day we went to the Great Wall of China. Initially, it seemed ironic that this massive 6000-kilometre-long structure, on which construction began 27 centuries ago to repel foreign hordes, is now overrun with them. Until one considers the big bucks we were all paying for the privilege.

Built along the edges of steep ridges wherever possible to maximize its vertical rise, the Wall itself is very steep as it follows the ridges to the various peaks. It literally ‘charges off in all directions,’ including up. Walking along it was not the stroll we had expected, but it was worth the climb — to the first view of China that really had to be painted. A photograph, even with a panorama lens, simply could not contain enough of it. My painting ‘The Great Wall of China,’ a long segment of the Wall at Badaling is actually a composite of seven photographs.

The Friendship Restaurant and Craft Shop for Foreign Guests where we stopped for lunch on the way back to Beijing was, not surprisingly, attached to a cloisonné factory. What was surprising about that stop was the amount of cloisonné we bought.

Tiananmen Square, and the intriguing Forbidden City are ‘must-see’ Beijing landmarks. But not, as it happens, ‘must paint.’ They are immense, the architecture is awesome, they are everything expected, but that’s just it ̶ expected. The magnolia and violet-filled garden, the last and best part of the Forbidden City, was the only place that was more than expected.

The magnificent lakeside park surrounding the Summer Palace, about an hour’s drive from the city, was a real treat. It’s very popular with Beijing families year-round for picnics and skating.

After Beijing, we went to Xi’an — primarily to see the terra cotta warriors and horses, thousands of life-size statues buried centuries ago to guard the tomb of the Emperor, and only discovered in 1974. But there is much more around Xi’an ̶ a Neolithic Village, an art market featuring the unique naif mountain village ‘farmer paintings,’ and a hot springs park, site of the 1936 ‘Xi’an Incident’ in the horrific build-up to World War II. And most paintably for me, as I was writing about the trip for a magazine in the Muslim Middle East, a mosque with beautiful garden courtyards and a pagoda-like minaret.

We encountered the same fellow Foreign Guests everywhere, traveling in groups of two, each with a translator and a driver, and frequently comparing notes:

“We try to get out of people’s way when they’re taking pictures, then realize they want us in them!”

“The best place to buy cloisonné figurines is just outside the wall of the mosque. We found little deer for only 50 yuan”

“I can’t believe our driver hasn’t hit a single bicycle”

Last and best — Guilin. Many of the mountains here have spectacular caves, some stalactite-filled, others with intricately carved inscriptions and statues of the Buddha in the limestone walls. Three striking, and very steep peaks ̶ Folding Brocade, Wave-Subduing Hill and Solitary Beauty — are right in the city and can be climbed for stunning views of the city, river and distant peaks.

But the ultimate vantage point for someone wishing to sketch or paint the fantastic vertical forms of the mountains of Guilin is on a day-long cruise down the Lijiang River to Xingping. Almost every tour boat carries one or two artists on its upper deck.

The drive back to Guilin is in some ways even more appealing, as the peaks are perfectly reflected in the still water of the rice paddies.

The whole Guilin area has long been popular with artists, most rendering their quite stylized landscapes in the traditional media of black ink with a watercolour wash of just one or two colours. Others portray perfectly the often mist-shrouded mountains in soft-focus watercolour painted wet-in-wet.

I meant to finish this up with the wise advice that there is so much to see in China, you can either paint or explore the shops, but not both. (I spent way too much time in the various Friendship Stores that appeared everywhere we went.) But I really like all the things that I found, and I’m glad I bought them, especially my signature ‘chop’ hand-carved with my name in Chinese symbols for stamping my paintings.

So instead, my advice to anyone planning a painting trip to the PRC — if we can still do that and if they still have Friendship stores — is to be sure to buy a signature chop. They come with instructions as to which way is up.