Travel to Washington D.C. and New York

Travel to Washington D.C. and New York

June 7 to 9

Smithsonian Institute: Mr. Smithson, a British guy, gave all his money to the US to establish this museum / research institution almost 200 years ago. We were greeted by volunteers dressed in old-style costumes. One group wanted us to sort plants and fruits into different baskets and warned that usually kids do a better job than adults. It turns out that the distinction between them is determined by whether they have seeds. Learned something new! Crystal (12 years old) and Jasmine (8) played a game on finding plants and we were awarded two small flower pots, which we managed to carry everywhere we went and later back to Houston. In case you don't know, domestic flights allow you to bring flowers with dirt to the airplanes. At least we were not caught.

[to be deleted] Natural Science Museum:

Air and Space Museum: We're not air or outer space fans. We didn't know what we should be excited about. The IMAX was kind of pricey. We were not astronomers so the academic study of black holes shown in IMAX was just a "Huh?" to us. It's interesting to know that back in the days flying was luxury for rich people, stewardesses needed to be just below Hollywood standard as clearly stated in job qualification. What a great contrast with today's wide-turn flight attendants in American airlines, thanks to the law to prohibit discrimination! It looks like this discrimination against fat or plain looking ladies is still prevalent in all countries on earth other than the U.S.

White House: There's no more guest visit since 911 of 2001. The exhibition of what's inside the White House is worth checking out, for those enjoying reading history or people's biographies, or appreciating treasures. It's kind of disappointing that you can't visit the inside. Islamic country's hatred caused by the US policy brought changes to Americans' life permanently. I bet few if any living in the expensive House thought the US was doing something wrong to them. Oh well, not my business. On the other hand, the Chinese equivalence, Zhongnanhai (Mid-South Sea) in Beijing, is not open to the public either, except for a few years in the early 80's, partially. I think that has more to do with possible disturbance to government officials' life and work than terrorist risks.

National Postal Museum: If you think this is a little, unimportant, negligible, post office-like shack, you're very wrong. I was amazed by so much variety in this small museum: terrorist attacks related to the US mails, uni bomber, original Boston to New York mail route (the mail man had to literally cut a mark on trees), computer games for kids and adults, free and beautiful self-addressed post cards. Many years ago when I first came to the US, I realized Chinese museums or parks or zoos were orders of magnitude more boring. Are American museum workers more intelligent and resourceful? If so, the Postal Museum employees are more so than others. And remember entry is free, being part of the Smithsonian.

The National World War II Memorial: I've always had full respect for the American soldiers and officers serving the World War II. It's the only consistently praised and just war in the American history. Didn't you realize that? (Well, maybe not praised by a few die-hard neo-Nazis or Japanese rightists, but their voices are not heard.) How I wish the aged soldiers could live a longer, happier life! They fought the battles truly for the commendable cause of human kind and deserve love of all the peace-loving people in the world. In contrast, innocent soldiers having died or injured in other wars, Vietnam, Korea, or Iraq, are poor fellows, and did not and probably will not win as much respect. Controversial wars or missions produce unfortunate young men and women. And if the incident causes national disgrace, as e.g. in the case of Pueblo incident, the poor fellows are even poorer.

Lincoln Memorial: There's no personal cult in America. The people just love President Lincoln, and built this great hall or shrine to memorize him. It looks like the Greek Parthenon Temple from afar, solemn and grandiose. "Gettysburg Address" is inscribed on the wall, which many visitors come and read through again like they did in school. Lincoln may be the the most highly praised American president. Imagine the resistance of freeing slaves back then. (Would it be as hard as changing a totalitarian country into a democratic one?) America is a mature political entity; nobody foresees any change as major as abolishing slavery. But small positive changes win the president credit. Who in the last 10 or 20 years deserves such credit? Not the latest one, at least we can say that unanimously.

June 10 to 14, in NY

It took us, 2 adults and 2 kids, about $200 to take Amtrak from D.C. to New York. Amtrak is almost 40 years old. There's no comparison in comfort, noise reduction, and speed between that and Eurostar, which started business 14 years ago in Europe. But the nice thing about Amtrak cars is that there're 120 volt power outlets for you to plug in laptops!

Metropolitan Museum of Art

We spent a whole day here, mostly examining paintings. This is the first time I have a very close look at Frederic Church's Heart of the Andes. The painting description seems to consider this as the most important landscape work collected in the Museum. My URL link to the picture image is unfairly blurry. Mr. Church's painting is unequivacally meticulous and extremely detail-oriented. The brush stroke was carefully applied to almost each and every leaf and grass in the landscape. Imagine the time and patience, let alone skills. This is the same style which most ancient Chinese landscape painters adopted and which has, in my opinion, been extinct in China for more than one century. Not too far away is Albert Bierstadt's The Rocky Mountains. Although it arouses "Wow!", it does not stand close-up scrutiny. One critique of Bierstadt's paintings is "vast machinery of advertisement and puffery", as he often made a big fuss about unveiling his new painting in front of a big crowd. Needless to say, his pictures were sold well and made him fortunes. To be fair, Bierstadt was an excellent painter in almost every aspect, particularly the selection, or rather, imagination, of the landscape elements that are rendered to be more beautiful than nature. This reminded me of a friend of mine who has a few commodity oil paintings in her house bought from stores. Now I realize they are either copies of Bierstadt's works or painted under heavy influence of him. They look great in a house, literally bringing home supernatural light and a heavenly world.

We see group after group of visitors listening to trained or professional art researchers' narrative. I listened through some of them. The narrator had pretty good memory and described the history of the paintings and painters quite well. I keep thinking of one question though. Do art researchers need art skills? Can they paint or draw? On the other hand, do people need to be able to compose or even read music to appreciate music? I think the answer is no, but the skills would be something nice to have. I remember when I was in college, a guy bought a whole set of tapes of classical music. But my roommate laughed at him because the guy didn't know how to read music scores. Well, I was able to, but I didn't listen to as much as he. Here again. Art narrators in museums know a great deal more about the paintings than I, but probably not many of them spent as much time as I on actual painting. Once, I told my friend that a beautifully drawn mountain in a traditional Chinese painting somehow reminds me of a chunk of pork well cooked and ready to eat. I bet a knowledgeable art narrator without thousands of hours of art practice would never have a feeling like that. But if you do have that feeling, which may be called synesthesia, you can't convey it to others. "Look, yummy tenderloin!", pointing to a mountain in a picture. Can you say that?

We rushed through the 20th century art. There're people carefully reviewing Picasso's paintings, but I could never train my brains and eyes for morbidly deformed human figures. The last part is contemporary art. The hall looks too big to me, and deserted, understandably. I bet the works are significantly cheaper on the market. I remember lots of real estate show rooms or high end residential buildings in Shanghai like to hang them; they fool the would-be noblemen and their madames by pretending it's upper class art, but they really are not more than the emperor's new clothes.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island: After 911, visitors can't climb into the statue, only into the pedestal, upon reservation. We spent some time in the museum, or a short walkway with lots of pictures. It's amazing that the French were willing to donate such a gigantic structure to the American people. Unless I missed it, the Americans did not seem to show sufficient gratitude. Is it because it's the French that offered this unsolicited gift, to arouse the democracy and freedom awareness inside their own country? Or because the Americans were an easy-going people such that they help other countries fight battles asking for no big thanks, and give big thanks to nobody either?

Equally important but less known in American history is Ellis Island. Jian and I brought the two reluctant kids here because we wanted them to know they're the second generation immigrants. Time has changed. Today's first generation immigrants no longer need to float on high sea for weeks and risk being sent back home right from this island. Thanks to improved civilization and America's melting pot culture, we're in a much better shape than those in the black-and-white pictures. We're impressed by the fact that even a hundred years ago, the immigrants were treated humanely, sleeping in a simple low-end hotel by the standard of the time.

Twin Towers: We didn't know the site where the Twin Towers were was enclosed in construction wall. There was no high vantage point to watch the inside from. Twin Towers or World Trade Center was a victim of terrorism, as well as a victim of the US policy toward the people outside of the US. Americans that completely grew up and live inside this country view the world differently than the people in other countries. Soon after the 911 attack, PBS had an in-depth analysis on why Americans are hated (occupying Muslim's sacred land, unfairly favoring Isreal, etc.). But the voice was small, presentation academic, and the country's leadership was raised to a new high level instead of going the opposite direction. Most Americans would never think as non-Americans do. God bless us to never have another terrorist attack, regardless our might-makes-right mentality.

Right at the intersection, a guy was playing beautiful bagpipe music. We bought a CD for $15. I'm surprised to find that these tunes are Peruvian folk songs or compositions based on them. The El Cóndor Pasa (a Condor passed by) sounds extremely familiar. It turns out that the late Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng (Deng Lijun) had a song that was written using the Peruvian tune ("Where can I find my old dream?"). Cultures mix. People living in the melting pot all their lives may not realize the significance of this mix beyond the surface.

Toys R US is something you should never miss if you have kids with you. It's the most amazing toy store we've seen. Crystal and Jasmine still wanted to play the games after we stayed in there for nearly two hours. The ceiling high lego structure was probably set by a professional. The three-story store is full of attractions for youngsters, not just toys. It perfectly implements the marketing strategy that the longer the customers stay in the store, the more likely they buy. And so we bought some unneeded simple toys, perhaps on the spur of the moment. That makes up for our stint on not going to more expensive shops such as Ripley's "Believe It Or Not".

New York is a city of art. Most artists are probably living with middle or below middle class income. But they love their work, enjoy their life, and as happy humans, will live long. We went into The Central Park twice. Artists play music, draw portaits for passers-by, or just do their own painting. When I was young in China, I would bring with me a drawing board when the family went to local parks, or a mountain nearly. Few households had cameras. Drawing was fun as well as an important skill in life. If I were still that young boy today, I would love the Central Park to death, so long as I was not given too much homework or anything as a result of the ever more complex modernized life.

New York is a symbol of metropolis, therefore modern civilization, and progress and improvement in humanity. While the mainland China is slowly modernizing the political system, exile organizations targeted at China's democracy often find home in this symbolic city. In the northeast area, Flushing, I saw offices of two organizations on the street, probably their headquarters, and I accidentally met the chairman of one in subway. Mr. Wang is a zealous, energetic, middle-aged man. He offered his newspaper to me and started the chat. While I don't agree with him on everything he criticized the Chinese government for, particularly some views on the latest Sichuan earthquake relief, I appreciate his sincerity and the existence of the pro-democracy movement that is almost forgotten by everyday Joe and yet will not lose its relevance in the coming decades.

Flushing is a suburb you go to with a 40-minute train ride. It's not too bad for New York visitors because of cheaper hotel rate. The China town in Flushing is extremely flourishing, much more so than the "standard" or known China town downtown, according to a few local Chinese. Food is top quality in taste and low in price. The Fairfield Inn offers free shuttle service to subway or airport. One of the bus drivers is an Iraq war soldier. He could be recalled to go back to the front any time. He survived some ambushes while his sergeant did not. The current U.S. president is not popular in New York, particularly not so as this young soldier plainly told me his stories.