Bai Gong Fang Museum

Last weekend, I went on an adventure to a strange yet fascinating museum. The 百工坊 (bǎi gōng fāng) museum is situated near to the Temple Of Heaven and roughly translates to “One Hundred Handicrafts Workshop”. The museum was set up in order to promote the traditional arts of Beijing and China; some of which are in danger of dying out. 

Liz and I started off the day, as every intrepid explorer should: with a thirst-quenching bubble tea. From speaking to locals, it seems that this museum is not very well known, so we were pleasantly surprised and slightly suspicious of how easy it was to stumble across the building from where our taxi left us. We were even more delighted that it was free entry.

The museum itself is spread out across three floors. Long corridors are dotted with doors and inside each room is a person demonstrating traditional Chinese arts. We saw many interesting handicrafts; including painted gourds, metalwork, pottery, dough sculptures, paper cutting and woodcarving. The workers were perhaps shy or nervous about speaking with foreigners; however, using the basic Chinese skills we came equipped with, some were more than happy to talk about their trade.

One particularly friendly craftsman, Mr Yao Fuying, was quite animated and passionate when talking about his job. He enthusiastically explained that from a young age, he started a special kind of embroidery work called Jingxiu. From what I could understand, Mr Yao said that Jingxiu is a skill that was passed down in his family and one piece of embroidery can take him about twenty days to complete. It is quite possible that he also told me the meaning of life, however my Chinese level is still not good enough to comprehend the technical language he used. So we thanked him and continued our journey around the museum.

On the second floor, we were incredibly intrigued (and perhaps a little perturbed) by the art of 毛猴 (máo hóu) “hairy monkeys”. It is a rather unique craft where small figures are created from the fluffy buds of magnolia flowers and the body parts of cicadas. These little models are then put into a variety of scenes depicting daily life. I felt compelled to buy a souvenir so I chose one that was wielding 糖葫芦 (tánghúlu), which is candied fruit on a kebab stick (Beijing’s version of a toffee apple).

I would definitely recommend a visit to this museum and would happily revisit at a later date - if only to buy some more máo hóu souvenirs!

On the third floor, there was a large workshop in which guests are invited to try some handicrafts in a “DIY” style. Unfortunately, there was nobody there to give us this opportunity. In fact, the entire museum was very quiet. I am not sure if this is because it was a Sunday or if it is often low on visitors. 

Munching on toast slice cigars after the museum visit.

Chủ nhật vừa rồi tôi đã đi một viện bảo tàng lạ. Tôi có thể tìm thấy nhiều món hàng thủ công đẹp ở đó. Rất thú vị nhưng kỳ quái!

What a melancholy watermelon kind of day

Well, it could have been dull and boring, but watermelons helped to save the day...

It is often necessary to have a Plan B in Beijing. As mentioned in my previous blog post, the air quality here means you may have to change plans. I had originally hoped to visit The Summer Palace today (after two years of living in Beijing, I still haven’t visited it, but don’t tell anyone, I am sure it’s a criminal offence). However, the pollution levels were too high to spend a whole day outside, so a colleague and I decided to visit a strange yet interesting museum.

We went to the China Watermelon museum (中国西瓜博物院). It was a rather long drive from Chaoyang District, but it was definitely a unique experience on an otherwise grey, smoggy day. The museum is dedicated to educating visitors about the history, culture and technology of cultivating different kinds of watermelons.

Although most of the information there is written in Chinese, it was still a fun place to look around. Dotted around the grounds of the museum are some comical statues, including Zhu the pig from Journey To The West.

Trư Ngộ Năng!

We were surprised to enter the museum for free, as information online stated there was a 20元 fee. We were the only people in the museum during our time there. I think that somehow made our time there more enjoyable. To emphasise the science and technology component of growing watermelons, most of the museum has been given a “sci-fi” theme. On occasions it felt like I was inside Doctor Who’s Tardis (if it had been powered by watermelons).

There were melons of all sizes. Something for everyone...

A personal highlight was the satellite orbiting a globe (half planet earth, half watermelon).

We happily viewed a variety of watermelon seeds (who knew there were so many kinds?), photographs of random people enjoying watermelon and impressive carvings made out of watermelon. 

I have decided to spend the rest of my weekend hunting down watermelon toothpaste, which was given a special display cabinet in the museum. Hopefully I can find it in a local supermarket and test it out.

Muskmelons were also mentioned. No idea what they are so may conduct a little research after completing this blog entry.

Before leaving, Liz and I thought it would only be fair to purchase a tacky souvenir as a memento of our adventure. As we prepared to get in our taxi, Liz and I realised that the outside of the museum has been designed to look like a watermelon with wings. Genius.

Back in Chaoyang District, we enjoyed a fest in Baoyuan Restaurant. We ate broccoli, dumplings, sweet and sour pork, spicy tofu and an aubergine dish.

Mike 1-0 Air pollution. Ha.

Hôm nay tôi đã đến một viện bảo tàng rất tốt nơi tôi có thể học rất nhiều về dưa hấu… lạ mà độc đáo =))