by James Wyllie
This is also the area to come for a night on the town. The numerous INNS offer rice wines and local beers and the opportunity to participate in games such as MAHJONG and indulge in a spot of GAMBLING. Playing cards have been around in China since the early ninth century and you may have an edge at the tables, as one of the most popular card games is very similar to poker. Otherwise, you might want to try Chinese dominoes, using tiles (kwat pai) with symbols/characters on them and many-sided dice, or Chinese chess, with pieces that resemble elephants. Backgammon is available, too, but may prove an expensive option, as it tends to attract high-spending high-rollers with cash to burn.
THE CITY
Beijing is organised on the same principles as Xanadu – once again the work of Lui Bingzhong, assisted by an architect from Central Asia, Ikhtiyar al-Din. It takes the form of a palace within an inner city, within an outer city, sporting huge walls all around, then a second wall concealing the Imperial City, then a third one shielding the Palace.
When your procession reaches the thirty-foot-high whitewashed main wall, it will turn south and proceed four miles to the South Gate, or EMPEROR’S GATE, which will usher you into the Imperial City, with streets laid out in grids, raised pavements, good drainage, and whole blocks owned by the wealthiest and most prominent families.
DADU LODGINGS
In the Imperial City, you will notice a tented zone similar to the one in Xanadu, with grand gers for VIPs and smaller ones for officials and craftsmen, and for weapons stores. You may pitch up here if you wish; however, given that conditions will turn distinctly chilly and wet over the coming months, you may prefer to abandon the world of the ger and opt to take up residence with your masters in the well-appointed and spacious mansions they inhabit while in Beijing. Not for better toilet facilities: a sheltered wooden structure with a stone seat to perch on and an armrest, set over a pit in the ground that has running water to flush it out, plus highest-quality toilet paper, soft and perfumed.
INNER SANCTUM
Accompanying the Polos, you will make frequent visits to the PALACE itself. You will cross a moat with a three-arched marble bridge, stroll along three passageways to three gates with towers and five doorways, each one gaining you entrance to the IMPERIAL PALACES and Kublai’s private gardens with lakes full of fish.
The centrepiece of Kublai’s conception is the resurrected JADE ISLAND, which had been left to rot by Genghis Khan. Kublai has rebuilt the bridge that leads to it, landscaped the slopes with rare trees, added winding staircases, temples and pavilions with evocative names – Golden Dew, Jade Rainbow, Inviting Happiness, Everlasting Harmony – and a main temple that sits atop the island, the grand WHITE PAGODA. Here you can spend many blissful hours in quiet contemplation of the island’s outstanding beauty.
Then there is the spectacular NEW PALACE, a single-storey structure raised above the ground by marble terraces and staircases, lined with varnished woodwork and sculptures of dragons and other potent animals, and famous warriors. Inside are seven halls, plus dozens of rooms, chambers, treasure troves, offices and apartments for Kublai’s four wives and many concubines. Everywhere you go, you will see fearsome-looking heavily armed men. These are the elite warriors that comprise Kublai’s personal bodyguard – it’s best to stay on their good side.
Within the sprawling building there is a MINI-PALACE where Kublai holds court from a huge bed inlaid with gold and jade. Next to the bed is huge jade urn weighing around four tons, filled with 600 gallons of wine. Perhaps at no point in your stay will the Polos the lodging houses of the suburbs. Kublai had already taken a shine to them and considers their advice invaluable; he wants them close by at the centre of his realm. Aside from being more comfortable, you will also have access to you be as impressed with Kublai’s majesty and the authority that emanates from his person as he reclines on his bed, completely at ease with the power that he wields so naturally, totally secure at the heart of his vast empire as he watches his servants dispense wine to his grateful guests.
A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE
In accordance with Kublai’s wishes, Chinese culture is to the fore in Beijing, and this means, above all else, THEATRE. As a result, you will get to see everything from large-scale productions to smaller shows performed on movable stages. These events will combine music, singing, poetry, pantomime, dance and acrobatics, punctuated by comedic interludes, running gags and audience interaction.
Many of the more formal four-act plays will feature love stories with strong female characters in the leading role (tan), often reworking well-known plots and myths. Originality is not at a premium; much of the fun for the audience comes from seeing their favourite bits from other shows, and stock characters such as the clown (ch’ou), the comic villain (chou) and the malevolent female (ch’a tan). Another aspect of these performances that will be familiar to the spectators are the mimes: choreographed and stylised movements from a set repertoire of gestures and expressions: for example, entering lovesick, having a coughing fit and rubbing eyes in disbelief.
The key element that binds the plays together is music. At first you may struggle to appreciate the atonal and apparently discordant sounds on offer, but be patient, as you will come to enjoy and admire the elegant, complex harmonies and the skill and dexterity of the musicians playing a wide range of string, woodwind and percussion instruments to produce the eight tones (bayin). There are various types of zither, harp and lute, which can be plucked, bowed or struck. The woodwind section will consist of bamboo flutes and pipes, as well as conch shells (hailou), while there is a whole panoply of percussion – stone chimes, metal bells, cymbals (bo), gongs (lou) and an array of skin drums. Expertly deployed, they produce sounds of great subtlety and passionate intensity.
BANQUETING
During your stay you will be lucky enough to take part in two of the greatest feasts of the year. First up is the celebration of KUBLAI’S BIRTHDAY on 23 September, which takes place in the 6,000-capacity HALL OF GREAT BRILLIANCE. You will join the other commoners who will be sitting on the floor gawping at Kublai’s robes of beaten gold and thousands of nobles and attendants dressed in similar garb.
Take special care when entering the hall to STEP OVER THE THRESHOLD without your feet touching it. This custom relates to life in the ger: to touch its threshold with your feet by accident is considered a bad omen; to do it deliberately, a terrible insult. If you happen to trip up as you go into the hall, the massive guards by the doorway will beat you with rods and strip you of your outer garments; oddly, the only mitigating circumstance is if you are too drunk to walk straight.
The other magnificent banquet you will attend is the WHITE FEAST in early February. This celebrates Mongolian New Year and marks the end of your trip. The festivities begin solemnly as you and the assembled guests touch your foreheads to the floor four times, followed by a brief song and a prayer. Then Kublai takes his place at the high table with his head wife, Chabi, known for her wisdom and temperance, next to him, while the princes and their wives sit on a lower platform level with his feet. At the centre of proceedings is a huge decorated buffet table and a vast golden wine bowl from which butlers draw wine into golden jugs. The very first cup is for Kublai; once he takes a sip, everyone else can. The same ritual is repeated with the food, which will be mostly the meat pastries (buzz) you will remember from Xanadu. You will notice that those serving Kublai have their mouths and noses wrapped in veils of silk and gold, so neither their breath nor smell contaminates his dinner.
AT THE BANQUET YOU’LL BE AWARE OF EMPRESS CHABI, KUBLAI’S FAVOURITE WIFE AND SPECIAL ADVISOR. MONGOLIAN-BORN, SHE HAS BEEN INSTRUMENTAL IN THE RETURN OF THE POLOS TO KUBLAI’S COURT.
Throughout, an orchestra will perform MONGOLIAN MUSIC. Similar to the Chinese tradition, the musicians will play either string, woodwind or percussion. The most common instruments are the horse-head fiddle (morin khuuur); a three-stringed strummed lute with a long neck that sounds like a banjo (shanz); flutes (tsuur); oboes (everburee); and a r
ichly ornamented metal trumpet with a brass mouthpiece (bishguur). Percussion will include small bells (damar) and frame drums (tuur). The most evocative and startling element is the THROAT SINGING (hoomii) that produces two distinct sounds at the same time: a low guttural drone alongside higher melodic notes. Tune into the ecstatic vibrations of the throat singer’s trance-inducing sounds, and it will stir your soul and animate your spirit.
Once the eating is done, there will be a FLOOR SHOW featuring cabaret, acrobats, jugglers and conjurors. Pace yourself. The carousing and merrymaking will go on well into the following day.
DEPARTURE
While your masters are still in bed sleeping or nursing their hangovers, slip quietly away and head for Jade Island. Once there, you will DEPART from the TEMPLE OF EVERLASTING HARMONY.
Captain Cook’s First Epic Voyage
26 AUGUST 1768–12 JULY 1771
CAPTAIN JAMES COOK MADE THREE EPIC voyages to the Pacific – and we are delighted to offer the first and best-known, a three-year odyssey that included the first accurate charting of the New Zealand coastline and the ‘discovery’ of Australia. As a member of Cook’s crew you will experience tremendous highs and devastating lows, and your strength of character and physical stamina will be tested to the limits. But the rewards lie in stunning unspoiled landscapes and untamed shores; you will marvel at wildlife of all kinds, pit yourself against the elements and the raw power of the sea, and stand on deck to watch the sun set over the Pacific.
Setting off from PLYMOUTH, England, your journey will see you cross the Atlantic, with stopoffs in Madeira and Rio de Janeiro; negotiate the perilous passage round Cape Horn into the Pacific; spend several months in Tahiti, the island paradise with its legendarily welcoming inhabitants; then sail on to New Zealand, with its very much less welcoming locals, where you will circumnavigate both the North and South Islands before heading towards Australia. There you will have a close shave with the Great Barrier Reef and make the first European contact with the Aborigines. Having claimed this new continent for the British Empire, you will make a gruelling journey home.
BRIEFING: A SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION
Cook was not the first European to venture into the Pacific, and at the time of his first voyage there is a generally held view among Europe’s geographers that a new continent – Terra Australis Incognita – is waiting to be found. This, of course, is of interest not just to Britain, the world’s dominant sea power, but to other European contenders for global empire – the French, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.
A scientific expedition has been judged to be the best way of furthering British imperial ambitions without raising the suspicions of its rivals. Thus, in February 1768 the ROYAL SOCIETY petitioned George III for cash to fund a voyage to the Pacific to observe the TRANSIT OF VENUS. This rare stellar event that, if measured correctly, can reveal the distance between Venus (and other planets) and the Sun.
CHARLES GREEN, assistant to the Astronomer Royal, has been chosen for the star-mapping, and to boost the expedition’s scientific credentials a team of botanists has been enlisted. They are led by JOSEPH BANKS, a very wealthy man who has devoted himself to the system of classifying flora and fauna developed by the Swede Carl Linnaeus. Banks has engaged his pupil DANIEL SOLANDER and a Finnish naturalist, HERMAN SPÖRING, as assistants. By the end of the voyage, his team will have collected 30,000 botanical specimens, including 110 new genera and 1300 new species. Two artists, SYDNEY PARKINSON and ALEXANDER BUCHAN, have been invited along to record the trip.
The forty-year-old JAMES COOK is from a humble Yorkshire farming background and has been appointed captain for his skill as a cartographer. He had helped survey and chart the Gulf of St Lawrence in Newfoundland during the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). The ship chosen for him by the Royal Society, the ENDEAVOUR, is a one-time coal ship – a sturdy vessel weighing 368 tons. It is 97 ft long and 29 ft wide, with a broad, flat bow, square stern and deep hold. In preparation for the trip, its hull has been sheathed and caulked, and a third internal deck added for extra cabins and storage space. It also houses a longboat and several smaller boats, while ten four-pounder cannons and twelve swivel guns give it some teeth.
The crew comprises fourteen officers, twelve Royal Marines, eight servants (two of them African attached to Banks), and around sixty sailors from all over Britain. Adding to the ship’s compliment is a GREYHOUND for hunting, three CATS for killing rats, and a GOAT, which is more a mascot than anything else.
As is customary before departure, anybody suffering doubts is given the chance to quit. Eighteen men vote with their feet. Replacing them at such short notice is the job of the press gangs, part of the IMPRESS SERVICE, and this is how you will be joined up.
THE TRIP
You will ARRIVE on 18 August 1768 in TURNCHAPEL, PLYMOUTH, an area of dark, narrow, cobbled streets right by the harbourmouth. Violent, seedy, full of brothels and bars, it is fertile ground for the Impress Service. Take a pew in the BORINGDON ARMS, a dockside pub, and wait to be approached. Each press gang of twelve men is led by an Impress Officer who is paid by results. He will give you a choice between being taken by force or becoming a VOLUNTEER. The latter is, of course, much the best option. As a ‘volunteer’, you’ll get paid the King’s shilling, in advance, and will receive better treatment.
You will spend the majority of the trip with your fellow crew members. It is therefore essential that you adapt quickly to their way of life. If you think you are going to hang out with Cook, or indeed any of the other ‘gentlemen’ on board, then you will be sorely disappointed. An unbridgeable gap exists between you and them. There will be some interaction concerning the day-today doings of the ship, but ultimately your place is with the crew. Together you will be responsible for transporting Cook round the world; without you the ship won’t get very far.
Some experience of being at sea – and sailing – would obviously be useful, as would familiarity with the layout of ships and the terms used to govern them. Such knowledge will earn you the title of ABLE-BODIED SEAMAN. However, the Royal Navy doesn’t mind if you are a nautical novice; you will simply be referred to as a LANDSMAN. Either way, you will not (unless you are particularly fit and well suited to such duties) be expected to perform the most challenging tasks, such as going aloft to unfurl the sails and untie the topgallants. These dangerous and vertigo-inducing jobs are normally reserved for the youngest and most agile sailors, known as the UPPER YARD’S MEN.
Instead, you will be on DECK DUTIES, hauling sheets, halliards and braces. You will be equipped with a knife for cutting lines that you will carry sheathed on your back. Otherwise, your main duty will be going on WATCH; you will be assigned a specific part of the ship to monitor, and each shift will last eight hours. However, rather than doing three consecutive nights in a row (standard practice at sea), you will only do two, thanks to Cook’s largesse.
ON BOARD SHIP: PRACTICALITIES
Your BASIC KIT will consist of a buttoned single-breasted waistcoat (weskit), long-sleeved cotton or linen shirts with short cuffs and a single-button, baggy striped pantaloons of canvas to cover your knee breeches (slops), and heavy trousers and fearnought jackets for when it gets cold. Hats are a staple: either variations on the triangular shaped tricorn, turned up so the brim diverts rainwater away from your face, or a brown woollenknitted Monmouth cap. Your shoes will be black leather with a brass buckle, though much of the time bare feet will suffice. You may wish to accessorise with a bandana, often in black to mask the ingrained dirt, and a brightly coloured neckerchief.
FOOD
On a voyage like this, your well-being, both mental and physical, will hinge on the quantity, quality and variety of FOOD on offer: your morale and that of the crew will revolve round your stomachs. The contents of your diet are largely determined by Cook’s desire to prevent scurvy, the deadly wasting disease so prevalent amongst sailors.
Drawing on the latest research, especially James Lind’s 1753 Treatise of the Scurvy, Cook’s sele
ction of anti-scurvy food will include 100 pounds of portable soup (from dried vegetables), sugar, sago, marmalade of carrots, ground up orchid roots (salop), vinegar, mustard, malt, raw onion, concentrated lemon juice, shore greens and 7,860 pounds of pickled sauerkraut. Endeavour will leave Plymouth carrying, in addition, 6,000 pieces of pork and 4,000 of beef, nine tons of bread, five tons of flour, one ton of raisins, cheese, salt, peas, oil, and oatmeal, plus seventeen sheep, four pigs, and twenty-four assorted poultry.
You will have three-quarters of an hour for BREAKFAST and an hour and a half for LUNCH, consuming roughly 4,500 calories per day. Your weekly ration will contain four pounds of salt beef, two pounds of salt pork, three pints of cereal grain, six ounces of butter and twelve ounces of cheese. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are meat-free; you will be served pease pudding and onions instead. SHIP’S BISCUITS, pretty vile and often infested with insects, will accompany every meal.
Over the course of the journey, fresh water will be procured at regular intervals and you will be able to gorge on produce sourced from the many islands you visit; coconuts, yams, bananas, sweet potatoes, yellow apples, sugar cane and plantains. FISH AND SHELLFISH will also make a welcome change. Savour oysters and lobsters fresh from New Zealand’s rocky inlets; feast on huge stingrays plucked from the waters off Australia; and tuck into giant turtles, popular not only for their succulent meat but also for the sport to be had diving for them.
Sea birds will also land on your plate, most notably ALBATROSS. Though the crew consider this strange, ungainly bird as the sacred embodiment of the spirits of dead sailors, this doesn’t stop the botanist Joseph Banks shooting one. The albatross will then be served up in a savoury sauce, having been skinned, soaked in salt water, parboiled and stewed until tender.