Purple Fists of Color

Red cars, white cars all the cars that have been licensed to drive are out here, tying to move a bit faster than they otherwise might as we approach the toll booth before the fifth ring road on the way into the city.  There are billboards on the side with an assortment of advertisements. One photo has one young woman instructing another gal on the proper way to hold a pencil in her mouth.  Is this a dental ad?  She has a toll attendant cap on.  All the photos have young ladies with toll attendant caps on.  Ahh, these billboards are illustrating all the remarkable training the (what appear to be exclusively female) attendants go through.  I wouldn’t have guessed that chewing pencils was involved. 

What are the purple flowers that are blooming this week.  In Beijing, as in Japan the classic cycle is for plumb blossoms first and then cherry blossoms before the apple trees and most of the rest of the flora blooms into action.  There are many, many beautiful apple blossoms now to be seen..  But what are those purple fists of color?  I ask my wife, who is with me if she recognizes them and she insists they are 丁香 dingxiang.  You know “cloves.”  I can’t say that I know what a clove flower looks like.  I thought they were a rare spice from Indonesia.  Upon looking up "clove" it seems to be a synonym for lilac, which resonates a bit more familiar. 

Last weekend, driving across the countryside in Hunan province, the bloom cycle was much further along.  The road had hundreds of big, beautifully white flowers sagging from the roadside trees.  I confidently called them out as jacaranda trees.  And when the driver referred to them as 梧桐 wutong trees, I looked it up expecting to verify things only to discover that wutong trees are properly known as parasol trees.  Jacaranda trees are properly knowns as “blue flower trees.” 兰花树(lanhuashu ).  They’re different.

It’s a rainy day today, but you don’t mind rainy days in Beijing.  We always need them. Someone has the great idea to head to The Orchard for lunch.  It’s not far from where everyone needs to go afterwards.  Almost miraculously they have managed to create a genuine oasis in Beijing, where most other attempts fall flat.  It’s too wet to walk around the willows, which (elsewhere in Beijing never look particularly pleasant,) all droop down to the lake and when I go to the men’s room I notice white in every direction as the apple orchard trees between us and the parking lot are all in watery bloom.

Friday 4/13/18