The Summer Palace in Beijing

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Because the email is forever "connecting"and then becomes timed out Mingnon this is youalthough I do not know when easy access will be available again. I have stopped wasting the time to be disappointed. For all who are trying to make contact I promise to read the messages during this trip and at this time apologize to those who have sent kind words and not heard a reply ... one from 2010 ... embarassing... After that short message on to...



The Summer Palace



It was a 08:30 beginning to the day. We visited the Summer Palace first then took a trip to Olympic site and then went for rickshaw ride. In between had good lunch and even better dinner. Two full meals a day are starting be too much and it is only day four of 24 days left to go.







Exciting ride thru Saturday traffic driving thru what seemed suburbs. Definitely not the approach as experienced when driving to the Ming Tombs. They were close to the mountains the main building being right at the foot of a mountain.



As per usual entrance to the palace grounds was via a gate with a very high doorstop, this one being covered in what appeared to be bronze.



The Palace grounds are apparently larger than the Forbidden City and spread around a man made lake.



The trees that stand in the garden are labelled. One magnolia tree in the courtyard that had the windows of the Empresses bedroom facing it seemed to be about to burst into bloom its buds were so large and fuzzy.



In the bedroom could be seen her LOOONG bed believed to enhance longevity. What else?



She died in her seventies. Guess the bed did not work to well. But then again maybe that was a ripe old age in her time.



People people everywhere. Again in all shapes, sizes, ages and social strata. Lisa the guide spoke well and long and I took interest in the sculptures, the people, and where the toilet lay.



At the lake one can take a ride to the other side which is also the end point of the long corridor which stretches 750m. IT curves at point. It is decorated splendidly with turquoise, blue, red and white. These designs repeat themselves in all the decks before3 the doors of the buildings. There are many buildings. Had I been more attentive I could relate some info. Suffice it to say Wikipedia has written it all and why repeat the wheel.







At the end of the Long Corridor stands the Marble Boat ... huge, heavy, never been launched:-). It is a really huge rather bulky thing made out of marble. It stands facing the lake. At all times as we walked we were surrounded by other groups following guides with a tall stick and some kind of flag fluttering in the wind at the top. It was somewhat reassuring that there were more locals taking guided tours than foreigners. The weather was windy and damp. Certainly not as pleasant as the two previous days of sunshine.



Walking along the road towards the bus and out of the Palace Grounds, only half of which we traversed, we passed young trees with rope bandages around their thin trunks up to a height of about 50cm. And each tree was connected to a red plastic bag that looked like an inter venous contraption. In fact the tree was being fed something. Sorry, designation on bag all Chinese to me. Have to Google this one myself.



Before the Summer Palace we had visited a pearl emporium. A very articulate, humorous young woman gave information about salt and fresh water pearls. The most treasured of all colours in pearls is gold. The Dragon Lady, Qusi (sic) owned the most pearls ever. In her picture as she sits on her throne one can see that her headdress and gown are resplendent in pearls ... of the gold kind of course since that colour was reserved for royalty.



Fresh water pearls are harvested from oysters as big as the outstretched fingers of the hand. Twenty pearls at a time can grow in one such oyster. Not all twenty will be large enough to use as jewellery. The smaller pearls are ground down to make beautifying cream of which quite a few ladies in our group made themselves available.



In the Golden Room ... that of the golden pearl ... are found those pearls of higher quality. Before entering that room hide your Visa .... no:-) ... is an area that contains “souvenir” quality pearl arrangements. I found something nice in each area and after some bargaining walked away with two sets of earings; one black and another of whitish pink. From the souvenier sectionn I had two strands of tiny pearls put together as one longish necklace. A bit dainty for me but it will make a nice gift.







Lunch was tasty without any sign of sweet&sour sauce.







There was to be a visit to the Olympic Site with photo ops ... sansHarper ... of the BirdNest Stadium and The Water Cube. Because of the fact that the APEC installations had not yet been removed the area was cordonned off and we could only stand and admire from a distance thru the haze because after APEC the restrictions on emissions was also, much more quickly by the way, removed.







So the foreigners became an attraction and several of us made friends so quickly we had family photos taken.



Now we had some extra time so the bus headed for the rickshaw ride thru the hutong experience. With the 20 min at our leisure many found joy in finding a Starbucks. Of course the line up was too long to wait and actually make a purchase. It sure smelled the same when two of us went in looking for a toilet.



No luck there. Other option...PUBLIC ... not too bad and most of the places have had paper. On this occasion I was even offered some by a friendly stranger.







And then in the growing dimness we all lined up to get into one man two passenger bicycle driven rickshaws. A very cosy colourful blanket covered our legs. Being the odd (no pun here) woman out I sat with Lisa the guide in the lead rickshaw. We travelled thru the narrow alleys and streets of the old hutong. Some of these hutongs are in their ancient original condition. Some have had the facades renovated to look like old but just with new bricks and in some places some are being reconstructed from scratch. It is a heritage that is being more revered especially since many generations have lived in the same hutong and the whole idea of the sites being attractive lures for tourism is bringing in revenue.



The ride was much fun especially weaving in and out of mopeds, bicycles, cars, little trucks, pedestrians, other rickshaws, but not many dogs and such. Most dogs seen have been small and on a leash. After tipping the rickshaw man 10Yuan it was back on the bus and off to a luxurious mall and a duck dinner.







This is the first time I lost sight of the group and I waited patiently by the escalator. Somebody at my table would eventually notice I was too long at the toilet. Luckily I spotted the bus driver, he recognized me and together we walked to the duck dinner. It was a very spiffy restaurant. The meal was the best so far and the duck was good too. The waitress showed us how to put the wrap together but because of the texture of the little colourless pancake i ate the duck straight. Of course it came at the end of a lovely meal. Our extra plate of duck we shared with a table of ten who apparently always run out of food. There are only seven at my table.







Now its after eight and the bus still has to drive back to the hotel. Next morning we fly to Luoyang, the oldest city in China and home of the fabulous Peony Festival. Here we will visit Longmen Grotto. But that's tomorrow's story.

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