A Royal Tomb, an Orchid Garden, and a Memorial

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Ahhh, the first full day of vacation! Today we got up and headed out to Starbucks for a leisurely breakfast on the patio. The old, leaning trees covered in vines and front porch made for a very secluded feeling and induced intimate conversations about Tang Dynasty poetry and ancient writing in China. I had a warm apple turnover with my black coffee.

We then headed to the train station to buy our tickets for part two of our trip. We ended up eating fast food for lunch--much to everyone's chagrin--because by the time we figured out where in the massive station to buy the tickets, and waited in line, it was already almost one o'clock. The manager was so excited to talk to us and he said one thing no other Chinese person has ever said, but, in fact, quite often said the opposite: Many people in China tell us how much they like Obama, but then in the same breath comment on his skin; the manager commented that Obama was handsome and that his skin color shouldn't matter.


After lunch we headed to the Museum of the Nanyue King in the Western Han Dynasty. (Did you get all of that?) Not only did we see the inside of the acutal tomb (it was a few rooms with very low ceilings) but since the site had never been discovered or plundered, all the artifacts were on display in a five-part exhibit. Most impressive were the old Chinese instruments and the jade suit that the king was buried in (complete with gloves and mask).

There was also a fascinating exhibit on ceramic pillows. A collector had donated their entire collection to the museum--a couple hundred pieces. Some were simple, some were very detailed. All left me thankful I have a feather pillow.


After the museum, we went down the street to the orchid gardens. There weren't as many orchids as I had hoped for, but the gardens were still beautiful and relaxing. We enjoyed walking around, taking in the beauty of the ponds and small buildings, and "enjoying" the signs posted throughout.


We made one last stop at the Sun YatSen Memorial Hall. Its design was inspired by the Summer Palace. The building was an amazing structure from the outside--we didn't go inside. LP said that there were no English captions for any of the photos and most of what was open to the public was just a huge hall. Also, we arrived so late that there was only half an hour before they locked the doors and we didn't want to spend the money just to be rushed through.
The grounds were beautiful. Our favorite part was a large tree with twisting, tangled branches that grew into the ground on the other side of the path.


After a dinner including breaded and fried cheese sticks (we were so excited), we journeyed back to the island. We remembered it was the official Mid-Autumn Festival night. We yelled to each other, turned on the stairs leading to the bridge over the 6 lane road, and took in the full moon for a brief moment. Then we turned back and continued down the stairs and back to our island. We explored the island in a dark glow, brightened only by dim streetlights and children running and laughing with lit lanterns.

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Photos

The Sun YatSen Memorial
The tree is in the ground on both sides of the path.

Comments

[Dad]

Interesting that you were able to tour a recently opened tomb. When we were in Xian last spring, they told us that many of the Ming tombs had not been opened out of concern that doing so could damage what was inside - same reason they are going slowly excavating the Terra Cotta soldiers; many were painted but exposure to the air causes the paint to disappear.