Now that we're at the airport and just killing time I can relax a little, sort through yesterday's photos, and get a proper blog post up. Here's a more in-depth run through of yesterday's activities.
That right there is the entrance to the Summer Palace. Apparently the Emperor at one point started having rocks brought to him from all over the country, and he collected them here so that he could feel like he was visiting the far reaches of China without having to spend month on the road. Either that or he just REALLY liked rocks.
The palace also had a pretty spectacular collection of statues.
Here's one of those rocks:
Euphy told me that rocks like the one pictured above, with holes in them, were considered Imperial. So if you had a big ol' rock that nature had bored some holes through, guess what? That belonged to the Emperor. Actually, I thought the whole country belonged to the Emperor...
Near the end of its time as an Imperial residence the Summer Palace was home to Empress Dowager Cixi, who apparently is known throughout modern China as a murderous psychopath. She may have had a flair for evil, but she was also known to embrace technology, and had the Summer Palace outfitted with China's first electric lights, pictured here:
I thought that was pretty awesome. It's not every day you get to go see something as common as a light fixture and know that it was the first one ever in a country.
We spent a lot of time just walking through the outdoor paths and admiring the scenery, which I guess was the entire point of the palace. Made me feel pretty Imperial really. Except all the peasants crawling around refuse to obey me.
After my failed attempt to enslave the masses we made our way to the famous Bird's Nest from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
It's an incredibly impressive structure when viewed close up. Euphy and I each paid the 50 RMB (around $8) to actually go in and walk around in the stadium, which was a bizarre and eye-opening experience. I'd heard from other people that the stadium hadn't been kept in the best shape, but I was really surprised when I got in there to see how derelict it had become. It's as if they just put up a few gates around it to funnel the tourists through a ticket collection and then left it.
Someone told me that it was "falling apart" and I wouldn't really say that. All it really needs is a good clean and it would be as good as new. It was just so strange to be in this magnificent stadium and see that it's clearly not being used for anything. You'd think that sporting events and concerts would have that place filled up nightly. Very, very strange.
There was a flurry of construction (or possibly deconstruction) going on in the centre of the arena, I'm not really sure what that was all about. That was the only sign of any activity or maintenance taking place in the entire facility.
It was definitely neat getting to visit the Bird's Nest, but also a bit sad.
We wrapped up the day with a visit to a jewellery store where they taught us about freshwater pearls. Below is a picture of our instructor with an opened clam that came from the lake in the Summer Palace, which tied the day's tour together nicely. You can see collection of small pearls around the outer edge of the shell.
After that we were apparently supposed to be taught something else, but the Cantonese instructor wasn't available. The owner's son was visiting the facility though, and so he bravely stepped to take over. He couldn't speak Cantonese, so he basically did his entire impromptu performance in both Mandarin and English, which worked for me, and made Euphy's life easier as she had to do a lot less translating. I'm not sure what the intended lesson was, but our new instructor basically just jumped in there and decided to tell us everything he knew about jade. It was actually a really fun performance because you could tell that he was just trying to keep us entertained by throwing every interesting fact he could at us. The poor man ruined his table by demonstrating that Burmese jadeite is, in fact, hard enough to scratch glass without being damaged itself. He also did a neat demonstration where he showed the jade conducts heat so well that if you wrap it in thin plastic and then hold a lighter to it the plastic will not burn. Same thing worked with some tissues that someone had in their pocket. The whole performance came off as less Jewellery Sales Pitch and more Bill Nye the Science Guy. I had a lot of fun.
Well, that's it from Beijing. We really did have a great time here, but I'm happy to be heading to Shanghai. I think that Euphy and I are both in agreement that tours aren't necessarily the best way to go, and we're excited about continuing the trip with a lot more freedom. So, in about and hour we'll be off to Shanghai, and we'll see what adventures we can make for ourselves there.
One final note before I sign off: we're staying with Euphy's Uncle while we're in Shanghai, and we have no idea if he'll have Internet available for us. It's possible that I'm about to go dark for the next four days. I'll blog if I can, but if you don't hear from me for awhile don't be alarmed. Worst case scenario is that we'll be silent until Sunday when we reach Zhuhai. As with everything, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Be well my friends!
1 comment:
Can't wait to read about the next part of the trip. While I am sure some there are many logistical advantages to a tour it just seems like there are many annoying disadvantages.
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