Those emperors and empress dowagers sure knew how to create living quarters. We went to the Forbidden City yesterday (Monday, June 2) and today visited the Summer Palace. The Forbidden City was cool. I guess the first part is supposed to be impressive and show everyone how wonderful and powerful the emperor and his kingdom were. I think they did that. It was fairly easy to imagine what it might have been like. The main hall was closed for renovation (preparations for the Olympics around every corner) but we saw the other halls.
I think the best part of the Forbidden City for me was the area that he created to just hang out with his wives. I think the wives probably got the short end of the stick though. Their house wasn't all that big - definitely not big enough for 72 of them. It was nice and peaceful in the garden except for the fact that there were thousands of Chinese tourists and a ton of Western tourists. I definitely did not see all 9,999 rooms but they didn't let us enter any of the buildings. I'm sure they were all there.
One of Aubrey Lee's main reasons for coming was to give a series of lectures about American business. I don't know any of the details other than the plans were not set in stone and they scrambled a bit to prepare for him when he arrived. I think that's fair. At any rate, he was asked to give one of his lectures to a group of Chinese students last night. The plans for this changed a bit but our student guide cleared things up when she called the office to find out where our classroom was supposed to be today. I was also invited to attend the dinner before his lecture during the call.
I will admit that I did not want to attend the dinner. They can be a bit intimidating and I just wanted to upload pictures and write in my blog. I figure eventually I will be lucid enough to publish a decent blog post. I felt obligated and Jessica seemed genuinely happy to not be the only ones going so I agreed to go to the dinner. It was actually quite good and I think I am getting better at the whole big dinner thing. I can't remember if I explained this or not so briefly, the Chinese like to provide big meals for special guests. There is usually a separate room with a large round table. The table is set formally and there have been a couple of servers at the ones we have attended. In the center of the table is a glass lazy Susan. Lots and lots of plates of food are put on the lazy Susan and you keep turning and eating. I think traditionally you keep drinking, too.
Jessica and Aubrey were at last night's meal, of course, and three Chinese hosts. One of the hosts was the professor for whom Aubrey was lecturing. He spoke limited Chinese. There was another male host who business card was only in Chinese so I have no clue who he was and a female who was not introduced and did not give a business card. He main purpose seemed to be to explain to them in Chinese what we were saying (although she never spoke any herself) and to serve us when the servers stepped out. She later attended the lecture but I don't know a thing about her. The host kept trying to bottoms-up everyone. Jessica managed to always get out of it but I went along with both of the male hosts, although only one time each. Chinese beer is weaker than the tea. You would have to drink a lot to even notice.
Aubrey's lecture went well, the students had lots of good questions, it was a successful night. Oh yes, our morning lecture, almost forgot. Our lecture that morning had been about the Chinese economy. It was one of the more interesting lectures for me. The culture and history is all very good but (1) we have had a lot of that and (2) I don't know that I have the heart of a true business person but it does interest me. I think I need to do some more reading when I return home. The professor touched on Hu Jintao's plan for the future but I would like to read more. I think the world will be watching China over the next few years. Will be interesting to see how things continue to develop.
This morning (Tuesday, June 3) our lecture was not a lecture but a Chinese handicraft activity! Very exciting. We made traditional Chinese paper cuttings. We made the double happiness character and a butterfly. The image to the right is what paper cutting should look like. Mine was pretty pitiful. Even the character, which was very geometric, just looked like a mess of crooked lines. My butterfly somehow looked evil. The Chinese use these to decorate doors and windows during holidays and festivals. Mine might be useful for scaring away that Nian monster guy we heard about during our traditional Chinese festivals lecture. Probably not good for much else.
Okay, finally, the topic of the post - the Summer Palace. The Forbidden City was cool and all that but the Summer Palace is definitely where I would want to be. We had a cool, almost cold day today. It started off rainy and then just stayed cool and foggy. I was a bit disappointed at first because it seemed just completely wrong weather for the visit. Except for the fact that it was difficult to take photos it was perfect. I think the experience makes up for the photos in my mind. We were walking through all the woods and you could smell clean, wet dirt and fresh cedar trees. It was amazing. There were several tourists there but it is enormous and the weather wasn't perfect so there were many times when it was just our group.
I only wish that I had bought a map so that I could know everything we did. I'm sure the information is available so it will give me something to do when I return home and am thinking about all the things I miss in China. My camera died after we visited the Buddha temple (where I took pictures before realizing we weren't supposed to - I'm sure the two events are related) so there aren't as many pictures as there would have been on flickr. Probably just as well though because I already have a ton. If the White Cloud Temple were in the Summer Palace it would be my favorite place in China so far. Since it is not the Summer Palace will have to settle for a very close second. I could easily spend a day there just breathing.
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