I was going to post yesterday, but after a long LONG day yesterday, I was too tired to post.
Yesterday, we went to the Forbidden City and Tiennamen Square. The Forbidden City, for those who don't know, was the palace where all of China's emporers lived until the final emporer in 1911(ish).
The Forbidden City is one of the most opulent things I've ever seen. It is part magnificent palace, filled with gold and jade and all sorts of things that signified a higher social status in the Chinese culture. But, the other part is that it served a number of functions, including the last defense between attackers and the Emporer, the place of business and the living quarters for the Emporer, his wife, and all of his subsequent mistresses.
That's right, he had thousands of mistresses. Who lived on site.
So, when we got to the palace, after we took our obligatory pictures, we went and found a tour guide. For anyone who ends up ever going to the Forbidden City, totally get a tour guide. It's the only way to go. Without our tour guide, Amy, I wouldn't have known anything I just typed out. It would have just been a lot of pretty buildings. But, during the tour, I learned about what all of the architecture meant and what everything was used for. Definitely the way to go, and, to be honest, a bargain at 40 yuan. (6 yuan = 1 dollar, by the way)
So, since we had a tour guide, it was a long day at the palace.
Today, we started a three-day tour provided to us by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG). We started with, I kid you not, the sewage treatment plant.
It turns out that the plant will take a lot of the sewage and provide a lot of the non-drinking water for the Olympics area. We then went to a rural village in China that, while being poorer, is developing. We went to what was supposedly an ancient Buddhist temple that's been around for ages. But, it became clearer as we went on, that, while that may be true, it was more like a theme park/gated community that, if it had been ancient at one point, was tremendously TREMENDOUSLY renovated.
We walked through a nursing home type area where the staff sang a song for us, which was pretty surreal. We've really been getting sort of a VIP treatment here, police escort included. Now, keep in mind that the police escort really doesn't mean a whole lot, as there are no rules on the roads. We saw an ambulance tonight with its lights on and no one...NO ONE...was getting out the of the way. Kind of amazing.
Anyway...Buddha Theme Park.
We went then and watched a group of people from the community do Tai Chi, which is a slow, steady form of martial arts that is meant to preserve the body and soul as opposed to defend the person against any attacker.
After we left the village, and a long LONG bus convoy back to the city, we went to a restaurant in Beijing proper (the name of the joint escapes me right now) that has been around for almost 200 years and is famous for its Peking Duck.
Peking Duck is literally a process.
Step 1: They bring the duck out to you and take off the skin. Using bread or wontons, vegetables and sauces that are at your table, you make a sort of duck skin sandwich, along with some of the duck meat.Step 2: The meat is all carved off and you eat it with rice, bread products or one of the many MANY sides that are brought out to you. We were given all sorts of sides, including everything from steamed vegetables to beef dishes.
Step 3: The bones are taken back into the kithcen, ground up and boiled to make a soup, which is then served to you. Sadly, we were running so late that, I have a feeling that part of the meal was taken out so that we could get back to the dorm at a reasonable hour.
It was truly an amazing meal. The way the overwhelming majority of meals work here in China is that a bunch of different dishes are brought out and people take small portions at a time. Everything is placed on a giant lazy susan that you just rotate to get to whatever you need. It's completely different from America, where we order everything separately and rarely eat anyone else's food.
So, suffice it to say, it's been a long couple of days. Tomorrow, we head off to the Great Wall and then to some sort of tunnel system underground.
Talk to you all soon,
Phil
1 comment:
Hi Phil,
It sounds as if you are getting the "Emperor" treatment, except no mistresses, I presume. There have been some specials on tv that have featured all the preparations for the Olympics, which sounds like may have happened with the "ancient" Buddhist temple. Regardless, I think that it is great that China is hosting. Any country would want to represent themselves most positively.
When I was in high school administration, one of our new students was from China and her family had one of the best Chinese restaurants in town. They treated several school personnel to a special meal -- several courses and served with the lazy susan. It was incredible.
Can't wait to hear about the Great Wall -- you are getting probably a better experience than most tourists. Thanks for sharing.
Dr. Bush
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