Two days in one: summer home, monks, warriors, and dumplings

The last attraction we saw in Bejing was the Summer Palace.  Depending on who's story you here this is either the summer vacation home of the Emperor and his family or a place to put the child-Emperor's meddling Buddhist mother when she was getting in the way of the government. 

The walk was plenty enjoyable though.  I talked with our tour guide as we walked through these painted archways.  Each meeting point gazebo, as I have pictured here, represents a season.  The rest of the walls and ceilings tell historical stories.  

The local guide explained that a majority of people didn't go to school so the middle class artists made it a point to get in as much history/education talking points into their work.  Especially if they knew there would would be viewed.  Here in the summer palace the staff and staff's family would be able to see these stories and become learned.

The art was practical.  The marble boat pictured here on the right, seems a little less practical.  Seeing as marble doesn't float and all.

The last picture we took together in Beijing was here in Summer Palace, looking a little less summer-y.  From there we headed out to the airport to catch a place to Xian.

Xian is poorer, more farm-based community.  The history though still runs very rich.  The real claim to fame here in Xian is the Terra Cotta Warriors.  But we had nearly two days to spend in Xian so we started with visiting a monk's temple.  Da Yang Ta (the big goose pagoda).  The pagoda itself was not all that picturesque. 

So... here's a picture of Marissa and Kiana with a more modern built building designed to look like the ancient buildings.

Currently there are about 30 living monks who still reside here.  It was a nice peaceful place, despite the tourists and all.  I snapped some photos of a Fudog (half dragon half dog protector of the home).  Our guide walked us up to a pair of them and asked if we could tell the gender of the Fudog.  I hadn't a clue.  

They looked exactly the same.  So here's a lesson for you just in case it even come up in conversation, the female Fudog stands upon a baby Fudog.  The male Fudog stands atop a ball.  The ball represents power.  This of course begs for more comment but I am leaving it at this-- male Fudogs play with power-balls.

Rubbing the head of the Fudog also gives luck.  Different though than the Buddha belly-rub luck the Fudog gives protective luck.  Like protection against bad spirits.  The Buddha luck is more like prosperity luck.  

Inside the Big Goose Temple was an incredible jade wall hanging representing the Buddha of the past, present and future.

Again this felt like one of those places I could have gladly spent much more time in. We entered an art studio and gift shop and I saw several postings with buddhist guides. One in particular spoke to me. It was the guide to simple living.

We had in that studio a mini-lesson on the two types of Chinese paintings. There's the freehand stuff (which I prefer) and then the more monotonous painting.

I forget what they called it but the process is intense. A picture is drawn and then retraced on to rice paper (which is actually like a pulp mixture with rice stalks and bamboo). The sketching on rice paper is then colored by adding several layers of paint to fill in each panel.


There was one particular piece that had birch trees and cranes. It reminded me of Alaska. But when I asked about it, I found it to be way out of my price range. I snapped a photo of a large cherry blossom piece contended to not actually be able to afford anything in there. But in the end I found a pair of paintings with love birds on bamboo that I did end up purchasing. After the haggling over the price of course.


After we left the Big Goose Temple gift shop with more luggage and a smaller wallet, we went to another jade factory. Oh, by the way, the Big Goose Temple was founded on the tale that Chinese monks went to Tibet to study. Historically in Tibet the monks were strict vegetarians. I guess now, they are looser, and only the monks from China remain vegan, but at the time they were vegetarians. One monk accidentally had some roasted goose he asked for forgiveness and it was immediately granted. But this Chinese monk felt so guilty he honored the goose by building a temple where others could train in a more stringent environment then those in Tibet.


Anyway... this second jade workshop was pretty nice. I didn't spend nearly what I spend at the first place of course, but there was a lot of neat things to see. On display was a piece of unrefined jade. It looks, as you can see, like a boring old rock, but inside... ooo... emerald and yellow jade throughout.


Leaving the jade museum I snapped a picture of a guy who had to stop on his bike for our ginormous air conditioned bus to pass by.

So this brings me to the Terra Cotta Warriors. Which sounded like buried Chinese Walruses every time our local tour guide said it. These Terra Cotta Warriors were found by a farmer in 1976. Randomly he was digging a well when he came across a terra cotta body part. The Chinese government offered the farmer 40 RMB (less than six dollars) and excavated 8000 Terra Cotta Warriors which is now one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country.

The farmer has been compensated since then though. He now hangs out in the museum and signs books for a government assisted income.

There's a story that goes with him. Several years ago Bill Clinton came to China for a visit with Hillary and Chelsea. The farmer was told he had to learn English because he was to meet and shake hands with the president of the USA. Now, this guy is near 80 and it's hard to pick up the language, you know? So his teacher told him you just need to learn to phrases, "how are you?" and "me too." He was instructed to shake Clinton's hand and say the first thing and then when Clinton answered he should sya the second phrase.

When the time came the farmer mumbled his words and asked, "who are you?" Bill Clinton thought he was being sort of cheeky so he answered, "Hillary's husband." The farmer answered, "me too." Bill sort of laughed it off and then asked to take a picture with him. At the time he was not given an income straight out for his signature and instead he charged people 10 RBM (70 cents) for his picture. So the farmer agreed to the picture with our former president ONLY after he paid the fee.

So anyway... the attraction is a huge underground army that was built over 500 years ago and buried five meters below the surface. As you can see from the in-progress photo on the right, not all of the warriors held up under the weight of the earth. It has been quite and ordeal piecing together the warriors.


There are three separate pits. The first is the largest and the one actually found by the farmer. The second is the smallest with only a couple of hundred warriors. And the third is in progress. It is expected to be about 2000 warriors. All officers. Unlike in the first pit where all of the warriors are facing east and wearing little armor, this pit contained warriors facing one another.

While there, my dad and I got our faces photoshopped into Terra Cotta Warriors. My dad is an officer and I am an archer. I'm not going to post a photo of a photo but just trust me when I say I make a damn realistic male terra cotta archer warrior.

Before turning in from a very long day we ate dumplings at a special Xian restaurant. There were 18 courses of dumplings and each one looked like a piece of art.  I love dumplings.  

    

The Olympics decoration did not fade once we left Bejing, by the way. As you can see the Chinese are pretty proud to be hosting. I snapped these two photos as we were driving to our hotel.

     

The Olympics, The Wall, The Tomb, Jade and Acrobats (incomplete--check back tomorrow)

So, I am sorry to admit this in writing and all but I didn't know the Olympics would be happening here in Bejing. I mean, I remember traveling a couple of years ago and seeing cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and Hong Kong all advertising to be selected as the sites for these up coming Olympic games. But I never really paid attention to who "scored" the Summer 08 Olympic games. I just don't keep track of these things in the village.

But now, with events a mere 45 days away, Bejing is definitely gearing up for the Olympics. I snapped three photos of official Oylmpic buildings. The first on the left here is the building where all swimming and events will take place. The second picture here to the right is the Cycling building.

The last pictures I snapped is of the building they call the Bird's Nest. Kind of cool looking, huh? This is the building where the opening and closing ceremonies will take place.


The tour guides explained that next month they have cancelled all tours of this area and instead are planning to visit the United States. It is sure to be chaotically-crazy. At one point I guess the Chinese government put a cap on how high hotel can charge for their rooms. There was an official edict to prevent the gouging. The new policy is that hotels can NOT charge more than SIX TIMES their normal rate. Way to stick to their guns, huh? Whew!

Another interesting thing I learned in regards to the Olympic Games here in Bejing is that the core of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze metals will have Jade. White, green, and yellow jade will be incased in the gold, silver, and bronze. We went to a jade factory today but I didn't snap any pictures. I did, however, purchase a jade bangle for myself. It was costly, I am not going to lie. But I scored a pretty good deal, I think. I paid about 170 USD less than what it was marked at. I was willing to pay about 80 USD less than what is was marked but my mom is a bargaining champ.

It's a lavender jade with a little splash of green in it. I've had it on since I purchased it and I don't anticipate taking it off. As someone who doesn't wear jewelry my only real issue so far is that I now have my watch on my right wrist. And that's really foreign. Typing is wired. But I suppose with time, I'll get used to it.



So as I said I didn't take a picture of the jade factory but I did snap some shops of another shop we went into. We also went to a cloisonne factory. The workers take tiny strips of metal and manipulate them into swirls and other decorative designs and then attach them to a vase or plate or whatnot. They said a medium sized vase will take about a month to cover with the metal.



It's so precise. So interesting and intricate. I really was impressed with this stage of the art. After the wire work is complete paint is added. It takes 8 to 9 coats of paint. It is then pounded and fired and polished and all shined up to make the completed cloisonne piece. In all honesty, I'm not a big fan. I mean I like the piece with the bronze wire but once it's all painted and glazed, it looks kind of cheesy.

I mean I can appreciate the work but it's just not my thing.

I did buy some other things there in the cloisonne factory. Specifically, I purchased a present for Michelle and her fiance Marc. I hope they like them. If they don't I am SOL because they're specifically made for them.

Today we went to two factories. We watched one stage performance and we visited two tourist attractions. The first was an Emperor's Tomb. The second was the Great Wall.


The tomb we visited was built for the third to the last emperor in the Ming Dynasty. He ruled for 47 years. The two who followed ruled for only a handful of months each. This is said to be the second largest Ming tomb in China. The largest is having problems getting funded. That tomb is said to hold 1/4 of the countries riches and yet they can't find the funding to excavate. Hmm...

This photo to the right here is of our whole tour group. There are 30 of us from all over the United States. All but two of us speak English but most of the travelers are bilingual it seems.

The tomb we visited is surrounded by a garden. The garden had all sort of snap-worthy artifacts like these marble elephant table and chairs. The trees were clearly well cared for. And like in the Forbidden City Garden they trees here had the red and green plates indicating the tree's age.

There were several shops set up to sell good as well. One in particular caught my eye by opening up a variety of umbrellas and placing them around the stand. I was only one of several who found these worthy of a photograph.

With the garden being so immaculately decorated I was really looking forward to seeing the inside of this tomb. We went down about a dozen staircases (about 150 steps) to get to the base of the tomb. We circled around for a while until we got to the main attraction. The main tomb where the famous Emperor was laid to rest.

So there it is on the left there. The tallest red thing is where the emperor was buried. The slightly smaller one is where the Empress is. And those little red boxes were jewelry boxes. The concubines were buried in a different room within the tomb.

Generally speaking it was pretty lackluster down there. I walked back up and out of the tomb more interested in the gardens outside than the actual coffins. Sabrina ran up behind me and asked if I saw the ceiling. She said the staircase we took back up had a decorated ceiling. She asked for my camera and then ran back and snapped this picture on the right. So there it is... frills.

After dinner we went to an acrobatics show. They allowed pictures to be taken and unlike the previous show there wasn't a story to fallow. Just a bunch of "oooo" and "ahhhhh" moments. I didn't like it as much. I mean sure it was nice. Impressive. Picturesque. But... you know... how much of that can one sit through?

Perhaps it's like the difference between Nicole and I with music. I prefer the lyrics. She prefers the melody. I like the artistry but I prefer a storyline in my stage productions.

Regardless, it was pretty so I snapped a ton of pictures. We were in the front row so I found some of it a little too personal. The dragons came right to the edge of the stage at one point and one even barked at me. Eek!

For the most part my dad thought the woman did much more than the men. He was impressed with their components. They did a whole 10 minutes or so with tricks on bikes. A couple of times they did poses with eight woman all balanced on one bike as you can see from the photo on the right. "no hands" was clearly just the very beginning of their act.

There was another group that caught my eye though. Two men in only their boxer shorts came out and flexed their muscles for us for a while. Then they did all sorts of strange isometrics. It was so homoerotic I caught myself wanting to turn away at times to give them their own private time.

Rather than leave though I snapped a bunch of pictures. I mean come on... I pay for this stuff on Showtime back in the states. *sigh* I miss QAF.

Sidebar: Dee-- okay I saw it, David A was sort of QAF's Michaelesque. But I SO preferred Syesha. And when it came down to it I think I liked David Cook better too. He ranked about third for me I think. I thought he sang through his nose. I wanted to reach through the TV and open his mouth open more.

So... that leaves just our visit to the Great Wall. From the entrance there are two ways to travel. Off to the left is said to be the harder journey. There are 7 towers but a more stringent grade. Off to the right there are 8 towers. Kiana, Marissa, and Sabrina ll took the harder, less crowded option. My parents and I went off to the right.


Now here's where I might totally confuse you. Behind the picture of the girls is the trail that they DIDN'T take. The picture of me off to the left actually shows the harder (left) trail that the girls took.

Technically speaking, the picture of me was taken (by myself) half way up the trail on the right. So it's not that they hiked that whole thing pictured. Instead they hiked from the lowest point in the picture to way over past the highest part pictured. The trail apparently wraps down around the far side of that mountain. I wouldn't know first hand, because as I said, I wussed out with the right side.

Not that the right side was a breeze. In fact, I only made it half way. My parents when up to tower seven and barely made it back to the bus in time. I decided getting to tower four (the top of the mountain that is pictured behind the girls) was good enough for me. The views were beautiful. Ands after all, the hike was plenty strenuous up to that point. There were a few in our group that gave up long before tower #4.

So I will probably regret not having gone further. After all, it's not like I have another chance anytime soon. And also, I wasn't exactly smoked at the top of tower four. In fact, I went back from tower four to the main gate without even stopping once. Which means, I had plenty of strength and control left in me. We had about 80 minutes at the Great Wall. Getting to Tower Four took me about 30 minutes. Could I have kept it going? Sure. I probably would have made it to Tower Seven as my parents did. But I don't think I would have made it to the end (Tower Eight) in that time limit.

That is really the drawback in a tour like this, I think. There are some places I just want to spend more time in. And, in all honesty, there are some places I don't want to go to at all.

It's 10:50pm right now. The day AFTER the events I have written about here actually took place. Today we started at 7:00am and we didn't check into our new hotel room until 10:30pm. That sucked. I'm smoked. 

We watched a show again. This one was strictly music and dance. There wore bright colored outfits. Shiny things everywhere. But... I'm tired. Our whole tour group is. The guy in the table next to our was yawning ridiculously loud.

I don't want to be disrespectful. Not at all. But... a few more days like this and I think I will struggle with keeping my attitude in check, you know?

Tanks, Ducks, Concubines, Kung Fu, and Heaven

*sigh*  I swear to you that I have written more notes and taken many more pictures than what I am going to post for you today.  This *IS* the edit.  :)

Today marks the first real day of our tour of China.  We started with a nice breakfast.  As is usually the case with these tours, breakfast was pretty westernized.  Actually, I found it a nice combination of Chinese and American food.  Sort of like my own diet.  

So on my plate there is bacon and eggs, pineapple and watermelon, potatoes and pork bao, snow peas and bok choy.  On the side I have congee with green onions and tofu, and hot tea with milk and sugar.  Mmm... the best of all worlds.

Our first stop was Tian'an men Square.  Interestingly I can't access much about Tian'an men Square from the Internet here. In fact in addition to the blogger block, I found that in researching Tian'an men Square wikipedia, youtube, and most photos searched are blocked too. And Google? It's sort of half-assed. It seems someone in China has a grip on the Internet here. And whoever that is is not real willing to let local information seekers learn about the massacre.

Anyway... we went to Tian'an men Square today and I learned that in the center is a tower called, "Hero's Memorial." On Sundays local honored primary students get chosen to stand at the entrance to the memorial and raise flags in couple-hour shifts. Today just happened to be Sunday so I snapped a shot of the uniformed tykes.

It was a strange sort of place to be. There were guards in uniforms walking amongst us casually. On the bus we were told you may not take pictures of these guards though... they ARE working. And if it looks like you are wanting to cause a ruckus you will be "handled". Our guide told us that on a previous tour a group took out a newspaper and snapped a photo (I am thinking like the Delta Discovery--people take the local AK paper to different places and snap a photo that appears in the newspaper as a sort of shout-out) Anyway... this newspaper was apparently confiscated by the guards and the couple taking the picture were held up about 20 minutes for questioning. It was all just sort of strange feeling.

I snapped a photo of the group traveling. And while my plan was to not post it... just keep it for my own collection, I am going to go ahead and show it to you here.

Do you see that chain behind them. It marked off the square that didn't seem particularly important or anything. But a few minutes after I snapped the picture a little boy ran under the chain and into the open area. Two guards called after him. He didn't respond so they chased after him. When they reached him he looked up at them.

WAY UP at them. Because he reached about mid-thigh. They pointed to the chain he had crossed. He sort of half stumbled, half ran, back to his family, frightened. They too were frightened and took a hold of him on both sides. I couldn't snap a photo of the guards but I did get this one here of the criminal.

At the edge of Tian'an men Square is the Imperial City (wherein lies the Forbidden City). Prior to the end of the last Emperor this is where the Emperor's family would stay when visiting. We entered the Imperial City and walked the 3.2 miles through the part that is open to tourists.

There is this one particular place called the Meridian Gate within this outer area of the Forbidden City. The Meridian Gate was a place where people were tortured or put to death 400 years ago. Wars were also "announced" in this great open area. Our guide told us specifically about one autumn when 360 officials were tortured and then dropped from high off the ground to eventually die by hitting the ground. It was all pretty gruesome.

I looked down to the ground to imagine these 360 bodies meeting their eventual end by broken neck or whatnot on the earth, and I saw I had a hitchhiker with me. Do you see him there? Using me as protection as we crossed the meridian? Wishing me luck perhaps?

After we crossed the Meridian Gate we officially entered the Forbidden City, or rather the gathering place for officers who waited for the Emperor's daytime Court. Here I had a photo snapped of our whole group crossing one of four bridges crossing a moat. This was an entrance only for men. It seems the Empress and concubines (the only woman allowed into the Forbidden City) had another entrance. An entrance forbidden to us tourists.

Our tour guide gave us some time near the officer's "Break Room" so I snapped a photo of Sabrina poking the roof of one of the several male-only buildings. This one in particular was one that is being all shined up for the Olympics so we couldn't go inside. This picture could have been better without my backpack in the way, but you get the drift.

I took a random picture near the highest point in the Forbidden City. You can see here a little of the general expanse. There are 9,000 rooms within the Forbidden City. Heaven is believed to have 10,000 rooms so the Forbidden City worked hard to get close to Heaven and yet respect that the Emperor is not a god.

Everything was so intricately designed. I snapped a photo of a roof top corner just to give you a little peek as to the details in every building. Numbers of animals in the design all have important meaning. Buildings with odd numbers of animals are for men. Also, specifically, the number nine means longevity. Any even numbered designs signaled places for the Empress and other concubines.

The life of a concubine fascinates me; what can I say? I snapped a picture here of one of the many concubine rooms. Each one had a lock from the outside. The guide said they pretty much spent their entire existence in this room. In the evening the Emperor would walk the courtyard between the concubine's room and choose one or two to talk to. Yes, my tour guide told us he would chose who he would "talk" to. hee hee.

When the Emperor died concubines had one of two choices. She could choose to be buried alive in the tomb of the Emperor, in sacrifice; or she could move to a small house until she died of natural causes. This second choice carried with it little honor. What a lonely existence and what a strange choice to make at the end. I imagine the concubines all together at the end who chose to be buried with their Emperor. Sure, they were seen as nobel... but in that room... did they share stories of regret? Or did they stay proud? They are woman after all. I can imagine some major bitch-fests.

In between all of the concubines' rooms we saw the Emperor's room. I wasn't that impressed. It was frankly pretty small. We KNOW this is the Emperor and Empress's room though because it had a golden blanket and only the Emperor would decorate his bedroom with this color.

Leaving this area we entered the Forbidden Garden. Honestly, I missed the stories here because I had somehow managed to misplace my sun glasses attachment. Marissa offered to retrace our steps to see if it could be found. The tour moved on without us into the garden while she ran back. I didn't even find them which is a bummer because they fit rather nicely and it's damn sunny out. But that's just the the way it is sometimes. Life could be worse. I could like... be a concubine or something.

I did though hear an explanation on why the trees were each given a red or green plate. They said the green-plated trees were less than 300 years old but the red plated trees have been growing for more than 300 years. You can see here a photo of both.

After we left the Forbidden City we had a nice lunch, and then headed over to a park called the Temple of Heaven. Also in Bejing there is said to be two gates. One gate enters a Temple made by an Emperor the other enters the Temple of Heaven. It is said that an Emperor had a dream that God dropped seven stones from the heavens indicating where to build this specific temple.

The temple itself is a architectural mystery. It is said to be made of three large tree trunks and there isn't a metal nail in the whole thing. The drawback to this is that this is actually the third Temple of Heaven because the first two burned down.

The temple is not open to the public. But there are four showrooms around the temple that show what it does look like on the inside. In addition to the amazing paintings and other decorative elements the temple has a staircase and an alter. The Emperor was to place his givings to God on the steps and then burn them. Yeah, do you see how the Temple of Heaven burned down a couple of times?

Here's another group shot of us facing the Temple. That building behind us is one of those showrooms. We had about 30 minutes to wander this area. I was rather disappointed with this because on the outside of the gate surrounding the Temple of Heaven and the four showrooms, was a park. The park is very popular for exercise, music, dance, card games, etc. In the mornings the locals pack the place with their leisure activities and in the afternoons it's flooded with tourists and retired people. There was one guy in particular we passed on the way to the Temple who was playing a really interestingly looking string instrument. I was hoping to snap a picture of him, but our "freetime" was within the Temple gates. Not in the park.

So... left with just a quick walk by, I was only able to snap this photo to share. As you can see playing card games near heaven is a popular past time. Who am I kidding, this is exactly how *I* hope to be lucky enough to spend my retirement. Whether that be really here in Bejjing or some other beautiful park that makes me feel near God is irrelevant to me. I'll place my own seven stones. 

Sitting near the temple I snapped a couple of photos myspace-style. Here's Sabrina and me on the left. And Marissa and I are posed here on the right.

After we left the Temple of Heaven we went back to the hotel for about an hour. Marissa and Kiana whipped out their DS and started clicking away. Sabrina sat at my computer and typed an email to her mom. I flipped on the TV and watched "The Net" on one of the two English stations we get in our hotel. My parents went to a nice courtyard on the side of the hotel and did a little Tai Chi before  one took a shower and the other took a quick nap.

After our hour of downtime we went to an optional performance called, "The History of Kung Fu." It told the story of a young boy who trained at the Shaolin Temple to be a great leader. It was amazing! I bought a copy of it thinking I would gift it to a couple (Ted Berry and Pam Lau) I know who run a Karate program in Bethel. However, not opening it myself might be tough. It was so amazing. The costume. The strength. The acrobatics. The color. The pacing. It will be hard to not open it up myself to share it with others. I snapped just this one photo as the curtain fell. You'll just have to use your imagination until I break open my DVD copy.

After spending some time and money at the gift shop there, we were bused back to the hotel to pick up those on our tour who did not go to the History of Kung Fu.

Reunited, we all went to dinner together. We had our official Peeking Duck dinner. Or rather our Bejing roasted Duck dinner. They cut the duck tableside and then taught us how to roll them up with these potato pancakes.

Inside the pancake is the oily and flavorful Bejing Duck dipped in oyster sauce and sprinkled with onion threads.

We were told by our local guide that Bejing food is known for being very oily and very salty. I liked everything but it also further drove home for me the fact that I prefer the poor, light, Vietnamese food to the more popular in American-Chinese food.

It was tasty. Everything was tasty. Here's a closing picture of our dinner table.

Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall.