Sun 11-18-07 Summer Palace

Imperial Summer Palace

The afternoon was spent at the Imperial Summer Palace. I would love to see this in the summer! The Imperial Lions guard the palace. If the lion is male, he has the world under his paw. If the lion is female, there is a cub on his back under her paw.

The Summer Palace was destroyed and rebuilt several times since the original construction in the 1400’s. It was most famous where Empress Cixi imprisoned the Emperor Guanxu and ran the country herself. The place was absolutely huge, with a giant lake in the middle and beautiful buildings on the hills. We jostled down the Long Corridor, under roof, and again were under attack from street vendors. At one point the police came, and the vendors ran away fast. Solomon said that he couldn't really say anything because it could result in a physical attack on him personally. I looked for the marble boat, but I think we didn't go far enough.

Solomon said that the stones in the gardens are very important. There must be a place on them that looks like a maiden; there must be holes; there must be permeable matter. I could not find the maiden. Can you?

Even on this cold November day there were many people. I would love to see the Summer Palace in the summer, but I imagine that the crowds would be huge.

The dragon is the symbol of the Emperor. The Phoenix is the symbol of the Empress.

Another huge stone was at the exit. It is called the Blue Iris Stone. I didn't find the maiden here, either.

I was fascinated with the stone patterns in the walkway.

As we left the Summer Pavillion, these greeters with their smiles waved good-bye.
We were again on our way down the road in our bus. Our restaurant for the evening meal had a little greeter that I thought could have been from an American cartoon. Most restaurants had bamboo in some form and many had an aquarium.
We had the Peking Duck meal here and most thought it was very good. The duck meat was seasoned and cooked and sliced very thin. The meat was put into a rice wrap and then vegetables and herbs put on top along with sauces.The center dish was mustard greens and was seen at almost every meal in China. They were very mild and good, however I suspect that everything had MSG, a flavor enhancer, because after the third day, I developed a rash and had to stop eating for a while. Thank goodness for hydrocortisone cream and benedryl that Phyllis, our mother-leader had brought!



Even though we were jet-lagged and extremely tired, we voted to attend the performance of Kung Fu which is seen only in the Red Theater in Beijing. It was a marvelous performance about a boy who goes to a monastry and becomes the master of the martial arts and the monastry. I had been warned not to buy DVD's, but took the risk and it is phenomenal. I am glad I have it, because during the performance, I would blink and couldn't get my eyes open. This was a busy day for 33 jet-lagged people! Now we were on our way back to He Ping Li Hotel to get some shut-eye!