We left for Beijing, China yesterday. We started out at 7:00am for an 8:45 flight. Everything went pretty smooth except the 1 ½ hour wait on the plane without any air conditioning (outside temp approx 90 degrees and the air conditioner was broken until the plane was in flight) while we waited for the go ahead for our turn to leave. We were miserable and so were the other 400 or so people. It was never clear why we had to wait, but I guess the airport is very busy that time of day. Beijing and Shanghai are fairly close by plane; the flight was about 1 ½ hours, much closer than it appeared on the map.
Beijing is very different from Shanghai. It was obvious right from the start. The city is not as full of high rises and there is a lot of activity going on in preparation for the Olympics which will start here in just over a month. I mentioned in an earlier entry that I had made a new friend in Redmond who has a brother in Shanghai who helped us out, well the same friend has a really good friend here in Beijing and her and her family took us sight seeing today. Leona, YanMin and their 2 year old daughter, Sherry took us to see the Summer Palace and The Heaven Temple.
We started at the Heaven Temple and I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I am in complete awe of the detail in the buildings and history here. Everything is so beautiful. There is a story behind every detail; nothing was done without a reason.
I told Jeff that I was sad that we don’t put as much thought and effort into our surroundings like they did during this era. He said he thought we put that same energy into different things today such as technology. I guess he’s probably right, but it doesn’t seem so obvious to me now because I am living in it and this is history which always seems more interesting or magnified.
The story behind the Summer Palace is the emperor had the place built for his mother’s 60th birthday as a gift. Can you imagine? Aiden said he needed to get started right away; maybe mine will be ready for my 50th birthday? The palace was built with money that the emperor collected from the people. Apparently, this created quite a stir…hmmm, I can’t imagine why. It really is quite an amazing place. The entire palace covers 716 acres. He had a lake hand dug out of the middle and then had all the dirt moved to one area where he built a small mountain for a series of buildings for praying in (called the Longevity Hill). The picture below shows the mountain (as it was called when it was described to me) on the right where the dirt was mounded for the prayer buildings to be built.
The story behind the Summer Palace is the emperor had the place built for his mother’s 60th birthday as a gift. Can you imagine? Aiden said he needed to get started right away; maybe mine will be ready for my 50th birthday? The palace was built with money that the emperor collected from the people. Apparently, this created quite a stir…hmmm, I can’t imagine why. It really is quite an amazing place. The entire palace covers 716 acres. He had a lake hand dug out of the middle and then had all the dirt moved to one area where he built a small mountain for a series of buildings for praying in (called the Longevity Hill). The picture below shows the mountain (as it was called when it was described to me) on the right where the dirt was mounded for the prayer buildings to be built.
We only went through one quarter of the summer palace and we spent many hours there. It’s just building after building of amazing artifacts and history.
My understanding was this is where he would go when he needed to get away and relax. There is an island in the middle of the lake, connected by a bridge.
Apparently the idea behind the island is that it would be cooler out there surrounded by all the water. There is a series of hallways that zigzag along one side of the lake called the endless hallway and it goes on for 728 meters (2,388 feet). Along the walkway there are beams every 10 feet or so and each beam has a painting that tells a different story.
There is a unique picture on every beam (14,000 scenic pictures in all). All of this was done by hand.
There is a unique picture on every beam (14,000 scenic pictures in all). All of this was done by hand.
The other interesting feature of buildings and furniture of this time is nothing is built with nails or other attachment type devices. The pieces are locked together like a puzzle and are quite sturdy as a result. Smart people!
We had yet another interesting dinner tonight with our new friends. We had a traditional Beijing duck dinner. The chef brought the roasted duck out whole and carved it in front of us. I guess there is one of three specific ways that the duck can be carved and of course they are all significant in different ways. I didn’t quite follow it all, but we watched with anticipation for our chance to eat. Next we were shown the different ways we could wrap our duck into little pancakes with a duck sauce and other chopped bits of food. My children devoured this bird. It really was good! Toward the end of the meal we noticed that the duck’s head was cut in half and left on the plate. Jeff and the kids wanted to try to eat the edible pieces of the head, but couldn’t decide which parts to eat. They decided that the brain was the only part they could realistically eat. Ducks have very small brains and trying to figure out how to divide that four ways was interesting to watch. I have tried lamb brain (it wasn’t bad) before and I don’t have any desire to do that again. Been there, done that, thanks.
We had yet another interesting dinner tonight with our new friends. We had a traditional Beijing duck dinner. The chef brought the roasted duck out whole and carved it in front of us. I guess there is one of three specific ways that the duck can be carved and of course they are all significant in different ways. I didn’t quite follow it all, but we watched with anticipation for our chance to eat. Next we were shown the different ways we could wrap our duck into little pancakes with a duck sauce and other chopped bits of food. My children devoured this bird. It really was good! Toward the end of the meal we noticed that the duck’s head was cut in half and left on the plate. Jeff and the kids wanted to try to eat the edible pieces of the head, but couldn’t decide which parts to eat. They decided that the brain was the only part they could realistically eat. Ducks have very small brains and trying to figure out how to divide that four ways was interesting to watch. I have tried lamb brain (it wasn’t bad) before and I don’t have any desire to do that again. Been there, done that, thanks.
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