Got up at 6:30am and chatted with the security guard on directions to the Summer Palace. He was a nice man who was very appreciative that I took the time to talk to him. On the way out in search for breakfast, I came across a group of young Chinese girls traveling in Beijing. I decided to follow them since we both had the same agenda, breakfast. I enthusiatically introduced myself, greeted them, inquired where they were from, where they stayed last night, where they were going, and what they were doing for breakfast. I quickly noticed their reservation in talking to a stranger so freely. They just ignored my questions and kept to themselves. I think I scared them with my overkill. One of the girls decided that we would all stopped by a hole in the wall place. I ordered what everyone else was ordering except without the meat part. I ended up with millet porridge for 1.5 yuan and free unlimited help yourself side dishes of fresh pickled vegetables. I also ordered soft silken tofu, it was served with tan vinegar. I noticed all the tables had vinegar instead of soy sauce. The porridge was more like watery soup with a few grains of millet in it than common porridge. I am sure to physically be transformed on this diet.
I thought getting up this early would put me on a head start, as it turns out the rest of Beijing is up and running by 7:30. I walked toward the bus station by the Drum Tower to catch my bus to the Summer Palace. I quickly learned how bus business was conducted. There is a bus driver and a ticket service person on the bus. The service person yells on the bus to find out who is getting off and yells out the door to call for riders. I noticed this system is in place instead of bells on the bus to signal getting off the bus. The positive side to this was, I can get the service person to tell me when to get off so I don't miss my stop. The draw back is, there’s someone yelling on the bus the whole time. You have to be very sleepy to snooze on the bus in my opinion. It took over an hour to get to the Summer Palace. On the bus I watched the working class rush to work. Whether its student or working professional, people on the bus did not get enough sleep at night. They were all dosing off on the bus. They must work long hours. I felt very comfortable and at home touring Beijing on a public bus. People are polite and not pushy, often very helpful. In general, I enjoyed a kind of simplicity in Beijing people. I also enjoy how they carry their energy in their body, it is unobtrusive. They work long hours, they walk a lot, they bike a lot, they are "qin lao"vigours workers. This all helps to ground and center they body.
I made it to the Summer Palace thinking it was early but the parking lot was full of empty tour buses, signs of tour groups having already flocked into the gates. When I got inside it was hard to get any photographs because there were people everywhere in all sorts of languages. I went to the lily pond and tried on court robes for 10yuan, again there were people everywhere and it was difficult to get a clean shot of myself. I had a girl help me snap a photograph of me, but she insisted that I make cheesy poses or else she wouldn’t take the picture. Great, just great, cheezy Sandy is all I need to add to my life.
On the way to the temple, there were people doing tai chi on the trail. It’s kind of odd to come all the way to the Summer Palace to do tai chi in my opinion. After passing through watch towers, with famous poetry inscribed on it I finally came across an old temple, only to find out one wall was left in this court yard. The front was still preserved and had two levels with matching painted artwork and woodwork. I noticed this is the place where people came for relief who had died, were killed or forced to suicide. I saw a court lady who was forced to hang herself and still wonders about there.
I decided to take a dragon boat across the lake to an island where there was a museum. I saw photographs of appointed wives for Empress D’s son. She appointed females from her family lineage to keep the power in her family. I couldn’t believe my eyes. No really, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’ll leave at that.
People think I am from Southern China because I speak pu-tung-hua, common language, meaning Mandarin. While I was in the area of Jiang Nan-Southern River, a nice policeman from Zhe Jiang on vacation tried to pick me up. He asked me to join him and his friends for dinner. He asked for my phone number, it was a good thing I didn't have one to give him. It just so happened I had to run to the restroom, so I ran away from him and didn't have to come up with creative excuses. This place called Jiang Nan was an area dedicated to look like the actual Jiang Nan with a river, boats, and shops all replicating Jiang Nan. This was designed for Palace Royalties who could not travel outside the palace to get a taste for the outside world. Here is where they can have fun buying things, bargaining, eat local delights, etc…. I found it to be fun, it really felt like a universal studio thing but it’s the real thing.
I spent all day at Summer Palace. I walked and walked and I didn't even cover the entire place. It smells like Venice but a bit better. Watched Chinese orchestra perform, saw ti-wu- palace dance, and Peking Opera Acrobats. As beautiful as the Summer Palace is, it just feels very neatly contained and an air of loneliness still is in the air peering out the window of each beautifully crafted building.
