If I ever come back to China, this place will be on the list!

June 28, 2008- Saturday

We got up and went for a jog before our Chinese Student Led field trip for the week. Last week we drew numbers to see what groups we would have and this week we just counted off into three groups of five. Andy (some of the Chinese students introduce themselves using the English name they have given themselves or a grade school teacher gave them- it is far easier that way) and Chang were the group leaders for our group. Jessica, Deryck, Johanna, Greg, and I were in a group(although none of the pictures have Deryck in them because he refused to get pictures with us for some reason) and with the rest of the group we walked to the bus stop. When the proper bus came, Andy told us to get on. We paid 1 Yuan, which is about 15 cents to ride the bus and it was extremely full especially by the time we made it to the Summer Palace. The weather was a lot nicer than our trip to the Forbidden City the previous week and the area was quite crowded. We paid 50.00 Yuan (less than $10.00) for a ticket inside and started our adventure.

The Summer Palace was a seasonal imperial retreat from the stifling confines of the Forbidden City. It was the favorite haunt of the fierce some Empress Cixi, who had it rebuilt twice: once following its destruction by French and English troops in 1860 and again in 1902 , after it was plundered during the Boxer Rebellion. It was absolutely beautiful and will be the place I will for sure return to if I ever come back here. It had elaborate buildings, similar to the Forbidden City and plenty of what I assume to be brass decorations. There were walkways and paths all over the place and they were full of people from all over the world. Greg bought a map and Andy and Chang led us through the whole place. We sat down inside one courtyard area and watched a few artsy performances of singing, dancing, and instruments. The performers were wearing very colorful and exquisite costumes. We walked up and down big flights of stairs looking at all sorts of buildings. We walked up and around paths through a woods area that was absolutely beautiful. Everything right down to the sidewalks was decorated with detail. We had to use our ticket to get into certain parts of the palace. One part was a shopping area that was built for the dynasty years ago and is still for shopping today. There was a huge lake with all kinds of boats on it. In fact, visitors could pay money to go on a boat ride, but we didn’t because Andy and Chang wouldn’t let us pay for them if we asked and we didn’t want them to have to pay to ride it. My favorite part of the whole day was all of the lily pads that were on the lakes. It seemed like they just went on forever and they were absolutely beautiful!

There was a long corridor, which was basically like a never ending gazebo path that has over 14,000 paintings on its beams and ceilings. We walked over a bridge to a center island that has seventeen arches and has a large bronze ox on it from 1755. There are marble lions all along both sides of the bridge. There was also a big marble boat that was paid for by Cixi with funds meant for the Imperial Navy. The entire area was 170 acres and I do believe we walked the whole thing. We were there for six hours total, and I loved ever minute of it. It was gorgeous.

Eventually we boarded the bus to come home, thanked Andy and Chang for leading us, and went into our hotel to relax. Not all of the groups were back yet, but eventually they trickled in. We rested until about 9:00 p.m. and then went to check out some Beijing night life. Getting somewhere is always an adventure here. From the last time we tried to go to the “Silk Market” area, we had two of the four slips of paper that had “Silk Market” written in Chinese. We went to the road and hailed taxis, showing the driver of two of the cars the paper and sending them off and then keeping the two papers for the last two cars. Juan, Nick, and I were in the same taxi and low and behold, the guy took us to the same wrong “Silk Market” that Ashe, Jess, Mark, and I had been separated from the group at before. Juan had been to the correct one so she knew we were clearly in the wrong place. DongFang had the place marked on the map last time, but it is my theory that it is the wrong spot as well because as soon as we got it out, he took us to the wrong place. Nevertheless, we piled out, paid our total of 50 Yuan (less than $10.00 total) and starting walking. We walked past a lot of people out enjoying the night life, but knew we were for sure in the wrong place. We just kept walking.

Eventually, we got to a darker side of town and I told Juan that we needed to get a taxi and try again. Right then, we found 300 Yuan (about $15.00 each). Soon we got a taxi and started be-bopping across town again. Finally, Juan started to notice things that looked familiar. Eventually, she told the driver to pull over and we all piled out yet again. This time we paid about $3.00 Yuan each which is about 45 cents. We started walking toward where Juan thought the people would be. I spotted Ashe and Jess with Paige at the street corner across the road and Juan shouted to them. We all were excited that we finally found each other. The led us to the place the rest of the group was at and we sat at tables outside and marveled at the number of Europeans and Americans that were gallivanting around this area. Eventually, by simply showing the taxi driver DongFang’s business card we all got taxis back home and called it a night.