Summer Palace

I had asked the man at the front desk of the hostel which bus I should take to the Summer Palace last night. He said, don't take the bus, the subway is much faster. He circled the two places I would have to change lines. It would take about 40 minutes. Ok, it was a fabulous deal, for 2 yuan or $0.31.

I arrived at about 9:15. I knew it should be just a short walk from the subway. I simply followed all the people. It was Saturday, so what should you expect. I was later to find out it was a long weekend in China. Everyone had Monday off too. It was the Dragon Boat Festival. So it would be crowded through Monday everywhere I went.

There were two ticket prices 30 or 60 yuan. I paid the higher price. I figured, since I am here, I may as well see everything. There were so many beautiful temples, courtyards, and gardens. Plus it was on the Kunming Lake so there was water all around the place. The grounds were huge and very pretty. Remember this was just the emperor's "summer" palace!

I happened to be carrying my Lonely Planet guidebook since they don't give you a map with your ticket. I was trying to figure out where I was going and at this point it seemed to be easier to keep the book out to reference the map in it versus going in and out of my bag every 5 minutes.

I walked in a gallery that simply had local artwork. I saw a couple westerner guys with a Chinese woman. The one guy held up his Lonely Planet guide. We all started chatting. The two guys were working for BMW in Shenyang They had met the Chinese woman there shortly after they arrived. She was their built in translator. She worked in fine arts. They were all spending the weekend in Beijing. The guys were from Germany. Ilias was here for a two year assignment and had only arrived a few months ago. He was really into the Chinese culture and was actively trying to learn as much Chinese as was possible in the next two years. BMW had just built a new plant for all the newly rich Chinese who liked to buy their expensive toys. Ilias worked in logistics.

Marcus was here for about 6 weeks and would probably go back to Germany soon. But it sounded like if he wanted to stay here they would be happy to have him. He had some commitments in Germany. It sounded like he was torn between here and there. He told me that China had changed him. It would be hard to just go back to his normal life in Germany after living here for 6 weeks.

As it turned out, they invited me to join them. They were just hanging out at the Summer Palace today just like me. For Ilias, this was his second time to Beijing since he was in China. He showed me pictures of the last time he was in Beijing at the Great Wall. He visited in winter and it wasn't very crowded. He went to the Mutianyu section. You could just walk for as long as you wanted. He and the group he went with rented a minibus. He said it was great. They were going tomorrow to the Badaling section, and if I wanted I could join them. I said I would think about it.

We just all kept walking continuing on to the next section of the palace. Eventually we got to the lake and it was really pretty. Lots of people were on boats. You could either take the tourist boat or rent a paddle boat. Ilias really wanted to take a paddle boat. He said he and Marcus would paddle Sherrie and I around and we could just enjoy the views. We actually waited in line for a short time and once we realized the line wasn't moving very fast, we decided it wasn't worth it. We might have to wait more than an hour to just get a boat.

So the more I talked to Ilias, it turned out he had Greek and Italian parents, but he was born in Germany. So he was European, but didn't fit strongly in either of the three nationalities. He said he was a blend. He went to college in several different countries. He also spoke 4 languages fluently. He worked at Fiat most recently in Italy before accepting the job at BMW.

He was like me in that he really loved to travel and have new cultural experiences. Marcus on the other hand was more of a dreamer or romantic. He was really interesting and I found my conversations with him were at a deeper level. Sherrie was very playful. Obviously she was very smart. She spoke English and Chinese. Her studies were in art history but her favorite period was late 1800's and early 1900's. She really liked Dali a lot. I told her that I visited the Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain and went to see his hometown in Port llgat. He was crazy and strange but so interesting.

At one point during the afternoon Sherrie bought bubbles. She was having the best time blowing bubbles, especially when the wind was blowing. We all eventually joined in and either would try to catch her bubbles, or blow them ourselves. It was really fun to watch what happened when other people saw the bubbles. Most times they would try to catch some too.

We worked our way to the end of the Summer Palace. Then Sherrie said we should go to this other park. I sort of was planning to go to the "old summer palace", but a park would be nice too. So we took a taxi there. I said I would still hang out. They were all very nice and very generous to let me tag along.

So it turned out that this park we went to was the old summer palace. Many places had been burned down by the English/French during the opium wars in the early 1900's. It became humorous to me that in every caption where there were ruins, the signs always indicated and blamed the two countries in violently destroying things during the opium wars. Maybe they did, but it just sounded so overly dramatic in the signs.

I found out that Marcus likes to hang out and relax. This totally fits the profile I had of him in my mind. He likes to see new things but when he gets there likes to just sit and enjoy. Not always continuing on to see the next thing but just enjoy the view or the present.

We had some funny conversations of our observances in China. Sometimes a tourist might think the Chinese are rude by going ahead in line for example. He said, they are not rude they are just in survival mode. There are so many people in this country, that the average citizen just acts on their own best interest. They are not maliciously trying to offend anyone. The same holds true for personal space. They get really close to you and just have a different comfort level of space than in western cultures.

At one point, it was really getting hot during the day. Some of the Chinese (men only), were lifting their shirts because they were hot. They were basically exposing their bellies. I think we walked by one man that in western cultures, would never expose his belly because he was fat. But he didn't care because he was hot! We both just giggled.

Same holds true for singing or dancing. The Chinese are not so fearful of what other people may think. If they feel like singing or dancing down the street they just do it. They don't worry that they might not be conforming to societal norms.

Some other random things I noticed are that cowboy hats are a big hit with the Chinese men here. I don't know if it's just a touristy thing and they are selling them at many locations I have been. But it is sometimes surprising and makes me laugh a little when I see them on Chinese. I mean even in the US, if you are going to wear a cowboy hat you better be a real cowboy and back it up with the cows, horses, and a ranch, etc.

We continued walking in the old Summer Palace to the ruins. There were sections that looked like ancient Greek and Roman ruins. These were parts destroyed by the English/French. But this section was not as old as it looked. It was built in the 1700-1800's.

Two of Ilias' colleagues were also in Beijing. This evening, they were all meeting for dinner. They were trying to coordinate. The co-workers were Chinese. Ilias would get the co-workers and then I would meet them nearby. We would all go out for Peking Duck.

This sounded good to me. I didn't have plans and they were all very nice to let me join them. So we took the subway back and agreed to meet at 7:30. Ilias and I exchanged phone numbers in case there was a problem or delay.

So closer to 8:00 everyone finally had arrived. We just had a short walk to the restaurant. When we got there, they said it was a 20-30 minute wait. We were all so hungry. I had eaten breakfast, but they had really only had coffee and some snacks during the day.

Finally our table was ready. It was less then 20 minutes. It was funny, because, there wasn't a bar area to wait for your table. There were chairs lined up in rows almost as if you were at the movie theatre. That's where you were to wait patiently.

So when we got the menus, we couldn't decided whether we should get 1/2 or a full duck. Again, we had Sherrie as our translator. We had to pick a few other dishes too. We were really so hungry. Finally we decided on a full duck. We ordered some tea and veggie, mushroom, and tofu dishes too. Finally our food came. I feel bad because Ariel and Michelle, Ilias' co-workers, must have been shocked by all the food we ate. They were finished eating in 10-15 minutes. The rest of us ate for a good 30-40 minutes straight until all the food was gone. We walked a lot today!

So after we finished we tried to get a taxi for the "bar street". Cabs don't always want to take you certain places as we found out. We waited and tried bargaining. No one wanted to take us there. Ilias and the girls got a taxi first. We said we would follow ASAP. We got one too eventually.

This "bar street" area is so huge. There is a small lake and then
bars for miles. It's unbelievable! We walked off dinner a little trying to find a place to go. I think Sherrie had a place in mind that she wanted to try so we let her lead. There were so many people out drinking and around walking. Lots were westerners but also lots of Chinese tourists and some locals too. Sherrie wanted to be at a place to see and be seen.

Marcus and her went in an Indian shop for about 15-20 minutes. It seemed like the prices were really high compared to what the same things cost in India. While we were waiting we saw some shisha places. Ilias asked the girls if they ever tried that. They said no. I always refer to them as girls because they were 22 or 23. It turns out that Sherrie and Ilias were only a month apart in age and Marcus and I were born in the same year. Yes, our group spanned three decades.

Finally they came out of the store with no purchases. We asked them if they wanted to do some shisha. I guess they had never done it before either. Only Ilias and I were experts. We each had done it twice!

So we continued looking for a place with the coolness factor but also with shisha.

We came to a section of the road that was getting narrower and less people were around. Should we turn around? There was a shisha place that had a large table for us just upstairs. They had comfortable couches too. We ordered apple tobacco and the pipe came with three tubes for smoking. Everyone got their own plastic cover to use to smoke. We also ordered some beers. Sherrie got us a discount. We would get 12 beers for the price of 6. That was still quite a rip off considering the beer was 40 each ($6 for 12 ounces). I had been used to paying 6 yuan ($1 for 16 ounces) in Xishuangbanna.

So for the uninitiated, the apple tobacco goes on top of the pipe and they light it. Then there is water at the bottom. As you smoke, the water bubbles and the smoke comes to your mouth and your lungs, should you choose to inhale. Ilias was a show off with the smoke. The girls couldn't get any smoke in their mouths at first. Marcus was just happy to be relaxing. Everyone liked the apple flavor.

I don't even know what we talked about that evening. I felt so comfortable hanging out with them. Ilias was trying to get the girls to open up a little bit. He wanted them to try new experiences and not be so shy. This evening might do it. He said their office in China is so different than the one he worked at in Italy. It would be nice if they all went out after work from time to time.

So eventually we all turned in. Ilias went with the girls. It took a while to get a taxi for me. Unless the taxi driver knows exactly where the hotel is for a foreigner, they don't even want to be involved. I produced not only the name of the hostel in Chinese but also the map so he could see it was near the main part of town.

Finally he agreed. Marcus and Sherrie took a taxi after I was situated. We all agreed to meet at 7:30 am for the Great Wall.

I didn't get home until about 1 and then by the time I got to bed and got organized for tomorrow, it was 1:30. Yeah, exactly 5 hours to sleep.