In Search of Sunrise

It has suddenly occurred to me that I never posted the rest of my trip to China. I shall rectify this now.

Day five in China was spent at Summer Palace. Of all the places we visited in China, the Summer Palace was the most impressive. The Great Wall was, of course, amazing in its own special little way. But the Summer Palace made the biggest impression upon my memory, probably because the walk up to the damn place was so long, just up, up, up and more up. The palace was both beautiful and yet gaudy at the same time. The architecture was amazing, but jeez, somebody way back when certainly had a poor concept of color coordination - too much gold, too much green, just too much. But I’ll stop with the criticisms briefly so as not to incur the WRATH of the gentle-minded (read: mother). ;p

Right, think positively (When I become queen of the universe, I shall bring order with an iron fist, ruling with fear: I shall create a Pee-wee Herman clone army!). So yes, the Summer Palace was oh so lovely! Upon reaching the peak of the palace, Gwennie, Jess, and I could look out upon the lake. Since we were there in winter, the large body of water had completely frozen over. People were walking across the water, proving once again that Jesus really isn’t so special after all.

Other events of interest include an old man. But this old man wasn’t your typical old man. This old man was writing water calligraphy along the walkway. Despite the fact that I couldn’t read a word, I found his work quite interesting and pretty to the eye. The grounds of the Summer Palace were just as impressive. There were many gardens, and in the spring and summer, people can take a boat out on the lake. Also of note, there was also a small little enclave build along the canal, where people had shops open for business, both back then and present day. The road between the shops and the canal was very narrow, however, and I find it hard to imagine that a few people haven’t toppled over and fallen into the water/ice, depending on the season.

In short, the Summer Palace was so lavish and so rich, I can see why the poor peasants would have revolted.

Day six was spent at the Forbidden City. I imagine this place is more impressive during spring, or at least when there isn’t a lot of rushed construction going on all for the sake of profits during the Olympics. It was especially disappointing to walk into this famed city, only to see the main building covered over in nasty green netting. Kinda sucks. I mean when am I going to China again? Regardless, the place is mainly a glorified museum, except more boring. Which would have meant that we could have spent some time looking at the grounds, but in the winter all we got to look at was lots of dirty snow, and dead trees.

Anyway, I now know why it’s called the Forbidden City. Well, I mean “forbidden,” obviously because rich men back then were pretty much the same as they are now, like, “Boo-hiss poor people, boo-hiss women. You can’t come in here! Nananananana, hahahahaha.” But what I’m referring to is the city part: The place is f-ing huge! It might as well have it’s own zip code. After walking around for a while, and getting sick of the same old museum exhibit after exhibit (I mean, I can only look at broken plates for so long, no matter how historic or how Chinese they are), we were ready to leave, but it took us a very long time to find an exit.

All in all, anything that I could not properly describe in words (which means everything), can be seen in the photo gallery. You should know where to go by now!

2 Comments »

No Comments »

4 Comments »