The China Tour

We left the hotel at 7:45, and took a short bus ride to Tiananmen Square. The picture below shows the Hall Of The People, The Monument To To Heroes Of The People and (in the distance) The Forbidden City.

After walking through the square, we entered the forbidden city, with it's huge, annually replace, portrait of Chairman Mao.

The forbidden city was beautiful. We walked through the more open half, wowed by the space and the architecture.

One of the main purposes of the forbidden city was the housing of the Emperor's large harem. Of course, being an imperial concubine has its down side. If you were one of the favourites, you would be killed when the emperor died. We stopped for tea while our guide went off to find lost members of the group. We sipped in an art shop housed within the walls of the forbidden city. The resident artist was the last surviving nephew of the emperor. We were assured he was a famous artist.

We left through this gate, showing the impressing wall and moat that helped to defend the emperor. Our stay was pretty cold, and all of the still water we saw was frozen solid.

We moved from the forbidden city to the 'Silk Factory' and again, had a brief tour, then a long stay in the gift shop, where beautiful silk garments could be purchased at very reasonable prices. Then we had the irony of the trip. David took us to a Korean restaurant. The food was mediocre. It was the only disappointing meal of the trip.

The next stop was a Chinese medical institute. The Doctor took your pulse in three places (acupressure points for heart, liver and lungs I think), looked at your tongue, found out how old you were and then gave a diagnosis. I, apparently, have a weak liver. But none of the symptoms a western doctor would have picked up (e.g. bad cough, sore throat) were mentioned. I have my doubts.

I had left the great wall of China saying that whatever else happened, that would be the highlight of the trip, but I was wrong. Our next visit was the Summer Palace. It seemed to be just another group of wonderful Chinese buildings, but then we turned the corner and saw this.

The lake, large as it was, was frozen solid, which added to the beauty. I do wonder how it would look in the spring, autumn and winter. The beauty of the summer palace took my breath away, and I came to the conclusion that it was without a doubt the most beautiful park I had ever had the privilege to be in. We turned another corner and were confronted with the marble boat, an ornate jetty on which the empress would drink tea. I thought that it would look more at home on the Mississippi river than here, but it added to the culture of the place in a very surreal way.

We exited the summer palace to a shanty town of hustlers, all crowding around us trying to hawk their wares. The dichotomy between either side of the wall surrounding the summer palace was shocking. Some of the girls were hassled so much they ended up fleeing to the bus, which developed a crowd of hawkers due to the purchase of several items by a couple of our tour group.

The 'pearl factory' was our next stop, and we spent an almost unbearably long time in there as the girls shopped for Chinese freshwater pearls. Following another great meal some of us then went on to have a massage, which was wonderful. At the end of the massage, we were all thumped on the back in unison to a 'drum beat' that I guess was designed to do something to our auras, or chi, or something.

Going back to the hotel, I arranged with some of the others to go out drinking, given that we were not leaving until 11am the next morning. I showered and changed, then headed down to the lobby for a drink before going out, but my energy just crashed, and so I went to bed with a plan to go out the next morning.