Beijing and the Summer Palace

Our Tour Guide, Michael, was delightful.  I especially loved his sense of humor complimenting his serious attempt to teach us a little bit about this country that censors facebook, blogspot and emails.

For anyone who might be as confused as I was about China, Beijing and Peking are different names for the same town.  Jing translates to capital, bei to north, so Beijing was the North Capital when China had more than one.  Today Beijing is THE capital.

The Penisula Hotel stands on land that prior to the Olympics was a narrow pathway. Now it is surrounded by high dollar name brand stores, although there didn’t seem to be much merchandise in them and fewer customers.

We tried local food at the Royal Restaurant across the street. Michael advised us to stick to the hotel.  He joked that the Royal ‘may be clean or not, depending on their mood’. Which seemed to be a recurrent theme.

With 5.2 million cars in Beijing, parking can be a problem.  The 1^st hour is 31 Yuan, the 2^nd 40 and the third 51. Clearly they do not want you to stick around long.  With 21 million residents, it can take 20 to 30 minutes to catch a cab. Most drivers do not speak English so we were warned to get a card from the hotel to ensure our return and to have the hotel write in Chinese our destination so he could read it. Otherwise you may end up on a tour of the whole city when you didn’t want one.

Lest we succumb to alternate forms of travel he warned: “No Bus, No Subway, No English” There were so many pickpockets in the city, it can sometimes feel like the flea market. Sometimes they want to have their picture made with you, but it can be a ploy to get close to your wallet and cash.

Pollution appears to be a problem: there was a more or less permanent haze over the city. The official stance is that it is fog.  Certainly not everyone shares that opinion since some wear face masks. It might have been my cold or my bias, but I thought it was harder to breathe.

Passing the City Moat where the City Wall once stood Michael pointed to the fishermen. It is illegal to fish in China, at least here, so the fishermen come early and leave before they are caught.

They eat everything. The Royal menu included donkey meat, horsemeat, scorpions and silkworms. The Chinese toilet is basically a hole in the ground. Michael said it was a good way to stay in shape; squatting several times a day.  Walking is a major form of transportation. “Within walking distance” has a different meaning in China. We think of it as a block or two..they think of it as a couple of miles. One of our guides traveled 2 hours on a bus and then walked 40 minutes to get to her job.  The farmers we saw along the way were not on tractors, they were breaking the earth with hoes, grounds keepers were using brooms not leaf blowers. Although there probably are some, I didn’t see any overweight Chinamen or women.

The Summer Palace, created in 1750 as the Garden of Clear Ripples for the 60^th birthday of the Emperor’s mom was enhanced through the years. In 1891 the new Emperor’s mom known affectionately as the Dragon Lady, changed the name to Summer Palace after building Emperor appropriate shelters. In April they would move to the Summer Palace to enjoy the lake and greenery.