Today, Saturday, August 4, 2012, was our final group excursion. We met at 8AM to take subway line four from the East Gate of Peking University Station to the Beigongmen Station, and then entered the north gate of the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is the complex that was built for the emperor's mother, and Empress Dowager Cixi lived there. There is a manmade lake and island, which is a pretty nice tribute that a son can make to his mother.
Side note: all places in China have gates on all sides where you have tickets and security. So, at Bei Da we have a North Gate （北门), East Gate, Southeast Gate (across the street from where I live), West Gates, etc. It actually gives me a sense of the area a location occupies and helps me find my way. Knowing the gate system was really helpful when exploring Beihai last week.
Anyway, back to the excursion. We went through the north gate of the Summer Palace, and first passed through the Suzhou city that the emperor recreated in Beijing. Apparently, he had the eunuchs and maids dress as vendors from the south and he would pretend to be an ordinary person and hang out there. We walked on a really pretty tree-lined path until we got to the marble boat on the lake. There, we stopped to take pictures and buy water before moving on to the main attraction.
The main building that people visit is a hall with a multiple-armed Buddha in it. To get there from the marble boat (by the way, this is one of two marble boats in Beijing; the other one is on Nameless Lake on Bei Da's campus), we walked on a long covered path with famous paintings on the ceiling. Bei Da scholars analyzed the paintings to determine which stories they represented from Chinese history and myth. Then we got to the buildings. We had to climb 100 stairs to get to the top, and the view of the lake was beautiful. We had thirty minutes to explore that area, and once I had done my rounds, I sat with Gu Laoshi and we chatted for a while. He told me that it is a requirement for Beijing couples to go on a date to the Summer Palace, and we chitchatted about lifey things with the program.
Before we left the upper level, a girl from Inner Mongolia asked if she could take a picture with me. It was pretty adorable; she started asking Gu Laoshi in Chinese because she was shy, but he made her ask me herself. She could have spoken Chinese and I would have understood, but she said it in English. I happily posed with her. I was initially warned that this would happen a lot, but it really hasn't. I was asked to pose in Fragrant Hills Park and a man took pictures of me and Anabella at the Qing Tombs, but other than that, the photos have been without permission and from a distance.
The next place we visited was a bronze pavilion, and then we had lunch at the royal kitchen. Gu Laoshi ordered delicious food for us, and my table really enjoyed everything. It was the first time we had a meal entirely without pork. Highlights include fish without bones, kung pao chicken, shrimp, Beijing style breads, amazing tofu, and walnut cookies. Lunch was really good today, and I fully enjoyed my meal. I really don't eat much of a breakfast before starting the day because I don't like to eat early, so I was hungry, and it energized me for the rest of the day.
After lunch, we took a boat ride across the lake to visit the island. The boat was reminiscent of the trip to Hangzhou, except it moved faster and we had a breeze. At the island, we visited a building that has been turned into a souvenir shop, and mostly just walked across the island to the marble bridge with 18 arches to go to a pavilion on the mainland where a flautist was performing. I had my second photo ask at that pavilion, and this time a boy asked me to take a photo with him and afterward he thanked me and told me I was very beautiful. This only happens in China.
Walking over to the East Gate of the Summer Palace, one of Gu Laoshi's former students stopped him when she ran into us. It was completely unplanned, and rather hilarious to run into an alumna of our university in Beijing of all places, so we were all kind of amused by the occurrence. At the East Gate, we visited the dragon-cow creature statue that determines if you're telling the truth, looked at a gallery of chipped marble art, and then took taxis back to rest for a few hours before the Acrobatics Show. It was a beautiful hot and sunny day, so the siesta was lovely.
At 5:30, we met in the bus to drive across the city to the Chaoyuan district to see the show. I sat with Professor Carmichael on the bus, and we had a lovely conversation on the ride over. When we got to the theater, I took some time to look around. The front light system was a couple of moving lights, and I later realized that all of the instruments were intelligent fixtures: Max 700s, Mac 301s, Varilites, all the fun stuff we use for DM.
The show itself was spectacular. It began with a dance number, then a chair stacking balancing act, straw hats, umbrella pedaling, partner strength acrobatics, shoulder ballet, wheel spinning, cycling, and motorcycles in a sphere. The chair act was stacking chairs and balancing on top with handstands and such. The straw hats were juggling, tumbling, and staking people with straw hats as a prop. The umbrella thing was a woman on her back with her feet in the air, twirling and balancing a parasol. Partner strength acrobatics was two people who held each other up and did various balance and strength related feats. Then we had intermission, and the first act after intermission was shoulder ballet, where a woman stood on pointe on a man's shoulders and head. The wheel act was an axis with a wheel on either side that spun through the air and two men inside or on top doing various things while balancing as the thing spun. The bicycles were stacking people on moving bikes. The motorcycles were eight men on motorbikes driving in formation in a mesh sphere.
It was all amazing and I kept being more and more amazed at what these performers were doing. The lighting was pretty cool as well; since the instruments could change colors, each act had a color to set the mood, but it also changed when major events happened in the performance. The backdrops were various locations around Beijing.
After the show, I came home, had a snack, relaxed, and went to bed.
Today is awesome because of the Summer Palace and Acrobatics show.
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