ReidaBlog

Well, this is it. By the time you all read this I will have already left Beijing. My classes have ended and now I have a bit of traveling to do before returning to work at the end of July. As a result this will probably be my last China post for a while although I think I may keep the site going as an efficient way to keep in touch with friends and family so feel free to check back. Also I’ve got a special treat at the end of the post.

In my last week there were two places left on my list that I had to visit before leaving: Tiantan (The Temple of Heaven) and Yiheyuan (The Summer Palace).

First up was a trip all the way across town to Tiantan. This is more like a park with temples than what I would consider a temple proper. People had been telling me about this place for quite a while and it was just as nice as I hoped it would be. The entrance and some of the park-like areas are filled with old people doing one of the following: Taiqi, Chinese hacky sack, playing dominoes, playing cards, singing, and playing instruments.

After meeting up with Florin and his girlfriend Stella (who incidentally will be coming to UofM in August on an MBA exchange program) we started to see the sites.

Florin and Stella at the ‘Star Stones’.

I’ve often been amused at the cultural differences between the East and West. One big difference is that in China people don’t want to be tan. You see ads for skin whitening cream rather than fake tanning lotion and there are more umbrellas during the sunny days than the rainy days. Think I am exaggerating? Well it was really sunny at Tiantan.

Just another reason for a pasty guy like me to love China. Moving on…

Me at the ‘Star Stones’

So the popular legend is that these stones fell to earth. But the sign set us straight. Apparently they are just big rocks that an emperor had carved to look like mountains.

Tiantan has a couple of cool areas. My two favorites were the ‘echo wall’ and the ’round alter’. The echo wall is a circular wall surrounding some temples. Let’s do a little exercise. Take out a piece of paper and draw a circle. This represents the wall surrounding the temple. It is probably about 50 meters in diameter. On the south side there is a gate through the wall. Inside the wall are three temple buildings. One each at the East, North, and West sides of the courtyard. All of them leave a little space between the building and the surrounding wall. Now one person is behind the East building and another is behind the West. If they are both facing North and not too many people are on the wall between them you they can talk to each other in a normal voice and hear each other clearly. This despite the fact that they are about 50 meters apart with two building between them. It is pretty cool.

The ’round alter’ also has some cool acoustic principles. It doesn’t look like anything really special. Just a slightly raised marble stone in the center of a raised, circular platform. But if you stand on the center stone and speak your voices sounds different. It is loud and a little echo-y. Sort of like the voice of God in a cartoon. But what makes it cool is that to a person standing right next to you but off of the center stone you sound completely normal. My theory is that they used to have the Emperor stand on the stone so he though he sounded god-like. Then one of his officials would get on the altar and he would see that they sound normal. He’d then have proof that he was special.

Me sounding Imperial

Next up was a visit to the Summer Palace. This is where the Emperors used to go during the summer months when Beijing turns into Phoenix. It is a beautiful park-like place with a large lake, temples, and other buildings. As the visitors are told (over and over again) it was much nicer until the Western imperialists burned and looted it twice. The ‘Old Summer Palace’ a little to the east of the current location was destroyed by the British and French forces at the end of the Opium Wars of 1860. The current location was built after the first was destroyed and then it was destroyed around 1900 by the Allied powers (British, French, American, Japanese, Portuguese, German, etc.) during the Boxer Rebellion. It was then rebuilt a couple of years later. While I won’t go into detail here this is a very interesting period in Chinese history and while we in the west often forget it the Chinese don’t. I bet if you asked the average Englishman or American they’d tell you that there country had never invaded China. Certainly not several times in the past 150 years. And definitely not because the Chinese government was preventing them from selling drugs (opium not Advil) to Chinese people. Regardless, it is a really cool place.

Temple overlooking the lake. Legend has it that the emperors used to watch the Imperial Navy drill on the lake from this hill.

This boat is completely made of marble. The Empress Dowager Cixi took the money slated for Chinese navy modernization and used to rebuild the summer palace around 1900. She specifically built them this boat though so no one could complain the money wasn’t spent on boats. I’m guessing this wasn’t what they had in mind.

I kept meaning to get a fashion picture of how the men of Beijing cool off during the summer. They raise there shirts over their bellies. I can’t figure out why they don’t just take them off.

Just wanted to point out that the Chinese seem to like really big rocks. The sign explaining this rock simply says that a court official found it and liked it. Ended up going bankrupt trying to have it moved to Beijing. Then the Emperor saw it, liked it, and finished moving it the rest of the way to Beijing. It now sits in the summer palace. A big rock.

Other than touristy stuff my last couple days were taken up with saying goodbye to people. Lots of pictures, food, and beer.

My comprehension teacher Jasmine with Florin, Paul, and me. Jasmine is the one who taught us all the Chinese swear words.

Anyone care to guess the ‘English’ name of my speaking teacher? Would you believe ‘Reid’? No joke.

Pretty much everyone got together for Bernice’s birthday party. It came just before classes ended so it was a good chance to see a bunch of people for the last time.

I’m guessing she had one too many ‘pings’ of Tsingtao

Finally on my last night I got together with Thao, Florin, and Elena for a final dinner at my favorite Indian place.

Good friends and good food.

Well, that’s pretty much it. But before I sign off I promised a special present. So here is the final edition of the crowd favorite: Strange Chinese Signs. Your guesses are as good as mine. Enjoy and thanks for reading.

Reid - Beijing, 2005