nihao :D greetings from china!
i really don't know how to start this post in a good way, but i'll note that the day got much better than it started.
woke up to have breakfast at 7am in the hotel. food wasn't terrible but service was. now it may sound like we're complaining, but seriously....who takes away all your drinks and stuff and resets the table once you get up for the buffet the second time? so confused. i didn't even get to finish my tea :( That really confused me, but I sort of had an inkling (worry, more like?) that that might happen... but since it never happened in Japan, I assumed it would be okay. Bad assumption =\ All I can say is, China has the Japanese look down, but not the culture; the buffet was pretty and the servers were all nice and crisply dressed, but the dour look on their faces and brisque-ness was a definite departure from the politeness of (most of) the servers in Japan.
met our tour guide at 8:30am. His name is scott and yeah, christine and i are the only ones on this tour, which we tried very hard to avoid. ugh. slightly awkward. and no he's not cute but he's nice enough. he speaks with a "british" accent though lol when christine asked him where he learned english, he said he spoke "chinglish" and learned it in china :P i think christine and i both agree that he was mostly like our babysitter lol rather than our tour guide...mostly because he would walk really fast and wait because we were trigger happy and liked to take pictures.
our tour guide, scott. he's pro at the asian squat
It was pretty awkward at first, because we weren't used to the whole private guide thing. And he's also very... well, he's definitely a native, so he has a definite different feel from Maiko-san, who was pretty bubbly and very considerate. Like Tiffy said, Scott was nice and pretty patient with us, but he felt like he was looking after us as kids rather than guiding us as tourists. Don't get me wrong though, he was really knowledgable about all the culture and history.
first place we went to was tiananmen square. it's massive lol i hadn't realized how big it was until we actually walked across the whole thing. that surprise pretty much became the theme of the day---the chinese like to make things very very elaborate and very very big. the square is the center of political power in china. the national museum was on one side, the parliament building on another, chairman's mao's mausoleum on another and forbidden city across the street.
Parliament Building
went to the forbidden city next. again, super super massive and really crowded! we walked through the 5 gates and were still in the outer court lol another thing with the chinese, they like interesting names lol meridian gate, hall of supreme harmony, hall of central harmony, temple of prayer for a good harvest...
Err, the Temple of Prayer for a Good Harvest was in the Temple of Heaven XD; lol i know. i was trying to think of examples from names lol oh and add anything with longevity to the list.
The Forbidden City was MASSIVE! It's so big that it's split into the inner court, where the royal family lived, and the outer court, which was for visiting. After we walked through gate 5 (btw, if you ever want to visit, you can get through the first 3 gates without paying), we walked around and took pictures and were ogling everything. Then, as we're going down a set of stairs after looking at what must have been the tenth sprawling complex, Scott says, "So now we're going to the inner court." And I am completely taken aback, because I thought we were already in the inner court and almost done. It's really impossible to express how big the Forbidden City is, but I would say it's worth a trip, and you could easily spend days in there looking at everything. We took the express tour through it, and it took us the whole morning.
The Meridian (3rd) Gate
Hall of Central and Preserving Harmony
Some notes about symbolism and history that Scott told us. First, everything in Beijing is manmade, including the lakes and rivers. The Forbidden City housed the Ming and Qing dynasties, and it was taken over by the government and opened to the public in the early 1900s. Before that, only the royal families, high court officials, and honorable concubines could ever enter the city (hence, it was "forbidden").
Around the 2nd gate, there are 5 bridges across a (manmade) river. The center bridge was used exclusively by the royal family... and I forgot who used the rest, but it was reserved by class. I think the next outer two were high officials, and the next outer two by the other people. The buildings all have gold-colored roofs, because the the color yellow represents the element earth. In Chinese... ideology?, there are 5 elements: metal, earth, wood, water, and fire. Earth is at the center, and the four elements surround it, so the emperor represented himself with that color. There is only one building without a gold roof; instead, it has a black roof (black represents water). Can you guess what it is? (We couldn't.) It's the library, and supposedly the black roof will prevent it from catching on fire. Along those lines, there are these huge cauldrons throughout the Forbidden City that used to hold water, since the Forbidden City is made of so much wood. But rather than being there for practical use, they are there to spiritually or mentally prevent fires. It's the feng shui. To be honest, I don't really get that, but I guess it's a different culture... I wanted to ask if the library ever caught on fire but didn't want to seem obnoxious ;;
Let's see... other random facts... (Sorry if this is boring, I'm just dumping thoughts down so we remember them later, and to tell you, if you guys are interested in knowing some of these things. If not, feel free to skip to the next pink paragraph. Tiffy is a lot more concise than me XD)
Concubines. So there was an empress, or maybe two, and they were usually chosen for political reasons. In addition to those, there were lots and lots of concubines, some of which never even meet the emperor (so I'm kind of confused as to their purpose, but oh well). At that time, girls from 13 to 16 were all expected to test to be a concubine. If they passed, they could live in the Forbidden City.
and these are the giant pots they boiled traitors in...jk!
after wandering around there, we headed to lunch at a westernized chinese buffet -_- saddddddddddddddddd and the food was not good. and gelato cost extra. boooo
Even for us, and we're used to those American Chinese buffets, the lunch was... well, not good. And service was pretty typical (of here). The buffet lines are lined with service people, but they don't do anything, just stand there and stare at you. They don't even greet you. I really have no idea what their purpose is. And later I asked for chopsticks, and she was like, "Aren't they over there?" and pointed to a corner of the room. I had to ask a 2nd lady where exactly they were, and she pointed to this little room on the side with more food (possibly the place where they put "real" Asian people). Tiffy pointed out that even in America, they would probably have gotten the chopsticks for me instead of making me go get it myself. Boo. The food was pretty dry, the gelato costed 15 RMB extra, and there were a TON of little American/Canadian kids that came in later and were for some reason really impressed by the Chinese-ness of the buffet. Weird~ They did have strawberry juice though... well, sort of strawberry-flavored water, but it wasn't terrible.
things did pick up after lunch though. we headed next door to a jewelry store that sold pearls, particularly manmade ones that were made in kinming lake in the summer palace nearby. a cute chinese lady gave us a brief orientation and had us pick an oyster from a tank. she proceeded to kill it and inside, were like 30 pearls with pink, purple and white colors. we each got to keep one :) but poor oyster lol
She even let us take pictures :3 She was pretty nice, and the pearls were so pretty! But I had to cringe at her cooly slicing up that oyster and pulling it apart. I was surprised at how many pearls were in there, some white, some pink, and some purple. She gave us each one. Tiffy's is this dark purple, sort of gunmetal, color, and mine is a lighter lavender with a silver tint. I liked this pink one, but it was a bit big, so I didn't want to ask for it XD But I'd like a pretty pink pearl sometime, just for fun. Although honestly, I feel bad wearing something that something had to die for =\ I like me my fake pearls, thanks~
By the way, the way you tell between real or fake pearls is by rubbing the pearls together. If they make a grating, sandy sound, then they are real, and they'll also make some pearl powder. Fake ones sound very smooth, look perfectly round and shiny, and don't produce powder. Also, the different colors of the pearls are made by different minerals: white is from calcium, pink from... I forgot, purple from iron, I think.
Pearls we got as souvenirs from the pearl shop ^w^ Tiffy's is on the left, mine on the right.
headed to the summer palace after. it's funny to think that everything in china is manmade. china fact #4 now: the chinese do everything themselves. the emperor wanted a summer palace on a lake for his mom's bday so what did he do? he dug up earth to make a massive lake and used that dirt to make a mountain and put some buildings on it lol dang After Scott told us about that, my note to self: get an emperor for a son, so that I can have one of these as my 60th birthday present. Tiffy said I need to find a guy with a country first, marry him, and then my son will be emperor. So yeah. Summer palace, anyone?
We got to ride a Dragon Boat across the Kinming Lake (which makes up 75% of the 28 hectares, or 2,800,000 square meters of the palace, by the way), and then we saw a marble boat that (obviously) doesn't float, but will never tip over. This was made because the government is like a boat, and the people are the water, and there is this old saying that a boat is supported by the water, but can also be overturned by it. So the emperor made a boat that will never be overturned. But it's not really floating, anyways... Anyways, we walked along the Long Corridor, which is really long and is lined with a bunch of different paintings that aren't repeated and represent places in China and places that the emperor visited. So apparently the emperor liked to travel, and he was so pro that he brought painters along so that if he liked a place, he had them paint it on the spot and then copy it onto the corridor. Lastly, we made a stop at some places the Dragon Lady, or Dowager Empress, stayed at. Apparently, she was smart but also brought disaster to China. Good job. Anyone want to watch The Last Emperor with me?
Scary Dragon Lady lol
Our next stop was the Temple of Heaven, which is more appropriately a garden than a real temple. The emperor used to go there on the 15th day of each lunar month to pray to the god of heaven, especially for a good harvest. So there are two important gods, one of heaven and one of earth. They used to think that heaven was round and the earth was square, so the area is actually shaped with a semicircle at the top and two corners at the bottom. One interesting thing was that there was a lot of older people gambling and playing cards along the outdoor corridors XD;; And there's also a building called "The animal-killing pavilion." They used to make sacrifices as part of the ritual, and guess where they killed the animals? Yep. There's also a Divine Kitchen, where they cooked the animals afterwards.
gambling in the long corridor :D
The buildings there are, as usual, gorgeous. Unlike in the Forbidden City, the roofs were blue, which represented heaven, meaning that the emperor was there to worship the god.
Temple of Prayer for a Good Harvest
An animal killing pavilion (probably) lol
There was one building where the emperor prayed for a good harvest, and three other buildings to store the tablets for each god that they worshipped. Apparently there's also this marble that the emperor stood on to make speeches and such, but we didn't get to see it. By the way, here's a picture of a picture. Can anyone guess what it depicts? Special prize if you get it right -- and no, don't go look it up.
There was also a guy with this interesting fanny pack label:
His fanny pack says WEE WEE. tee hee hee we're so mature :P
And lastly, one of the buildings was more like a museum. It had some descriptions of the ceremony and lots of the vases on display that served different purposes. I'll let Tiffy tell you her take on what they represent XP
lol so uhhh pardon if i offend anyone but christine and i really enjoyed how everything in chinese culture was named after longevity and harmony lol so as we wandered around without our tour guide in a hall of ceramic and bronze grain holders, i decided to try my hand at bs tour guiding.
"so yeah...this jar thing has snake handles"
"i think they are dragons"
"ok dragon handles which mean power and the jar is round for evenness and equality"
"i think it means heaven"
"ok that makes sense because it's blue and that stands for heaven too and the 3 points on top mean...i don't know"
"now explain why that one's purple"
"purple is for females and blue is for males"
"and this is their ugly child"
LOL
after wandering around some more, christine and i enjoyed tea at teahouse. it was really good lol i believe we tried oolong tea, jasmine tea, lychee black tea (which we bought), vintage tea? and fruit tea :) we ate the fruit bits out of that one lol for buying tea, they also gave christine a magic cup and we both got pee pee boys. i'll let christine explain that one lol
Uhh, thanks... I'm honored to explain a pee pee boy -__-; Well, first things first. At the teahouse, they showed us the Chinese tea ceremony, which the Japanese borrowed from for their own (according to Scott, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case). However, I think that the Japanese probably Japanese-ified it, if you know what I mean. From what I've heard/seen of the Japanese tea ceremony, it's pretty formal and... ceremonious. And probably very pretty-looking and elegant. The girl who served us was nice and all, but the tea ceremony wasn't really a ceremony so much as just showing us the best ways to make the tea. Which is fine :3
We had oolong tea covered in ginseng first. Oolong tea is between black and green tea, so it's only half-fermented. (Black is completely fermented and no longer has caffeine, while green tea isn't fermented and is still caffeinated.) The ginseng gives the tea a slightly sweet taste, and it was pretty good. You're supposed to make it in a special teapot that is smooth outside and rough inside, so as to soak up the tea flavor, so after 3 years or so, you can just pour hot water inside, and it will have tea flavor without the leaves. Pretty cool ^ ^ You first heat the pot by pouring hot water inside and out, and then you fill it and get rid of the first batch (to wash the leaves). You drink the next batch.
There are also two cups that we used: one is for smelling (a tall and slim cup) and the other for drinking (a short and round cup). You pour into the smelling cup, cover it with the drinking cup, flip it so that the tea goes into the drinking cup, and then sniff the smelling cup. Then, you drink from the drinking cup by placing your thumb and forefinger around the top and supporting the bottom with the side of your middle finger. The last two fingers are open for girls, which meant something that Tiffy and I both forgot ;; The last two fingers are closed into the fist for males, which represents having power. You then drink your tea in three sips, which represents happiness.
The next tea she poured into a porcelain cup that used to only be used by the emperor and empress. The cover for the cup has a black phoenix, and when you dip it into the hot water, it changes colors ^w^ So cool! Anyways, she made jasmine green tea next, and apparently you use the cover of the cup to hold back the tea leaves as you pour it through the strainer that covers the tea pot. The jasmine was nice and light. (She didn't do the pouring inside and out and washing for any of the rest, by the way.) She also showed us this interesting bulb thing that is also jasmine tea. You put it into hot water, and after 3 minutes, it blooms into a flower. They have a lot of different kinds; the one she showed us was jasmine at the bottom, chrysanthemum in the middle, and had a pink something at top. (I forgot what kind of flower it was.) After that, she made us litchi (lychee?) black tea and put roses in with it. That one was probably our favorite :3 It's a little sweet from the litchi. The next one was pu-er, an interesting-tasting tea that people drink more for their health than for the taste. The last tea was a fruit mix tea with a bunch of dried fruit and some roses in it. It was a bit sour and a bit sweet, and the perk is that you can eat the dried fruit after XD
Oh, and the pee pee boy. Uh, so you leave him in cold water, and then if you pour hot water on his head, he'll... well, do his thing. He sprays water in a stream. They use it to make sure their water is at the right temperature to make the tea. Yep.
after we caught this show at the red theatre called "legend of kungfu". our tour guide recommended it. it was interesting. lots of buddhist monks/monks in training were performing onstage lol loved all the little boys though. they did somersaults on their heads :D why didn't my mom let me learn kungfu?! never know when i might need to break steel with my head :P
Red Theater
lol well we're back at the hotel and dead tired. more mtv and then freeze under our comforters because i think our thermostat is broken or we don't know how to use it.
and yeah, i think we have to learn how to make our posts shorter...somehow.
No comments:
Post a Comment