I don't want it to end!
We woke up early and got ready to meet Luling our interpretor down in the lobby by 9AM. After exchanging some US "bucks" to China "kuai" (the equivalent of their bucks), we saw Luling arrive. She ordered us two cabs, and we hopped in them to head to the Summer Palace. We arrived and toured the property that once was home to the Emperor and Empress, as well as many unics and concubines. The Summer Palace, as indicated by it's name, was the summer home for them. Mostly for the Empress. Luling is a walking talking history book, which made our trip even better! She explained about the most famous Empress that ever ruled the kingdom and enjoyed the summer palace. Her name was Cixi (sounds like cece). She was the first Empress to really rule over the kingdom (first feminist of sorts). She was chossen by the Emperor at that time to be Empress, and as the story goes, you can not stay Empress unless you yeild a son to the Emperor. Well, the Emperor had tons of concubines, and if one of them could give him the son he needed, she would then become the Empress. Cixi did not want this so she made sure to kill all of his pregnant concubines before they could take her spot as Empress. Luckily for her, she had a son, and stayed Empress. After the Emperor passed away, their young son took the throne. He was too young to really be in this position of power so she would impose her opinion on him constantly, using him as a puppet since women were not accepted as figure heads at that time. Her Son's life was made miserable by her, if a concubine liked him she would kill her to secure her place as his one and only female figure in life. She confined him so much that he would often rebel and go out to the city with gaurds to find prostitues. In this way he caught a deadly disease and died at a young age of 19 or so. Then the Empress made her Nephew Emperor, and treated him like a puppet for her power as well. She spent all of China's money that was alloted for building an army and navy to protect their land on jewels, gifts, paintings, renovations for her palace, as well as the development of the arts for her own enjoyment. She had the best makeup, hair products, and more to keep herself looking and feeling really much younger than she was. She even commissioned an artist to paint her at age 70, and told him to paint her younger than she really looked (Matt joked that this was modern-day photoshop).
We also took a stroll through the buddhist temples on the grounds, and the longest corridore with the most paintings in the world called Chang Lang (Long Corridor). It had over 10,000 paintings, all unique to one another in all. We of course couldn't see all of them on our short trip, but really enjoyed them none the less. We also loved seeing their man-made lake, and learning that the dirt they dug out from the land to create the lake was then used to create the tall hill that the buddist temple now sits upon. We learned from John yesterday that the higher the building you live in the palace, the more important you are. This was also kind of true in the Summer Palace, but Buddah was the one who lived in the temple on the highest peek.
After touring the Summer Palace we were all super hungry. Luling brought us over to the Pearl Market, and to the top floor to a place called "Quan Ju De", named after it's founder over 100 years ago, and famous for their staple Chinese dish Peking Duck. Luling asked for a private room for us, and we had a devoted staff from beginning to end. They took our coats, took our drinks and food order, put our napkins in our laps, put our chop sticks in the right place for us, brought us food, kept it all organized and clean on the turn table, and more. We ate snow peas, broccoli with garlic, asparagus with fungus, fungus, fried spring rolls, dim sum buns with duck and vegetables, shrimp balls, peking duck with pancake-like wrappers (onions, cucumbers, sauce and sugar) (imagine fajitas with duck), little duck-shaped creatures made of phillo dough and in the center of their bodies was a date, and so much more! Green tea too=) The food was to die for! The service too! Annnnd, when they served us our Peking Duck, they brought it to us on a platter with the chef, and carved it right in front of us. We had three choices on how it was cut: Without skin, with skin in thin slices, or with skin in chunks. They also presented us with a certificate which they read aloud that told us that the duck we would be eating was their 13,104th duck served at their restaurant (but being establised 100 years ago, they have served many more ducks over time at all of their locations.) I was impressed, never had my food come with a certificate of authentication, I enjoyed that, it was like the Coach purses of ducks, Jenny, you'd appreciate that I'm sure=)
After lunch we were ready to shop till we dropped, but we really didn't anticipate what it would be like, and we couldn't. The first floor of the huge building that makes up the pearl market is devoted to clothing and purses. Excuse my language when I say, "it was the depths of hell" as far as the market went. Why you ask? Well...imagine walking through aisles of knock off purses (which we knew, and still wanted because it's fun), and Chinese ladies are calling out "Lady what purse you want I give you good price!), and grabbing your arm, not letting go, etc...Stressful huh? It was our own Robert who put it best when he said "The Pearl Market needs to have a disclaimer like a roller coaster ("do not ride this coaster if you aren't such and such tall, if you have a pace maker or a weak heart, if you have asthma, if you are planning to get pregnant or pregnant, if you have high blood pressure, or if you have back or neck injuries..." Yeh, so, I didn't know how good it was going to go, I was a little bit rattled, but not shaken enough to let it end. I went to a small booth of Hello Kitty goods and the man inside was quiet and did not attack us, so I wanted to reward him for being normal and look at his wares. I needed some Hello Kitty stuff for my little Sister anyway. I learned from Luling to offer 1/3 or less of the price they suggest, so I chose what I wanted, asked what price, and cut it in 1/3, then made a firm offer. Then when he said no, we pretended to walk away, and he agreed to our proposed price=))) (it's an amazing formula, worked each time!) I caught on to the process quickley and shopped like a mad woman, buying more stuff than anyone, hehe. I felt like a crazy person sticking to my guns, but it was soooo fun! I got lots of stuff, but some of it is for the persons reading this blog, so no, I'm not going to say anymore except that if you wanted it, you could get it at the Pearl Market: Olympic goods, purses, clothes for all, toys, electronics, jewels, etc...
After shopping we were all stressed out to the max. We hoped back into cabs and headed to dinner. Luling took us to "Hot Pot Paradise", another Chinese staple food. It was such a posh restaurant! I will put on photos of it because my words won't do it justice. It had a black ceiling with a red stripe of florescent that ran through it, the booths were all white leather in a circular pattern, with silver beads hanging down from above creating a private space. The tables were dressed in crisp white linens, on them sat elegant B&B plates white with ripples, beautiful slender black chop sticks folded into a napkin, glassware, and fondue pots in silver. First we each chose what base broth we wanted to use to cook our food, then we chose our meats and veggies to cook in them, then we cooked, ate, and almost exploded. The food was awesome! One of my favorite things was the shrimp patties, and the pomegranet fruit drink. Another bonus of this restaurant was the steam rising from our cooking pots = FREE FACIAL!
Then we caught cabs home, spoke with Luling in our room for a few minutes about settling ticket prices from earlier that day, and planned tomorrow. Tomorrow Denise and Robert are going to follow in their tradition of going to the zoo, they go to the zoo in every new place they visit, plus they want to see the pandas=) Then they are going to enjoy lunch and some light shopping followed by dinner at a steak house.
Matt, Karen and I are going to meet Luling at 9AM in the lobby, catch a cab to the Temple of Heaven, explore for two hours, go to Hard Rock Cafe (one of Matt and my traditions when visiting a new city), get lunch with Luling at a place of her choice, get massages, go to a bar to get drinks, go to dinner, and then to a Chinese Opera! I'm so darn excited I'm about to burst! I can't wait to go out with a bang! This has been wayyy too much fun! I can't believe all that China has to offer=) Luling is one of the smartest, most poised, sweet, down to earth persons I've ever met in my life. She is amazing, and we are so honored to know her, spend time with her, and call her our friend in China=) Luling, if you read this, know that we'd love to have you come visit us so that we can show you our hospitality as well in the US.
For now that's it folks, I need to sleep, and of course Matt is already counting sheep. Tomorrow will be bitter sweet as we soak up the last that China has to offer. We have to check in tomorrow and get our boarding passes ready for Tuesday. We'll leave Tuesday at 1:40PM China time, and arrive at 8:30AM US time the same day, so yes, we'll do a Quantum Leap, time travel at it's finest.
Much love, such appreciation for life,
Nicole, Matt, Karen, Denise and Robert
