Temple of Heaven

The Temple of Heaven is the place where the emperor would come to offer prayers on official occasions, such as seasonal prayers for the harvests. There was a special path that only he was allowed to use, and he would stand on a special stone tablet, and the Chinese believed he spoke directly with God, and that he was God's son. Hugo is seen standing on it. They believed that China was Middle Earth, and this stone tablet represented the centre of the earth.

The number nine was very significant, as it is the highest single digit that a person can count to, so the number nine is evident everywhere. Around the tablet at the centre of the earth, there are nine stones, then eighteen, etc, to nine concentric circles. There are nines everywhere! They were also everywhere at the Summer Palace.

We had a little problem with a man following us and taking pictures of the children. He stopped when David turned around and took a photo of him.

Cloisonne

The second Government outlet we went to was the Beijing Enamel Factory, where they make cloisonne. This is a very time-consuming way to make enamel vases and other pieces.

First, a copper base is beaten. Next, tiny pieces of metal are glued in on a pattern, and finally, the enamel is applied, using an eye dropper, to fill the gaps between the metal outlines. It was fascinating to walk around and watch the crafstmen and work. What really amazed me was how well-dressed they were. Many wore no aprons, and the women mostly had skirts and high heels on.

The finished pieces have really vivid colours, and are truly beautiful. We bought a little Christmas decoration for our Christmas tree. We don't actually have a Christmas tree yet, but we will!

While at the cloisonne factory, a group of Tibetans turned up to do the tour. They looked just like .... Tibetans. See for yourself. One man kept staring at me (he's the one in the single photo), and when I took off my glasses, to rub my eye, he asked to see them. He looked through them, and he was quite amazed. By the way, the reason I'm wearing glasses at all in these photos is because I developed an eye infection after I soaked my contact lenses for one. This is why my eyes look so red in the photos. They are perfectly fine, now.

One of the tour guides said that Tibetans often have a strong yak fat smell, as they smear it on their skin to keep warm, and eat a lot of it in their cooking. Apparently yak fat smells a bit goat cheese-ish. Yum. These ones smelled very good.

Hugo was a bit less impressed, as one of the Tibetan women gave him a very familiar slap on the bottom and said something friendly to him. People kept telling me how pretty or handsome he was, the whole trip. The guide said they would have found his very large eyes appealing. He was quite disgusted about being slapped on the bottom.

The Pearls

Because we were booked as a tour group, we had to go to two Government outlets. The first one was the Pearl outlet. I have never felt more materialistic than standing in the People's Republic of China Pearl outlet. They were incredible - the most beautiful necklaces and other jewelry that I have ever seen. I hadn't seen pearls of such colours.

I learned two facts about pearls:

1. If you want to know if pearls are fake, rub them together. If they are just covered in ground pearl, it will come off as powder.

2. Freshwater pearls are less valuable because the oyster yields about 20 pearls at a time, whereas saltwater oysters only yield 1.

Okay, I thought of a number 3. The minerals in the environment around the oyster influence the colour of the pearl.

At the entrance, they have a small pool, full of the triangular freshwater oysters. The guide opened one and gave us all a baby pearl. I am going to have mine made into a tiny charm for Rachel.

The Summer Palace

The Summer Palace was like something out of a fairy tale. It was just gorgeous. It goes for miles, and is built around an artificial lake. Apparently it was commissioned out of navy funds by Cixi, a dowager empress who was promoted from fifth class concubine to second class, by bearing the emperor a son. When he died, he gave his official seal to his first wife, who yielded it willingly to Cixi, because she wasn't interested in politics.

Cixi was interested. The story goes that she got rid of anyone in her way. Our guide told us that when one of the concubines, who was an excellent dancer, became too appealing to the emperor, Cixi had her arms and legs cut off and stuck her body in a pot with just her head sticking out. Everyone was scared of her, understandably.

The summer palace boasts the longest covered corridor in the world, with about 14000 individual paintings on it, all of which tell interesting stories.

We took a ride on a 'dragon boat' and were very glad we weren't with the tour group who all wore hot pink pants to help find each other. We ate delicious snacks which were incredibly inexpensive, and looked through lots of windows at antiques. The English and the French burnt down much of the Summer Palace in about 1860, but it was rebuilt.

When Cixi was in charge, well, actually, she was never legally in charge. She did what the Chinese call, "taking care of business behind the screen". She had a couple of very young (3 and 6) emperors on the throne at different stages, but was really pulling the strings. When the second one tried to modernise China and introduce changes, it lasted about a hundred days, and she had him arrested, and housebound in the Summer Palace for ten years. He had a beautiful garden and courtyard, but it was still a prison. And he had no concubines for this period...

The Adventure Begins....

Last Wednesday, we went to Beijing for four days. What an amazing experience! It started at the airport. As soon as we walked in, we heard all this screaming. It wasn't "Run, there's a bomb!" screaming. More like, "Here comes our hero, Prince" 'Prince' being some Taiwanese pop star who was about to arrive at any minute.

It was gorgeous to watch from upstairs, but I wouldn't like to have been him, as he was REALLY squashed between several hundred adoring fans. All female, of course. All aged somewhere between thirteen and twenty.