Hello everyone!
So this week I was busy doing homework like a good little
student, but two things happened which were really awesome!
First, on Friday, I met up with my mom’s friend Chang from
Shanghai. She and my mom have worked together before, and Chang has really
helped me out a lot since I got here.
Chang came to Beijing for some business meetings, and said
that we could meet and explore Beijing together if we wanted. She also helped
me deal with some banking issues I’ve been having since the beginning of the
month. My parents sent me some money from their bank to my Bank of China
account that I had to open to receive my scholarship money. However, when the
bank in the US said the money arrived on October 15th, the Bank of
China said the money still wasn’t there (and this was on the 22nd
when they said it still wasn’t there). Chang helped me get everything figured
out, the money arrived safely, etc., and all is well. YAY!
After that I showed Chang around PKU’s campus because she
said that she had never seen it before. Since its autumn right now, the weather
is usually really nice, and the leaves are changing, so it’s the perfect time
to go site seeing (winter and spring are going to be really nasty once the pollution
levels rise). We took a lot of pictures of Weiming Lake, and we also went to a
small museum in the west part of campus, which had some copies of wood etchings
by famous European artists, and some pottery and a skeleton excavated from
areas just outside of Beijing. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures unfortunately,
so here are some of Weiming Lake and us at the restaurant we went to for dinner:
(Me with my mom's friend Chang)
(This is actually a sundial)
The other fun thing that happened was that yesterday I went
to the Summer Palace, which is only about four subway stops away from PKU’s
campus. Getting to the entrance was a pain though. Multiple people
were telling me to go in opposite directions, and then I ran into a woman from
Ohio named Gretchen, who was also lost, and two German interns who were also
lost, so we decided to be lost together. Eventually we found the east entrance
to the Summer Palace, and decided to explore it together. We went to the Long
Corridor (that’s its name, no joke), and saw a Buddha with ten arms. I wasn’t
allowed to take any pictures of the Buddha statues (the one with ten arms and
another Buddha statue nearby), but I did get lots of other pictures, so that’s
okay. I also saw three Buddhist nuns walking around the ten armed Buddha
singing and praying in Chinese, which was really interesting to listen to.
There’s a lot of pictures here, so I’m going to give brief
descriptions beneath them explaining what they are, rather than go into excruciating detail about
the history of the summer palace, etc. (that’s Wikipedia’s job). I will provide
a link to a Wikipedia article about the Summer Palace for those of you who want
to learn more:
(Right near the East Gate, where we bought our tickets)
(There was a festival going on this day, where several performances took place. Check out the short videos below to get an idea)
(some information about the last emperor of China, and royalty in general)
(details...)
(an old man who was playing the violin in a rather interesting way)
(a dance party)
(lots and lots of details...)
(This was a cool thing to see. I couldn't get inside the building, but I wanted you all to see the emaculate details...those details...)
(Sorry about the reflection on this one, but when I used the flash the picture got dark and hard to make out.)
(Up close details of the roof)
(I'm sorry, which way?)
(Oh irony)
(This is the marble boat that the Empress Dowager Cixi had built, instead of giving the money used to build it to the Chinese navy)
(I believe these are spun sugar animals which you can eat)
There was also a huge yellow duck in the lake. Yup, and it
was about the same size as several of the buildings in the area. Just a huge,
inflatable yellow duck. Apparently it’s really popular in China, and is moved
to several different cities throughout the year.
Here’s a bit more information about it in this link, and
some pictures I took of it, just so you get an idea of what it’s like:
After I got home I went shopping with one of my friends,
Janie, for some chocolate, and then watched part of an Indian movie at her apartment.
It was really adorable, with lots of cute romance and singing and dancing. It’s
a south Indian movie called “And that’s How it Happened,” and I recommend it to
anyone who wants a silly romantic comedy with slightly random musical numbers.
Well, that’s all that’s going on right now, so I’ll see you
all next week, and hope you have fun.
Here's a picture of the backs of two 1 yuan coins:
