Historical Sites

Day three of Beijing saw us again hiring Michael as our tour guide.
Today's schedule was the Summer palace, the Bell and Drum towers, and
the old city hutongs of Beijing. We started at the Drum and Bell
towers- they are monstrous tall towers where they used to open and
close the city gates. The drums were sounded, and they'd open the
gates, and the bell sounded and they'd close at the end of the day- or
vice versa, I forget (don't tell Michael). We trudged up the stairs,
again- and got to the top of the Drum tower, where they did a little
performance. There were really neat views of the city, though they
weren't as neat to Ang becuase she is not a big fan of heights. After
the towers, we walked through part of the city's old hutongs (they are
like old neighborhoods) and then got in some pedicabs (the rickshaw of
the new millenium) to tour some more. We were able to stop at one
family's courtyard home and see what it was like to live inside one of
these areas which was really interesting. He had peach and persimmon
trees growing in the heart of his courtyard in the middle of Beijing.
It was strange but cool. After the hutongs, we decided to try some
food from the Hunan province (Mao's home province) and Michael ordered
for us again... without telling us that the food there is uber spicy.
You have to remember that we have four minnesota mouths here that are
not used to spicy- so we turned the ac up in our little private room,
and blew out fire at each other as we enjoyed the food. We finished
our day at the summer palace- which is where the emperors would escape
to when the Forbidden City got really hot in the summer time. It was
understandable once we got there- the scenery was beautiful, and there
was a HUGE manmade lake in the middle of this area. They took the dirt
from the lake and of course made a mountain on the other side to keep
it all in Feng Shui fashion. We were tired and hot, but we enjoyed
learning more about concubines, eunichs and their organs (a story to be
told only in person by any of the four of us) and about the
significance of the many paintings and buildings on the grounds. We
bid Michael adieu after our summer palace tour- and we still wish he
was here with us. If you ever go to Beijing, find Michael- he's worth
the money!!!