Before visiting the Summer Palace today, I thought it seemed unnecessary to build another home for the emperor because of the extravagance of the Forbidden City. After walking around the palace for a few minutes I realized that the Forbidden City didn’t even come close to the luxury found in the Summer Palace. Even simple objects like brush holders and dishes were meticulously carved in jade or bronze. For a little while, I wondered to myself why places like this do not exist in the United States. Certainly the White House is beautiful, but it is not even comparable to the Summer Palace. I realized however, that the ancient Chinese government put their priorities in a different place than where I am used to. For instance, the famous marble boat was built using one year’s budget for the Chinese navy, instead of building navy boats. The Chinese people seem to have much more unwavering trust for the emperor, because he is considered the son of the heavens and can speak directly to gods. It makes sense then that summer palaces would be built, even one as extravagant as the one we visited.
In the middle of the day we rented paddle boats for an hour. About half way through a “war” started between our boat and the one of our other boats. They filled up an empty water bottle with lake water and then threw the water at us, getting me completely soaked. We then spent the rest of the time forming strategies to trap them and prevent them from getting to Dr. Gao’s boat, while fainting that we were also going after Dr. Gao’s boat. In the end, the people on our boat got the most water dumped on them, but we did manage to soak the other boat and keep Dr. Gao dry.
At the end of our Summer Palace tour we went to a place called Suzhou Street. The two block street which flanks a small canal was filled with shops. There were Chinese lanterns hanging outside most shops and tons of cotton floating through the air, while a flutist played traditional Chinese music. It was designed to look like places in southern China. Basically the street was exactly what one would expect to see when visiting China. I knew Beijing would be modern and would have some westernized shopping, but I expected to see more little shops like the ones we visited today at the Summer Palace.