I didn't sleep well last night. I woke up at 3. And then again at 3:45. And 4. And 5. And so on. Nonetheless I rose, ready to get today's challenge, the Summer Palace. Once we disembarked from the bus and pushed our way past the fake Rolex watches and into the Palace, I was pleasantly surprised to be away from throngs of people. There was not a car horn to be heard and a few people moved quietly from exhibit to exhibit. We could finally enjoy the simple elegance of the Summer Palace as it was meant to be, quiet and serene. It reminded me of American landmarks in the off-season. Just a few tourists spread over a large area. The displays were mostly just preserved vases and other ornaments, which I didn't find interesting except for a few intricately carved pieces. As we approached the exit for this residential area of the palace, I realized that there were plenty of people in the palace, they had just not paid the extra yuan to look at antiques. Indeed in the rest of the palace it was not just crowded, we were swamped with people. The small doors between courtyards, designed for the tinier people of ancient China, were difficult to press through with so many streams of people competing for access. But once we made it to the Buddhist temple, the crowds were finally dispersed. Along the way, I picked up a deck of cards about the Cultural Revolution for one of my high school history teachers who would appreciate its offhanded remarks about needing to stop discussing what actually happened during the revolution and instead look at pictures. The last poorly translated sentence on the back of the box aptly concluded that we needed to "remember and forget". Though I can't speak for the average Chinese person's views on Mao since I have encountered very few whom I can communicate, but at least through the lens of trinket sales, it appears that Mao's reputation is polished up and he has been elevated to the level of a god for some. Yun He confirmed that some people see Mao as a deity, not as the sole God, but as one of the gods of traditional Chinese religions. As we have gone on tours, especially in the Forbidden City, I have seen several old folks who look as if they lived during the time of Mao wearing his style of jacket which was quite popular at the time.
The Buddhist temple constructed at the Summer Palace was a weird mashing of the traditionally simple beauty of Buddhism with the over-the-top extravagance of the palace which is a sprawling birthday celebration present built on an artificial mountain overlooking a massive man-made lake. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and absolute wealth finds a way to spend itself. After a paddle boat ride on the lake, we headed back to the hotel.
Later in the night, a group of us headed to a bar popular with college students, which was a good crowd for us college students. We arrived early and goat a nice booth area. The staff were friendly, especially when it was apparent we were willing to spend RMB on fancy flaming drinks. It was a fun little bar, probably like American bars thought I'll never get to see them until I'm 21 for reasons I still don't understand.... Anyways, we Americans were the first ones on the dancefloor, and even got some natives to join in when we broke out the Macaranna halfway through.