Day 3: Summer Palace
We can't upload pictures at the moment but will as soon as we can.
We started our third day with our first Chinese bus experience. After an hour of bumping and honking, we arrived at the Old Summer Palace, the imperial playground. We started at Suzhou Street - the private shopping street of the emporor - small boutiques on the edge of the canal now the emperial tourist trap. It was absolutely beautiful - there were stupas,temples and palaces up the hill. Each level was different - colors and thousands of carved buddhas and windchimes hanging from the stupas. When we got over the hill, we saw a huge manmade lake with a covered path around it - coined the pedestrian highway by Jerome. We visited the rest of the courtyards, opera set and some mini-museums before getting too hungry to continue. We tried silicon-type porridge but opted for a restaurant back in the city.
We ate in a place with a dead fish in the tank and a bird screeching in the bathroom. But the food was good.
Have we mentioned all the naked children in the streets? The toddler clothing is open in the crotch to allow for easy toilet access.
We went to Behai park which was part o the Forbidden City a long time ago. It was a maze of courtyards and temples - passageways with hidden buddhas and other statues. It was beautiful and not too crowded. As we walked along the lake, we saw aman practicing his calligraphy on the sidewalk - using a brush that was a meter long and water. It was very poetic as it evaporated little by little. Bo tried but said it was hard because the brush was made of foam.
We then went to look for a cool bar called the Hidden Tree, a cool place with a courtyard and a tree in the middle - we needed some Belgian beer and this place was recommended in the guidebooks. The taxi dropped us off at the top of the street and we walked past rubble and non-existent buildings. But where was the bar? Bo asked a woman in a cafe who said : "Most of the bars are already gone.'Turns out this was just another neighborhood that is being "improved". The bar had moved, as werealized when we found a ruin with "the tree" and a phone number written on it. We ended up on the bar street - in a tacky bar with a bad local band. But we bought some insects made of grass by a kind old man.
And then we ate again....in an old courtyard turned into a restaurant. It was peking duck time...
Click here to see Bo practicing calligraphy
Click here to see 'driving lesson - part 1'
We started our third day with our first Chinese bus experience. After an hour of bumping and honking, we arrived at the Old Summer Palace, the imperial playground. We started at Suzhou Street - the private shopping street of the emporor - small boutiques on the edge of the canal now the emperial tourist trap. It was absolutely beautiful - there were stupas,temples and palaces up the hill. Each level was different - colors and thousands of carved buddhas and windchimes hanging from the stupas. When we got over the hill, we saw a huge manmade lake with a covered path around it - coined the pedestrian highway by Jerome. We visited the rest of the courtyards, opera set and some mini-museums before getting too hungry to continue. We tried silicon-type porridge but opted for a restaurant back in the city.
We ate in a place with a dead fish in the tank and a bird screeching in the bathroom. But the food was good.
Have we mentioned all the naked children in the streets? The toddler clothing is open in the crotch to allow for easy toilet access.
We went to Behai park which was part o the Forbidden City a long time ago. It was a maze of courtyards and temples - passageways with hidden buddhas and other statues. It was beautiful and not too crowded. As we walked along the lake, we saw aman practicing his calligraphy on the sidewalk - using a brush that was a meter long and water. It was very poetic as it evaporated little by little. Bo tried but said it was hard because the brush was made of foam.
We then went to look for a cool bar called the Hidden Tree, a cool place with a courtyard and a tree in the middle - we needed some Belgian beer and this place was recommended in the guidebooks. The taxi dropped us off at the top of the street and we walked past rubble and non-existent buildings. But where was the bar? Bo asked a woman in a cafe who said : "Most of the bars are already gone.'Turns out this was just another neighborhood that is being "improved". The bar had moved, as werealized when we found a ruin with "the tree" and a phone number written on it. We ended up on the bar street - in a tacky bar with a bad local band. But we bought some insects made of grass by a kind old man.
And then we ate again....in an old courtyard turned into a restaurant. It was peking duck time...
Click here to see Bo practicing calligraphy
Click here to see 'driving lesson - part 1'
posted by Gros Joe at
10:37 AM
1 Comments:
Everything sounds so exotic and fascinating. You are experiencing enough memories for a lifetime. Keep up those detailed commentaries . I can almost see what you are describing. Jerome really does stand out in the pictures. He's the only tall blond...the only blond, in fact.
Mom
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