Fragrance Hill Park, Summer Palace and Gaobeidian Village [Maybe]
This might take 2 parts as we know not what the day will bring
“Are you sure this is the right spot Teng?”
“Yes, Zhang Yong was right, not so I.”
“And what are we supposed to do here?”
“We will just break here and walk around to experience Local peoples and later they will dance to the honor of those returning to their homes who have traveled away.”
“And what are we to see here that we haven’t already seen driving through the poor area just now?”
“I dont know,” he says… “to tell you the truth, I have never been here before.”
Thus we were about to conclude the tour portion of our day... but lets rewind to the morning.
After the usual “Dance of the Tiny Bathroom [here after referred to as the “DOTTB”] a quick email check and even quicker breakfast, we meet Zhang and Teng for our trip to Fragrance Hill Park, the Summer Palace and points beyond.
First stop, Fragrance Hill park, one of the loveliest and most serene parks I have ever set foot in. And now… [to please the factoidaly anal Dragon Chick] the facts. There are three reasons the Chinese believe it's necessary to build parks, one for enjoyment, secondly for entertaining and to maintain peaceful political conditions, a most important reason for building so many parks. And third but most important…the Ming’s built so much that the Qing's had no other way to spend their wealth, so they built parks.
Fragrance Hill was first built in 1155 by the Qin Dynasty as a hunting park originally for higher officials and the imperial family. Later in the Ming dynasty a contemporary palace was built.
Within the park is some of the most Exquisite floral and tree arrangements with winding paths along with “little cable cars that climb half way to the stars”...[with apologies to Tony Bennett] …these actually do on their way to the top 554 meters above the entrance.
Boy I'm getting my exercise now… this reminds me of "Ballad of Barcelona:"
Up the Hill and Down the Hill
and all around town of Beijing Chiiiiiiina.
Our boy Teng, marched us up
and marched us down
and marched us up just one hill more.
[ENOUGH already!!!!]
As we wandered around and up and down, [damn they love steps!] Teng kept a running
commentary of the various Emperors that often came here to just stroll amongst the beauty and reach harmony with nature. Illy has instructed that the attached Photo must accompany this edition as it exemplifies the total serenity, and blending of all natures elements to create a scene that artists would kill to be able to sketch. You should be able to double click the image able to enlarge it to appreciate the total symmetry and serenity of the scene.After one gentleman watched as I took great care to frame this scene, he requested to have his
daughter take a picture of him with the Mei Guo Ren [Americans]. Teng got a kick out of this as he sees how easily I can interact with just about anyone... hence the load of kids pictures that we are bringing back… some of the cutest little buggers you have ever seen.
Just then, we heard singing… and spotted a lady in a traditional red jacket just standing amongst a stand of Pieone blossoms singing to no one in particular, just celebrating the surrounding nature.
The park was well kept and well used and the beauty
was just astounding. We were planning to try a cable car to the top for what promised to be a spectacular view but time was running out for lunch [we must eat by a certain time at the contracted restaurants…they all close at 2pm to prepare for the evening meal.]Soooooo off to this cute little hole in the wall with an interesting buffet. The food was plentiful with very good flavors and even had USA style Hotdogs in mini sandwich rolls. The usual chicken in some sweet sauce, an excellent pork loin in a tangy brown sauce, the obligatory rice and “one cup of soft drink or one cup of beer “. This one rates **+
While we’re eating this young man kept passing the table and practicing his English. As he would pass by, he would blurt out phrases that they must be teaching in preparation for the Olympics. It went something like this:
“Guuud Afternuuun!.”
“Hello, Sank You.”
“Where are you from?”
Each time he passed I would respond. This must have given him courage
because all of as sudden he comes up behind me and says”“Qwertr do lar?”… What? “ Qwertr Do lar”. He then spells it. I ask him what it is all about and he whips out a US Quarter and later a Susan B. Anthony Gold dollar.
And with this I wind up in an impromptu currency lesson that was joined by half the floor staff and a nervous manager when she saw the crowd around our table, I finally got him to understand the relationship between his money the Yuan or Renmenbi or RMB as its abbreviated and the $USD.
Now our driver is coming in for some water, spots the crowd and panics. He runs and gets Teng and must have told him we had a problem as he hurried over to solve whatever…Illy assured him I had it all under control.
So as we finally leave, the driver has already told the story to the other drivers outside waiting and we exited to applause and the chant: “Meng tzi”.. “Meng tzi”… “Meng tzi”
It appears he has also told them my Mandarin name which was given to me by my first Chinese Professor in college in honor of the great philosopher/teacher and disciple of Confucius [thrice removed]. Yeah I just can’t resist kids and love holding impromptu teaching sessions.
Our next stop was the Summer Palace, built by the 5th emperor of Qing dynasty for his
mother as gift. It was 10 years in construction completed in 1750 and was burnt down and looted 3 times First by the British during the opium war of 1857- 1860, 2nd in 1890 by the so called 8 Powers [British, French, Russian, Netherlands, 
Australian, Japan, USA, Germany] prior to the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 when the palace was looted and burnt for the 3rd time in 1902 The 9th Emperor fled to Xian for refuge. Upon his return they could not find enough money to rebuild it completely and only one third is restored which we will visit today. "Our purpose is threefold" [as Teng often says…he has three reasons for every visit, stop etc] First purpose: is to see how to build a typical Chinese garden and appreciate its beauty as the imperials have. The second, recalling the tour guide at the furniture workshop mentioning the Dragon Lady 
of the Qing Dynasty. She was the Aunt of the 7th, 8th and 9th emperors known at the time as the Empress Dowager who 
actually handled the affairs of state behind the screen which was behind the Emperor's Throne [hence our expression “Power Behind The Throne”] of each of the emperors up to the reign of the Pu Yi, the last emperor that ascended the throne at 4 years old in 1902]. She loved the summer palace residing there over 300 day a year making it the political center of China from 1860 -1902. Because she had become so powerful, she kept the 9th emperor prisoner at the Summer Palace as she could control him better until they both died on the same day to unexplained circumstances and Pu Yi became the 10th and final emperor of both the Qing Dynasty and China overall until his abdication in 1925 under the duress of General Feng Yui Xiang, commander of the Beijing Garrison who removed him from the Forbidden City.The center of the Summer Palace is the 4 sq/km Kunming Lu [lake]
where the Emperors once 
traveled to from the Forbidden City by dragon boat through the series of canals and inland “seas” to Yi He Yuan, through the Marco Polo Bridge or as it is more commonly known “The 17 Arch Bridge” and onto The Garden of Harmony which surrounds the lake,
It was an extremely smoggy day making long range pic of the palaces surrounding the lake impossible and the crowds for Dragon Boats was too long to wait to get to the far end of the Lake to the actual Main palace area.
Our next stop the Gaobeidian cultural Village was across town, so after another 2 rolls of film we head out to what should prove to be an interesting night.
On the way our boys got into a heated [very heated] discussion about the location and how to get to it. After stopping to ask a local cop, we find the Gaobeidian section and…
Are you sure this is the right spot Teng?”
“yes, Zhang Yong was right, not so I.”
“And what are we supposed to do here?”
“We will just break here and walk around to experience Local peoples and later they will dance to the honor of those returning to their homes who have traveled .way.”
“And what are we to see here that we haven’t already seen driving through the poor area just now?”
“I don’t know,” he says… “to tell you the truth, I have never been here before.”
With that tid bit of information and After a brief discussion about the condition of the area and not wanting to be there after sundown, we decide to scrap this part, find a cute bar, have some drinks and see about dinner.
We arrive at a cute South China restaurant that also had a dance show during dinner and of
course Illy just had to pet the elephants outside.We got Teng to join us for a cocktail and the hostess lady misunderstood his instruction to 
check with us in 45 minutes about dinner but she understood that we wanted to eat in 45 minutes and started the food to roll out to our table. Teng got upset and proceeded to confront the manager who stood her ground, but grudgingly agreed to hold our Meal back until we signaled we were ready. The food was “OK”, more than enough for three but with a very boney fish and a nasty manager, overall it gets **+ The show was OK...
On the way our boys got into a heated [very heated] discussion about the location and how to get to it. After stopping to ask a local cop, we find the Gaobeidian section and…
Are you sure this is the right spot Teng?”
“yes, Zhang Yong was right, not so I.”
“And what are we supposed to do here?”
“We will just break here and walk around to experience Local peoples and later they will dance to the honor of those returning to their homes who have traveled .way.”
“And what are we to see here that we haven’t already seen driving through the poor area just now?”
“I don’t know,” he says… “to tell you the truth, I have never been here before.”
With that tid bit of information and After a brief discussion about the condition of the area and not wanting to be there after sundown, we decide to scrap this part, find a cute bar, have some drinks and see about dinner.
We arrive at a cute South China restaurant that also had a dance show during dinner and of
course Illy just had to pet the elephants outside.We got Teng to join us for a cocktail and the hostess lady misunderstood his instruction to 
check with us in 45 minutes about dinner but she understood that we wanted to eat in 45 minutes and started the food to roll out to our table. Teng got upset and proceeded to confront the manager who stood her ground, but grudgingly agreed to hold our Meal back until we signaled we were ready. The food was “OK”, more than enough for three but with a very boney fish and a nasty manager, overall it gets **+ The show was OK...
We head back to the hotel ready to crash but I had to get a NOWAT out and I was exhausted.
This is being written Xi'an as we are trying to catch up. Unlike our other adventures where we planned most of the trip and had lots of time to ourselves, we are kept busy from 9AM to 9PM and that makes it tough top get these written.
More tomorrow about the temple tours and a night at the circus.
再见朋友
Zài Jiàn Péng-You
Chuck and the “swears we have both lost 10 pounds each with all this running" Dragon Lady.
