Forbidden City

Yesterday our big excursion was a visit to the famous Forbidden City. No, not the restaurant, but the former imperial palace and grounds. As it gets over 100,000 visitors per day, most of whom were crowded within five feet of me, it’s really not too forbidden any more. The scale of the Forbidden City is just so impressive. The individual is meant to feel like a small, insignificant speck amidst the grandeur that is the Chinese Empire. The architecture is amazing. The roofs are lined with dragons and other creatures to protect the buildings from harm. While the main axis of the palace has the immense buildings that were used for the everyday business of the empire, moving off that axis there is layer upon layer of small alleys with courtyards, gardens, and buildings that would have housed all of the support staff, if that’s what you’d call concubines and eunuchs.

You may notice people carrying umbrellas in some of the photos. That’s not because it was raining, but because people were using umbrellas in the true sense of their name, for providing shade. It was hotter than blazes in Beijing yesterday, about 104 F. So as you can imagine, we were pretty sweaty moving through the palace. That is typical summer weather, though, in China, so hopefully we’ll adjust soon. Don’t worry, Mom, I was drinking plenty of water.

When we left the Forbidden City, we went as a group to Houhai for lunch. It was much more tranquil during the day. I think I preferred the experience there at night. A group of about ten of us went to a great restaurant where we bought several different dishes (nothing out of the ordinary, with the exception of a dish that had quail eggs), beer, and plum juice. We shared Chinese style. I was amazed at how cheap it was. We each ended up paying 58 Yuan, or about $8.50. Remember, Houhai is a more expensive area for eating!

After Houhai, we hopped back on our bus to drive to the airport. We caught a 5 pm flight to Xi’an on China Eastern Airlines. On the two hour domestic flight, we actually had a hot dinner. Talk about service!

Upon arrival in Xi’an, we were met by students of English who helped us with our luggage. After about an hour’s bus ride into the city, we arrived at Shaanxi Normal University. Again, the students helped us with our bags (if only my students at Central were so helpful!) and we settled into our rooms. This place is so nice! My colleague, George, who is from Okemos, outside of Lansing, is sharing a suite with me. We have a rather large bedroom area, then there is a sitting area with a desk, then there’s a separate room with a couch and fridge. We have phones in the rooms. To call home, we bought 100 Yuan phone cards from the front desk. So for about $14.50, we have about 3 hours worth of calls to the US. Not too bad! One of the best things is that we have internet in the rooms. However, there are quite a few people in the group who are upset about that, as we were told that there would be no internet in the rooms. As a result, few people brought laptops. Luckily, I succumbed to William’s will and I brought mine with me.

Today we’ll be shown around campus and the area by the same students who helped us last night. I will report back then.