Today was promising to be a crazy busy day. Mark and I had an early morning date with a rickshaw in a Hunan neighborhood . Riding in the back of his little pedal carriage we braved "rush hour" through narrow alleys and streets. (I write like we did any of the pedaling, understood where we were going or could take credit for any of the near-misses with other traffic.)
For me the highlight was a simple visit into the home of a local family, where a middle aged Chinese man taught us a brief lesson on paper cutting. How to fold paper and cut it to make decorations etc. These are commonly made and affixed to windows during times of celebrations.
Our shape is called DOUBLE HAPPY. Incredibly applicable. We were both very proud of our efforts and enjoyed the time sitting around a porcelain table, on a porcelain chair in the home of a warm and personable stranger!
Then we were off to the Summer Palace. A mass of smaller royal buildings along a lake, near Beijing... A place for the royals to hang out in summer so they could be a bit cooler and more comfortable than everyone else. Many of the buildings are connected by a covered (not enclosed) corridor. Still the longest corridor in China.
A little background about the (dragon) lady who improved the summer palace - to make it more to her liking and with little regard to amount of money that was being squeezed out of the Chinese people.
Cixi (which I incorrectly pronounced "sushi" until Julia laughed at me) was the Empress. When her husband, the Emperor, died and the next ruler was to be chosen, she wished it was her. However, being a woman, that was not possible. She also didn't have a son to put in place and therefore used the next best thing, a nephew. It sounded to me like he was a puppet and she the master puppeteer, but hey, what do I know? My brain is about to explode with an overdose of Chinese history! What I do know is that when Cixi wanted something, she manipulated a situation to make it appear like it was for the good of the country and with her less confident nephew as the one giving permission for whatever it was, she generally got her way.
For instance: Cixi wanted to make the lake bigger and to build a canal, so she convinced everyone that it was so the Navy could do tactical practice in it. Then Cixi took the boat across the lake and up the canal to downtown Beijing and went shopping. Much nicer than a horse ride. At least, that is my synopsis. :-)
Cixi wanted a more stable boat so she had a marble boat commissioned. Yeah, it doesn't float... it just sits out a bit in the water, looks nice and gave her the feeling of being on the water, without the pesky floaty feeling.
She was a piece of work, for sure. Part of me admires her power and confidence in a time and culture where that was not a common - and perhaps a dangerous trait in a woman.
To be honest the Summer Palace, as gorgeous as it was, is a bit of a blur. Partly because my notes are sparse (lack of down time) and partly because I had a fair bit of TMJ pain going on that day and the distraction makes me a poor student. What I do remember well is my introduction to the art of Cloisonne. French in origin if I'm not mistaken, but adopted and IMHO perfected by the Chinese eons ago and still going strong here, I will give you the Wikipedia link to explain the process too.
1. On a metal base, tiny metal wire is attached to form the outlines of pictures.
2. The picture is "colored in" by adding ground up colored mineral dust.
3. The article is baked at high temp until the color powder is melted and shrunk.
4. More powder is added and cooking repeated 5-7 times.
5. The surface is sanded and buffed out to shine up the color, reveal a bit of the metal again.
6. Finished product is tough, beautiful and each piece unique.
I was mesmerized by the jewelry, vases, little boxes, plates and other items. Of course, I had to have a souvenir. Mark bought me a beautiful vase! I'd show you a picture but the gallery saleswoman wrapped it thoroughly in padding and some sort of ridiculous cobweb of packaging tape. While it resembles nothing fancy now (understatement), it would be a shame to unwrap it before the trip home and waste all that great tape. LOL
Our last stop was the Temple of Heaven. A place that the Emperor visited several times a year to give thanks for or to pray for a good harvest... or similar. My understanding is it seemed kinda optional and if the harvest wasn't all it was cracked up to to be, he might skip his display of gratitude every so often. Then again, sometimes the Emperor came, fasted for 3 days, gave all sorts of thanks, sacrificed animals and maybe felt a bit closer to heaven too.
Anyway, it was a peaceful area with large open spaces, lots of healthy trees and a gentle warm breeze. The sun was setting and I felt at one with my camera.
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