Dear Parents,
We had a very long day today. The children were out for their morning exercise at 6:30. After breakfast, we went to Beihai Park. We had a new tour guide today, whose only redeeming feature was his kindness. Bonnie is rethinking about the cost-effectiveness of hiring tour guides in general. The problems with English language were trivial when compared with their abysmal content area knowledge. We first went to jiu3long2bi4, the nine-dragon wall. From there, we toured a royal garden where the emperor used to rest and read. Then we went boating. The row boats that we were planning to rent were not available; so we got into groups of 4 (the same groups at the MacDonald yesterday) and boarded pedal boats. We had an hour to pedal in the lake. Everyone gave it a try; those whose legs are not quite long enough to do pedaling sitting pedaled in standing position! I shared a boat with Gong Laoshi, Xu Laoshi (from the travel agency) and the tour guide. By the end of the hour, we thought we were the first boat to return, but when we landed, most children were already there, sweaty and smiley.
It is Sunday today, and Beihai Park was crowded. People in middle and old ages were dancing or practicing qi4gong1; crowds gathered where some were singing Peking opera; there were er-hu players and flute musicians; several young women were playing jian4-zi; some elderly were doing di4-shu1, writing Chinese calligraphy on the ground using broom-sized brush and water; half a dozen of women sat in a circle sharing their needle work; parents with strollers; children crying and screaming; tourists going places and getting lost; vendors trying to sell their items, chanting “cold water, two yuan (in English)”; there was also an official broadcast reminding everyone that Beijing will host the 2008 Olympics and that everyone should put on their best behavior…
We originally planned to visit Jingshan Park (which is right behind Beihai) after Beihai. But we couldn’t get our transportation in time. Just outside Beihai, it was a disordered symphony of traffic, with some cars driving on sidewalks and buses and cars and bicycles and humans only literally inches apart. We ended up stranded at a street corner for quite a while. When our tour bus finally came, it was time for us to do lunch. And we had a wonder-FULL lunch today. We went to an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet with dozens of Chinese dishes, desserts, and fruits as well. It is called “Origus”, a chain restaurant. Those 1.4 meters and shorter enjoy half price. The children ate so much that many were holding their tummy on their way out.
In the afternoon, we first visited a factory that makes cloisonné. As our own tour guide could tell us nothing about it, we asked a guide who works there to give us a tour. We had learned the process of base-hammering, filigree soldering, enamel filling, enamel firing, polishing and gilding from our field trip orientation; so it was good to see how these steps are actually accomplished in real life. Today we saw all the steps except for enamel firing part. Then we went to Yuan2long2 Silk Company. The guide there gave us a very nice overview of how silk is made from beginning to end. There was a demonstration of various steps and we got to try some of them ourselves. Finally we stopped by a jade factory. At all three places, we had opportunities to buy gifts and souvenirs.
We had dinner at a restaurant which supposedly makes the kind of food for the emperors’ consumption. It was good, and not too much, as most of us were not really hungry after lunch at Origus.
From dinner, we went to Chao2Yang2 Theater for a one-hour acrobat show which started at 7:15pm. The show was radiantly spectacular. I remember from when I was maybe 10 most of the technical aspects of the show; but I was dazzled today by the totally transformed presentation—the costume, the technology, the thematic continuity, as well as the artistry of the acrobat athletes. What difference 30 years can make!
So we learned a lot this weekend. What is it like climbing up and down the Great Wall? Why is the country China called “China”? What is the difference between pottery and porcelain? How to make a silk quilt? What makes cloisonné so special? How many people can get on one single bike in the Chinese acrobat? If you don’t already know the answers to any of these questions, now you may ask your children.
To love is to learn,
Agnes (aka He Laoshi)