October 29, 2007

Today's update is a small one, due to some time constraints and a few things I needed to work through over here. Today's topic is on one of the major holidays: the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This festival was on the 25th of September this year, but you can still see the primary food used to celebrate this holiday (mooncakes, called yuebing (uehbeeng, 月饼 in Chinese) ) sold here for low prices. The mooncakes all have a Chinese character written on them, signifying a hope for the coming months.

The most famous legend concerning the Mid-Autumn Festival is of Hou Yi (houh yee), a legendary archer, and his wife, Chang E (Chahng Uh). In the variant of the story I read, there were originally ten suns; only one was ever in the sky at any one time, however. One day, the suns got impatient, and all ten crossed the sky at the same time! This made the world unbearably hot, and so the Emperor asked Hou Yi to scare off the suns. Hou Yi aimed and fired, shooting down nine of the suns. The Emperor, although he was impressed, was also furious, and forced Hou Yi and his wife out of his land. However, the Empress gave a pill of immortality to Hou Yi, so he could live forever.

However, Hou Yi did not want to part from his wife, so he never used the pill. One day, when Hou Yi was away and Chang E was at home, a bandit named Peng Meng (Puhng Muhng) came in and demanded the pill! Knowing she would be killed if she tried to fight him, Chang E did the only thing she could to defy him; she turned and grabbed the pill, then swallowed it. Immediately, she floated up to the moon as punishment for taking the medicine, though it wasn't hers. Peng Meng escaped.

Hou Yi returned to find the pill and Chang E missing. In utter dismay, he rushed outside and looked around; then, he saw a shadow on the moon that looked like Chang E! He gave pursuit, but could never reach it; still, he kept trying to get back to Chang E, as she looked down upon him, unable to do anything. In honor of their love for each other, the Chinese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival!

Zaijian!

-Tom

Use your back button to go from picture back to blog

WARNING: This will be a mostly picture-based update. However, since I can't test for myself what sort of imagelinking works, I'm just going to provide the links to my Photobucket account, with the pictures in there. Also, all the pictures are quite large; my laptop doesn't have much in the way of resizing capability, either. Sorry I can't make this any more convenient.

A (very brief) background on Yiheyuan, also called the Summer Palace: built during the Jin dynasty (1115-1234), it was the summer residence of the Imperial family during the Qing dynasty, primarily made into the wonder it is today by the Empress Dowager Ci Xi (who, admittedly, embezzeled money from the nation's navy to do so, thus causing many problems for China later).

Words barely begin to describe this place, so I'll let the pictures I took do it instead:

1) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2067.jpg

This is the primary section of Yiheyuan, as seen from partway across the lake. This part of the Summer Palace is called Foxiang Ge, or "The Tower Of Buddhist Incense".

2) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2016.jpg

Here's a shot of that main tower, from decently close.

3) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2024-1.jpg

And even closer!

4) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2026-1.jpg

5) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2025-1.jpg

Two shots from around the inside courtyard of the tower.

6) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2027-1.jpg

I should say at this point that there's a lot more tourists than it looks - the area in this spot is under renovation, and thus not viewable by tourists. That plus my tendency to aim away from tourists may make Yiheyuan look rather deserted, but I had my back against the wall most of the time. This shot is back in the direction of picture 2, but a bit further down.

7) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2030.jpg

The sign on the wall of Foxiang Ge (again, visible from 1)

8) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2031.jpg

The wall. It's a bit dramatic. Fortunately, I got to go down the stairs; I didn't have to climb up them.

9) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2034.jpg

This was the kindest set of stairs there. I think you get the idea of why I'm glad I didn't have to climb up them.

10) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2033.jpg

11) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2032.jpg

Two shots of other parts of Foxiang Ge not available to tourists.

12) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2010.jpg

And a shot from Foxiang Ge to two of the other main parts of the Summer Palace, the 17 Arch Bridge and Penglai, the island in the middle of the lake Yiheyuan sits on. The lake's name is Beihai.

On the way there, some of the things I saw...

13) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2015.jpg Another shot of Beiha

Another shot of Beihai.

14) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2037.jpg

15) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2039.jpg

Statue of a dragon and a ... bird of some sort. Feng Huang? Unsure. In wire mesh since people kept wearing them down by touching them.

16) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2040.jpg A building near Foxiang Ge - one of the satellite buildings.

17) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2020.jpg A tower in the distance. I didn't have time that visit to go out to it. I plan to next time - I missed a few places, most notably Suzhou Market.

18) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2021.jpg

19) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2023.jpg

A building closer to the top of the hill that Foxiang Ge's on. I wanted to take pictures of the inside, but there's a lot of no-picture zones here. Mainly because they're trying to raise money by selling their own photos, which I didn't want to buy.

20) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2046.jpg

21) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2045.jpg

22) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2043.jpg

Shots of the Dragon Boat. They've got three of these for tourists. I didn't bring enough money to ride one, they're kinda expensive. Besides, seeing it was enough.

23) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2048.jpg

The Marble Boat. Used to be open to tourism, isn't any longer. Got this picture of it, though.

24) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2050.jpg

I don't know what this is, honestly, other than a monument on the north end of Beihai.

25) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2052.jpg

Another building around there.

26) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2018.jpg

27) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2006.jpg

28) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2004.jpg

Three other buildings. These were closer to the top of the hill, but I walked past all three of them twice so it fits well here.

29) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2009.jpg

30) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2008.jpg

31) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2007.jpg

And three sections of Beijing from the top of the hill.

32) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2063.jpg

Chang Lang, the Long Corridor. This thing was so crowded I didn't even bother trying to go into it. I just took a picture above the crowd and made a note to come back later.

33) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2068.jpg

Finally, at that bridge. Oddly enough, the island itself wasn't too impressive, though a large part was under construction; I plan on going back and rewalking it later.

34) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2073.jpg

35) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2072.jpg

Two shots of the pavillion right next to the bridge.

36) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2071.jpg

One of the 500-odd lions apparently on the bridge, according to the tourist notes lying around. All of them are rather cool, but I liked this guy the most.

37) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2061.jpg

38) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2060.jpg

39) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2059.jpg

Three places I don't remember the location of. I believe 37 and 38 were on the island, while 39 was somewhere else.

And thus ends the sloppily organized tour! There's one other thing of note...

40) http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g168/Taishyr/Set2074.jpg

This was a decoration off one of the roads leading away from the bridge. No, I don't get it either.

If you want to see a more organized tour (but with smaller pictures), a great site's here: http://www.kinabaloo.com/summer_palace.html

Five new words!

ge (pronounced guh) 阁 - Tower.

bei (pronounced bay) 北 - North.

nan (pronounced nahn) 南 - South.

dong (pronounced dong) 东 - East.

xi (pronounces cshee) 西 - West.

东西南北 - East West South North. This is how the Chinese refer to the four cardinal directions. Southeast is 南东 , while Northwest is 西北。

再见！

-Tom .

Hello again! Sorry this new update is so late, but I've been quite busy here with the start of classes! Each day at a Chinese college, there's about two to four hours of homework every day - but at most, there are four hours of classes a day, so while it's busy, it's not a terribly large amount of work.

After class, I usually go to the school cafeteria to pick up some food. Two traditional staple foods in China are rice and noodles. Rice is very common down south, while noodles are more common up north. Beijing has moderate weather (much like Michigan or the Northeastern United States); hot in summer, cold in winter, so I often eat both rice and noodles.

Other common, cheap foods are baozi - dumplings! It's dough wrapped around a central filling, be it beef, pork, or vegetables (chicken does not seem popular as a baozi filling). They're very tasty and quite cheap. For a little bit more money, you can buy a noodle or a rice dish. One of my favorites is chicken with vegetables and soy sauce.

The Chinese love sauces and spices. One of the most common is soy sauce, a sauce with a rather unusual flavor to many Westerners. It's quite good, however; I bought some for use when I make my own rice!

Another popular spice is Five Spice, so named because it is supposed to have all five of the traditional Chinese flavors mixed in; "hot", bitter, sour, sweet, and salty. The first one, "hot", also translates to spicy, pungent, and a few other terms. Personally, I find it tastes like strong black pepper.

Juice isn't popular here, except for some fruit juices (I see peach juice a lot). What is popular is ice tea; sold in bottles, it's quite convenient. The problem for me is that I really don't like cold tea; I have to drink it warm or not have it at all. Still, water bottles are also cheap, so that's what I buy more often than not.

Six more words for those of you still keeping up (shouldn't be too hard, I've given you about a month!)

yaoshi 钥匙 (pronounced yow-shee) It means key.

kan 看 (pronounced kahn) See, look, read.

ting 听 (pronounced ting) Listen.

chi 吃 (pronounced chee) Eat.

fan 饭 (pronounced fan) Meal (as in dinner meal).

ma 吗 (pronounced ma) Indicates the sentence is a question.

le 了(pronounced luh) Indicates, among other things, that an event occured in the past.

你吃饭了吗？

我吃饭了。

Ni chi fan le ma? Have you eaten yet?

Wo chi fan le. I've eaten.

This is also commonly used as a greeting in China; it's quite useful!

再见！

-Tom