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On Sunday we had a quick breakfast at our hotel before meeting up with Erin and Ben again for a day of sightseeing. We decided to hit up the Summer Palace in the morning; the garden was originally built in the mid-1700s, but was destroyed about 100 years later, and subsequently rebuilt. The scale of the garden was overwhelming, it seemed like we only saw a fraction of it in the few hours we were there, and the crowds were thick.
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Buildings at the Summer Palace.
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Ceiling decoration...
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One of the many enormous doors.
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Joe and I with the Pagoda of Buddhist Incense atop Longevity Hill in the background.
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Erin and Ben as we prepare to climb to the top of the hill.
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Atop the hill! I think this photo gives one an idea of the scale of the Summer Palace, the entirity of Kunming Lake is within the Palace grounds.
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Looking down at all the paddle boats on the lake.
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Still atop the hill, this building is made entirely of bronze.
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Walking back down from the top of the hill. We lingered at the top for a while, enjoying the breeze, chatting, and people watching.
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The infamous Marble Boat. During the late 19th century the Empress Dowager Cixi diverted a huge amount of funding from the military to expand the Summer Palace and to build this boat. Honestly, I was really excited to see the boat, but it wasn't as cool as I had hoped.
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Ben with the portrait plate he bought. This guy was painting people on plates and would then approach them to see if they wanted it. If they bought the plate, he would use a spray fixant, if not, he would wipe the plate clean. I love the thumbs up, it's a pretty cool souvenir.
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We hopped a boat back to the front of the Palace grounds.
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Erin and I near the gate, our photo op for the KU East Asian Languages and Cultures Department brochure (where we both taught Eastern Civ.).
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We had a super tasty lunch at a restaurant near the Summer Palace. Why no photos of lunch? Well, while the food was fantastic, we were seated in this kinda shady back room with awful blue-tinted lighting, so the few photos I took make the food look pretty unappealing.
After our busy morning, we grabbed a taxi and headed over to 798, the contemporary art district of Beijing.
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The area around 798 was originally built in the 1950s and includes factory buildings designed by East Germans in the Bauhaus style, reflecting the era's movment of unified socalism. The area had a very human scale to it, in stark contrast with so much of Beijing. Many of the galleries were small operations off of tree lined streets and intermixed with cafes and bookshops. The area was also covered in graffiti- I particularly like the way this piece includes the tree.
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Gallery interior....
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One of the 798 streets.
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Ben and Erin led us to the UCCA space where we saw the fantastic Qiu Zihjie installation Breaking Through the Ice, a huge multi-room multi-media work.
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More gallery hopping.
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The original 798 Space.
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After more art, and a quick stop at a bookshop, we stopped for a brief and lovely coffee break at the cafe attached to 798 Space.
Art Scene Beijing, the gallery across from 798 Space, housed my favorite show of the day, Peng Wei.
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More graffiti....
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Art, art, art, art, art, art, art.
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Our last stop of the day, Tex-Mex food! Erin and Ben knew of a Tex-Mex restaurant in the northeastern part of the city, not too far from 798. Before you question why four open minded people are eating Tex-Mex in Beijing at a restaurant that had decor reminiscent of a Cracker Barrel, I will remind you that we are also four Americans living in Asia, an area of the world not exactly known for a bounty of Mexican style food..... I will also say that my enchiladas were awesome, and that they had real tortilla chips, not the Pringles-style "corn" chips that we can get in Japan. Simply heavenly.
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Sadly, Erin and Ben had to head back to Tianjin on Sunday night. The two days we spent with them was super fun for a bunch of reasons. First off, because they are awesome, second because they are friends from Lawrence and KU and that was just a little bit comforting, and third, because they know alot about China and Beijing, and Erin's Chinese is really good. So yeah, super funsies.
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