In the morning of our second day in Beijing, we visited the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace was originally commissioned by Emperor Qianlong as a giant retreat in honor of his mother's 60th birthday in 1750. In 1860 many of the palaces were burned down. The Summer Palace was rebuilt with funds that were supposed to be used for the Navy. By this point Empress Dowager Cixi retired here in 1889. As the guide books state the Palace represents first hand the corruption at the time, the opulence here was bought with siphoned money as China crumbled. The entire gardens were for the Empresses exclusive use. I was interested in seeing this site but at the same time had ambivalent feelings about the history.
We arrived at the West Gate of the Summer Palace. Well it appeared once Neil reached Dale by cell phone she had arrived at the more popular East Gate. Keeping in mind that this park is 700 acres in size it took us an hour to find Dale. Neil and I found out during our leisurely walk through the beautiful garden area that we both liked the peacefulness of this area and didn't much care for crowds. Once we found Dale we made introductions and I found that she was working on her undergraduate degree in economics at the same college as Neil. It was her hope to go to Graduate School in the US, she had a great command of the English language. She arrived with an English head set for me, and had down lots of research It became obvious that Neil had called her the evening before in a panic that he was assigned to take me on a tour. We proceeded on our tour for about another hour, and then the skies opened up and it began to pour. They opened up their umbrellas and were happy to continue with the entire tour. By this time, I was wet and had slipped no less then three times in my wonderful american croc sandels. It was now close to 1:00pm and I knew they wanted to take in lunch. By the look on Dale's face I realized I might have insulted her, I said is that ok if we enjoy lunch. She said, I fear I did not do a good enough job preparing I told her that she had done a wonderful job and that I had thoroughly enjoyed the China tour but with the rain I just felt getting out of the weather was a good idea. She agreed and I think accepted my apology.
We waited in the rain for our driver for about fifteen minutes and then headed towards their campus area for lunch. They wanted me to experience having what they called a Hot Pot Lunch. In about 30 minutes time we were dropped off at a mall area. There were a lot of students mulling around as we entered the shopping mall and proceeded to the third floor to find our restaurant. On China tip, the local food is also an attraction. I saw a lot of interesting shops along the way. Once again the menu with all the pictures came and Neil proceeded to make selections. Out came this large pot with one side full of a clear liquid and the other side with a liquid that was red in color. I was told that was the spicy side. Then platters of raw meat and vegetables came out. I was told they were lamb and beef. You prepared your food very similar to how we prepare fondue. It was very good and also filling. Before long more meat and shrimp came out. I think Neil could see from my eyes that I was amazed at all this food for three people. He tried to send some of it back but they of course would not take it. Dale explained to me that he was embarrassed at the amount of food he had ordered. He did not want to be wasteful. I tried to tell him not to worry but I think he was quite concerned that I was the wife of the big boss and he was wasteful so he prepared to eat everything!
I had a very nice conversation with Dale about the culture again, she seemed to have a passion to learn about how we raised our children. She told me that she was raised very strict and was not allowed to ever have friends or extra curricular activities. She said she was made to study all the time, and if she did not do well her mother would be very angry with her and shouted. She could not imagine that young adults in America were given the independence to make career choices, friend choices and were allowed to go out on the weekends. I tried to explain to her that her mother was not wrong in her views but that this was her culture. She thanked me over and over for talking to her. She said she was so afraid to go against her parents and come to the US to study. She explained to me she wanted to get her PhD in Child Psychology and stay in America to practice. I tried to encourage her to make the choice she wanted but also to continue to respect her parents and her culture. It was a very hard conversation to have, I hope I was successful. We finished lunch and Dale headed back to her Dorm and Neil and I headed back to the hotel. It was now 3:30pm.
Well tomorrow is Friday, we will visit the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Beijing Hutongs.
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