March 21, 2011
Wednesday was a long day for us. We were able to join a tour group going to the Forbidden City 故宫, Tian’anmen Square 天安门, Temple of Heaven 天坛, and the Summer Palace 颐和园, respectively. It started out a little cold, but warmed up as the day went on. There was a Malaysian couple on the tour in their late 30s early 40s, and a young guy from Singapore with his girlfriend who also joined us. Our tour guide was really nice. Her name was Aili爱丽. Her English was pretty good and she was very knowledgeable of Chinese history. In between Tian’anmen and lunch, we stopped by a TCM hospital. A doctor gave us all a free consultation. I am fine except for a little cough that I’ve developed. The doctor told my mom that she not only has bad joints (of course she knew that already), but that she also has stagnation of the blood and some trouble with her kidney function. Maybe she should get that checked when she gets back to the States. Aili told us a story about one man from her tour group who was already diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and the TCM doctor could determine this only from checking his pulse, tongue, complexion, and asking him a few questions about his medical history. Chinese medicine is truly amazing. I don’t understand exactly how it works, even after studying it a little bit through my J-Term class, but those doctors definitely have something there. 2,000+ years of history can’t be nothing. It was a little annoying at the hospital because even though the consultation was free, it was really a scam to try to get us to purchase the medicine to go along with our “diagnosis.” Not saying that we wouldn’t benefit from it, but they didn’t need to pressure us as much as they did. They made the Malaysian woman in our group very uncomfortable.
Between the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace we went to a pearl factory. Since I have been there before, I guessed the average number of pearls in an oyster and got to keep a couple small pearls. Yay me! Mom bought several pieces of jewelry, including a necklace for me and Crystal. It was a pretty cool place. I hate being poor. But I am rich in other ways! J 颐和园 is probably one of my favorite places in Beijing. I like to go and watch people play cards, sing Peking Opera, play games, and play musical instruments. An old man even let me try to play his erhu, a traditional two-stringed instrument. Even though I was horribly pathetic at it (and I have the video to prove it!), it was still really fun to interact with the local people. Tuesday was really fun and it was packed full of sight-seeing!
The next day we didn’t do very much. I was a little sore from walking so much, so it was nice to just kind of lay around the apartment. We went across the street and ate some traditional Beijing cuisine. I tried to order some extra tofu wraps to put with the sliced pork 京酱肉丝, and the waiter brought out a whole new dish of it! My lack of Chinese combined the waiter’s impeding lisp made communication quite difficult. Oh well…I learned from it. From this day on, I will never forget the word doupi 豆皮 （tofu wrap）for as long as I live. Thursday night Mom and I went out to dinner with a couple named Larry and Cinia from church. Since we were both so busy on Sunday, I didn’t get a chance to introduce them to Mom. It was a really great time. They are both such genuine caring people. I am really glad to know them. I hope that we can spend more time together.
Friday Mom and I decided to go to the Beijing Zoo and the Legend of Kungfu show. The zoo had a lot more animals than I was expecting. According to the zoo’s history, by the end of WWII and the Japanese invasion, most of the animals had been so neglected that all that was left were twelve monkeys, two parrots, and a blind emu. There are a lot more animals now. It was very entertaining. I especially liked the elephants and the lions. I never heard a lion roar in real life before, so that was cool. It was a little sad that the animals didn’t have much space to roam around. The Beijing Zoo is not like zoos in the U.S. that try to mimic animal’s natural habitats. Many of them are just in small, square exhibits with very little rock or foliage. I can imagine how boring it must get. They just pace around in their cages to the point of insanity. I hope that part of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan is dedicated to improving parts of this zoo and others around the country. I was impressed, however, by how many different animals the Beijing Zoo has. It has come a long way since 1949.
Chinese Word of the Day
Dongwu yuan 动物园: "Zoo"
Verse of the Day
Psalm 62:7 “My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.”
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