So yesterday (Monday) got up and went to this cool little cafe/library called the bookworm where we have all of our talks in the morning. Talking to us was one of my professors friends who is an American born Chinese but lives in Beijing today. His name is Kaiser and was and is a big part of the Chinese rock n'roll movement, he certainly looks the part also, long hair, blue jeans and a leather jacket he certainly looked like a rocker. So the first half of his talk was all about his story and the evolution of rock/pop/metal in China, then in the second half he changed hats and started talking about his life as an Internet guru and how the Internet has shaped China (especially the young people of China) today.
Following Kaiser's talk we headed out to the Summer Palace which is like the summer home for the emperor. It's pretty impressive to say the least. There's a great big man made lake that a few of my pengyous (friends) and I cruised around on in a paddle boat. There's also a huge stone ship that was built at the end of one of the Dynasty's (can't remember if it was the Ming or Qing) anyways it was built by the emperor's concubine who is basically blamed for the down fall of the dynasty.
Overall had a great day. Forgot to mention that for lunch in between Kaiser's talk and the summer palace we went to a western restaurant right by the bookworm where they had 1 quai wings. Anyways if you ate 40 wings you got a free t-shirt. A couple of my buddies and I couldn't turn down a challenge, only problem was we needed to eat the last twenty in like 15 minutes so we could catch the bus to the summer palace. It was a challenge, but we got it done.
-AL
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You are having way too much fun! So was the ship built by the concubine or for the concubine? And exactly what did she do to be blamed for the demise of the dynasty -- fail to give birth to a son? Love you, Mom
ReplyDeleteThe ship was built by the concubine w/ the military budget (hence the fall of the dynasty). The ship is really impressive considering it was built long before any modern technology.
ReplyDeleteSo someone over there spent more government money than was in the budget???? Geezzzz.
ReplyDeleteI hope your mom is scrap booking all these details. It will be awesome to review in 30 years, and, hopefully compare to another trip.
ly...ala
Sounds like lots of fun, glad you are enjoying the side trips. I would love to see the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.
ReplyDeleteDear Andrew,
ReplyDeleteAla knows that she scrapbooks and I round-file. But she's a good worker ant (or is that queen?) and I'm sure she'll put together a great memory book.
love, Mom
haha - i just have to laugh at the idea of mom scrap booking. You never know... anything could happen, i guess!
ReplyDeleteI guess I'll do the scrapping then. I had no idea what "round filing" was. I had to ask mom this a.m. Andrew, hope you have a thumb drive with all those picts. I'll need it.
ReplyDeletely.. ala.
ps for my sister... I'm still the worker ant. We have enough queens around here. :)