Beijing - Day 12 - And the willows did not weep

So, today was spent at the Summer Palace (Yi He Yuan, all 2nd tone), and I absolutely loved it. How can you go wrong with willows, lakes and gorgeous bridges to boot? I can just tell that Hangzhou's West Lake (Xi Hu) is going to absolutely take my breath away. I'm just going to want to sit there everyday...

 

Garrett was significantly less impressed, being more the buildings/intricate design/museum sort, but I think I've more or less had my fill of all of the above. Yes, it's gorgeous, but a building is just a building (as I may have mentioned before) after a while. Yes, I suppose you can argue the same for bridges (or lighthouses, as my previous obsession seemed to be when I visited the Maritimes), and for hillsides or other such treasures. But to each his own, I suppose. This is my paradise. Even in the 35C weather, I was perfectly happy to meander around the lake right up until they closed around 5pm. Blissfully so, in fact. Admittedly, I was absolutely hiding out in the shade of the willows for as much of the day as possible, and near the lake, the breezes were absolutely heavenly... but still... 35C is still brutal, and I definitely was dripping with sweat (you think I exaggerate, hm?) by the time I came home.

 

WHICH, btw, I should point out, takes about 1.5 hours, all told, with about half an hour in the subway and then another hour to get there on a bus. It was, however, my first chance to see variable fare buses in action, and so, I was pretty giddy about that. I think I shall have to write a post specifically about transit around Beijing, as I've much to ramble on about there. Eeee! Hurrah!

 

Other than raving about the gorgeousness of the scenery, I suppose I have few other comments about yi he yuan...

 

If you (ever) go, I'd personally vote for buying the cheaper (park admission only Y30) ticket, as opposed to the Y50 ticket that includes admission to a few other sights in the park

 

1) the gallery (Y10 if bought separately -- I wasn't too keen on it, but, as I mentioned, I'm sort of done with the generic old relics bit... Though some of the Han dynasty and earlier (ie. 200BC-ish, or early as 11th century BC) bronze work was pretty awesome. I'm just sort of done with seeing MORE pretty things from the Qing dynasty (1600-1900ish, though most of it is from the 1700s, typically), as all of it begins to look the same to me.)

 

2) the "garden" (aka. museum, another Y10 -- neat if you're up for another museum, but definitely worth it if you're willing to wait around a bit -- every 1/2 hour, they have a live performance on this old stage where the Empress Dowager CiXi (like, the Queen Mother, essentially, in monarchical terms) used to listen to Beijing Operas -- so I got treated to a neat concert on traditional chinese instruments (PS. SOOOOO tempted to buy a Yi Wu while I'm here, perhaps when I hit Shanghai... It'd be so much cheaper than getting it in Canada, and I've always wanted to learn. I don't really know how I'd go about learning, but... From what I hear, they're not too pricey -- one guy in the hostel picked one up for Y30 -- around $5CDN. Granted, this was off some random guy on the street, so maybe the quality is questionable, but still.... ) -- plus some dancing (which, of course, made me glad I'd learned some as a kid, and made me sort of want to go back to it (again, it being a group dance, and more performance than social, I don't really know how I'd manage it, but the thought persists) -- egads, I'm begining to actually APPRECIATE my years and eons of chinese summer school and saturday school. I didn't think it even possible.)... Enough brackets for you? (sorry... I'm a bit flighty today)

 

3) Suzhou Street - bleah. Y10 if bought separately, but SOOOO not worth a penny. Besides the fact that we're going to the real thing (Suzhou is a small city about an hour or so west of Shanghai... It's like China's version of Venice, canals and gorgeousness abounds), and that this imitation can't compare... Besides that, you walk around this little canal, and all they do is try to sell you stuff. But you can't walk away, since the path is only wide enough for one person to fit. So, basically, I paid money to have people hassle and solicit me with goods that I could purchase elsewhere, probably for cheaper, with wider variety. I get enough hassling from sellers on the street. I don't need to buy it. Though, admittedly, I'm starting to learn to tune much of it out. Especially with the number of ticket scalpers I pass on the way into the train station (never thought train ticket scalping was a big business, but it REALLY is.... At least 10 or 20 people at any given street corner near the station constantly saying "mai piao" or "fa piao", and trying to sell tickets).

 

On that note, today was our 3rd venture into the Beijing train station (which, thankfully, is just across the street from us) AND we still don't have train tickets. If I learn how the Chinese train purchasing system works, it will be no small miracle. Perhaps nearer to the end of my trip, I'll post about what I've learned. So far, it seems some tickets can be bought 5 days in advance, some only 4, some only the day before. So we keep going back to try and buy tickets in advance, but keep leaving empty handed. We almost bought today, but the VERY HELPFUL WONDERFUL ticket lady who was about to sell us tickets had her computer crash. Two reboots with no success. So, we said we'd come back. I think we're going to hold out til Monday in the hopes of getting tickets on the 11:40 am train, instead of the 3pm. It saves us from not only having to find the Beijing West train station (a city with 4 train stations!), but also gets us into Datong early, which makes me rest a little easier about finding a place to spend the night there. Since we're only booking seats, hard seats at that, it shouldn't be a problem. After all, the tickets for that train don't even seem to be available (only sleeper seats can be bought today). I'm significantly more worried about being able to book a proper sleeper from Datong to Xian once we arrive there. Funny how the more in advance I try to plan things, the more things seem to fail. The system is not designed for my degrees of planning, I suppose.

 

Other than my whole "I don't understand the train ticketing system" rant, which is adventure and a half in many ways, my only other real rant of the day is that I hate that this country doesn't QUEUE. I've probably mentioned it before, but you can be at the ticket window, ASKING a question, and have an arm reach around and shove money under the window. There's no concept of "I was here first", only "I can get in". It's incredibly frustrating, and I'm still far too nice about it. I've started shoving back, though. Just a little. I've learned to shout out what ticket I want while shoving money under the window, without caring what other people are doing. I'm really not a fan of it, but "when in Rome..." Besides which, if I don't shove in, I literally would NEVER get a ticket to anything. I'd never make it onto the subway at all. Grr. I didn't think I'd ever say this, but...

 

Damn. I LOVE QUEUES.

 

As a bonus, it's a really cool word. And with that, I think I will stop rambling at you and go to bed. Hoping for a sweet and dreamless sleep. =) Gnite kittens (or I suppose, good morning to most of you). It's passing by all too quickly, but seems just right.