propaganda tour

Today was the day that we did our tourism that was organised by BOCOG. It was supposed to be a three day tour, but our group didn't go on the first two days, as we had other stuff to do. It's okay though, because according to other unis, on the first day they went to Beijing's sewage treatment plant. Probably okay to give that a miss.

But it was pretty much a propaganda tour! Our guide was a lady who first off told us that she was almost Miss Beijing (needless to say, the name stuck). She asked us whether we thought Taiwan was a part of China. When we said no, she was most shocked and upset! "Taiwan and Tibet are part of China and always will be," says Miss Beijing!

First stop was the Old Summer Palace, which is now in ruins after being trashed by the Anglo-Franco forces in the Second Opium War. It was a retreat for emperors who found the Forbidden City too hot. And I can see why it was so attractive. It's summer here now, and it was nice and cool under the trees here with a breeze blowing. And there were heaps and heaps of fountains too. Here's me in front of the ruins of what was a massive fountain.

There was this stone maze there, leading to what they call a western style pavilion. The pavilion is round to symbolize the sky, and the maze is square to symoblize the earth. It took an embarrassingly long time to work out how to get to the pavilion!

Then we went to the Summer Palace, which was built around 1750, and also torched in the 1900 war, but not so badly. It was really massive, built around a huge lake. I can't believe how many people there were there! It was so, so busy. One of the biggest tourist destinations in Beijing. We climbed this tower, the Tower of Buddhist Incense. The tower was where the emperors used to live, thought I bet they didn't have to walk up all those stairs!

The view was amazing! I'm still trying to work out how to patch together three shots into a panorama, but here's a pic of me. I bought the hat out the front of the Summer Palace for 20 yuan (AU$3.20). It was so good. Got up to 36 degrees today, and when I took it off in the sun I could feel a big difference. Though apparently the Chinese were saying "dickhead" as I walked past! But man, it's good for sun. It has a thousand uses too, for instance I put my groceries in it tonight!
After a pretty ordinary dinner (no where near as good as lunch yesterday where we had lotus and goats cheese, amongst others), we headed to what is still called Peking Opera. It's weird. No two ways about it. The costumes were great and some of the music was interesting, but some of the singing was ear piercing! But I'm glad we went, I wanted to go anyway. There were TVs on the sides of the stage with english translations. It was a tale of lovers escaping soldiers chasing them. A bit of death, some humour, almost Shakespearian. 
Tomorrow we have big plans (involving an early start), so watch this space!