Dear all,
Well I thought I can get to visit a few places today. Perhaps three, if not two. But I ended up only visiting Forbidden City for the whole day. They have done up so many areas within the Palace and opened up so many side rooms and buildings since I first visited the spwaring complex. And they had turned many of them into museums exhibiting different antiques. Great idea! The most interesting of these exhibition is the clocks that the Imperial Palace has collected through the years. I was wondering why these were left behind.
Another interesting observation was, the palace where the last few Emperors lived were preserved and you can look through the glass. However, they left it with dust and dirt and dirty windows and they also did not do up the buildings either. It looks so runned down. I was wondering why the contrast. My one conclusion is, perhaps China officials do not want to glamourize the imperial dynasties. Infact, there was even one building that they opened up to visitors that was half built and the exposed stell structures were rusting badly. The audio recording said that the imperial palace could not complete it because they ran out of money to build this european style "crystal" palace.
I was so tired walking and taking picture (yes, 8 hours of walking! Come to think of it, didn't even sit down to take a rest at all). At 4:30 pm, I wanted so much to visit one very huge new section where the directional sign said the "treasures" of China. However, my camera and me both ran out of energy, so no choice. Have to wait for next trip I guess.
I had a big buffet breakfast (with lots of eggs for energy!) at hotel and skipped lunch. Was planning to have dinner after sightseeing, but the first vegetarian restaurant shifted and second one closed! After an hour or more, we were able to finally, get some direction from a nearby hotel's bell captain to direct us to a nearby vegetarian restaurant. And he directed the driver to go to the new location of the first restaurant! Ambience good, food presentation great, taste.... so so. They already shifted there 3 years! I guess that's part and parcel of locating vegetarian restaurants in cities. No wonder vegetarians are more patience ..... hahaha.
Tomorrow? The suggesting is not to go into downtown.... perhaps we will to to Olympic site and a old temple site.
Yours in Christ,
David
E-mail: Contak.David@gmail.com
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