Summer Palace

Kunming Lake

 We spent the morning touring the emperor’s Summer Palace outside Beijing. The palace grounds surround Kunming Lake, which is a popular spot with tourists…very popular. It was extremely crowded today and quite hot. Fortunately, there were lots of trees for shade and a nice breeze on the lake itself. Nancy taught us about the Empress Dowager and how she led the empire from behind the scenes, essentially imprisoning the young emperor in a portion of the Summer Palace. She also fed him answers from behind a screen in one of the buildings on the Summer Palace grounds. There are numerous references to this arrangement on the palace grounds, including several places where the Phoenix (symbol of the empress) has a position of higher significance than the dragon (symbol of the emperor).

Dancing with a new friend.

At one point as we walked along the lake we heard music coming from up the hill and sought out its source. We found a small pavilion with about fifty or so people singing joyously along with a small band of brass musicians. When we got close enough to see what was going on we got dragged into the party by an older gentleman who quickly referred to Jerri as “pongyou” (pronounced PON-yo), or friend. An older lady grabbed Jerri and danced with her to the end of the song that was being sung. We talked with the older gentleman briefly, and when the music started up again the lady who danced with Jerri grabbed me and pulled me over to dance. I’m a laughably bad dancer, which seemed to make the gathered crowd enjoy it even more, so I just smiled and went with it. I think I’m now in the vacation pictures of about a dozen Chinese families. The girls thought it was fun (or funny?) and that turned the momentary embarrassment into a great family memory. I can live with that.



Marble "boat" is behind us.

At the end of the covered walkway along the edge of the lake there is a boat made of marble. Nancy told us the boat was built by the emperor to symbolize the might of the empire. A regular boat (representing the empire) could be upset or toppled by the people (represented by the water). The emperor wanted a boat that could not be overturned, representing his overwhelming power over the people.

We crossed Kunming Lake on a dragon boat, where several Chinese men pretty much grilled Nancy about us. I don’t really know why they were so interested in our situation, but they asked her questions almost the entire 20 or so minutes it took to cross the lake. During much of our time at the Summer Palace, Jerri and I noticed how much our family makeup was causing people (usually women) to stare. I am reasonably certain the fact that was Nancy addressing us in English got people’s attention, then their curiosity extended to our mixed race setup. I’ve gotten used to just smiling back at them, hoping a smile would go a long way. I prefer to focus on the situations where it obviously does go a long way, like the folks who sang and danced with us.