What a Day!

Greetings to everyone.  Its been one week since I've been here.  Yesterday was the best day so far. First off, half the crew had the day off.  Days off mean = go see something.  Lincoln and I went to the Summer Palace.  We'd heard it was a nice spot to go visit, so we did a little research and made our plans.  We left in the morning taking a taxi to an area of the city we have not yet been to: Northwest Beijing.  we stay on the Northeast side, the IBC is North Central, the Silk Market was Southeast.  So along the way we captured some new visuals, passing the Chinese space control building along the way.  We arrived at the Summer Palace about 9:30 am.  It was swarming with people, not tourists, but local Chinese families.  Lincoln and I were the only foreigners in sight.  This is a heavily advertised tourist destination so there was plenty of English around to help us buy an entrance ticket and get a map.  The history on the Summer Palace was that it was built in the mid 1700s, destroyed by Anglo-French allied forces, and rebuilt in late 1800s, and used by a few Chinese dynasties.  Not much happened here.  To that point this place is like a cross between an enormous Chinsese themed amusement park minus the rides, and a retreat/conference center.  Lots of walking paths, gardens, trees, hall style buildings, a giant lake, other smaller creeks, statues and idols, and a giant buddha.  So its like taking your family to the park in essence.  In Greece we would visit these places that had significant history behind them.  This place, which is a very well known destination was beautiful, but everything about it was manufactured in meaning.  

I'll explain.  The river of calmness, flowed next to the rock of longevity, which took you next to the hall of dispelling clouds, with lead to the fragrant temple of Buddha, which was next door to the garden of harmonious activities, which sat in front of the tree and rock of wisdom.  One thing after the next were these symbolic objects and creations that were attached to some spiritual element or life discipline.  We went up to the tower of the fragrant Buddha to find a scentless Buddha statue with a plaque that said it was a thousand hand Buddha crafted so wonderfully, they're are hardly words to describe it.  Lincoln and I thought that was so funny, especially after seeing the statue which had like 17 hands, paint rubbing off, and a money box in front that people were one after another putting currency into.  Wonder where that money all goes to.  

The Summer Palace park, did give us some beautiful photos and scenery to walk around in.  There were some cool rock paths to climb, and caves built in to some of the trails.  It basically was a day at the your National Park, and it was a beautiful day, so we had a great time.  More than anything it was really fun to explore the sight with Lincoln who is a very funny guy.  We really have a good time hanging out, and these places create settings to have great conversation and experience some fun things.  I've run out of time to write this morning and there is more to post, so I will finish the recap tonight after work and you can check back for the rest of the day.  In the meantime the pictures posting are from the Summer Palace.