September 4, 2006

• a 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour

  After the stop in the hutong, we left the compund got back into our rickshaws, and continued on through the back streets until we reached sycee bridge

  
  I dont know the particular significance of this bridge, seeing as how the informative sign was all in chinese except for the name (is that some way to screw with every tourist-chinese people know the history of the bridge, but not what it is called, and non chinese get to know the name?)

  Oh well, there were a ton of outdoor bars on either side of this river and they had super cheap beer which i availed myself of at a later date
  
  Up ahead, is the drum tower, located directly across from the bell tower, pictured below
  
  Our guide figured if you’ve seen one tower, you’ve seen em all, so he only paid our admission into the drum tower. We then climbed up very steep and very narrow stairs. I will be mentioning this in future posts, but for a race of people stereotyped for being short, the chinese sure do put a lot of height in between each stair…probably why they all have those crazy acrobatic abilities

  
  That pic still doesnt accurately convey the steepness, but hopefully you get the gist
  
  what would a drum tower be without drums? just a tower, that’s what. The first pic is the largest drum in all of china. The second one is a pic of chinese people performing the drum ceremony, wherein during the workday from 9-5 every half hour or hour, I forget which, i think it is hour, the drums are beaten. In olden days this was done to remind court functionaries of appointments with the emperor, since they could be killed to death if they were late. Merchants and commoners began taking advantage of it too, since the drums could be heard all over the city.

  And just how big was the city? Well china was originally laid out in a ring road system, with the first ring being the forbidden city, containing the emperors palace and all that jazz, and then the 2nd ring road covering most of what we consider history book beijing. China is up to a 6th ring road by this point. but here are some views of the the city from the top of drum tower…

  
  Where you see all the sky high apartment buildings is the domain of the 3rd ring road, and the demolished hutongs and little buildings the 2nd
  
  After the drum beating ceremony, it was back on to the rickshaws one more time to go to Gongwanfu, or Prince Gong’s Garden for a traditional chinese tea ceremony. The garden itself was pretty darn neat. Bats are apparently a lucky animal in china, and thus gongwanfu was peppered with bat imagery

  
  The builder of this garden compound was very impressed by the japanese idea of bonsai, and thus tried imitate their form in rock arrangement
  
  Inside the compound we were served several kinds of tea.

  C’mon now people, you didnt think i was going to come to china and NOT have tea, did you? damn skippy

  

  Thus concluded the tour. Until the next china post folks
  -J

  • 10:18 pm
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