Beijing Summer Palace

Time seems to be flying by over here in Beijing; all of one month interns have only one week left in China before they head home. I’ll be back before I know it. What makes things go by even faster is how much we do during the weekends. This weekend was a national holiday known as the “Dragon Boat Festival” so we had Friday off from work – what a nice three day weekend. The Dragon Boat festival is celebrated every year with boat races in the shape of dragons. Unfortunately Beijing does not hold these boat races so I was unable to attend a race. We spent our Friday off hopping around to different markets here. The first market we went to, known as Panjiayuan Antique Market. This market was different than the other ones that we have been to because the other markets were indoors and sold electronics, and fake name band jewelry, clothing, shoes, etc. This market, however, sold traditional Chinese antiques, vases, statuettes, china, and Chinese jewelry – rows and rows of jewelry. This is the kind of place girls would spend all day at because there must have been about 200 vendors selling all types of jade, pearl, precious stone, and wooden jewelry. I picked up a few small trinkets while my roommates both purchased a hand carved chess set. We will be going back to this market for sure.

Saturday I met my co-workers and fellow B&D Law intern at the famous Summer Palace on the outskirts of Beijing. The palace was once used at a summer getaway for the Emperor and his family members. In 1993 the Summer Palace was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) world heritage list, a prestigious list of places with outstanding cultural and/or physical significance. The massive estate is filled with acres of recreational forest, lakes, temples, pavilions, halls, palaces, and bridges. Exploring the entirety of the Summer Palace would take almost 2 days. It was great to go with my co-workers because they were able to explain some of the architecture and stories behind certain structures that I would have otherwise been oblivious to. There was one section on the palace know has Suzhou Market Street which was built along a river runoff of Back Lake which had shops, banks, pawn shops, and restaurants all along it. Unfortunately, much like some of the Summer Palace, the original Suzhou Market Street was burned down and destroyed by Anglo-French allied forces in 1860 during the Second Opium War. However, when it was rebuilt in the 1990 they followed the original blueprints in order to preserve its original luster. Along this market river/street, we came across a vendor who turned your English name into a work of art consisting of animals, dragons, bamboo, flowers, and geographical features. My co-workers chipped in and purchased one for myself, the other intern, and his girlfriend as a gift. It was a great gesture of kindness from them and now according to Chinese custom, I am obligated to repay them with a gift so I have to think of a great one.

Afterwards we all found a nice spot within the palace and had a little picnic together. My co-workers all brought traditional Chinese snacks, foods and drinks to share with us. One food in particular caught me by surprise, being that just two weeks ago I got food poisoning from trying new food. It was slices of pigs head, boiled and packaged in deli style containers. As bad as it sounds it was actually pretty delicious – no food poisoning either! The picnic was a great time for us to all talk about culture, history, politics and other interesting topics. Being that I am from the US, my co-workers are Chinese, and the other intern is from France, it was nice to hear how different and sometimes similar the three countries can be. Afterwards, we explored a bit more and left a few hours later. All in all my day at the palace was some of the most fun I have had.

That night a few of us went out to a restaurant known as One Thousand and One Nights Restaurant to enjoy a few drinks and to indulge ourselves in the restaurants famous selection of shisha. Shisha, also known as Mu’assel, is syrupy tobacco that is mixed with molasses and chucks of fruit which give the smoke the flavor of the fruit which is used. Don’t worry, mom, it is completely LEGAL and there are even hookah bars in major cities in the US. The restaurant is located in Beijing’s club/bar district which should only take about 25 minutes by taxi. Unfortunately at that time of night it is almost impossible for foreigners to get a taxi and the ones who do stop try to cheat you out of money by paying a ridiculous cab fare. About an hour later we finally we able to find an honest cab driver and begin our night; we had the same problem going back home too.