Saturday, 11 Oct 2008 Sunny day
Joint-Organised by the English Culture and Communication Association (ECCA) and Students' International Communication Association (SICA) of PKU
0930 Gather at South Gate of PKU
1000 Depart for
hutongPassed by the Beijing Olympic Park and the Bird's Nest. What a beautiful stadium!
Chatted with Chinese Huanhuan on the bus, she didn't guess that I'm a foreigner. In fact, nobody guessed I'm a foreigner here...
the drum tower
the clock tower
The bus stopped between the clock tower 钟楼 and the drum tower 鼓楼. Huanhuan is the camera person for this trip. Very soon she spotted a hunk, Jason (Canadian exchange student). She quickly approach Jason and Nick (Hongky exchange student studying in Canada) and Shiyee (a Malaccan exchange student studying in Canada!) and snap a picture of them together (while drooling!) :p Jason introduced me to Andrea (KL girl studying in Canada also)!
We started walking through the
hutongs.
took this shot by chance - the butterfly wasn't shy at allWe visited the museum/home of Soong Qingling, aka Madame Sun Yatsen (China's last Emperor Puyi was born here). Believe it or not, but Sun Yatsen gave a pistol to Soong as a wedding gift! Can't imagine the situation they were in back then.
Soong's wedding gift from Sun - a pistol
Marriage Certificate of Sun and Soong - they were married in Japan
Soong's stamp on the ring!
Probably the early version of carom
The breath-taking lake sceneryThere was a lake in the museum, gosh, the reflection of the trees on the lake was so beautiful, Huanhuan convinced me to take a photo by the lake and I simply couldn't resist. She said I resemble Fish Leong in the photo, haha.
We had lunch at a private
siheyuan later. The food quality and serving were below par. Good thing I took heavy breakfast after playing ping pong with Tseren earlier in the morning. It was said that a family house at siheyuan in that area could fetch as much as millions of RMB. The owner of the siheyuan told us that his ancestor 3 generations up worked in the Palace, and some furnitures in the house was more than 150 years old. But to me, the furnitures look so strong still!
little bottle gourdsWhen we gathered outside of the siheyuan, I saw real growing
hulu (bottle gourd)! They were just the size of a can drink. I wonder how many
hulus did
Zhuangzi 庄子 actually needed to make a raft like the one seen in Taiwanese artist
Cai Zhizhong 蔡智忠's comic 《庄子·惠施的大葫芦》 (the huge bottle gourd of Huishi).
A view of Confucius TempleNext was the trishaw ride. I shared a trishaw with Andrea and we visited
Chengxianjie 成贤街, where Confucius' Temple is located. It is a street where all scholars must pass by when they sit for exam, also the street where all government officials of the feudal times must get down of their horses as an act of respect to Confucius.
The trishaw rider turned into the cameraman for Andrea and IIn Confucius' Temple, there are pillars with the names of the successful scholars' (状元) carved. The main hall of the temple holds the spirit tablet of Confucius and a few other "learned saints" of Confucius' times, including
Mengzi's 孟子 and
Zengzi's 曾子. I was very much carried away by the old trees around the temple. I thought the 300-year old Cypress was amazing, then I saw a 700-year old Cypress, known as the
Chu Jian Cypress. The trunks of these trees were so huge, I couldn't resist another picture with Andrea before one of them.
The 300-year old tress. How tiny men are compared to mother nature...
The 700-year old Chu Jian Cypress
Note on Chu Jian CypressAndrea informed me of their trip to Xi'an from 16th to 20th. I finally decided to join them (Andrea, Jason, Songmee (Korean student who had dived many times in Malaysia!), Cindy (Indonesian, Andrea's good friend since they study at Garden's International)) after much dilemma. Attractive itinerary and company of schoolmates - should be a fairly enjoyable trip. Looking forward to hiking
Huashan next week, and visiting the
Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor!
Generally it was a great trip for me as it marks my first trip since my beginning at PKU. I made many friends and had a good time. Oh, I actually spoke Cantonese like mad with Andy (born in Dongguan, Guangzhou, migrated to Melbourne. An exchange student to PKU) and Nick, haha.
Observation: 1. Organiser having problem trying to gather (most) international students. Haha!
2. If not for the signages that says "
... Hutong" I wouldn't know that we were walking through
hutongs.
Hutongs are really just passageways between two fenced
Siheyuan - and I didn't even notice the
siheyuans around me as the walls (the fences) are taller than me. I suppose
siheyuans' architecture structure is only obvious from a bird's view.
3. First time I see the statue of Buddha displayed in a home here, with josticks in front if I'm not mistaken. There were some money in a bowl placed before the Buddha statue on the table, and nothing else. What it means, or signifies, I didn't ask, don't know, and don't think I want to know...
4. The Confucius Temple has the greatest number of animals on its roof corner, so far that I've seen. The number of animals
signifies the status of a person in feudal era - the Emperor's palace has the maximum (10) animals. It is obvious how highly respected was/is Confucius.
took this shot by chance - the butterfly wasn't shy at all
Soong's wedding gift from Sun - a pistol
Marriage Certificate of Sun and Soong - they were married in Japan
Soong's stamp on the ring!
Probably the early version of carom
The breath-taking lake sceneryThere was a lake in the museum, gosh, the reflection of the trees on the lake was so beautiful, Huanhuan convinced me to take a photo by the lake and I simply couldn't resist. She said I resemble Fish Leong in the photo, haha. 
little bottle gourds
A view of Confucius Temple
The trishaw rider turned into the cameraman for Andrea and I
The 300-year old tress. How tiny men are compared to mother nature...
The 700-year old Chu Jian Cypress
Note on Chu Jian Cypress
