1072. China - # 5 - Pandas at the zoo, a real live Chinese wedding, and the Summer Palace!

After breakfast we left the cruise ship at Chongqing, the largest city in China with 32 million people.  We first went to the zoo, where they had live panda bears!  Our guide said there are around 300 panda bears in the wild in the nearby mountains.  

 On the way to the zoo, we saw many skyline high rises!
This was a cute statue, a baby monkey whispering to the mom!

 These large statues were at the entrance to the zoo.
We first saw what is called a "Red panda". It quite resembles a raccoon, but it otherwise isn't very much like them .  It was about the size of a raccoon, however. 

        

 Then we saw the big panda bears!  This one was around 4 to 5 feet from tip of it's nose to the tail.

      

   He was actually trying to climb into that window.  We figured, as it was morning, that he was looking for breakfast! This was the large area in which the pandas live.

      This was another large panda in a different area. 

This large panda was climbing, and playing there!

 We saw a lot of families there with children.  With the rule of only one child, you didn't see many children out in the public.  But they did take their children to the zoo, and it was so cute!

 A crowd coming into the zoo, with children, as we left.

Peter, our guide in Xi'an said they called the restrooms "Happy Rooms!"     One problem was that the majority of stalls were like this one -- squat toilets!  (In hotels were normal bathrooms!)

Another place had this sign --

 I believe it was in a restroom at the zoo we saw these signs on the door of the stalls!

 Needless to say -- we ladies lined up around these stalls!

 Oh!  And you either had to take your own paper in with you, or get a few squares from one roll that was on the wall as you entered!  They were very sparing with any paper products.  The napkins at each meal were about the size of half of a kleenex!

Our guide brought us to this beautiful old building, the palace of Emperor Yu, which hadn't been destroyed in the "Cultural Revolution", 1966 to 1976.  Many historic buildings had been destroyed, and they were so glad this was still intact.  The scenes below were in this area.l

 This is of Emperor Yu, who was very highly regarded among the Chinese people.  I'll write out what is on the sign below, as the picture is blurry.

The sign says: 

 Emperor Yu's Palace.  Emperor Yu's Palace is important part of the Huguang Guild Hall (Highly reputed as a "Hero of Water Control".  In the ancient times, Emperor Yu's name was Da Yu, a household name among the Chinese people in both ancient and modern times.)  In the past, as the Huguang area was often severely devastated by floods almost every year, the local people constructed the building where they held memorial ceremonies to worship Da Yu and pray for good weather for the crops and peaceful life for all the people here. 

Chongqing is on the banks of the Yangtze River, and I think it was the river which flooded, and he must have created ways to help save the crops and the people from the regular flooding. 

  Below shows again many red ribbon notes praying for rain and good fortune, praying to Buddha. 

      There was a beautiful art gallery there also.

    A lady in the art gallery explained that the leaf shown above was often painted on -- and very fragile.  People would really protect a painted leaf like this, when they could get one!  Painting on one was quite a slow and tedious process.

 This was a beautiful painting there -- I'm not sure -- it may have been an embroidered picture.  The 2 pictures below were of very fine thread, and embroidered.  They probably do it with a machine now, but they were beautiful!

 You can see the shiny thread in this beautiful embroidered picture!

 Next we were visiting in this area, and a real Chinese wedding was taking place!  The carriage below was what the bride was carried in, to the wedding dinner.  The lady pictured is the marriage broker!  This custom was very normal in the past, in which the marriage broker, or match maker, would meet with both sets of parents and they would decide if their son and daughter would be a good match!  It may still be done in some areas.  But we were told that now often young people meet at the university, etc. and don't use a match maker.  But they are part of the official wedding party!

 Part of the people waiting for the bride and groom, helping with the wedding.  We didn't get a good look at the bride and groom, but they were carrying her around, and there was quite the Chinese band playing!  With a large crowd it was hard to get photos.

I believe the bride and groom were coming down on the steps, but there was such a crowd, we couldn't get closer to take pictures.

 The palace above was up these steps, quite high on a hill.  The whole city was built on hills, with steps and roads going up and down!

 We had another lovely dinner at this restaurant, with the turn table in the center, and many dishes on the turn table!

 Looking carefully you can see a Buddhist Temple high on the hill, just below the sky.  I asked about it, and our guide said no one lives there, but devout Buddhists go there to pray.

      Another closer view of the Buddhist Temple.

We were in Chongqing only one day, and then had a flight to Beijing, the capitol, with 22 million population.  Each time in the country that we had a flight, the airplane let us off somewhere in a large cement area, and we had to ride a bus to get to the terminal where we would pick up our luggage. 

Our guide as we entered Beijing, called himself "Jack".  He said he heard the phrase "Jack of all trades", and decided to have the American name "Jack".  He had a degree in English from a university, and spoke excellent English.  He met us at the airport, and first took us to a restaurant on the 5th floor of a large mall!  Entering Beijing we saw very many high rise apartment buildings again!

      We went up 4 flights of escalators to get there.

 This was a typical place setting.  I only saw a metal spoon one time there.  Always Chopsticks were available, and some of our group could use them!

This was Jack, and he was our guide for about 5 days.  This is at the summer palace of the Emperor.  

 We visited this place also, called the Summer Palace.

A strange statue supposed to be part dragon, part horse, and part a couple of other animals!

 There was a large pagoda there, and a lake in front.  You can see very large leaves of some water lilies on the lake.

 I can't remember the significance of the large bronze thing in the center!

 This Golden arch was also part of the summer gardens.  I didn't walk a long walk around the lake below, but some of our group did.

From Wikipedia:

The Summer Palace (Chinese: 頤和園; pinyin: Yíhéyuán), is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in Qing Dynasty. Mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (万寿山; 萬壽山; Wànshòu Shān) and Kunming Lake, it covers an expanse of 2.9 square kilometres (1.1 sq mi), three-quarters of which is water.

Longevity Hill is about 60 m (200 ft) high and has many buildings positioned in sequence. The front hill is rich with splendid halls and pavilions, while the back hill, in sharp contrast, is quiet with natural beauty. The central Kunming Lake, covering 2.2 square kilometres (540 acres), was entirely man-made and the excavated soil was used to build Longevity Hill.

The Marble boat was at the end of a walk of 2 or 3 miles, which I decided not to try!

The Marble Boat, also known as the Boat of Purity and Ease, is a lakeside pavilion on the grounds of the Summer Palace in Beijing, China. It was first erected in 1755 during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor.Wikipedia

The boat is now the only western-style structure in the Summer Palace. Inlaid with colorful glass windows and wheels and paved with colored bricks, the boat is 36 meters long, and two stories and eight meters high. Using the huge mirrors fixed on each deck, Cixi could enjoy the exquisite lake scene while having tea. The roof of the two-decked pavilion is made from brick carvings.  Four dragon heads mounted in each direction serve as drains, allowing rain water to be channeled out of their mouths. With its arcing stern and bow and a hull shaped like paddle wheels, the big boat looks very much like a steamer ready for sailing

In December 1998, UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List. It declared the Summer Palace "a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges to form a harmonious ensemble of outstanding aesthetic value".-Qing dynasty

The origins of the Summer Palace date back to the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in 1153, when the fourth ruler, Wanyan Liang (r. 1150–1161), moved the Jin capital from Huining Prefecture (in present-day Acheng District, Harbin, Heilongjiang) to Yanjing (present-day Beijing). He ordered the construction of a palace in the Fragrant Hills and Jade Spring Hill in the northwest of Beijing.

Around 1271, after the Yuan dynasty established its capital in Khanbaliq (present-day Beijing), the engineer Guo Shoujing initiated a waterworks project to direct the water from Shenshan Spring (神山泉) in Baifu Village (白浮村), Changping into the Western Lake (西湖), which would later become Kunming Lake. Guo's aim was to create a water reservoir that would ensure a stable water supply for the palace.

In 1494, the Hongzhi Emperor (r. 1487–1505) of the Ming dynasty had a Yuanjing Temple (圓靜寺) built for his wet nurse, Lady Luo, in front of Jar Hill (瓮山), which was later renamed Longevity Hill. The temple fell into disrepair over the years and was abandoned, and the area around the hill became lush with vegetation. The Zhengde Emperor (r. 1505–21), who succeeded the Hongzhi Emperor, built a palace on the banks of the Western Lake and turned the area into an imperial garden. He renamed Jar Hill, "Golden Hill" (金山) and named the lake "Golden Sea" (金海). Both the Zhengde Emperor and the Wanli Emperor (r. 1572–1620) enjoyed taking boat rides on the lake. During the reign of the Tianqi Emperor (r. 1620–27), the court eunuch Wei Zhongxian took the imperial garden as his personal property.

Post-Qing dynasty

In 1912, following the abdication of the Puyi, the Last Emperor, the Summer Palace became the private property of the former imperial family of the Qing Empire. Two years later, the Summer Palace was opened to the public and entry tickets were sold. In 1924, after Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City by the warlord Feng Yuxiang, the Beijing municipal government took charge of administrating the Summer Palace and turned it into a public park.

After 1949, the Summer Palace briefly housed the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China. Many of Mao Zedong's friends and key figures in the Communist Party, such as Liu Yazi and Jiang Qing, also lived there. Since 1953, many major restoration and renovation works have been done on the Summer Palace, which is now open to the public as a tourist attraction and park.

In November 1998, the Summer Palace was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Towards the end of 2006, the Chinese government also started distributing commemorative coins to celebrate the Summer Palace as a cultural relic of the world.

After visiting the Summer Palace we went to our hotel!  The next day we went to Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City -- to come on my next blog.

A large wall hanging in the foyer of our hotel -- the Great Wall!