Matter

Some of you are probably wondering why I named this Blog post “Matter.” As opposed to the previous posts, which I would like to call “Antimatter,” I intend to fill this one with loads of new and interesting experiences—substance you might say. Others of you might be asking: “Michael, isn’t antimatter the lack of matter altogether, therefore leading me to conclude that you haven’t posted anything in the past and they are all figments of my imagination?” Still others of you, few I imagine, who understand that antimatter is just a poor choice of a name given to a substance that can not be seen but must exist according to current scientific datasets and models might understand that I am simply attempting to differentiate between posts that contain entertainment and posts that contain pictures of landmarks and historical references and the like.

So here is Matter:

Yesterday was rather uneventful. For this reason I decided to opt out of blogging about it and losing a lot interest in this forum. I did do a lot of studying Chinese and a lot of reading. However life became a little more exciting when I decided to make a trip to Hou Hai (后海 for those of you that can read Chinese). When I arrived, I was swiftly greeted by a young man inviting me to a “Nu Hai Ba Jiu”, or a “Women Bar”, where he said, and I quote, “The women are cheap, but the beer is cheaper.”

Needless to say I declined.

I met up with some friends and we had hot pot. Interjection: I know I warn everyone about the food out here and how “terrible” it can be at times. But when I say this, I mean it as a warning for those of you who think anything besides hot dogs and steak is considered going out on a limb. In other words, for people who like to try new things, the food here is incredible. Hot pot is a type of food, similar to “The Melting Pot”, where you order a lot of uncooked foods and cook it in a boiler placed in front of you. I could probably eat this meal every night. When I say I love the food here in China, I mean it. It has literally gotten to the point where every morning I wake up excited for what new food the day might bring. Don’t worry Candice, I’m trying to offset this with a consistent workout schedule.

Today was a little more adventurous. After a short video chat with my enlightening brother, I was motivated to go out and explore places I’ve already been and see what I happen upon. The results are shown below in pictures. The first place I visited was the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is an interesting place for many reasons. It was first built in the 1700’s as a place of respite for the Emperor. It consists primarily of what I like to think of as little ancient Chinese condominiums and several larger temples for worshipping the all-knowing Buddha. It was destroyed in the Anglo-French invasion of 1860 but rebuilt in 1902. Behind the primary structure are seven smaller temples, each for some different kind of Buddhist worship. All of the structures are beautiful, I only wonder how true to their original form they really are.

After the Summer Palace I decided to visit the Olympic Park. It was jam packed, unsurprisingly. However, I was fortunate enough to find an illegal scalper working hard to make his money selling a ticket to get inside the Water Cube. I got a full on tour of the place and was also able to get really close to the Birds Nest and pictures of both are posted below as well. Apparently they had a special where you could pay to swim in the Water Cube and I considered it until I came to the realization that Michael Phelps won however many Gold Medals in that precise pool and I felt it would be borderline sacrilege for someone of my caliber to even touch the water. Again, I declined.

It is now evening in Beijing and I have been here for 6 days. While I wasn’t able to sneak into Tibet or North Korea, I have been making the most of my time since I’ve been here. My Chinese has already improved and I have discovered parts of Beijing I didn’t even know existed. With that said, I anxiously await not only New Zealand which I leave for this Saturday, but also Hefei. I would love to sit and write more and explain to you why cultural relativism is so important to understand while visiting countries like China but I really must go. Hot pot is waiting and I’ve always been told to never leave the one you love waiting. 


Pictures: (Click on them to enlarge)
1. The result of a glorious hot pot!
2. Summer Palace -- resembles a Chinese Venice, somewhat
3. The Seven Temples
4. Detail work ladies and gentlemen. The Chinese don't half-ass their refurbishing.
5. Old China (foreground) and New China (background)
6. Temple of Buddhist Virtue at Summer Palace
7. Birds Nest
8. Water Cube outside
9. Inside the Water Cube