More of the first day

Finally getting back to adding something. Sorry about that Aunt Becky. I'll try and do better. To the Lonoke County Library, appreciate what you are doing. Word has gotten all the way around the world.

When we last saw our heroes braving the cold of the great country China, Spencer could barely move, the ladies were freezing at the extremities, and the big guy was lugging them all around to places they have never seen. What would they do? How would this turn out? Would Spencer finally be able to move again? Could Michelle and Honey find a Sonic diet coke at the end of the Forbidden City? Would Jeff find the solution for whirled peas? Stay tuned...

We jump ahead through the Forbidden city (because we are having technical difficulties posting pictures for some reason, not all are posting as they should) and find our travelers passing through the Imperial Garden. The tree below is three hundred years old. They have some that are over four hundred years old. The tag every tree with a colored metal plate that gives the age. Some of the trees now have steel supports to hold them up. Nature say it come down, man say it stay up.


The Forbidden city is enormous. You cannot fully grasp the size of the wall around this thing. I think it almost covers a section of land (640 acres in America) and the wall surrounds the entire thing. It is surrounded by a frozen moat that is 100' feet wide and 30' deep. But, invading army could just walk on ice right up to wall. I'll tell more about Forbidden City when the pictures cooperate.
We then went to the summer palace. That is shown below. ON the way there we passed, of all things, a Korean BBQ joint. There's no place like home. The Summer Palace is an impressive place.

Below is what is known as the Long Corridor. It runs the length of the compound (about 800 yards long). Every column is intricately painted with scenes from Chinese history. It is said that it took 300 artists to paint the columns, the running fascia boards inside and out, and the gazebo around 6 months. The benches are for the women or the concubines or wives of the emperor (he had 3000 wives) to rest on every so often. When they were little, their feet were bound up to keep them small. This kept them from walking long distances and basically forced them to stay at home. I'll post more pics of this later. One thing you will find in the pics is the abscence of the Michelle, Honey, and Spencer. They had had enough and it was excessively cold.


Korean BBQ joint near the summer palace. I just got a big kick out of this.

Example of the gazebo in the corridor. Very rich colors. The dry climate also keeps everything preserved for a very long time.

Kuming Lake. This is a man made lake. It is about 3-4' deep all the way across, hand dug by peasants. When they were finished, they hand carried the water to fill it up. The emperor wanted a cooler place, so he built himself one. The summer palace is actually to the right of the picture.