27 July 2007

你们好!

I woke up this morning a bit groggy (after a late—and fun!—night last night at a Hou Hai bar), and very glad that friends and I had decided not to head to the Gu Gong/Palace Museum/Forbidden City until 10a.m…

We met in the hotel lobby then and took a Hei Che (illegal taxi) to the Gu Gong. As we haggled over the car’s price, I noticed that I’ve been increasingly thinking in kuai, not in dollars. I’ve noticed that in terms of buying power the kuai (in China) and the dollar (in America) are roughly the same—and so in my head, I no longer divide prices by 8. Because of this, I now become irritated when a taxi driver demands 70 instead of 30 kuai, or when a street vendor charges me 8 kuai for a bottle of water. I guess this is just part of acclimatization!

Anyway. To return from that tangent, the Gu Gong was (according to my pamphlet) established on the foundation of the Imperial Palace (aka the Forbidden City). Now, it’s a museum that preserves halls, walls, “courtyard dwellings,” and over 1.5 million imperial treasures. The place is over 1,000,000 square meters large—and feels daunting. Even though, thanks to my map, I knew that we were entering through the “Gate of Heavenly Unity” and then walking toward the “Hall of Central Harmony,” I felt like I was in a maze.

Once we’d familiarized ourselves with the Gu Gong’s layout, we (there were five of us) had a quick conference and decided that we’d most like to see the “Clocks and Watches Gallery.” We’d seen enough blue-and-white vases and plates—this gallery sounded different. Plus, it was close to where we then stood. Upon arriving at the gallery, we discovered that our Gu Gong ticket didn’t cover the cost of entry to the gallery and we’d have to pay an additional 10 kuai to go in. Unsure whether or not it was worth it, we sent in a scout (me)—if the gallery was good, everyone else would follow, and if it was not, we’d split the 10 kuai it cost to get one person in.

Everyone ended up joining me—these clocks and watches were cool! Some were European, some were Chinese, but all were beautiful and intricate works of art. The clocks ranged in size from as small as a silver dollar to as big as a children’s playhouse; in addition to normal clocks, the collection included astronomical clocks, sundials and water clocks. My personal favorites were a clock that was also a tiny elevator, able to travel up and down its own elevator shaft, and a clock that looked like a (jeweled) sunflower. (Koo, I thought of you. Also Xu thank you for reading… getting a comment from you always makes my day!)

We left that exhibit and, eventually, wandered out of the Gu Gong. We’d spent several hours there and were tired. The Museum’s Meridian Gate opens onto Tiananmen Square—so we took pictures in front of Mao’s mausoleum, and then, after a quick lunch at a streetside restaurant, came back home.

What I liked most about the Gu Gong, to be honest, were the English names of all its halls. These are just a few:

- The Hall of Imperial Peace

- The Palace of Earthly Tranquility

- The Hall of Preserving Harmony

- The Pavilion of Literary Profundity

- The Palace of Universal Happiness

If I ever own a house, and name it, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to go with “The Palace of Universal Happiness.” :)