PEKING DUCK
Figured it out...PRC-People's Republic of China AND Pamela Rae Collins- PRC! So the pinks must think ol'Boca is in the mix somehow???? Or is Boca's Blog part of the media blackout- NO FACEBOOK, NO TWITTER AND NO BLOGGING allowed over here. Must dig into this....they have access to Internet but no social networks. And of course they have been known to block and black out the net. Gotta love that new version of "freedom". Most everybody shopping and texting anyway-yeah that should keep'em down on the farm. While most of city is shiny and new, the service has a long way to go. How silly of me to think the waitress in The Regent Hotel (95% westerners) would understand enough English to take an order. The good news is, the service was so poor at dinner ( good food, served cold -must be more of that Yin and Yang thing) Boca's "remarks" to the manager prompted a comped food bill (charged for the beers only). I guess that is one way to eat on the cheap. Those bug and snakes at the market are looking better- hot and obvious.CHATTANOOGA CHOU CHOU
Oscar was gracious enough to make sure the arrangements for sending 2 of our suitcases on on to Shanghai went smoothly. Idea here was we won't have to schlep and worth the $110 to do it via train....or at least it sounded like a good idea at the time. Hope we get to see some of our underwear again. Poor Bubba painstakingly packed the two jumbo cases so all would fit etc. So when the two Chinese guys showed up at the hotel room to weigh the bags they also asked to see all that was inside the cases...after Bubs painstakingly packed both cases perfectly to jam it all in there. So out came the dirty clothes and Pleep's underwear. No aerosols. No aerosols on the train? Ok and out comes Bubba's swiss army knife. They were perplexed why Bubba had so many flashlights-was he importing or exporting? No Mr. Wu and Mr. Shu, just one of Bubba's many fetishes. Cash only please. Now I am really wondering if we will ever see those undies again.
PRC's Perspective on PRC
With nearly 4000 years of continuous history, China is one of the worlds oldest civilizations. Prior to the 19th Century, it posed one of the most advanced societies int the world but having missed the Industrial Revolution- down the rabbit hole they went. Next thing you know, an Imperial overthrow- civil war and by 1949 the new China emerges....THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA-good ol' Mao Zedong led the socialist state as more or less a "democratic" dictator. Remember ol' Chiang Kai-shek took his peeps and started it up in Taiwan (the old Formosa). But that was then and this is now...never mind those pesky human rights issues. This Beijing (remember when we used to call it Peking) is one happening place. Expanding in concentric rings from the Forbidden City, the grid like layout of modern-day Beijing still echoes its Ming Dynasty blueprint-huge avenues, vaulting flyovers, towering skyscrapers, shopping malls on steroids and the vast expanse of Tian'an Men Square, where we started our tour today.
Frozen, frozen, frozen....in the bone chilling wind. That biting wind puts my home town's nick name the Windy City a joke. So there I was out there in my Ralph Lauren very thin coat MADE IN CHINA, freezing my tata's and more. So Bubba threw care to the wind (bad pun I know) and bought me nothing but the best a hat and some gloves. Score! And a fine pair of NORTH FACE gloves to go with it...ha ha. Funny, the Chinese tourists just eat up these tschokes! I guess we do the same at Disney World.
Frozen, frozen, frozen....in the bone chilling wind. That biting wind puts my home town's nick name the Windy City a joke. So there I was out there in my Ralph Lauren very thin coat MADE IN CHINA, freezing my tata's and more. So Bubba threw care to the wind (bad pun I know) and bought me nothing but the best a hat and some gloves. Score! And a fine pair of NORTH FACE gloves to go with it...ha ha. Funny, the Chinese tourists just eat up these tschokes! I guess we do the same at Disney World.
MAO'S MAUSOLEUM AND TIAN'AN MEN SQUARE
So first stop Chairman Mao's body...Mao's Mausoleum-just like the one's we've seen- Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. Flanked by revolutionary statues and her Commie Cap Boca was all set to see the embalmed body of Mao. His casket is raised from the refrig in the basement 5 days a week for viewing. You bet as we get in the line with all the Chinese, with teeth chattering, wind through the line...no camera's, no nothing and for God sake leave your Bic at the door. Well, there we were all the way to the steps, getting ready for a creeped out moment, and the security buzzer went off. Swooping down on old Boca the guards started yelling who know's what. What! What! What is going on??? Sure enough Pleep tried to sneak a tiny little camera (that worthless SONY Cybershot) in. Oh say it isn't so! So kicked out like the NON COMMIES we were...it was like the death march...especially with my very special hat. Bubba growled, that's it. Now let's go find our tour guide "WHO I GAVE MY CAMERA TO, TO HOLD PER THE INSTRUCTIONS".
Bubba explains to Oscar you'll have your hands full with Mrs. Collins and the Pleep . And Oscar, the last time I was in the Great Hall of the People was 1975 with President Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger and of course Chairman Mao. Seeing him once was enough anyway.
So no Chairman Mao for us today....Bubba said "hell, we've got our our MAOBAMA, why do we need to see a dead one? As my President told his aides, it would be so much easier to be the President of China (per New York Times). All those darn distractions in the world are getting in the way of his transformational agenda for us the US. Like Mao, he wants to make his nation into a more perfect place- AS HE SEES IT. Yeah, MAOBAMA, keep those apology tours going, we're here having fun in the NEW AND IMPROVED CHINA. And guess what? It's all about capitalism and business baby. Do take a lesson from the Chinese Barack.
Tian'an Men Square- the Square of the Gate of Heavenly Peace- is a vast open concrete expanse at the heart of modern Beijing. Bordered by 1950's Communist style buildings- yep there's the China National Museum. Bubs, does it look just like you remembered from 1975? And of course we all remember the student protests of 1989...yew! My hat was quite the hit with the locals, by the way. Is that some of the National Sovereignty we keep hearing about?
FORBIDDEN CITY
And this is the spot, the Ming Dynasty/Forbidden City gate where Mao proclaimed the founding of the Peoples Republic on Oct 1, 1949, where his portrait still hangs. Hey what happened to that Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution? By By Forbidden City hello the Palace Museum- completed in 1420 and renovated ever since. 24 Emperors ruled out of this hacienda for over 500 years. This was the place for the royals and dignitaries to hang out until the abdication in 1912, closed the reopened to the public in 1949. Pleep had a ball touring the palace....9,9991/2 rooms!
Ok where's that Hall of Supreme Harmony?? Marble carriage-ways- the central ramp carved with dragons chasing pearls among clouds was reserved for the Emperor....and now Pleep!
The Chines Dragons are on all of the roofs- a curious hybrid of many animal parts- snakes body, deer horns, bulls ears, hawk's claws and fish scales. Endowed with magical characteristics, it can fly, swim, change into other animals, bringing rainfall and warding off evil spirits. The Chinese Dragon is a beneficent beast offering protection and good luck. Oh I get it...now I understand why they are printed on my pj's. 
Time for lunch - a stop off at the old Commie banquet hall and ALWAYS attached is a government owned store upstairs or downstairs, depending. A must see (no pressure to buy-ha ha) if you want to eat. After the young lady fished around to demonstrate where pearls come from (not Cartier??) the young lady found one for Bubba. It was a sign I told Bubba. I must buy something. But honey, don't you have a bunch of pearls? Well, duh, Bubba- IT'S A SIGN!Next stop THE SUMMER PALACE
OH YES, that Qing Dynasty group knew how to put together a summer cottage. Like most of the Emperor Dynasty stuff, rebuilt again and again. The grounds cover 716 acres with Kunming Lake as the Central view. Never mind the French and English troops destroyed much of it in 1862 and again in 1902.
Pleep loved the Long Corridor and hanging from beam to beam- this 2,388 ft walkway is decorated with over 14,000 paintings. Bubba gave him a full 30 mins to go at it. The only way Bubbs got Pleep down was the promise of an ice cream cone and maybe a bug or two.
Boca's favorite was the Hall of Benevolence ad Longevity, which housed the through were Cixi sat...oh yes the Dragon Lady of all Dragon Ladies. Her meals were reported to have had 186 courses. Cixi is remembered as one of China's most powerful woman- having borne the Xianfeng emperor's son as an imperial concubine. Cixi later seized power as regent to both the Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors (her son and nephew respectively). Her alliance with the Boxer rebellion paved the way for the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
Bubba kept looking for the Garden of Harmonious Pleasures. Yeah, keep that dream alive Bubbs. Remember who you are married to, Mr. Emperor Wannabe!
And I thought those crazy Russians had the best of Summer Palaces....old Cixi wrote the book. Water, mountains, bridges, temples, walkway and loads of ceremonial halls made summer vacation fun. Bubba loved the Chinese lions that guard this and that-this male is portrayed with the ball under his paw-oh so Bubba.
