It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks. On April 25, our son and daughter-in-law (as well as our three existing grandchildren) were joined by a new granddaughter. Our new arrival held on until the last minute, so she is a very mature looking baby. She weighed in at 9 pounds 9 ounces. Our daughter-in-law is a petite five feet, so you can imagine that getting this one born naturally was quite a process. There's something to be said for big, on-time babies, because our new granddaughter looks great. Here's an early picture (there will be more later).
She is a real cutie and apparently loves the water. Here's a picture after he
r first bath. Isn't she beautiful? Her siblings have really taken to her, especially her big sister. Here's a picture of the two of them together.
We expect that our new granddaughter will be as cute as our other grandchildren. Here are the boys. Our oldest turned 9 on May 18 and the younger one is 7. They are very active and a lot of fun for a grandpa.
And then....
Our daughter and son-in-law's Texas baby wasn't expected until late May, but she decided to make an early appearance on May 10. Because she was early, she was much smaller than her cousin, but that also made the delivery much easier for our daughter. Our new little longhorn weighed in at 6 pounds and 14 ounces.
Here are a couple of early pictures. Two beautiful babies. It's going to be fun.
Here's a proud grandma with her new granddaughter. We're going back to Texas the first weekend in June, so there will be more pictures. Our son and his bunch will be there, too, so I should have some pictures of all my grandchildren together.
Before we went to the airport on Saturday, our hosts took us to see the only UNESCO World Heritage Site we hadn't visited--the Summer Palace. I thought it was the most beautiful of all the places we visited in Beijing. It's an hour or so outside the city and from its name you can probably guess that it's where the royals went for the summer season. The current Summer Palace is not the original. It was sacked twice by foreign armies--the English and French in 1860 and the eight allied powers during the Boxer Rebellion. It is also famous as one of the earlier examples of misappropriation of government funding. The Dowager Empress Cixi is said to have diverted millions from the navy's appropriation to rebuild and expand the complex. This diversion of funds is seen as a major contributor to China's becoming a second rate Asian power (to Russia and Japan) at the beginning of the 20th century.
Here are some shots from the Summer Palace.
A bronze statue of a Chinese lion.
Dancers in traditional Chinese dress. This had to be our substitute for the opera. It made me glad we ran out of time Friday night. A short performance was sufficient.
A young woman in traditional Chinese dress. She was a decorative guide inside the building behind. I wasn't allowed to take a picture inside the building, but with the help of our hosts, I was able to persuade her to stand in the doorway for this shot (there's also one of me standing beside her, but you won't see many shots of me on this blog).
Chinese emperors apparently have this thing about strange looking rocks. One emperor found this rock some distance from Beijing and was bringing it back for display. However, along the way he ran out of money to pay the people who were transporting it for him, so it was left by the side of the road. Decades later a different emperor saw the rock as he was passing by and arranged for the rock's journey to Beijing to be completed.
This picture shows some of the detail and craftsmanship of the buildings at the Summer Palace. It was by far the most well maintained of all the sites. They may have just finished their refurbishment, because there was almost no work going on here, in contrast to the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven.
This photo is of the main tower of the summer palace.
Some more details from the decorations at the Summer Palace.
A corridor from the Summer Palace. The painting is beautiful, but also served to preserve the wood. Very few of the historical buildings around Beijing are made from brick or stone.
Details and a painting of a Chinese general on horseback.
This a painting of a very wise Chinese philosopher/general. One of our hosts delighted in telling the story of one of his victories. During a battle with a Chinese warlord, this philosopher made a strategic retreat to a nearby city. His army continued to retreat, but he stayed on the wall of the city overlooking the main gate, which he instructed his staff to leave open. He then proceeded to play a solitaire game on top of the wall in plain view of the advancing troops. The warlord saw the philosopher and the open gate and because he couldn't believe that the philosopher was surrendering, thought it must be a trap. Fearing the wisdom and cleverness of the philosopher, he withdrew his troops.
This is the last shot for this post. As we were moving toward the gate, we saw a large crowd gathered on the sidewalk, so we stopped to see what was going on. The draw (literally, as you'll see) was an elderly Chinese gentleman drawing Chinese characters on the sidewalk with water. The walk was dry and rather dusty and he was using two pieces of PVC pipe with regular water bottles at each end. On one end the bottles were attached to a brush, which looked exactly like a giant calligraphy brush. What made this interesting was that he was writing with both hands at the same time. When we stopped to watch, he asked us if we were Americans. He said he was a professor of literature at Beijing University who came out on the weekends to do his drawings to balance his right brain and his left brain. He drew another series (in English) that said "Welcome"--again with both hands at the same time.This was typical of the reception we got wherever we went. We were either treated as unexceptional or made to feel very welcome. I never experienced any negative vibes during the whole trip. It's probably the last trip I'll make overseas for the Fed and I think it was the best of all.
Monday through Friday was packed with instructing the 82 participants in our seminar and interacting with our hosts from the China Banking Regulatory Commission. It seemed like every meal brought a new dignitary who wanted to have a conversation with us. It was flattering, but as much as I like Chinese food, 10 straight meals made me wish for a cheeseburger. We finished up with the seminar about 3:00pm on Friday and renewed our sightseeing at the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is another large site in the middle of Beijing where the emperor went to pray for good harvests and other desirable events. It was a beautiful, relatively peaceful place (maybe because we got there about closing time). Here are some pictures.
This is the front gate
This is a view of the inner courtyard
This is one of the main prayer sites. It may look familiar because it is often used as an international symbol for China.
This is some detail from the ceiling of one of the buildings
This is a picture of me with Mr. Pan Guangwei. Mr. Pan is the deputy director of the HR department at the CBRC. It turns out that in the Chinese bureaucracy titles can be misleading. The most important person in the organization is the Director of HR--he has the dossiers on everyone. The second most important person is the International Director because he speaks for the government. I figured this made Mr. Pan the third most important person at the CBRC-- everyone certainly deferred to him. All the people were exceedingly nice to us, but an edgier side sometimes came out when they were dealing with people on the outside.
This is the way the emperor and his court dressed when they came to pray at the Temple of Heaven
After we went to the Temple of Heaven, we intended to have dinner at a famous Beijing seafood restaurant and then go to the Beijing Opera. We had received mixed reviews of the opera, but we figured that a little culture would do us good. Alas, Beijing traffic struck again and it took over an hour to get from the Temple of Heaven to the restaurant (which didn't live up to its billing in my opinion). As a result, we were too late to go to the opera. It turned out that Mr. Pan was relieved--he told us that he had lived in Beijing all his life and had never been to the opera--he also had no plans ever to go.
We ended up walking "Bar Street", which is a chain of bars and restaurants circling a lake. With all the lights and people, it was very pretty and probably more entertaining than the opera. There was every kind of bar, with every kind of music--from traditional Chinese to Simon and Garfunkel (not them actually, but some Chinese musicians playing their music). There were also many different kinds of restaurants. We passed one that said "Genuine American Food". They had to grab me as I made a break for the door. After we circled the lake--probably about a mile all the way around--we headed back to the hotel.
In my next post, I'll load some pictures from our visit to the Summer Palace--my favorite of all the places we visited in Beijing.
r first bath. Isn't she beautiful? Her siblings have really taken to her, especially her big sister. Here's a picture of the two of them together.
