When I wrote my "What to pack for China" list I forgot one small, very lightweight thing -- it's something that will remind you of home and you'll be glad for your foresight. It is, of course, your Remembrance Day poppy!
Ross and I saved our poppies from a previous Remembrance Day in Canada and brought them to China. Here is Ross at a diner in Beijing with our son Gus, wearing his poppy. We saw one other girl with a poppy that day.
And at 11:00 am Beijing time (all of China is on Beijing time, btw) on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we were just about to exit the beautiful Summer Palace grounds. The Summer Palace was a resort on the outskirts of Beijing by a beautiful lake for the Emperors and their Empresses and concubines to escape the sweltering summer heat of the Forbidden City. Now it's open to the public. We stepped off the pathway and huddled together with heads bowed to observe a moment of silence in this unlikely setting.
Ross and I saved our poppies from a previous Remembrance Day in Canada and brought them to China. Here is Ross at a diner in Beijing with our son Gus, wearing his poppy. We saw one other girl with a poppy that day.
And at 11:00 am Beijing time (all of China is on Beijing time, btw) on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, we were just about to exit the beautiful Summer Palace grounds. The Summer Palace was a resort on the outskirts of Beijing by a beautiful lake for the Emperors and their Empresses and concubines to escape the sweltering summer heat of the Forbidden City. Now it's open to the public. We stepped off the pathway and huddled together with heads bowed to observe a moment of silence in this unlikely setting.
Back in 1860, there were British soldiers here, right where we stood. Earlier that morning, we'd been having a bit of a bicker with our tour guide over the behavior of British and French soldiers who burned the buildings of the Summer Palace to the ground and looted its priceless treasures in retribution for the murder by torture of some British envoys and a reporter during the Opium Wars. In those days, if anyone harmed a British citizen, all Hell was to be Paid. The fact that Lord Elgin singled out the Summer Palace for this punishment because he wanted to do something to punish the Chinese Emperor and not the Chinese people didn't cut any ice with our tour guide. This event still rankles in Chinese memory. Above left you can see the remains or "keel" of a stone boat (junk), a decorative pagoda on the lake in the Summer Palace grounds. The pagoda was destroyed. Above right is a picture taken by Ross of the restored junk today.
At any rate, I'm glad that Ross remembered the 11th hour and that we shared a moment as Canadians, far from home, to remember the soldiers who died fighting for us. We can revisit and regret causes and outcomes, but never forget the valor and the sacrifice.
At any rate, I'm glad that Ross remembered the 11th hour and that we shared a moment as Canadians, far from home, to remember the soldiers who died fighting for us. We can revisit and regret causes and outcomes, but never forget the valor and the sacrifice.
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