Last day meeting scheduled to end before lunch time. My friend and I planned to spend whole afternoon on Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and have Peking duck dinner. The day was beautiful, and albeit it was cold - the sky was so clear and we had sun shine. Such a lovely day for outdoor walk. So after a lavish lunch, we bid farewell to our Chinese colleagues and went separate ways.

We then realized that with the absence of our Singaporean colleague, my friend and I were facing challenge in understanding mandarin and being understood by Chinese. For direction, we had asked the Hotel people to write -in mandarin alphabets -places we wanted to visit. Plus, the Hotel provided us cards consist of favorite places to be visited. I thanked whoever has the brilliant idea.

So after going around changing some money, my friend and I went to the Forbidden City. It was truly beautiful and amazing. As I walked through the century old pavement going to the inner palace, my mind went to the ancient Emperors, Empress, soldiers, concubines or whoever walked through the same pattern. I tried to imagine how their life was spent behind these walls and beautiful building with such a huge country to govern. What did they feel, what was their thinking, are they afraid of the wars or are they so proud of them selves? My mind goes to their beautiful dresses, hair style and other things I used to saw in the movies or read in books. The place was so picturesque, it look as if it jumped out of a post card.

We visited almost all of the palaces including the concubines’ palaces where we read how they lived. To be honest, it was pretty degrading. Those poor girls were chosen when they were still 13 -17 years old. Being lined up for the Emperor to choose. Their pictures showed that they still had their chubby cheeks and innocent faces when they were brought to the palace for round of selection. It really moved my heart. And the fact that later on they were segregated through caste, and their food ransomed accordingly made me feel a bit sad. I am so glad that I did not born into one of them. If I did, I probably had tried so hard to be the least Emperor’s favorite so I would be expelled from the palace. Returned to my family. Funnily, the Emperor’s main concubine was not pretty at all. Her picture was so different than what I thought how a concubine should look. Her face even a bit round and she was a bit…ehm…fat! Oh well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Why on earth would I judge an Emperor like that. She must be so good in the art of love making. Ehm. Yup, pretty degrading I must say. Say No to polygamist.

We soon forgot our emotional moment as liberated women and happily took pictures here and there. And as the sun started to disappear, we took a cab to go to Tiananmen Square. The place was closing as we arrived there, so we did not manage to go inside the garden. Soldiers are everywhere. And I love soldiers. I like seeing men looking so ready for battle, so serious in their uniform and so masculinely manly. I felt adrenaline rush kicked in as I wanted…no, let me repeat, I am DYING to have my picture taken with them. My friend looked at me in annoyance. She seriously thought that I was such an embarrassment. Can you like something else? She asked me. Something that will not get us to jail for insulting China army? But I did not care. I was in Beijing and I wanted to have my picture taken with a red soldier. Period.

So, completely neglecting my friend who was cowarding behind, ready to dash out at first sign of trouble, I mustered my courage and approached one of them. My pick up line was asking for a direction of a Pecking Duck restaurant. He did not know. Then I asked him point blankly whether he would mind having a picture with me? He looked a bit frightful and as I studied him closely, I could see how young he was. Probably not more than 25. Being stationed in this cold weather. He said no. So I asked again, politer this time and with my best smile plastered on my face, whether it’s ok to take picture. He either really did not want to or did not understand my question, he still said no. At this time my friend was nearly burst with laughter and I was heart broken. I tried one more time with my sweetest pleading voice and he still said NO with frightened face. I could hear his thought “What is this crazy pink woman want from me?” and I could see my friend held back her laughter by pulling up her shawl to cover her mouth. She sounded like yelping in pain. Or had asthma attack. I finally gave up and walked away with my evil friend laughing her head off. Ah soldier, you broke my heart. Screw you.

So, to mend a broken heart, with the help from my Chinese colleague in talking to the taxi driver, we managed to find the Peking Duck Restaurant by our selves. The place was really beautiful. Again, the language was the difficulties. I kept on calling my Chinese colleague for translation. And for simple sentence, I kept on texting a good friend of mine who is a Chinese descendent. It’s funny to think that I never thought that this good friend of mine was a Chinese descendent although it was quite obvious for others. I have always been quite ‘blind’ towards other gender and race. I could talk easily to anybody who speak Indonesian or English regardless their gender or race. It never matter to me. However, this time I cursed this gift. Had I realized that, I would have asked him for sentences ever since I was in Indonesia. And now, I had to rely on his text and the way I said it. Fortunately it worked! So I thanked him profusely.

The Chinese waiter who attended us was beautiful girl. I impolitely admire her beauty with my friend in Indonesian language. She kept on talking to us and I kept on saying “Wo pu tung hanyu”. According to my good friend, it supposed to mean “I don’t speak Chinese.” At first she was smiling with her nice pouty lips and tried another word. Mesmerized by her beauty, I said the same thing over and over, “Wo pu tung hanyu.” And my friend whispered to me, “She spoke in English, you moron!” Ah! Why did not I realize that? She spoke English in Chinese accent and I did not catch it. I still thought that she spoke in Chinese! Alamak! I nearly fell off my chair holding back laughter. Dui bu qui, mei-mei. I did not mean to.

Other than that, the duck was devilishly finger-licking delicious! I had to stop. I always eat a lot when I am depressed. And being turn down by a Chinese soldier depressed me big time. Anyhow, I reminded my self that this trip supposed to be a knowledge gain trip, and not weight gain! We finally left that beautiful restaurant and went to Silk Market again!

This time, some of the seller recognize us. So they saved their sweet nothings for other buyer. We returned to the hotel tired and fulfilled. It was close to an orgasm. Minus the soldier, of course.

We flew back the day after when we, again, had another pit of laughter with my friend as we watched Mamma Mia on the plane. I started study math again for my examination so our laughter died down for a while. But it was a good trip indeed. Xie xie.

The End