Capital Museum

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Trip Start Dec 13, 2009 Previous
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  Beijing, Beijing, China
Sunday, December 20, 2009

Today was my first leisurely wake up in the last four days. I had better get used to waking up at 6am because this week I will have to do it from Monday-Friday.  Rebecca and I didn't have any plans, so we got up when we wanted and had breakfast together.  We ate a Chinese porridge for breakfast, which is made from rice and water, and tastes slightly different to our porridge which is made from oats and milk or water.

Rebecca’s dad gave us the idea to go to a museum.  I had only been to the Forbidden City "Palace Museum" before, and most of the museums are free, so we decided to go to the Capital Museum.  Since the museum is free, many people like to visit it, so it’s necessary to make a booking over the internet at least the day before.  As we hadn’t, Rebecca told the people that I was only in Beijing for the day, so I had to go today.  They were nice and let us through. 

Rebecca hired me a guide, which looked like an old mobile phone, so you could type in the code of whatever item and it would play audio about the history and description of it.

There was a new exhibition of Macao, considering the 20th of December this year will mark ten years since the return of Macao to China in 1999.  It had been a Portuguese colony since December 1, 1887.  This was my favourite exhibition.  In the center of the bright room, there was an artificial pond, made by LCD screens which showed a crystal blue pond with green lilies and bright fish swimming around.  I’m not sure what symbolic reference this has to do with Macao, but I loved it.  There was also a huge model of Macao, complete with lights and a huge LCD screen behind it showing the blue sky.  I am like a magpie with shiny things; I am drawn to them!  we were given some cards that had a card calendar of 2010, which had pop-outs of things associated with Macao

The next few exhibitions were about ancient China.  They showed ancient Chinese artefacts from all the different dynasties.  I visited sections dedicated to jade, calligraphy, clothes, etc.   Some rooms were transformed into different things to completely authenticate the experience.  There was one room that was modelled to look like an ancient tea house, for example.  I like the jade exhibition because jade is a Chinese stone that has been used for centuries, and is still very popular to wear in jewellery today.   I wear a jade bangle every day here that was given to my mum by Rebecca and her family.  My mum has leant it to me for the next month that I’m here.  There are some superstitious reasons as to why people wear jade, but I personally wear it because it’s nice and pretty.

We went to a buffet in the ground floor of the museum for lunch.  They only provided knives and forks, which is very interesting considering I had not seen another foreigner (apart from a group of Japanese tourists, but they use chopsticks too).  Rebecca was surprised as well that they did not provide chopsticks, because almost everyone in Beijing uses chopsticks.

After lunch, we went to the children’s room.  It was a bright room painted in multiple colours and the walls had cartoon pictures on it. What were we doing there?  They had masks that you could paint, and you’re never too old for that! Rebecca paid for the two of us, and with our model masks to copy off, we began drawing on the stencil.  It was so difficult to get both sides to match, and mine had many thin lines that were hard to draw straight.  We drew and then painted for over an hour.  It is so relaxing to paint, and it’s really enjoyable, too.  Many parents and children came in and watched us, but I didn’t see anyone else paint these masks either.  After our masks looked semi-decent, we left them to dry while we looked at the remainder of the museum. 

We picked up our masks before we caught a taxi back. The museum was great, and I would really recommend it for anyone interested in the ancient Chinese culture.
We ate dinner together and then watched TV.  Most of the news is about Macao right now, also because they have introduced the government there for a third session.  I chatted with her dad, which is always beneficial for my Chinese and his English.

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Macao Exhibition	Chinese Exhibit	Macao calendars	my mask
Rebecca's mask

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