Wednesday, December 10, 2008. Wednesday was an interesting contrast between old and new -- east and west. Our first stop was the breathtaking Buddhist Temple known as Yonghegong.
The temple is home to 100 Tibetan Buddhist monks. We received a personal tour from one of the monks, followed by an official meeting with the assistant abbot of the temple.
Our next stop was the U.S. Embassy. A beautiful building, the embassy just opened 3-4 weeks ago. We had some trouble getting in because of tight security. Once inside we met with officials from the public affairs, economic and political departments. It was nice to hear an American perspective after several meetings with Chinese officials. We were not allowed to get any pictures at the embassy because of security measures that prevented us from bringing electronic devices on the property.
Lunch was a special treat. We ate at a restaurant that specializes in hotpots. It was basically fondue, but we each had our own pot and we cooked our food in broth, not oil.
There were lots of meats, veggies and noodles and there was even a big bowl of live shrimp that you could dunk into the boiling broth.
In the afternoon we went to the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. We met with a Stanford-trained economist to discuss the current global economic crisis. It was extraordinarily informative.
We spent a little time exploring the campus before our dinner engagement, which was a real treat. We attended a performance at the Mongolian Operatic Restaurant. There was a massive buffet with foods from around the world, including several traditional Mongolian dishes. A few of our delegates tried some pretty exotic dishes including wine with a snake floating in the bottle.
After the show the performers came out in the crowd and performed a ceremonial toast with each guest.
A thimble of sweet wine was shared and a ceremonial scarf was placed around our necks.
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