Mercer's Beijing w/o pictures

Again, check back later this week for the pictures that will go with this blog Beijing The Olympics are about a month away. The “Party” has had 1,000,000 workers brought in to get ready for it. They have been working constantly since they were awarded the games. They have not stopped yet and it is a horse race. Just ask Bob, where outside his room at the Raffles Beijing Hotel they work 24/7. Bob didn’t get much sleep as workmen bang steel girders together constantly. I, on the other hand and on the other side of the hotel luxuriate in my suite with its two bathrooms and beautiful fabrics. The master bath is much bigger than my first house and had as much marble as Mount Rushmore. My Butler, Frank was very nice but not ever having a Butler before I was a bit intimidated. I really tried hard to find stuff for him to do thinking that his job probably depended on his charge keeping him busy. In the end I decided having a Butler was just too much trouble. Frank would have to fend for himself. I drew my own bath and refused to eat the chocolate he laid out on top of the 12, count them 12, pillows on my King Size, canopied and shrouded bed. The bed was also raised on a very proper, sultanesque dais which I fell off of, first night. Thought I was going to have to call Frank to pick me up and tuck me back in. Back to the City tour. Mazy our great Chinese guide was spectacular. Warm, friendly, very bright and communist. The reality is if you want to get anywhere with your career in Beijing, you need to be a member. You don’t have to practice or go to Party meetings but, I get the sense you better have that little card in your pocket. We did the tourist things, the Great Wall 1/10,000th of it anyway. Did you know it is the biggest cemetery in the world? One fifth of the population of China during the Ming Dynasty was working on the wall. This was very tough work and if you died on the job they just plastered you in and kept going. Of course, this great endeavor didn’t work. the Mongol’s were amused and road right through it. Bummer! The Forbidden City is something everyone needs to see before they get plastered in and left behind. I forget the statistics but it is 100 times bigger than I imagined. And 100 times more beautiful. It was very good to be the Emperor. There are 9,999.5 rooms in this place. That is the real number no hyperbole here. The Emperor was God. The .5 room was in heaven. The logic escapes me but Mazy said it was true and I believe her. Three thousand wives and 20,000 eunuchs. He was the only fully equipped man on the premises after 6:00pm when all the ministers and aids were sent home. It would make you think twice about accepting an invitation to an evening backgammon game with the emperor. You might leave more on the table than your marbles. Off to Seoul South Korea