"This is the Drum Tower."

Min En once pointed to a classical Chinese building.

"Drum Dragon?"

Vivien said in non-authentic Chinese, "What do you mean? ”

So Min En had no choice but to explain, "There is an idiom in China called the evening drum and morning bell. ”

"Touch the drum and morning bell." Vivien said again.

Ming Nuan and Chen Guiyun couldn't help laughing.

In the past few days, they have also figured out Vivien's temper, she is a person with an excellent personality, she will not be angry with others, and she will not be careful.

"This was built during the Ming Dynasty in China, and it has a history of hundreds of years, and it has been repaired several times, as for its function." Min En once said to Vivian, "In the Qing Dynasty, the bell tower was required to report the time day and night, but the Qianlong Emperor later changed to only report the two watches at night, and the two watchmen climbed the bell and the drum tower respectively, beating the drum first and then striking the bell." The timekeeping method is calculated according to the ancients to divide the night into five watches, each watch is an hour, that is, the current two hours, 19 o'clock is the fixed watch, 21 o'clock is the second watch, 23 o'clock is the third watch, 1 o'clock is the fourth watch, 3 o'clock is the fifth watch, and 5 o'clock is the bright watch. The bell and drum tower first beat the drum every time it arrives, and then rings the bell to remind people to go to sleep, and the second to the fifth watch only hits the bell and does not beat the drum, so as not to affect everyone's sleep. At dawn, the drum is beaten first and then the bell is ringed, indicating that it is time to get up. The method of beating the drum is to hit 18 times quickly and then 18 times slowly, for a total of 6 times, for a total of 108 sounds. Striking a bell is the same as beating a drum. ”

This is so complicated that even many Chinese people can't understand it, let alone this foreigner.

Vivien was completely stunned when she heard this.

Seeing her at a loss, Min Chaozong laughed out loud and said, "Mom, you can understand that China's big alarm clock is responsible for waking people up and reminding people to sleep. ”

It was much easier to understand that way, and Vivien finally figured out what it did.

"Let's go to the Forbidden City in the afternoon."

Min En once said.

After arriving at the Forbidden City, Vivien was a bit like a countryman who entered the city for the first time, exclaiming.

"Oh my God, Charlie, your ancestors were really great."

Vivien grabbed Min Enzeng's hand and said.

"It's our ancestors." Min En corrected.

"Really, I'm also a descendant of these great craftsmen?"

Vivien asked in surprise.

Chen Guiyun smiled and shook her head, in her opinion, the Forbidden City is great, but it is not so exaggerated.

This is the surprise of Chinese and Western cultures, ancient China was the cultural center of the world for a long time, and various manufacturing processes were far ahead of the world, coupled with the unique oriental charm, it was difficult for a Westerner not to be fascinated.

"Oh my God, it's just a miracle, like the pyramids in Egypt, the temple of Apollo in Greece."

"Is this the palace of an ancient Chinese emperor?"

Vivien asked.

"Yes, this is the palace of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, just like Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom." Ming Nuan explained, "This whole building complex, covering a total area of 780,000 square meters, in order to build it, the emperor Zhu Di at that time requisitioned 300,000 laborers, a total of 14 years, before building this palace, it has a total of 9,999 and a half houses." ”

"9999.5 houses?" Vivien asked suspiciously, "Then why don't you build 10,000 rooms?"

Ming Nuan continued to explain: "There are several reasons, the first is that the original capital of the Ming Dynasty was in Nanjing, and the palace in Nanjing was built by Zhu Yuanzhang, the father of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, Ming Taizu, with a total of 10,000 houses. ”

Vivien nodded after hearing this, which was easier to understand.

"The second point, because the legend of the ancients believed that the Heavenly Emperor lived in the Heavenly Palace was 10,000, and the Emperor, as the Son of Heaven, needed self-restraint and could not surpass the Heavenly Emperor, so there was less than half of it."

"Son of Heaven?"

Vivien asked, puzzled.

"Yes, in the eyes of the ancient Chinese, the emperor was the son of heaven, the herdsman on behalf of the heavens."

"Daitian herdsmen? Shouldn't the emperor's father be the old emperor, why is he said to be the son of heaven?"

Vivien continued.

Well, such an idiom shouldn't be spoken, how could Vivien possibly understand.

Seeing Ming Nuan's somewhat embarrassed expression, Ming He smiled unkindly, and then Ming Nuan's stern eyes, took over Ming Nuan's task, and continued to explain to Vivian.

"Because we believe that the emperor represents the will of God, and he will rule the people in place of God, so he is also called the Son of Heaven."

Through Minghe's explanation, Vivien understood the problem for the time being.

"There's a third point." Minghe went on to explain the reason why nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine was added to half a room.

In ancient China, there was a book called "I Ching", and the "Book of Changes" paid attention to the number of ninety-nine, in addition to the concept of ninety-five supreme, but also paid attention to the concept of "dissatisfaction", because "full" and peak both mean that the next is decline. ”

"In Chinese parlance, this is called when the moon is full, and when the water is full, it overflows."

Vivien nodded as if she didn't understand.

"What does the Ninety-Five Venerable mean?"

Now Vivian has been deeply attracted by the breadth and profundity of Chinese culture.

"The Ninety-Five Honor, in ancient China, specifically refers to the emperor."

Minghe didn't explain too much to her about the Book of Changes, attaching the monarch with the dragon and the throne with the sky, which was too difficult for her to understand.

"Look at this, this is the Taihe Palace, the largest of the three halls of the Forbidden City......"

Minghe decisively changed the topic and made a cameo appearance as a tour guide.

In the following days, they visited many places of interest near Beijing.

Take Vivian to taste the authentic Peking duck and stew.

Unexpectedly, Vivien became obsessed with the taste of bean juice.

This is a big surprise, but I didn't expect that these authentic Chinese can't drink Beijing bean juice, but Vivian can adapt the most.

After spending about a week in Beijing, Min En was so happy that he happily decided to hand over the task of the expedition to his subordinates who came to China with him, and he decided to take Vivian to Jinan, his sister's house.

Chen Guiyun couldn't ask for it, so she hurriedly bought a train ticket and prepared to go back, to be honest, in the few days here, she really missed her grandson a little, and her little daughter like a monkey.

Vivian at the train station caused another traffic jam without any suspense, but after a few days of tempering, Vivian has practiced the ability to let you be thousands of people, and I am as immobile as Mount Tai.

Well, she really has no choice, at the beginning, everyone said good things to the people around her, and asked everyone to let a way out, but found that it was useless at all, so Vivian was generous by nature, since it didn't make sense, then let them see, anyway, there was no loss to herself.