Imagine my delight when we stumbled upon this sign while hiking through the grounds of the Summer Palace on Monday.
Yes, I know it's referring to the actual bird and not my beloved hometown baseball team. But still, it was enough to conjure up images of an entire restaurant devoted to listening to radio announcers Fred Manfra and Joe Angel calling an Adam Jones at bat or a stellar defensive play by Manny Machado. Hey, a guy can dream, right?
Actually, the pavilion restaurant isn't directly referring to the bird. The building originally was built as a theater for the Empress Dowager Cixi to enjoy opera. Opera singers often were compared to Orioles because of their pleasant singing voices.
The Dowager Cixi is an interesting figure in Chinese history. Born a commoner, she became a concubine of the Emperor Xianfeng and bore him a son. After the emperor's death in 1861, Cixi essentially took over control of China as regency for her pre-schooler son. Upon her son's death, she selected her 4-year-old nephew as the next heir but continued her rule. She made some poor choices along the way. Among them was re-appropriating much of the money set aside for the Chinese Navy in the 1880s and '90s to rebuild the structures and gardens in the Summer Palace that had been destroyed by the British and the French in the Second Opium War in 1861. That decision proved to be costly in 1895 when the Japanese defeated the ill-funded Qing Navy. As a result, China lost the island of Taiwan.
On the bright side, the empress got to listen to "the orioles" in a shiny new theater on her 60th birthday while her navy was taking a beating.
Yes, I know it's referring to the actual bird and not my beloved hometown baseball team. But still, it was enough to conjure up images of an entire restaurant devoted to listening to radio announcers Fred Manfra and Joe Angel calling an Adam Jones at bat or a stellar defensive play by Manny Machado. Hey, a guy can dream, right?
Actually, the pavilion restaurant isn't directly referring to the bird. The building originally was built as a theater for the Empress Dowager Cixi to enjoy opera. Opera singers often were compared to Orioles because of their pleasant singing voices.
The Dowager Cixi is an interesting figure in Chinese history. Born a commoner, she became a concubine of the Emperor Xianfeng and bore him a son. After the emperor's death in 1861, Cixi essentially took over control of China as regency for her pre-schooler son. Upon her son's death, she selected her 4-year-old nephew as the next heir but continued her rule. She made some poor choices along the way. Among them was re-appropriating much of the money set aside for the Chinese Navy in the 1880s and '90s to rebuild the structures and gardens in the Summer Palace that had been destroyed by the British and the French in the Second Opium War in 1861. That decision proved to be costly in 1895 when the Japanese defeated the ill-funded Qing Navy. As a result, China lost the island of Taiwan.
On the bright side, the empress got to listen to "the orioles" in a shiny new theater on her 60th birthday while her navy was taking a beating.
The "Listening to Orioles Pavilion Restaurant." Every city needs such a wonderful place.
For the birds: Among the hundreds of intricate paintings on doorways and walkways throughout the Summer Palace was this portrait of orioles in flight.
- Ryan
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