Deciphering the Details on the Trump Visit to Beijing

Huynh Hung and Thach Nguyen

REF: Trước khi rời Bắc Kinh qua Việt Nam, Tổng thống Mỹ được chiêu đãi đặc biệt. Ông Tập Cận Bình muốn mở đầu cuộc giao hảo lâu dài giữa hai cường quốc, chiếm cảm tình của ông Tổng thống Mỹ một cách tế nhị, như người Trung Hoa đã được huấn luyện thuần thục từ mấy ngàn năm.

From Ngo Nhan Dung

https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AHhpimIAACncWgpd4QwZqKyTl4A   https://vietfact.com/trump-tu-bac-kinh-qua-da-nang/ by Bach Lien

The first formal welcoming ceremony of Trump was at the Great Hall of People. The ceremony was special, looked beautiful however the car of the president Trump entered the compound from the back door. In the figure 1, the map of Tiananmen square, the Great Hall of People is facing east, directly to the square without a permanent fence.

Figure 1. The Great Hall of the People is facing directly to the Tiananmen square. No permanent structure of a fence. This is the front plaza where the formal welcome ceremony for President Trump took place.

Figure 2. The map of the Great Hall of People facing east. Look at the street of the north side of the building, parallel to the Chang An street. This is the street where the limousine of Trump entered the plaza in front of the Great Hall of People.

Figure 3. The Trump motorcade on Chang An street. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na3lcejmqZ4

Figure 4. The Limousine of Trump entered the Tiananmen Square

Figure 5. In this picture, the Trump limousine entered the compound through the back door.

Figure 6. The motorcade of President Trump turned from Chang’an Ave to Guangchang West side rd. It passed the front of the Great Hall of People then turned right in to the Renda Huitang W Rd then turned right on the same road and entered the Great Hall front plaza from the small side road at the back of the building (blue arrow). This is a subtle humiliation for Trump from the Chinese host. If it is a great state visit, the motorcade just needed to enter the Tiananmen square from Chang An street and stopped at the front door of the building.

In 1989, Gorbachev arrived and entered through the same entrance because of the protests which happened at the Tiananmen square.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1989/05/16/for-gorbachev-a- historic-but-backdoor-entry/ddacc4f6-b157-436d-b168- dd6f6d9a4d43/?utm_term=.05522f6b8ae5

Figure 7. The Trump limousine entered the plaza through the back door. It is subtle humiliation for Trump from the Chinese host.

Figure 8. On November 12, 2012, the Chinese Communist Party opened its National Congress. The delegates could enter the Great Hall of People from the front gate.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2012/nov/08/china-communism

Chinese Opera for the Trumps in Beijing

Melania and Donald Trump enjoyed the opera at the Ting Li Guan restaurant.

https://www.scmp.com/video/china/2119064/welcome-fit-emperor-donald-trump- beijing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZzzltxwTWA

Here is the stage of the opera complex. The guests can sit inside the room around the stage having dinner and watch the Beijing opera (in Vietnamese is Hat Boi). The balustrades are new.

Dr Sim Kui Hian from Malyasia, now a senator in the Malaysian congress and Dr Victor Oyek, cardiovascular surgeon from the Philippines

Famous Ting Li Quan restaurant where the Trumps enjoyed the opera.

However ordinary people can enjoy the opera and the foods there. Just need to make a reservation like to make a reservation at Trump hotel in DC.

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/dinning/imperial.htm

Same Dinner at the China World hotel

http://www.shangri-la.com/beijing/chinaworld/dining/restaurants/summer-palace/

Dinner at Building 18 inside the Diao Uy Tai complex, as Chinese Government State Guesthouse. This is building for official dinner

In front of building 18 inside the Diao Uy Tai

Dinner inside the building 18, hosted by the 3 star general.

Dinner at Tingli Guan with the US team: Steve Nissen, Chief of Cardiology at Cleveland Clinics, Steve Bailey, Chief of Cardiology at the U of Texas at San Antonio

Ông Tập Cận Bình đã chọn một ngôi nhà lịch sử ở góc Tây Nam Tử Cấm Thành để “nhẩm sà” với ông Donald Trump. Ngôi nhà đó, từ thế kỷ trước đã đặt tên là Bảo Uẩn Lâu (Bao

Yun Lou, 宝蕴楼), ngôi Lầu chứa của báu. Ông Tập Cận Bình có thể chỉ tay vào các bức tường, cây cột, cửa ra vào, phòng

ốc chung quanh mà nói rằng: Đây là một kiến trúc đầu tiên trong hoàng thành chịu ảnh Tây phương và Chính phủ Mỹ hồi đó đã “tài trợ” công cuộc xây dựng nên ngôi lầu này.

The location of the Hall of Embodied Treasures was known as the Palace of Universal Safety (Xian'angong). This palace was where the deposed Crown Prince Yinreng lived during the reign of Qing Emperor Kangxi (1661-1722); the children of imperial family studied during the reign of Qing Emperor Yongzheng (1722-1735); and empress dowagers lived during the reign of Qianlong (1735-1795). However, a large fire destroyed the magnificent palace at the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), sparing only the Gate of Universal Safety. In 1915, the Hall of Embodied Treasures was constructed on the existing foundation of the palace and served as a storehouse of cultural relics.

Many kinds of rare treasures and curiosities from previous dynasties could be found in the Hall of Embodied Treasures, including porcelains, pictures, books, jewels, screens, antiques, calligraphy and paintings. All the rare treasures amounted to more than 230,000, among which calligraphy and paintings added up to 475.

Because the Hall of Embodied Treasures can no longer meet the requirements for storing cultural relics, the whole collection has been moved to the Capital Museum, the National Museum and other locations.

To have tea at a storage house? It is only meaningful for a history buff. This building has no cultural or artistic value. To invite guest for tea at a big storage shed in a farm, it is quite arrogant as the host

Tài kể chuyện của ông Tập Cận Bình chắc điêu luyện lắm.

Cho nên, bữa ăn tối, tại điện Kiến Phúc (Jianfu Palace, 建福宫), cũng trong Tử Cấm Thành, đã kéo dài hơn hai tiếng đồng hồ, mà khi mời, ông Tập gọi là “một bữa ăn vội” để khách được về nghỉ ngơi sớm. Đây là bữa tiệc đầu tiên đãi một quốc khách trong Tử Cấm Thành.

3. What is really the Jianfu palace?

History    The Garden of the Palace of Established Happiness (Jian Fu Palace Garden) was built by the Emperor Qianlong

in 1740 and is composed of a series of pavilions set in garden courts in the northwest corner of the Forbidden City. Destroyed by a mysterious fire in 1923, during the time of the last emperor of China, the site was left vacant for close to 80 years. The complex has been painstakingly reconstructed by the China Heritage Fund, in collaboration with the Palace Museum. Master craftsmen, carpenters, masons, tile workers and painters worked together using traditional tools, techniques and processes. The aim was to revive traditional building crafts as well as the training of artisans, as a means of conserving China’s rich cultural past.

Pei Partnership Architects, together with Tsao & McKown Architects, have transformed the reconstructed interiors of the complex into a series of exhibition, reception and meeting spaces for special visitors to the Forbidden City and the Palace Museum.

http://world.time.com/2011/05/17/a-month-of-scandals- for-beijings-forbidden-city/

Now the Forbidden City is open to anyone who buys a $9 ticket to the Palace Museum. But in a post on his microblog last week, Chinese state television host Rui Chenggang alleged that plans were afoot for a private club for wealthy elites in the Forbidden City. The club, with a membership fee of

$150,000, was to be established in the Forbidden City’s Jianfu Palace, built in the 18th century for the Qianlong Emperor and ravaged by fire in 1924. The structure was rebuilt starting in 1999 with money from the China Heritage Fund, a nonprofit organization founded by Hong Kong businessman Ronnie Chan.

For a country where socialist ideals of equality have given way to a yawning wealth gap, the story of a private club for the super-rich opening in such a politically and historically important place inspired public indignation. Rui also wrote that a foreign tour guide boasted of arranging a dinner for an American billionaire in a closed hall of the Forbidden City. While a far cry from the wholesale theft of China’s national treasures by foreign powers in the 19th  and early 20th  centuries, the accusation that China’s heritage could be rented by the highest bidder provoked sharp resentment. Last week

Beijing’s Palace Museum denied Rui’s allegations of plans for a private club in the Forbidden City. On Monday, after a document that appeared to be an application form for the club circulated online, the museum backed off its denial, stating that a club had been proposed by the Beijing Forbidden

City Cultural Development Company, a museum subsidiary. The club was planned without museum leaders’ approval, the museum said in a statement Monday, adding that “at present this improper activity has thoroughly ceased.”

So Xi JinPing did reciprocate the hospitality of the Trump during the visit of Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Largo in April 2017. Mar-a-Largo is a refurbished club for the rich (so is the Jianfu Palace).

Mar A Largo dining room

Dinner of Xi Jinping at Mar A Lago