COLUMBIA, Mo. – In late May, Mizzou Volleyball made its long trek to Beijing, China, for an unforgettable 13-day trip. While overseas, the Tigers competed against top Chinese competition during the week and visited historic landmarks on the weekends.
Throughout the offseason, MUTigers.com will meet with each of the Tiger players who made the memorable trip. Each individual will focus on one part of the team's trip and recall what that moment meant to them.
Next, is junior Ali Kreklow and her recollection of visiting the historical Summer Palace. The following description was written by Kreklow.
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During our trip to China, we had the opportunity to experience many new and different things, but I'm only going to talk about one in particular. One day, we went to the historic Summer Palace. This palace was absolutely beautiful, and it was all man-made. It had a very large man-made lake with many beautiful tress surrounding it. The emperor would use the lake for his leisure, and he knew when it was time to come to the Summer Palace when the trees turned green!
The picture above is one of the many beautiful buildings within the Summer Palace. This was a place where the emperor could go and rest in the shade during a hot summer day. In some of the buildings they had fans and air under the floor, because in the summer the floors would be very hot and in ancient times they didn't wear shoes.
There was a very large coy pond full of blooming lily pads and fish. Coy fish are considered very lucky in Chinese culture. The emperor would stroll around this beautiful pond, and enjoy his summer days. The walk-way around the pond was one of the most beautiful things I saw the entire trip!
This picture will always make me laugh! This is our senior middle blocker Emily Thater. We had just finished our tour of the Summer Palace and we stopped to use the restrooms. This baby LOVED Emily's blonde hair and blue eyes. This mother was very trusting with her baby and let Emily hold her little girl. All was good at first, until the father of the baby told Emily to hold the baby up to the sky (almost like the baby was Simba from the Lion King - haha) The little girl instantly start crying, and everyone including the baby's parents were all laughing! It was a good and funny way to end a beautiful tour.
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