Empress Cixi's Marble Boat

Boy, was Empress Cixi a work of art. ;) From the sounds of it, she must've been a couple fries shy of a Happy Meal. Lots of the Summer Palace reveals bits of 'creative accounting' that she manipulated to help enhance her opulent lifestyle there. This particular photo reveals a marble boat that she commissioned using funds that were earmarked for the Chinese navy. She definitely got a boat out of it--whether it floats or not is another story...

In hastily preparing for our last minute trip to China, we watched a Charleton Heston movie about the 1910 Boxer Rebellion known as "55 Days in Peking." Empress Cixi is well represented in the film. I wasn't sure if her character in the movie was 'acted up for Hollywood' or if that's actually what she was like. It was interesting to hear the Chinese perspective on her, too. Seems the movie wasn't too far from the truth.