When I met Tzu-hsi

In 1902 Tzu-hsi returned to Peking with her court and for my fortune, or misfortune, I had the strange honor of meeting her. Tzu-hsi, the Current Holy Mother Empress Dowager Cixi Duanyou Kangyi Zhaoyu Zhuangcheng Shougong Qinxian Chongxi of the Empire of the Great Qing, the only "real man" of all the Empire like the Germans called her.

Yes, I met this woman, I took some pictures and I visited the Forbidden City. I was not the only stranger that did it, but I was the only that saw her as a human being and not like a God or an Empress.

She was an old woman gentle and curious , who studied English, had a great sympathy for Queen Victoria and was very... greedy. Yes like all old women she had strange tastes!!! In front of her Palace in the Forbidden City there were not flowers or trees, like in all the gardens, but a pyramid of... apples.

Set them in a very agreeable way, indeed, but the effect was very singular. Several shining apples in front of me. This made me smile but it is not educated and polite to smile in front of an Empress!!! I picked me to remain serious!!! Try to imagine it.

Then an educated and serious Chinese minister made me note that apples are an antidote for poisons and... I smiled less... This woman was really full of surprises and there was ever a reason in all that she did.