Casa Grande Main Building 

A View of Hearst Catle 

Grand Room 

The Neptune Pool 

More than a decade ago, two richest men, Mr. Stanford and Mr. Hearst appeared in California. After losing his only child, Mr. Stanford decided to build a university in commemoration of his son. The Stanford University hence was established under the suggestion of President of Harvard after his visiting all the renowned universities in the United States.

According to an improper legend, Mr. Stanford came to Harvard University with a substantial donation as he had no thought of establishing the Stanford University at all. With a pure hope of donating some money to the famous Harvard in mind, Mr. Stanford, himself, and his money haven’t earned much respect from the President of Harvard. As you probably know, the rich people from the West, in the eyes of majority of people, were a group of new-riches by only digging for gold. Hence, they refused the donation of Mr. Stanford gracefully and falsely, who established the Stanford University after returning to California. That would be the best one, much better than Harvard, Mr. Stanford must have thought so. An improper legend indeed, it sounds like a lie made by a guy jealous of Mr. Stanford. I, however, still believe in the story. Mr. Stanford once said to his wife, all kids in California were our children.

Mr. Hearst, however, obviously being much more realistic, has shown no interest in donation and university as all his money was used in building his dream castle. Of course, it was also because of his antiques which should all be put into a real castle.

Mr. Hearst became the king of the world’s largest publishing empire after establishing the San Francisco Observer at the age of 24. 100 years later, it was purchased by an American-Chinese, a dramatic story seriously hurting the US mainstream society, because Mr. Hearst did not love those Chinese immigrants, calling them the Yellow Peril, but his newspaper was purchased by them.

Talking about money, Mr. Hearst should be as rich as Mr. Stanford. But the Stanford, as expected by Mr. Stanford, became a great university. Meanwhile, the Hearst Castle became the most luxurious one amongst all the fashionables during the age when rich people considering builded luxurious castles in the countryside as a vogue.

I began to make commemorative medals from self-service machines when I was waiting for the shuttle bus. As I put two quarter coins and a dollar coin, the latter was turned into a flat medal. I made a lot of them, each different, sea animals and flowers in San Simeon, the Hearst Castle and palm trees, Mr. Hearst’s most favorite Neptune Pool and statue of the Three Graces.

People say the statue from Egypt on the walkway is a bloodthirsty goddess, as she is the goddess of both protection and destruction. Mr. Hearst owned 250,000-acre ranch, 26 newspapers, 13 magazines and 8 radio stations in the most prosperous period of his career. Of course, there were more, but he could not take anything with him as they now belong to others, the San Francisco Observer was sold to the Chinese immigrants and the Hearst Castle is now the property of California government.

It was said that Mr. Hearst loved inviting people, and movie stars and political figures all attended the banquets by plane, as the Hearst Castle has its own airport, water power plant and theaters, and even a wild animal zoo. He was passionate about animals as he had a giraffe, a bear, a tiger, a lion and an antelope and all the other animals one could buy, who were considered the happiest animals in the world.

There was only one dining room in the Hearst Castle, and guests had to come to dinner at the specified time. The dull silver, icons painted on the ceiling, the French tapestry with painted story from the Book of Daniel and the long table, guests complained that the extra-long table was of no actual value at all, as people on both sides almost had to talk through telephones. But the American rich people just loved the ancient age, everything had to be arranged like some king’s castle in the Anglo-Saxon time.

In my opinion, those kings were wealthy with freedom, they had their own land and army and unique castles. They were independent from each other with occasional deceits, war and marriage, just like the Spring and Autumn Period in our history, days with true turbulence.

But all the cities of the Spring and Autumn Period were gone, except for the Yancheng City. It was said that King Yan of the state fled to Changzhou after being defeated by Emperor Cheng during the Zhou Dynasty, building his castle at the center of three moats and three circle of cities, the most secure design according to the King himself at least. He would not have to think about the war any more. The Liu state defeated and destroyed the City by fire after the King married the only princess to the King of Liu.

The city of a small state, which vanished 3,000-year ago, is still preserved to the present time, probably due to the uniqueness of the city as three moats circled around the architecture. There is only one moat around British castles in movies, and the cities remain safe as long as the drawbridge remains hung up. If it were kept in the UK, all castles were not in a safe condition.

A billiard room stood close to the dining room as a theater hall was next to it, and guests could watch movies after dinner if they arrived at the theater hall 11:00PM according to the rules, or they could prefer to stay in the billiard room the whole evening. Billiard was probably most fashionable a hundred year ago, just like golf at present, which might not be the vogue in the time of a century. I just cannot imagine the fashions in the future.

I could imagine the good old days in the past: all guests gathered in the magnificent living room for dinner, holding wine in hands and talking about business and ideals. Pleasure was only their daily life, but not their ideal, which was probably to build castles in the countryside with decoration of antiques. It was highly probable that the rich were more likely to be depressed than the poor if the beauty of his antiques was inferior to those of another rich man.

I wish I could take a closer look at those antiques with strong smells. But I just felt too sleepy to open my eyes, as for me, the whole morning was like sleepwalking.

I took a nap in the theater for a while, while sitting in front of me were a group of soldiers, everyone of whom was bareheaded. They were much different from what I imagined as their hands were put on the back. It was so weird to see soldiers appear in the theater of the Hearst Castle.