米歇尔参观故宫
米歇尔参观故宫
Michelle Obama tours Beijing's Forbidden City
US First Lady Michelle Obama took her daughters and mother to Beijing's former imperial palace Friday, on a China tour the White House emphasises will be light on politics and heavy on personal diplomacy.
Obama, her daughters Malia and Sasha, and her mother Marian Robinson were photographed along with China's own first lady Peng Liyuan at the central pavilion of the sprawling Forbidden City, known as the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The two women's husbands, Barack Obama and Xi Jinping, are expected to meet next week on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit in the Netherlands.
The visit is Obama's first to China, and her third foreign trip without the US commander-in-chief since moving into the White House.
Beijing and Washington have hailed the trip as an opportunity for both first ladies to highlight the importance of education and "people-to-people" exchange.
But critics in the US have lambasted signals that human rights are off the agenda -- although Obama is scheduled to eat at a Tibetan restaurant in Chengdu -- and the cost to taxpayers of the trip, which the White House has declined to reveal.
Obama, her family and Peng began at the No. 2 High School Attached to Beijing Normal University.
Photos posted online by China's state-run Legal Evening News showed them observing students at the school learning how to build robots.
The group took part in a calligraphy demonstration, with Obama and her family looking on as Peng wrote out: "Great virtue promotes growth", before giving it to the visitor, according the Legal Evening News.
The trip has been front-page news in China's state-run media, and several outlets have run op-eds hailing the planned focus on "soft" issues such as education rather than on political topics.
"When briefing the media about Michelle's trip, the US side said the first lady is to steer clear of politics, human rights, trade disputes and other bilateral differences -- issues better handled via official diplomacy," the official Xinhua news agency wrote in a commentary Thursday.
"That approach is right. The uniqueness of the role of first ladies is its soft touch and freedom from the knottiness and even ugliness of hard politics."
The question of the trip's cost, however, has drawn attention on both sides of the Pacific.
Chinese social network users widely circulated a China National Radio report on the lavish 52,000-yuan-a-night ($8,400) hotel suite where it said the Obama family were staying.
According to the hotel website, the suite is 320 square metres and includes a kitchen, bar, sauna, jacuzzi, dining table for six and a treadmill.
3月21日，美国第一夫人携母亲和两位女儿参观北京故宫，对于第一夫人此次访华，美国白宫表示将会注重外交方面，不涉及政治话题。
在太和殿前，彭丽媛同米歇尔及家人合影。太和殿是宏伟紫禁城里的中央大殿。
而两位第一夫人的丈夫，习近平主席与奥巴马总统将在3月下旬荷兰核安全峰会期间举行会晤。
此次是米歇尔首次单独专程访华，这是从她入住白宫以来的第三个不属于白宫命令的海外之行。
米歇尔作为第一夫人此次访华，主要目的是强调教育的重要性和加强“民间交流”。对此，北京和华盛顿的媒体都给予了高度评价。
尽管米歇尔计划在成都西藏饭店吃饭，但是美国批评人士仍痛斥米歇尔此次访华不谈及人权，并且白宫方面拒绝透露此行给纳税人带来的损失。
米歇尔一家与彭丽媛到北师大二附中进行参观交流。
《法制晚报》在网上发布了一张彭丽媛与米歇尔观看学生们演学习制作的机器人的照片。
根据《法制晚报》报道，他们还参加了一节中国书法课，彭丽媛书写“厚德载物”，并赠予米歇尔。
这次旅行已经成为中国官方媒体报道的头条新闻，同时，一些媒体专栏称赞了此次“软”外交，其关注焦点在教育上而非政治话题。
新华社在一篇评论中写道：“在向媒体介绍米歇尔此次访华行程时，美国方面表示第一夫人会避开政治、人权、贸易争端以及双边分歧等敏感问题，这些问题更适合领导人通过正式外交来解决。”
这种做法是正确的。这种“软调节”和避开纠纷及政治的“硬交锋”，正是第一夫人角色的独特作用。
然而，此次旅行的成本的问题得到了太平洋两岸各国的关注。
据中央广播电台报道，奥巴马一家下榻的酒店总统套房市价为一天5.2万元(8400美元)。这引起了中国网友的热烈讨论。
酒店网站上的相关信息显示，套房有320平方米，包括厨房、酒吧、桑拿、按摩浴缸、六人座餐桌和一个跑步机。
>>点击查看更多关于双语新闻的文章
