Are Chinese ships made of marble? Going for a walk in the park of the New Summer Palace some visitors rub their eyes in amazement. Floating on the edge of a lake, just next to the central hill with the beautiful palace complexes, one can see the most unusual boat. Made of stone! And it doesn’t float either. What presents itself there to the unsuspecting tourist is the famous marble boat of dowager Empress Cixi (pronounced: Z’ shi). But it’s not really Cixi´s boat either. And, well, not really a Chinese boat. It is popularly referred to as the marble boat or jade ship. The official name is: Boat of…