Hooray!

And....I'm out!  

Flying out of Beijing with a couple days in Malaysia,then heading on to the land of green: New Zealand!  Yay for a fresh experience and some fresh air!

Walls: Great and city...

The Great Wall is really cool.  I did a cartwheel on it.

A couple of friends and I went north to the small(er) city of Shan Hai Guan on a bullet train to experience two grand sections of the wall: Jiumenkou, the only place where the epic wall crosses a body of water, and the Dragon's Head, where the wall finds its end at the BoHai bay in the Yellow Sea.
Here is Jiumenkou, redone and original sections stand among the mountains and terraced fields.  The frozen river adds to the majestic scene of this world wonder.

The Dragon's Head was more than impressive: the surrounding frozen sea, the crisp arctic wind, the dramatic end to the most epic of human wonders.  It easily produces a sense of wonder about the whole construction of this piece.  In a word, the wall is mighty.

It was so freaking cold here.  Whoa.  But I got to stand on the frozen ocean (and see this epic end) so it was worth it.

The city of Shan Hai Guan has a population of about 400,000.  Up here, based on Beijingers, one is outside of contemporary China.  The older parts of the city lay inside the giant city wall.  The hutong holds numerous treasures, crooks and crannies, and once again the dramatic walls of China impress.

We walked inside the wall for a couple hours and a Russian fighter jet was giving us a show all the while...take-off/landing exercises we guessed, it was pretty cool.

I did a handstand on the wall too.

The Gulou hutong...#2 on the still going countdown...

As many adventures there are to have outside of Beijing, there are just as many to have inside the city.  The air ain't pretty, my throat is scratchey from the pollution, its a two pack a day polluted sky but that's a hazard of Beijing livin'.  We go out, enjoying it all the while anyway.

The Gulou hutong is a beautifully redone hutong (alleyway) close to city center.  Here, there are many quirky, local shops (God Save the Streaking), cafes(McDonalds), bars (Pass By) and snack stands (churros!).  Also, high in the sky towers an ancient bell tower and a drum tower.  The China usual: lovely old with the ever changing new.

Looking around, one can always find surprises.  One, for example, is the buildings.  In China, they are always a surprise. Construction is constant, sky cranes bringing more stories to a tall, tall building, new subway lines, maybe the building next door isn't pretty enough.  The hutong is surrounded by such happenings, the neighborhood always changing.

In Beijing, one has endless choices of food; street food is obviously the best choice.  Should we get sweet potatoes cooked on a grill behind a bicyle cart?  Perhaps charred lamb on a stick?  Maybe sour fresh yogurt?  Nope.  Something you can only get in the hutong...
Its a cold, cold day so what better a snack than CHURROS and ICE CREAM!!  Hot fresh churros, hot fudge and soft serve....best snack ever.  Fat and happy.

Dried chrysanthemum flower tea on display outside of a traditional Chinese tea shop.  The hutong holds many  traditional Chinese treasures.  It's a maze of Chinese history. Gulou is, of course, a touristy hutong but, it is a preserved part of China's history and wonderfully enjoyable. Other hutongs throughout the city survive the constant change and construction, though often times, the old alleyways lose to the big dollars.

Just this morning I walked through a beautiful hutong as it awakened in the early morning.  The residents cooking breakfast and street foods for themselves and their stands, dogs and cats hanging with their owners as they get ready for work, laundry hanging next to peeling stone walls. Its oddly quiet in here, but the city is constantly pushing its way in.   The hutongs are one of the most enjoyable things about Beijing.  And that's the truth.

My two favorite photos:

This bung-bung looks well loved; I like it.  My camera and I passed it on a side street in a small city on the Bohai Bay in Northeastern China called Shan Hai Guan.  Maybe this little go cart bung-bung was around during the cultural revolution.

On my travels, I have seen many people with inventive and even beautiful ways of carrying the fruits of the day's labor.  This man looked exceptionally poetic on a day I visited the only place where the Great Wall spans a body of water at Jiumenkou.  Maybe he works one of the many fields of apple trees in the area. 

A day in Ruins...

Another adventure in the heart of Beijing city: the ruins at the Old Summer Palace.  Devery and I enjoyed another beautiful and breezy winter day gallivanting through some interesting sights.

We started the day with my favorite street food; Jian Bing, the traditional Beijing egg and spring onion pancake.  Yum, this means the day starts out right.  I mean, this pancake is $.75 worth of delicious perfection (i have challenged my self to eat one a day for my last two weeks...its going well so far!)....getting off track here, back to the ruins.  

With the proper fuel and the windy weather, this park was at the mercy of silliness.  The Old Summer Palace has a lot of fun things to play around on, walk through and photo op. The European influence clearly stands out in the piles of toppled structures strewn about the place.  Black swans wash and hunt in the ponds.  And we walk among the few tourists having a good ole time.

The Palace was used for government affairs in the 1800s Qing dynasty.  During the second opium war certain morbid events led British and French troops to destroy the palace.  It is in ruins but its actually quite beautiful.

I'm pretty sure this wasn't a good idea....but it was really fun.

A falling apart bridge, real purty like. 

Here is the serious note...Caution: may be too serious for fun lovers

On a serious note: Seeing  ancient sights in China is interesting for two reasons.  One, the obvious, is the historical significance of the sight.  This culture is ancient and intricate and beautifully historic, there is a sea of sights and  information to enjoy and to take in.  For goodness sake, you are standing on something constructed in 400 AD (I am referring to my recent Great Wall experience, which was very cool). What's not to appreciate?

Reason two, less obvious but equally interesting, is the government's role in these sights.  What I mean is that, often times, when you see something in China, often you aren't seeing what is boasted, what is advertised.  You are seeing new things in place of the old things.  I don't know how to describe it other than I constantly question the validity of the statements on historical sights or news posts or...almost everything actually and something has driven me to this point.  As often as you see the real deal, you see a fake replica.  This is true for cars and bags and eggs as well as for tombs and walls and caves.

As a person in China, you are at constant mercy of the government (this could be said for any country in the world, but some more than others).  The government does what ever it wants, including blatantly lying to and controlling its people.  Right now, Beijing's thing is just short of fully destroying its ancient and cultural sights (not to mention all but fully exploiting its environment) in the face of making quick money on things built for the moment.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate my experience here. However, I feel equally blessed and cursed having the ability to enjoy these things and also having the time to learn a little about what is going on over here.  What is truly interesting is how I see these things, but my Chinese friends don't seem to notice.

I am here for a blink of an eye. I know it. And this is why I fully appreciate (with love and hate) my time here.  It seems that as much fun as one can have in a place you can't avoid learning a bit (for good or for bad) on your way...

Serious fun at the Spirit Way...and a serious note...

An adventure out of the city becomes a much needed day of silliness and fun at the Spirit Way of the Ming Tombs.  The day was a beautiful, blue one threaded with the arctic wind.  Our travels to the tombs proved to be rejuvenating and boundlessly refreshing for some mountain loving girls trapped in the big city.  As you imagine, China has a lot of old stuff to look at and seeing as my time here is limited (to the tune of twelve days!) my friends, my eyes and me are fully booked with sights to jump on.

Beijing sprawls on forever so it takes us a while to get out of the city (2 hours and 56 km) but the tombs are out enough to breathe some fresh air (yay!).  The trip is a thirty minute winter walk and two buses to terminus but well worth it to jump on an ancient site. Construction of the Spirit Way began in 1420 ish and was the next big undertaking after construction of the Forbidden City .  The Way is a seven km road guarded by animals and warriors meant to deflect evil that may come to disturb the Ming emperors buried in the tombs.  The statues are formidable yet gracefully gorgeous, and wonderfully detailed.  The Chinese are exceptionally aware of detail in their ornamental design especially when it comes to protection in the after life.

Lions, camels and Samurai, oh, my!  

 Devery and a extravagant terrace decoration comparing teeth for who is mightier: I think Dev puts up some good competition.

In addition to the Spirit Way, Dev and I went to the Underground Palace.  This Palace was excavated after the Cultural Revolution and thus remains mostly intact.  We descended five full flights of stairs to the cold underground tomb.  Three gigantic rooms constructed for the afterlife of one Ming emperor and his two wives boasts  vaulted ceilings, concrete thrones and beautiful dry fountains.  The palace, hidden under webs of beautiful gardens and forested pathways remained hidden for almost five centuries.  Cool.  The whole scene  is beautiful.  

Stay tuned for more upcoming adventures!

And for my next trick!

Yay!  Let the countdown begin: I will escape China through Malaysia with New Zealand as my ultimate destination....I'll be there on March 1! I still have 18 days left here in good ole China. I tried to use this exit at the mall to avoid all the technicalities of leaving this country (notifying work, saying bye to the kids, seeing a few more sights, eating enough street food to keep me happy for the rest of my never coming back to China life) but, turns out its just a interestingly translated sign and not to be taken literally.  Darn it.  I thougth I discovered the ultimate portal. Anyway, I couldn't escape through this door so I went the classic way and purchased an airline ticket.  Whoo-hoo!

China:

You and me

are to soon be

history

The children...lets make them number three...#3!

The kids here are so cute!  They have the sweetest smiles and they are so entertaining especially how they manipulate the English they know to get their point across.  This is Plane.  He is very eager to please, loves to learn but is a little rambunctious in class.  Doesn't he look like trouble a little bit?  Well, he is, but the animated stories he tells are well worth his troublesome actions.

This is one of my classes, grade one, they are so naughty.  Its, from left to right, James, Better (yup, Better, my Chinese Teacher), Snow, Jade and Plane (with his ear in Better's pinch).  In this class we mostly catch up on speaking.  Each class, only twice a week, we create a dialogue with useful statements like: Where is the grocery store?  How do you get there? And, What is your favorite holiday? What will you eat during the holiday? Fun topics like that.

If it wasn't for the kids, I probably would've left here years ago.  The kids are soooooo adorable.  And not just the kids at my center...I kind of love all of the little ones...

Such a weird confession, but I totally snap pictures of babies on the subway and on the bus.  So creepy.  But, I think its worth it for a pic of the cutest babies ever!....so weird. 

Its Forbidden!...

Hello! and HI!

 Here I am on the top of the Tienanmen Gate.  You can see an awful lot of history up here. One thing about China is: its not lacking in grandeur. And its a beautiful day, lets go see some stuff and enjoy it...

From the gate, all of Tienanmen lies before you; mobs of people, purty red flags, gigantic lcd screens boasting propaganda and/or gorgeous destinations to visit in China and the most recent government suggestions for life, Mao's tomb, and it goes on forever.  Under and through the gate goes 3.5 kilometers of palaces and museums and  imperial gardens of the Forbidden City.

I went on this little in-city-center-adventure on a Sunday.  It was a little busy (read with full on sarcasm)  but, once in the Forbidden City the mass of  tourists filter through the center in a globular form (the Chinese love to stay together/be in large groups/be seen) leaving many areas of this expansive palace museum virtually empty. Spread out in extravagant malls (under which is 13 crosswise layers of brick built one on top of the other to prevent any invaders who may want to come up through the ground of the palace...paranoid much...), there are stairs on top of stairs and palaces of clocks and watches and beautifully intricate animal statues protecting the emperor from all sorts of emperor like afflictions.

The statues represent safety and security for the palaces laid behind them.  Don't mess with this palace, it is a maze and a fortress of epic proportions.  I barely saw a blink of it in the several hours wandering about.

Wandering this historic palace one can't help but imagine elaborately costumed emperors of the ancient Ming dynasty.  I can see the colors and hear the wide silence this palace must have been accustomed to.  You see, back in the day, not so many people where allowed in here: the emperor, princes, select officials, concubines and servants.  Well, there were not as many people around here in the  1420's as there are now...its getting a little crowded, time to find a little hole-in-the-wall spot to get some stir-fry cabbage and rice.  "May you have happy appetite,"my waiter says to me,  and I do. Oh, happy day.