Beijing - Part 3

Despite the long day at the Wall, we decided to stop off at the Summer Palace on the way home. The Summer Palace is China's largest and most well-preserved royal park, featuring numerous lakes, gardens and buildings. It was first built in 1750, largely destroyed in the war of 1860 and restored on its original foundations in 1886. UNESCO included the Summer Palace on its World Heritage List in 1998. This picture shows the breathtaking beauty and serenity of the place.

This sign was at the entrance, suggesting that there had been sufficient uncontrolled, bad tourists making rude imaginations to warrant it.

This sign, seen at regular intervals throughout the park, seemed to confirm it.

The lake was largely iced over and looked lovely in the setting sun. Here you can see we were pretty tired after the Wall!

We met an elderly Chinese man practicing his calligraphy strokes on the pavement. He used a large brush dipped in water. Seeing Becky, he asked her what her Chinese name is. His calligraphic skill was amazing; his hanyu pinyin -- the phonetic system for transcribing the sound of Chinese characters into Latin script -- not so much.

A magnificent evening.

This cheery fellow was a cab driver we met on our first day there. Finding him a fount of information about the country, as well as an excellent driver -- which is really something considering the blasé recklessness of both drivers and pedestrians there! -- we had hired him for the drive to the Wall. Seeing him outside the hotel the next day, we snapped this picture.

Entering the Forbidden City. Just imagine it -- once a gilded cage to 24 emperors from 1420 to 1911, the Forbidden City now attracts millions of visitors a year, making it the most visited World Heritage destination in the world. Reginald Johnston, tutor to the last emperor Pu Yi, wrote: "If ever there was a palace that deserved the name of a prison, it is that palace in the Forbidden City of Peking, in which emperor Shunzhi pined for freedom, and in which the last but one of his successors, the emperor Guangxu, ended his dismal days nearly twelve years ago".

A giant.. um.. pot.

To think of life in this place... perhaps that cage beside the throne says it all.

The largest stone sculpture in the Forbidden City. Weighing about 250 tons, this marble relief of nine dragons playing with pearls was originally carved in the Ming dynasty, then re-sculpted in the Qing. Apparently anyone caught touching this holy stone would receive the death penalty.

Inside the Hall of Preserved Harmony. One isn't allowed into any of these rooms, so one must make do squeezing and taking turns with the crowds at the doors and quickly snapping whatever one can.

Imagine all the scenes that mirror has reflected!

An adorable guardian statue. Isn't he great? The last time I was here, some twelve years or so ago, he was covered in snow. Our friendly cab driver had told us not to expect any snow this year; it was, he said, a sad sign of global warming.

Another happy day!

The last part after Christmas. Have a blessed, wonderful week everyone!

Beijing - Part 2

Naturally, one thing we simply had to do was visit the Great Wall! The Wall is about an hour and a half's drive from the city. There are several parts of the Wall that are open to tourists -- meaning that they've been repaired and made less treacherous than they would have been if they'd been left in their 2000-year-old state. This picture shows a stretch of road leading up to the Wall; it's packed with souvenir vendors, all selling pretty much exactly the same things.

As we were visiting a part of the Wall that doesn't start from the ground up, there was the option of taking a cable car (the Wall is actually made up of different sections that had been built by different dynasties over a long period of time). Of course, the kids were super psyched about that, despite the fact that their mother has always been dead set against the teeny cable car rides that go over water back home (hey, what can I say -- a bunch of them actually fell right off into the sea back in the 80s, killing seven and stranding several others, the very evening my parents were driving us there).

But they have good environmental policies.

And service quality targets. Helping joyously is always a good thing.

I have to admit the ride was pretty fun. The ascent had all the anticipatory thrill of a roller-coaster. This was one view from the car.

A Great Wall resident.

Start of the climb.

Another view of the Wall. It really was longer and more majestic than I'd ever imagined.

Taking a breather. Despite the cold up there, our exertions quickly made us work up a sweat.

Now I finally know what those watchtowers that dot the Wall look like inside. 

They're quite maze-like, in fact, and it was fascinating to imagine all the activity that took place in them so many centuries ago.

The Wall stretches over 5,000 miles. One plus of visiting in the middle of winter, was that it was uncrowded and peaceful.

Ro very enthusiastically braved the long walk and steep climbs.

We'd been hoping for snow, but considering how steep many of the areas were, I think after all we were glad we didn't have to contend with ice.

A view from the Wall. 

It got tiring for the kids after awhile.

But they persevered.

The amazing length of the Wall. It's wonderful how it hugs and follows the high, rough terrain. What a feat of engineering, and just imagine all the effort and manpower involved in its construction. It is said that it cost the lives of over a million people.

These ladies from Yunnan province were part of a group that was so taken with the kids they insisted on taking several photos together.

We saw this beautiful blue-winged bird frequently. I believe it is a black-billed magpie, and has a lovely iridescence on its plumage. Being as nature-starved as we are, we took quite a number of pictures of them, leaving many locals wondering at our inordinate excitement.

OK, that's all for now -- the third part in a bit! Blessed weekend everyone!

Beijing - Part 1

Hi everyone!! How have you been? I trust you are all keeping safe and well :) If you hadn't guessed already, we'd all gone on a little trip! Yes -- my first in about four years lol! We'd actually intended to go on this holiday a year ago, but guess who got pregnant haha.. Well, the two grandmothers got together to help look after Jake while we were away -- thank you Mom and Ma! -- and we had an awesome time in Beijing, China!

One of the first places we visited was Yonghe Lamasery, or the Lama Temple. This is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism. Work on the temple began in 1694; it originally served as an official residence for court eunuchs, before being converted into the court of Prince Yong. In 1722, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, while the other half remained an imperial palace.

There are five main halls separated by courtyards, with lovely names like The Hall of Harmony and Peace, and The Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses, which contains a 26m tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single piece of white sandalwood. Photography is not allowed within any of these places of worship.

The whole temple was heavy with the smoke and smell of incense -- there were many people praying there. Here, Becky is standing in front of one of the many prayer wheels; meditatively spinning the wheel would be equivalent to saying the inscribed prayer aloud.

We saw many beautiful sculptures there, but couldn't take pictures of many of them. Animals from Chinese mythology were plentiful of course; here, the kids are posing with two dragon turtles, representations of such positive traits as courage, longevity, success and fertility.

The temple is huge and after exploring it, the kids were tired out and hungry. On the way back to our hotel, I saw this painting being sold on the street. The Chinese word on the bottom is ye, but I'm not sure what that thing above it is.

This is how tired Becky was by the time we found some place to eat.

And this is what we ate. Next to the noodles are some extremely boiled vegetables, which they seem to serve as an accompaniment to almost everything, even breakfast. It was interesting, but the kids were decidedly not fond of it.

The next day we walked through Tiananmen Square on our way to the National Museum of China. The weather was gorgeous the whole time -- hovering between a lovely 0 to -7°C.

Ro was proving to be an avid photographer the entire trip.

Security was quite tight, probably because of the recent terrorist attack on Tiananmen Square, and every now and then we had to have our bags checked and go through metal detectors.

But the kids enjoyed every minute of it.

Miss Too-Cool-For-School.

The museum is huge and very impressive, with a permanent collection of over a million rare artifacts covering Chinese history from the Yuanmou Man of 1.7 million years ago to the end of the Qing Dynasty (the last imperial dynasty).

Painted terracotta infantry and cavalry from 202 BC. The artistry and sheer ancientness of these things were amazing.

A jade shroud fastened with gold threads from the same period. Jade shrouds were burial clothing for Han dynasty emperors and nobility; this one was made for Liu Xiu, king of Zhongshan state.

A bronze lamp in the shape of a goose carrying a fish from the same period. This device was brilliantly designed -- the bodies of the goose and fish are hollow to contain smoke and soot; the lamp plate and shade rotate for desired lighting or to control draughts; and all the parts are detachable for easy cleaning.

Rhinoceros-shaped wine vessel with gold and silver inlaid cloud design from the same period.

A glazed roof ridge ornament from 1038.

Roro posing with a bronze model for acupuncture and moxibustion from 1443. If you went close, you'd see that the figure was marked with meridians and acupoints from head to toe. In the imperial medical academy's exams, such figures were coated with beeswax and filled with water for students to identify the correct acupoints.

Like I'd said, the place was massive. There was lots to see, but even I was getting a little tired after awhile.

Security was really tight.

Walking home afterward, we went through Wangfujing Street, a busy, 700-year-old thoroughfare full of shops and restaurants and street vendors, with lots of crowded side streets as well which the kids were just too tired to get into.

A street vendor selling wind-up birds.

Which we bought.

Street sculpture.

A serene close to the day. More in a bit!