Beijing--our first stop in China

The Temple of Heaven and The Long Corridor


Buddhist monks visiting the temple. There weren't many Buddhist monks to be seen in China, at least where we have been-- I typically see more during an average day in Seattle.


Field trip!
The Long Corridor...

The Temple of Heaven.


Some of the detail work close-up.






This is called a Ghost-Barrier. They are intended to keep away evil spirits. There weren't many outside of traditional buildings in Beijing or Guangzhou, but many places in Nanchang had them. They are really easy to trip on, I found.






This tree is called the Nine Dragons Juniper. It is 500 years old! Fortunately, it doesn't smell like 500 years of cat urine.


Pedicabs outside of the Hutong District. The drivers didn't look too pleased when they saw the "strapping" American folks heading their way.

People stack some amazing loads to their scooters and bicycles. You wouldn't think this could actually go anywhere, but it can... and fast too.


A kind man allowed our group to tromp through his home in the Hutong District. These characters read, "Welcome American Friends."


The outside of his home... Many homes in Beijing (I have heard 200,000) were demolished to make room for Olympic buildings. However, the citizens of Beijing would not allow the homes in the Hutong to be touched due to their historic value.
Every square inch of space is utilized-- he grows squash on his rooftop.


Playing Chinese Chess in the courtyard.

The owner of this home was chosen to host an Olympic athelete during the Olympics. This was a source of tremendous pride for him. The red is for good luck and the characters hanging in the window are "double happiness," which is a common good luck wish.


The owner of this home was awarded a commemorative plate for his contribution to the Olympics-- it was clear that this was a highly cherished item for him.


More Olympic memorabilia-- he made the Olympic symbol out of rocks in new cement. It can't be overstated how proud and happy the residents of Beijing are that they were chosen to host the Olympics.

This photo was taken in Tianamen Square to show the sea of heads-- an enormous crowd was there. I can't imagine what it would be like on a national holiday.

On one side of the square-- The National Museum.

The Great Hall of the People.


The Monument to The People's Heroes and as an added bonus, women in traditional ethnic garb. I don't know what kind though.

Chairman Mao's mausoleum. The vast majority of people were there to see his corpse.

The entrance into the forbidden city with a giant image of Chairman Mao front and center.

Getting closer... the lines were very, very long.



Inside the Forbidden Palace-- Essentially, there are multiple buildings that look just like this. We weren't allowed to go into any of them.

Beautiful carved stone in the center of the original stairs...

Another view of stairs/ carvings.


There was a mad dash to get up the stairs and to this door. I joined in because I thought we would get to go in, but no. Lining up in China is very, very different. If there is an unoccupied space, what many westerners would consider personal space, someone will want to be in it. That is how people get ahead in lines, and it can be very off putting. Also, the little old ladies in China should form a rugby team. Man, can they push! One grabbed my rear and gave me a mighty shove (and I nearly fell off of a platform). I have also seen more fist fights and shouting matches here in 3 weeks than I have seen in my whole life at home-- it is so crowded here.

Details in the gilt on the door.

Note the vividness of the colors...

I think Scott and I are a little obsessed with these roof tiles. They are amazing!

Now contrast the colors on this building to those on the building above. Only some buildings were spruced up for the Olympics. The ones that were not refinished have this beautiful patina...



There were hundreds of tour groups in The Forbidden City-- each group member wore a cap identical to their other group members so they didn't get separated from their groups. Unfortunately, most of the caps were red. Our group was one of the few that didn't wear caps, but since we all have different colored hair, we didn't need them.

This is The Great Wall o' China. It is truly something to behold. Our craptastic camera ran out of batteries, so we only have a few pictures of it.


The stairs are incredibly, incredibly steep, and uneven. Scott went way up, but I am too afraid of heights. I could have made it up, but down? Eek.

A Few Pics of Bea & Nanchang

Here's Bea a few days ago--smiling away, even though she has a cold and is teething like crazy...


She really enjoys "floor time" with her BaBa (these pictures are taken in our swank hotel room in Guangzhou).


This is the view from our hotel room in Nanchang. The other side of the hotel faces the Gan River. If you look closely, you can see that many of the roofs are pieced together from various found items, such as empty rice bags, plastic grocery bags, concrete paving stones from the street and so on... All I could thing of was: earthquake.

This is the view from another angle. Nanchang is the biggest city in the Jianxi province, but with a population of nearly 5 million people, it is not one of the bigger cities in China--not by a long shot. Bea is from Jiangxi, but she is not from Nanchang. Jiangxi was once famous for porcelain, and is now one of the most rural and poor provinces in China. The people who lived there were not accustomed to seeing caucasian people, and they stared a lot. Overall, they were were very excited and gracious toward the adoptive families in our group. Many people, especially elderly people, stopped to wish us luck and congratulate us.


One of the streets on the way to Teng Wang Pavilion. I don't remember why the street is so deserted. Typically, that is not the case at all. Normally there is a great deal of traffic and horns blaring all night. Traffic rules seem to be interpreted as traffic "suggestions" in Nanchang--much more so than in Guangzhou and Beijing. It is actually terrifying to be a pedestrian and try to cross the street. People on bicycles and scooters were in there jockeying for position with cars and trucks. We didn't dare take a cab, and even in the tour bus that carted us around most of the time, we all thought our seconds were numbered. Grown men screamed like little girls.


Teng Wang Pavilion in the background-- the buildings on the surface streets close to the pavilion had some beautiful, traditional architectural details.

And voila-- Teng Wang Pavilion as seen from the entrance gate. Unbelievably beautiful. Teng Wang is the second biggest people's square after Tienanmen Square in Beijing. Unfortunately, it was very foggy that day, making picture taking from a distance tricky. Everything looks hazy and blurry.




A closer view...

Bea and Scott before we ascend the stairs.

The front entry of the main building. Inside, there is a sculpted marble relief of Wang Bo, who wrote some famous poetry about the pavilion in 675 AD. The pavilion was originally built in 653 AD (and it has been rebuilt many times since).

The top floor was a mezzanine with a stage on the back wall. Every half hour there is a performance in which women in tradition garb play tradition instruments, sing, and play bells. This is a really bad picture, but it is the best of all that I took...Hopefully, it gives you an idea of what it looked like.


Two sides of the mezzanine had brilliantly colored tile walls.


This is what the ceiling on each of the five floors looked like. I can see why Victorians went crazy for this kind of decor-- it is really lush. At the bottom of the picture, are the intricately carved doors/windows that surrond the top floors and open to balconies.


This was at the center of the top floor-- the picture doesn't do it justice.

This is one of the pieces of tile on the roof. Nothing is left unembellished--the level of detail is astounding.


This is the view from one of the aforementioned balconies overlooking the river. In the distance there were junks, and across the river there is a giant ferris wheel/amusement park and the modern portion of the city, with high rises and so on. All but the junks were obscured by the fog.

Scott and Bea enjoying the breeze coming in from the river. Did I mention that it was 60 degrees with 100% humidity that day? We all had a good schvitz that day. Poor Bea and Scott were stuck together at this point, but note that Bea is wearing a sweater. If anyone dared to take their baby out in public without muliple layers of clothes, the old Chinese ladies would pinch us! We were pinched later that day.

This is one of the smaller buildings connected to the main building--there were several.

A view of the main building from one of the smaller buldings. There was a moat/pond surrounding the buildings and there were enormous carp in it.

Same as above.


There was a garden on the grounds as well-- this is one of the buldings within the garden. It was amazingly beautiful and serene. Also, it was the only place in the city that I saw any birds that weren't being sold in the market for chow.


After Teng Wang, back into the harsh reality of the staggering, gut wrenching poverty in Nanchang. Look closely at the load this man is carrying. This was not an uncommon sight.


More of what Nanchang looks like once off of the crowded arterial streets. Can you see the underpants hanging from every possible place? Street signs were covered in skivvies.


At the Jianxi airport on our way to Guangzhou/Canton-- a high school fencing team with dreams of the next Olympics. They were so sweet to the babies-- everybody was. I found this to be true in every city we have visited. Guys in suits rushing off for work, bell boys, store clerks would all stop to make faces and coo at the babies.