More Beijing rambles...
Hi Girlies,
The conference started this afternoon so I doubt I'll be taking many pics over the next two days. I added the few that I took in the Forbidden City today to the web album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mullerb/BeijingJune28July82007
I had an hour to myself before dinner tonight so I wandered over to a local market where they sell every kind of piece of sports equipment you can think of (all of it with name brands but non of it the real thing - I might go back tomorrow to pick up a pair of "Adidas" running shoes for $8). Then I visited a large department and grocery store. The meat section was pretty cool, kind of like going to a farm and aquarium all at once. They had live fish, clams, river eels, turtles, crabs, sea weed, snails, etc. The farm meat was already dead but there where big chunks of the bodies still on display. The place was packed, shoulder to shoulder. So was the electronics stores next door. I think the Chinese are even more into buying stuff than Americans! Every place you go, someone has a small cart with things for sale and every store I've seen is packed with people. This place will be as important as the U.S. by the time you two are all grown up. I already look forward to coming back in the future to see how much things will change.
And we'll have to drag your Mom along. Despite this being a huge city, Rachel, I think you would enjoy Beijing: it's vibrant, full of large parks, everything is cheap, and it is really, really safe. I have yet to feel out of kilter or uncomfortable and I've been in lots of pretty out of the way spots now, both in groups and alone. It will be interesting to see how it changes with time. Oh, and the taxi drivers will not accept tips and they insist on using the meter. There are dozens of walking excursions I would like to take that are within a few hours drive of the city, many are tied to old Ming cultural sites and some are to visit Buddhist temples in the hills. And there is the Wall of course; the conference organizers will be taking us to a section on Wednesday.
After dinner, I popped across the street to the Temple of Black Bamboo Park. It must have 3 or 4 miles of trails winding around a river and some lakes. It is not listed in any of the tourist guides yet it is incredibly beautiful. It is filled with limestone sculpted rocks, the waterways are overgrown with lotus, and you can get boat rides in these ancient 20 foot long row boats (ala Venice). I got there just at dusk and the park was packed with people. No street lights to speak of really, just some subdued lighting along the pathways in places. There are various little plazas throughout the park and in each people were dancing! In one there was traditional ballroom music and 20 or 30 couples were sweeping each other away. In another, there were 40 women (and one or two guys) perfectly lined up in off set rows doing aerobic dance to some Janet Jackson like music. Just amazing. I have no clue whether these folks all know each other, whether these are prearranged events, or what. But it's pretty cool to see people so active and engaged in group events everywhere. You really get the sense that folks are happy and the whole place has this vibrant, upbeat, energetic, and overall just positive feel to it.
Dinner tonight didn't include anything exotic. We held off on the roasted bullfrog and steamed river snails since we were a group that included a handful of Scandinavians; they have a somewhat limited sense of adventure when it comes to food :) What a mishmash! We were 4 Americans, 4 Finns, 4 Australians, 1 Russian, 1 Romanian, served by 3 Chinese waitresses. There are folks from about 18 countries at the conference. I'm looking forward to meeting more of them tomorrow. If I'm awake, that is. It's 2 in the morning here and I can't get myself to go back to sleep; my body hasn't switched over to Chinese time yet. Plus, there's just so much to see! I might go for a stroll...
Dove and bugs, um, love and hugs,
Dad
The conference started this afternoon so I doubt I'll be taking many pics over the next two days. I added the few that I took in the Forbidden City today to the web album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mullerb/BeijingJune28July82007
I had an hour to myself before dinner tonight so I wandered over to a local market where they sell every kind of piece of sports equipment you can think of (all of it with name brands but non of it the real thing - I might go back tomorrow to pick up a pair of "Adidas" running shoes for $8). Then I visited a large department and grocery store. The meat section was pretty cool, kind of like going to a farm and aquarium all at once. They had live fish, clams, river eels, turtles, crabs, sea weed, snails, etc. The farm meat was already dead but there where big chunks of the bodies still on display. The place was packed, shoulder to shoulder. So was the electronics stores next door. I think the Chinese are even more into buying stuff than Americans! Every place you go, someone has a small cart with things for sale and every store I've seen is packed with people. This place will be as important as the U.S. by the time you two are all grown up. I already look forward to coming back in the future to see how much things will change.
And we'll have to drag your Mom along. Despite this being a huge city, Rachel, I think you would enjoy Beijing: it's vibrant, full of large parks, everything is cheap, and it is really, really safe. I have yet to feel out of kilter or uncomfortable and I've been in lots of pretty out of the way spots now, both in groups and alone. It will be interesting to see how it changes with time. Oh, and the taxi drivers will not accept tips and they insist on using the meter. There are dozens of walking excursions I would like to take that are within a few hours drive of the city, many are tied to old Ming cultural sites and some are to visit Buddhist temples in the hills. And there is the Wall of course; the conference organizers will be taking us to a section on Wednesday.
After dinner, I popped across the street to the Temple of Black Bamboo Park. It must have 3 or 4 miles of trails winding around a river and some lakes. It is not listed in any of the tourist guides yet it is incredibly beautiful. It is filled with limestone sculpted rocks, the waterways are overgrown with lotus, and you can get boat rides in these ancient 20 foot long row boats (ala Venice). I got there just at dusk and the park was packed with people. No street lights to speak of really, just some subdued lighting along the pathways in places. There are various little plazas throughout the park and in each people were dancing! In one there was traditional ballroom music and 20 or 30 couples were sweeping each other away. In another, there were 40 women (and one or two guys) perfectly lined up in off set rows doing aerobic dance to some Janet Jackson like music. Just amazing. I have no clue whether these folks all know each other, whether these are prearranged events, or what. But it's pretty cool to see people so active and engaged in group events everywhere. You really get the sense that folks are happy and the whole place has this vibrant, upbeat, energetic, and overall just positive feel to it.
Dinner tonight didn't include anything exotic. We held off on the roasted bullfrog and steamed river snails since we were a group that included a handful of Scandinavians; they have a somewhat limited sense of adventure when it comes to food :) What a mishmash! We were 4 Americans, 4 Finns, 4 Australians, 1 Russian, 1 Romanian, served by 3 Chinese waitresses. There are folks from about 18 countries at the conference. I'm looking forward to meeting more of them tomorrow. If I'm awake, that is. It's 2 in the morning here and I can't get myself to go back to sleep; my body hasn't switched over to Chinese time yet. Plus, there's just so much to see! I might go for a stroll...
Dove and bugs, um, love and hugs,
Dad
