Signs and Posters

Summer Palace Rennovation Sign [*]


Sign on Railings around Historical Relic



Famous Mathematicians ...


... such as ...


Chopstick Shop


Posting
Note added 4/8/06: Now Lynn can read more characters we understand the cateful to meet sign better: cateful is, fairly obviously, a typo for careful (not to); the character translated as meet should have been translated as something like hit your head, but has a meaning of meet in the context of putting your heads together or meeting of the minds . The signs had all disappeared by our second visit.

Maybe more to come ....

Sport and Exercise

Chinese people seem to be keen on sports and exercise. On the BNU campus, particularly in the early mornings and in the evenings, there are all sorts of sports activities, both organized practices and classes, and enthusiastic pick up games.


Evening Sports


Morning Tennis Class


Exercise in Houhai Park
Wherever you look there are arrays of exercise equipment - and people using them! There is an enormous variety of machines - I can't even guess how some of them are used!


A variety ...


... of strange ...


... exercise (?) ...


...machines!


Shadows

Spring Palace

After a few cold days Wednesday was warm again, so we returned to the Summer Palace to investigate the spring flowers and fresh green leaves.


Fruit Tree Blossom



Cherry Blossom on the South Lake Islad



Magnolia Flowers


Painting the Magnolia



Blossom and Roof


Willows at the Garden of Harmonius Pleasures


Dreams of the Past

The other big change from our first visit three weeks ago is that the water level in the lakes was much higher, and the paddle boats and dragon boats were active. The marble boat was "floating" too, whereas it had been high and dry last time.



Dragon Boat on Lake Kunming


Marble Boat

Certificate

My Beijing Normal University Appointment Certificate - I like seeing my name in the middle of Chinese characters!

Houhai Hutongs

Here are some photos from our Saturday walk around the back-alleys of the Houhai-Qianhai area.


Taxi Driver's Home


Rickshaws


Rickshaw Repair


Alley Cat


Hutong
Many of the homes in the area seem to be courtyard homes surrounded by tall walls, so you don'g get a very clear impression of what they are actually like from wandering around.


Courtyard Entrance


Colorful Door


House with Bird Coop, Drying Gourds, and Solar Heater


Knife Sharpener

Shopping and Dumplings

It is hard sharing a single internet connection (!), so we took a bus to one of the recommended computer bazaars, the Hai Long Building, to buy a router. This is in the Zhongguancun Area, a high tech region of Beijing, where there are many elaborate multi-storey buildings. The computer place is one of those crazy buildings with floor after floor crammed with masses of tiny computer stores, all desperately trying to get you to buy something. We purchased a cheap Chinese brand, without the haggling suggested in the guide books since it only cost about $12 anyway. The company website has an English firmware for downloading, but so far we are making do with Chinese menus.


Zhongguancun Shopping District


Good Prices at the Hai Long Computer Building!



Inside Hai Lan

In the evening Zhigang and Xiaowei invited us over to make (and eat!) dumplings. I don't think our attempts at the folding were as accomplished as theirs, but we learned the idea of how to do it. Altogether we made about 60 dumplings, some for frying, and some for boiling in broth (and a dozen left over we were kindly given for tomorrow's breakfast). The variety of tasty fillings (a meat one, a fish one, and a vegetarian one) and off-the-stove freshness made for a delicious meal!


Folding Dumplings


(Almost) Finished Product

Back Lakes

It was another of those cold, windy, dusty/smoggy days, so we decided to do some local sightseeing. It turns out that there is a popular area known as the Back Lakes just a mile or so from our apartment. It is an area running along three lakes, Xihai, Houhai, and Qianhai, just north of the more famous Behai Lake Park. The area has a mixture of lakeside walks and pleasure activities such as boating and fishing, rather scruffy little bars with outside sofas that might be nice in the summer, other touristy shops, and some remaining the back alleys known as Hutong's, the homes of the Beijingers who don't live in tall apartment blocks. It adds up to a welcome relief from the hustle of the city.

I took too may photos for one post, so I'll show the touristy sights today, and put the back-alley pictures up on another day.


City Oasis


Tourist Sign
You can tell from this sign, especially the English translations, that this is a tourist area....


...but there are some peaceful parts too. The willows were coming into leaf, another sign of spring.

Some Chinese whimsy along the way...


Wild Duck House
The accompanying signs said that the wild ducks were very thankful for the accommodation!


Another Duck!


Boats for Hire
Sycee Bridge is between Lakes Qianhai and Houhai, and is probably the center of the tourist area.


Sycee Bridge Area


Sycee Bridge
Pedi-Cabs are the main means for tourist transport around the area. You often see long strings of them, presumably taking a tour group around. Sometimes the narrow streets can get quite jammed!


Pedi-Cabs


Pedi-Cab Tour



Pedi-Cab Jams