Yandai Xijie

The afternoon was nice and not too warm after another thundery night, so we went on a short tandem ride to Yandai Xijie in the Houhai district to restock our fresh coffee supply. It's only about three miles away, and a relatively nice bike ride past lakes Xihai and Houhai. Only the very busy junction of Xinjiekouwai Street and the Third Ring Road presents the problems of cycling on Beijing's busy streets.

The Lotus in Lake Xihai are beginning to bloom and look pretty


Lake Xihai


Lotus Blossom
Yandai Xijie is a little passageway of tourist shops and restaurants. A pair of young artists were painting the street.


Artists


The Real Thing
Unfortunately, there was nobody to sell us the coffee beans at the shop - a trio was playing cards on the balcony, and told us there was no-one from the shop there, although the door was open. So we rode around the back streets a little, and eventually refound the Passerby Bar and had some cold coffee.

Rainy Days

Rainy Morning on BNU Campus

Umbrellas

Umbrella Seller
What a change from when we first arrived at the beginning of March! The weather is now a mixture of sunny hot and rather humid days, getting up to 97F today for example, and heavy rain and thunder storms. This umbrella sales lady was opposite the kindergarten on campus, taking advantage of the market for protection against both rain and sun. Umbrellas are used a great deal for both purposes here, as you can see from the picture of the crowds waiting in the sun to enter the mausoleum of Mao Zedong from two weekends ago. And in both sun and rain you can see many people cycling along holding an umbrella in one hand. Another common sight is a man on the saddle, and a woman on the luggage rack behind, holding an umbrella over both of them.

The rain is certainly a nice change from the bone-dry weather of winter. Unfortunately one thing that is the same is that the air is almost never clear. Back then it was the dust from the winds. Now a combination of the humidity and presumably city smog means that, again, we don't see blue sky for days on end. Even looking across campus the haze is evident.

More Pictures from Cuandixia

Door Screen


Dried Corn


Doorway


Stone Walls


Construction Worker


Stove


Wall Construction


Well


Child Playing

Cuandixia

Chinese Character from Cuandixia
Cuandixia is a small village of old stone cottages about 60 miles from Beijing. It has been turned into a tourist attraction - you pay (20 yuan) to enter the village, and almost every house either is a little shop selling souvenirs, or will put visitors up overnight or serve meals. This sounds dreadful, but the village is actually very pleasant to visit - it does not have the Disneyland feel of artificial reconstruction that characterizes many of the historic attractions in China.

We spent several hours wandering around the narrow passageways and looking at the cottages, and ended up having lunch by ourselves in one of the homes. Many of the homes (including the one where we had lunch) are constructed as four tiny buildings around a central courtyard - I couldn't tell if this was for a single family or more.


Aerial View


Fields and Village


Rooftops


Courtyard Home


Precarious


Cute Dog


Colorful Screens


Doorway and Cottages

Fishing Lake Xihai

Fishing is a popular pastime in China - maybe partly because fresh fish is an essential part of meals. Xihai lake in Beijing near the BNU campus seems to be a favorite place for this. The fish being caught were quite large - some enough to feed four I would guess. I don't know if the lake is stocked, or if the fish are natural.

At one end of the lake there is a small pool dammed off from the main lake. There were several people fishing there. The man in the black tee shirt caught about 10 fish for every one caught by all the others put together. He would through the hook in, and after a wait of typically 30 seconds would suddenly yank the rod and have a large fish attached. He must have had some secret!


Fishing


Got One!


Hauling in the Catch


Meet the Fish

This man had caught four, and was cleaning them in the lake.



Cleaning the Fish
All around the lake the bank was lined with fishermen...


Xihai Fishermen
....some with quite fancy equipment including very long poles (but they weren't catching nearly as many as the man in the black tee shirt!)



This spot looked very peaceful:

Winding Down

Term is coming to an end here at BNU. Here are some pictures of end-of-term activities;


Lining Up for the Paperwork


Music School Students' Graduation Concert


Chinese Dulcimer (Yangqin)


Physics Masters Students Preparing for their Photo


Shipping Home


Dorm Sidewalk Sale

Picture Puzzle

Here's a puzzle: What is this a picture of?

Another hint:



The answer....



.... a lacebark pine, in a grove on the BNU campus. The trunks are very pretty, even more so when they are wet from rain or sprinklers. Here's another example we saw in the Imperial Garden on our recent visit to the Forbidden City:

Laoshe Teahouse

I finally got to the Laoshe Teahouse last week, after our earlier aborted attempt. Our 5 year old guide book says they have folk music performances and other shows in the afternoons, but this seems to have been cut back to "Shadow Puppet" performances. There were very few customers in the middle of the afternoon. In the evening there are still music and opera performances, so maybe it is more popular then.


Shadow Puppet Show

So I sipped my expensive tea (I think $5 was the cheapest), which was indeed very nice, and watched the show for about half an hour, glad to get out of the hot sun. The shadow puppets are flat articulated dolls that are manipulated by the puppeteers behind a white, strongly illuminated screen. When they touch the screen, the elaborate clothing and decorations can be seen. Some simple story is acted out, with Punch-and-Judy level of violence, to the accompaniment of drums and other percussion.

This is "back stage" after the show:



Puppets, Screen, and Script


Array of Puppets

Beijing Panoramas

Saturday was an unusually clear day, so the views from the White Dagoba at the top of the hill in Behai Park were spectacular.

This is the view south towards the Forbidden City. (You can find a panning version here.)


South from the White Dagoba


North from the White Dagoba
I don't think Beijing is ever this clear!

Sparkling Forbidden City

Since Lynn hadn't seen the Forbidden City, and a nice clear day was promised, we got up early to avoid the crowds and took the bus downtown. Already by 8:30 it was quite hot, and there were large crowds, but most people were lined up in Tiananmen Square to see Mao Zedong in his mausoleum.




Lines to View Mao

The Forbidden City was sparkling with the fresh paints of coats on many buildings in the bright sunshine and against a clear blue sky. It was clear enough to see the mountains to the north of Beijing.



The Hall of Supreme Harmony, and many of the other buidlings at the southern end, are being renovated. Since you can't see the real thing, a mural has been painted on the cloth shroud!


Construction Mural


Yellow Roofs and White Dagoba


Marble Stairway Dragon


Imperial Lions


Sundial


Old Door Fittings


Rocks and Pavillion, Imperial Garden
The eastern portion of the Forbidden City is quieter and contains many more intimate courtyard palaces. There is a section with an extra 10 yuan entrance fee and contains various museums and furnished interiors that are quite interesting and worth seeing. It is also quieter, and so you get a better feel for the City without the crowds of tourists.


Doorway Decoration


Roof Figures


Passageways


Courtyard


More Yellow Roofs


Fresh Colors

Here is a Google track of where the pictures where taken. There is a nice pdf map of the Forbidden City here.

Back Lakes at Sunset

Lake Qianhai


Lake Houhai from Sycee Bridge

Ancient Observatory

The Ancient Observatory was established in the 15th century, and now is a museum with several large 17th and 18th century astronomical instruments, and a few rooms showing the early prowess of the Chinese in astronomical observations. Most of the instruments are on the roof, and fenced off so it is hard to get a close look, but some are in the pleasant gardens. The Observatory is located at the western intersection of the number 1 and 2 subway lines, so it is easy to get to on the way somewhere else.




Rooftop Instruments

The Observatory is a little sad: it is now surrounded by busy expressways, and the displays are rather tired. There are brief notes in English for each display, but obviously much more information in Chinese. But the large old bronze instruments are nice. There was repair work going on, although it didn't look as if progress would be very rapid.



Repair Work

Wildflowers

Farm Scenes

Here are some pictures from the farms along the trail on Sunday's hike.


Farm House and Terraces


Donkey and Guard Dog



Bees


Bee Hives and Peach Trees


Hillside Farmhouse


Hoeing


Terrace Vegetable Plot

Hike

Today I went on a hike with the Beijing Hikers Club. The hike was a 6 mile loop in Pin Gu county, about a two hour drive north-west of Beijing. (Here is a Google map.) This is in the same general direction as our two trips to the Great Wall. What a change from two months ago! Then everything was bone dry and a dull brown color, and looked as if nothing would ever grow there again. Now the hills are covered with lush green vegetation, and was sparkling fresh after the recent rains.

Most of the hike was through a mixture of farmland, mainly fruit trees and small vegetable plots, and forest. At lunch time we passed through a park with a trail constructed precariously up a narrow gorge to a waterfall.

Great Wall, Simatai

After rain on Friday, we woke up to a fresh morning with bright blue skies, and so we decided on the spur of the moment to revisit the Great Wall at Simitai to see it on a clear day. We got our host to negotiate a reasonable price with a taxi driver and set off. It took about 3 hours to get there, because of numerous accidents and traffic jams on the busy road in that direction, and by the time we arrived the skies had clouded over, and it was starting to rain. We began to think that the whole trip was wasted!



However the weather steadily improved, and by the time we had climbed up to the wall there was blue sky again, and spectacular views of the Wall and into the distance.
















Soon after we left it started raining again! The drive back took only just over 2 hours.

Here is a Google Map of where the pictures were taken.

Demolition

Caged Lion
As mentioned before, there seems to be a project underway that involves demolishing vast areas just south of Tiananmen Square. I don't know if the lion is destined to survive or be buried in the rubble.

We were aiming for the Lao She teahouse, but got lost in the back alleys and demolition sites areas after misreading where the tea house was on the map. (It is actually on the main road, and very easy to find.) Here are a couple more pictures of the demolition.



Demolition

Early Morning Risers

Early Morning Riverside Walk
The sun rises early now - at about 5am (there is no summer time in China and the whole country is set on one time zone). And I tend to wake up with the sun. Today I decided to go for a pre-breakfast walk, along the river in the Beitucheng Road Park that we visited before. Many Chinese are early and active risers. Even at 6am the path along the river was crowded with walkers and joggers.


Early Risers


Early Top Spinners

Sunny Lake Houhai

On the walk back home from Prince Gong's Residence I was finally able to take some "blue sky" pictures of Lake Houhai and the pretty lakeside pagoda that we have walked and cycled by many times on glooomier days!


Pagoda

Prince Gong's Residence

In the hutong at the back of nearby Lake Houhai is Prince Gong's Residence. This is said to be the best surviving grand estate of wealthy Chinese in the Qing dynasty. It was a rare "blue sky" break in the ever-present haze/smog this afternoon, so I decided to take the opportunity and go search for it. I first found a different estate, that was closed today as it is a location for the massive university entrance exam happening over the next three days. This exam filters out the one quarter of the high school students who will be able to attend university next year. As you can imagine this is a very competitive and high stress exam, and I was quickly shooed away!

Prince Gong's residence was nearby. It turns out to be a very popular attraction for Chinese tour groups, maybe because it is the reputed inspiration for one of the most famous Chinese novels Dreams of a Red Mansion. I am presently wading through this. The translation is in 4 volumes, and so far, half way through volume 2, not much has happened, although it does give me some insight into this part of Chinese history and culture. Price Gong's residence is certainly a large estate, with lotus and fish ponds, pavilions, artificial rock hills etc. It is pretty enough, and probably nice when it is quite, but was overwhelmed by the crowds today. Some of the buildings, of course, were being renovated and were covered with scaffolding.


Tour Group


Fountain from Lake Pavilion


Roof Eave Painting


Chinese Lanterns


Wall Decoration


Gowns for Dressing Up

Quanjude Peking Duck Restaruant

For lunch yesterday we returned to the Quanjude Peking Duck Restaurant, which is a short walk from the Temple of Heaven Park. The road it is on, Qianmen Avenue, stretching south from Tiananmen Square, seems to be getting ready for one of the massive Beijing reconstruction schemes that replace areas with character with modern shopping plazas - nearly all the shops are now closed and boarded up over the whole kilometer length. The Quanjude Restaurant is still open, so maybe it will survive.



As mentioned before this is a huge restaurant that specializes in Peking Duck. It is very modern and efficient: the order is immediately written into a handheld computer that wirelessly sends the order to the kitchen! The ducks are always cooking, and so within 10 minutes a whole or half duck is being sliced by the chef at the table. The duck is probably better than at the other duck restaurant we have been going to - crisper and a little less fatty - although it is considerably more expensive (about 3 times as expensive for a whole duck). We were seated on the second floor. The picture shows the diners on the first floor. I think there are three ducks being carved at the moment the picture was taken!

Return to the Temple of Heaven

Today we returned to the Temple of Heaven Park, since the renovations on the centrepiece, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, are now complete. We went early in the morning, when it is cool. At this time there are many Chinese exercising and playing games. This man was enjoying showing off his skills.


Performer
An interesting new activity we haven't seen before is painting calligraphy on the sidewalk using water as ink. A thought provoking idea!


Calligrapher


Water Calligraphy
The roses are in full bloom now (maybe most are a little past their peak). They seem to like the Beijing climate, maybe too surprising since roses come from China. Tthe large rose garden here was quite spectacular.


Rose Garden


Yellow and Red Roses
The Round Altar is a marble construction based on the number 9. It is said that if you stand on the central stone your voice is amplified by the construction. Others were trying this, but we didn't.


carved Pillars


Central Stone


Blue Tile Dragon
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests was sparkling with it's fresh coat of paint.


Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests


Interior

Busker

We cycled to the Houhai area to buy some more coffee beans. Across the street from the coffee shop a blind busker was playing a traditional instrument.