World Body Paint Festival

...is wrapping up here in South Korea. Very cool. You can see their website here.

Tim McGraw

Warning: cheesy country song!!

Summer Palace

Built in the 1100s, and continually added on to, the Summer Palace, where royalty took their leisure, is probably the most beautiful place in Beijing (in my humble and limited opinion). I took the above shot from the Tower of Buddhist Incense. Is there a Tower of Regular Incense somewhere?

Here's a tower of Buddhas. Behold the beheaded Buddha:
The temples, living quarters, theatres, outbuildings, etc., are surrounded by gorgeous, lush parkland and cover about 3 square kilometres. The grounds have names like Longevity Hill, Jade Spring Mountain, Fragrant Hill, Garden of Clear Ripples, Garden of Perfection and Brightness, etc.; you get the picture. In the middle of the palace grounds is a lake, to which there is a bridge, and upon which there is a temple. All those specks are sight-seeing shuttle boats:Oh, and the lake is man-made and the dirt from the hole was used to make the hill upon which is the aforementioned Tower. It's literally the only hill in Beijing...a very flat city (good for biking).

Some artistic garden work:

A professional Tai-Chi practitioner in an outdoor hallway: heh heh And a happy tourist (since there was so much beauty and relatively few fellow excursionists):

"Real China"

Bill Moyers' Journal explores some of what's really going on in China.

One of Ten

Florian Norbu Gyanatshang, 30, is half Tibetan and half German and is one of ten activists sentenced this week to 10 days in Administrative Detention in Beijing for staging "Free Tibet" protests there. His 1-minute personal statement is here. I tried to post it here, but I can't get to play correctly. You can read more about him and other Tibet-related news at Tibet Will Be Free.

Quote

Do not say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wooo!

At least I can pretend I am cheering for the Olympians in person! Go Canada! Go Korea!

Ridiculous

While we're on the subject of the Olympics, I found this NY Times article by Nicholas Kristof kind of interesting. So we all know that China is communist and you can pretty much forget about free speech, let alone protesting. But for the Olympics, China decided to "allow" protesting. Except that you have to get a permit first, and if you are approved, you can only protest in a designated area, and the full names and information of each protestor must be submitted to the government. It's so ridiculous it actually makes me laugh. You should read the article; it's kind of funny. Kristof picks a really minor subject to protest and then tries to get around all the red tape involved.

Sadly...China has allowed a grand total of zero protests (of the 77 applications) at the Games (surprise surprise), and has actually arrested and detained about 6 people who simply applied to protest. So, I happen to disagree with Kristof's last point that China is 'showing progress' in this area...a fake 'protests allowed' stance for the Olympics is by no means even close to freedom of expression. But the rest of the article is a pretty good look at the system, at least from the point of view of a westerner who is not in any danger of disappearing into the black jails of China.

Coolio

So, the Lama Temple that I blogged about just 2 posts down is visited in the above video by an American Olympic steeplechaser, Anthony Famiglietti. It is admittedly a bit corny with the voiceover and whatnot, but it's still kinda cool that I was just there. Man, I wish I could've stayed in Beijing for the Olympics!

Temple of Heaven

I suppose you thought you had to get to Heaven before you could see its temple. Wrong! All you have to do is go to Beijing! Here is the lovely 15th century temple where the emperors of China used to offer prayers for good harvests.
And if this is the Temple of Heaven...why, this must be the Daughter of Heaven upon its steps!
We loved the Temple of Heaven with its bright blue roofs signifying the celestial firmaments, round pavilions surrounded by white walls and large squares. Apparently Earth used to be thought of as square, and heaven as circular, hence the design.

Lama Temple

This temple, also known as "Yong He Gong Lamasery," was built in the 1600s, and is actually a Tibetan temple in the heart of Beijing. If you are anything like me, you are likely thinking this is pretty ironic. I'm glad I went, because it made me really think about the fact that China has not always been communist/oppressive, and has not always treated Tibet with such selfishness and force. In fact, the buildings were converted into a lamasery in 1722 by Prince Yong because of his fascination with Tibetan Buddhism. Monks from Mongolia and Tibet came to live and study there. How wonderful is that! Covering 16 acres, the halls have names like the Hall of the Heavenly Kings, the Hall of Harmony and Peace, the Hall of Everlasting Blessings, and the Pavilion of Infinite Happiness. Amusing as these names sound to western ears, I hope that the future of China and Tibet relations will actually embody the spirit behind them.

The temple was lovely and refreshing, despite the warm, heavy weather.



Below: so nice to see the Tibetan script again.

Below: Tibetan prayer wheel, spun by the faithful whilst chanting mantras, and believed to release the rolled-up prayers within it to the heavens.

Forbidden City

Across the street from Tiananmen is the Forbidden City. Its main gate is visible from the Square, and here it is, complete with resplendent wall hanging of Mao:



The wall around the Forbidden City is very high!
It was built in the 1400s for the emperors of China, and as you can guess from its name, no commoners were allowed in. Once inside the main gate, the Forbidden City (walled in completely) goes on forever and ever. We just kept walking deeper and deeper into the City, through more gates, across more concrete squares, up more stairs to look into more throne rooms and government buildings.

As you can see, there were a lot of tourists there despite it being early in the day. Even as I fully realize I am a tourist, I (hypocritically?) hate them. I don't like crowds, I detest tour groups and guides, and I find their picture-snapping and milling about annoying. They ruin the mood and look of places. However, I did the same, and so, I digress...here are a few more pics:




It was extremely humid and hot (I think you can notice the haze even in the above shots), we got pretty tired of the same old, same old, and so, ice-cream in hand, we turned back to get our bicycles and head out. We biked along the outside wall:

...and photographed unimpressed guards:...and eventually ended up at this sweet little air-conditioned cafe for lunch:



Yum! What a great day!

Yippee

Last night, found a...
...at the end of a charming alleyway. Here is the view from the restaurant door:
We immensely enjoyed this:
...and this:

Petitioners' Village in Beijing

Tiananmen Square

Well, since the Olympics just started last night, I thought I'd start this post off with a pic of me and the countdown timer in Tiananmen Square when there were still 11 days left til the opening ceremony:

But aside from this, the actual look of the square was rather disappointing...a big concrete slab basically. We felt gypped:
Well, they were working on some pretty flower arrangements at least:
But the reason we wanted to see it anyway was not for its aesthetics, but for its history, which has a lot to do with Chairman Mao, who led the communist party in ruling China from 1949-1976. He and his fellow leaders were responsible for countless deaths and religious and cultural desecration, both in China and Tibet. Yet, he is still revered in a cult-like way in the country, and no one is allowed to say anything negative about him. He's on all the money, and you can buy many, many kitschy souvenirs with his face on them, from statues, videos, and wristwatches. It's kind of weird. Anyway, I digress. Here's a short summary from wiki about what happened there in 1989:

[There] were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square led by labor activists, students, and intellectuals in the People's Republic of China (PRC) between April 15 and June 4, 1989.

While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally against the authoritarianism and economic policies of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and voiced calls for democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which stayed peaceful throughout the protests.

In Beijing, the resulting military crackdown on the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or injured. The reported tolls ranged from 200–300 (PRC government figures), to 300–800 (The New York Times), and to 2,000–3,000 (Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross).

Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests to suppress protesters and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. The violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the PRC government.

So, friends, that was why we walked the underground sidewalk, had our bags x-rayed, and went to see the Square. Also, Mao's body is in a mausoleum there, and we wanted to see it, but couldn't...they've restricted viewings for the Olympics.

Wow...protest action at the Bird's Nest

This just in from the Free Tibet website:

Beijing– Four Tibet activists from Britain and the United States were detained in Beijing today after unfurling Tibetan flags and two 140-square-foot banners outside the Olympic stadium. The first read, “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet” in English, and the second read, “Tibet Will Be Free” in English and “Free Tibet” in Chinese. The dramatic action took place hours before the Olympic Torch arrives in Tiananmen Square, and two days before the Olympics opening ceremony takes place at the stadium. The activists were detained by Chinese authorities after displaying their message for nearly an hour; their current whereabouts are unknown.

Wow, those guys were brave. I wouldn't want to tangle with the Chinese military/police. I'm surprised they managed to get up the light pole without being stopped! Beijing is so heavily guarded these days...there are literally police and solidiers on every street corner!

The Wall

Of course, if one is to visit Beijing, one must necessarily climb the Great Wall. So, after arriving on Saturday, we signed up for an early morning trip on Sunday. We got into a van at 7am with two German girls and our driver and drove for over an hour to a less-touristy part of the wall, which was more than fine by E and I, since we aren't particularly enamoured with herds. I thoroughly do not enjoy being part of a tour, so I was happy when our driver just dropped us off with instructions to meet back at the base later in the day.

The Great Wall is an astounding feat of human workmanship, built over hundreds of years (from 600 BC til the 1600s AD) and stretching over 6 400 km (4000 miles). I can't even fathom how much pain and suffering went into building such a thing. Soldiers, prisoners, and common labourers all worked on it, millions of them died from the effort, and then were buried in it. I thought of those people, their entire lives nothing but pain and toil, heat and exhaustion, now forgotten and dead, their bones beneath the bricks I was now treading with running shoes. Hard to fathom.

In any case. I was there, and I saw it, and it was, ahem, great. :) A lot of hype though, I think...too much. At the base we were told we could either walk a grueling 40 minutes up to the wall, or take a cable car. sigh. We walked. It was hardly 20 minutes, and this is what it looked like:
Pretty easy, compared to what we were expecting. Notice the donkey? Helping out the workers I guess.

The wall itself was also surprising. It was narrower than I expected (about 30 feet wide, and no you can't see it from space), and not as high either (only about 25 feet). From the accounts of those gone before, I thought we were in for a punishing ascent up a massive, towering wall, heaving and wheezing all the way, hauling ourselves to the top, hardly able to hold on by the skin of our fingernails. Not so.

Look, here we are on the wall, about 10 minutes after we arrived on it. Does it look like we've just barely escaped death by fatigue?
Yes, it is mostly stairs. But they were only as difficult as stairs are wont to be. We had a blast walking up and down them, but I do admit, the last part of the un-restricted section was a bit demanding and steep. But worth it.

All along the wall were stationed bored, young army boys and policemen. Same as anywhere in Beijing really. During the Ming Dynasty (1300s-1600s), there were over a million men guarding the wall, and it felt like there were a million men still guarding it. They were either sitting and playing cell phone games, looking listlessly out the windows, or walking in slow, disinterested circles. I felt kind of bad for them. I wouldn't want to be posted for hours and hours each day doing nothing on a bunch of bricks while Chinese and foreign tourists clamoured about all day long. Here's one little guy just barely peeking out of the wall...he was leaning out quite far, but then he saw me lift my camera.
And here I am in one of the many watchtowers. This was the last one on the wall before the cut-off for tourists:
Oh yes, we did do one very touristy thing on the way back down. We slid down the mountain! And it was very fun.