temple fairs

around the chinese new year, most of the ordinary parks and temples are transformed.  paper lanters are hung from the trees, booths are set up selling food, handicrafts or trinkets, and there are lots of games.  the fairs are basically what we'd call a fair or carnival, but everything is more decorated and a bit less predictable. there are also outdoor shows put on by actors covering a wide variety of topics...(reenactments of the first chinese space walk, human sacrifices, and old well-known folk tales to name a few) , musical performances, and ice sculptures.  we really didn't know what to expect at the two we went to, and as is usual in china, you never really get what you expect anyway. ---cheesy karaoke in the huge outdoor square built for gatherings and human sacrifice hundreds of years ago, children going for rides on robot dinosaurs that lurch along the park paths, adults and children riding the equivalent of the little 25 cent horse rides outside of grocery stores, but instead of horses large dinosaurs, an old man singing into a microphone and playing drums and cymbal while selling viewers a look into the windows of his strange contraption brightly painted but very old-looking, the park's old tower which you could climb and ring the giant bell inside, and the list goes on. 

the front gate

you could pay to be carried around by 8 festively-dressed men to music blasting from speakers at a volume that tested the limits of the human ear

a game: through the old coins at the giant coin--try to get them through the center.  the prize? good luck for the new year.

the strange old contraption with little windows to look through

one of the games: roll the tire and try to have it land encircling one of the monetary amounts.  it seemed easy, but i watched for awhile and no one could win...

at the temple: i'm not sure what these were for; i think you could pay to hang one on the fence. there were hundreds and hundreds of them.

one of the strange mythical turtle/lion creatures. i am a big fan of mythical chinese creatures, i was really wishing these particular ones were real. 

the oldest inscribed stone tablet at this temple, kept behind glass.  i don't know a lot of characters, but was still able to read some as the written chinese language hasn't changed a great deal over the last 2000 years or so. (besides being simplified by the communists when they came to power). 

because i'm having trouble posting videos on this website, i've posted one on youtube. you can click the link below to see some of the footage from the temple fair: 

temple fair video

this and that

my favorite little earthenware pots of beijing yoghurt sold on the street

walking around with becca

at home

an old gate in beijing

we went looking for a market and our search took us on a long walk through a part of town we'd never been to.  as with most places around the city, the old narrow streets were in the process of being demolished to make room for new apartments and up-scale planned communities.  we walked along this street which felt very much like the old beijing. on the other side of the wall was the new, with highways and high-rises. 

the view down the river in the same area.

the summer palace

the marble boat

we finally went to the summer palace--one of beijing's main tourist destinations.  we found ourselves there not only not in the summer, but on an unbelievably cold and windy day.  the upside was that rather than being surrounded by other tourists we were almost completely alone which made the old park and it's various pavilions, pathways, and old buildings all the more beautiful.  we took refuge in a little snack shop drinking tea and thawing our hands while the wind blew the weeping willow branches horizontal outide and the tore the heavy insulating strips of plastic off the door of the shop.  we bent double in the wind back outside and fought our way along the lake pathway and through the endless ornately-painted open pavilion halls (pictured above and below.)

becca arrives

becca arrived from Washington at the start of our month-long spring festival break from school.  the much-needed break made getting only one day off for christmas a little easier to take.  we spent the first week and a half in beijing (until our friend form chicago, susan, arrived to visit also.)  naturally we did the most important things first-- like ice-biking. 

we went ice biking at a larger lake than the first time. at this lake everyone shared the ice: skaters, sledders, bikers, battery-operated little cars, even the goat cart you could rent to pull you around.

you never know what you'll see....

becca, with the famous old drum tower in the distance

the sleds are basically a couple of old retired chairs from elementary school classrooms affixed to a metal sled bottom. then they give you two mini ski poles and send you on your way. 

ice bike

one of the many country-wide exercise parks.  people of all ages use them, and they're all over the city.