Full Sunday in Beijing

I ended yesterday thinking I was going to have a leisurely lie-in today, but it was not to be. Schedule changes and last minute additions mean that I have to fly to Bangkok tomorrow, so in order to cram everything in, I had to put in a full(ish) day today. I did have the early morning free and set out at 7:30 to have a look at the Temple of Heaven and famous park that surrounds it.

I wasn't disappointed.

I won't bore you with the details of the temple as I'd just be lifting the info from a guidebook. If you're interested go here: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/Beijing/heaven/

To get to the Temple , you walk through a beautiful park along misty, tree-lined paths.

On many occasions arriving in Beijing late at night, I've glimpsed an intriguing sight from the window of the hotel car and I always wondered what it would be like to see it up close. In the park around the Temple of Heaven I finally did.

As I walked along the path I could hear, faint at first, then louder, music:

Ballroom dancing music, with a kind of Chinese spin to it if that makes any sense.

After about 10 minutes, I came upon this scene at 7:45 on a Sunday morning:

There was a lovely soft gentleness to it all.

I watched for about half an hour, which involved much smiling , gesturing and invitations to participate. "Two left-foot Terry" declined at first, then tried a laughing half shuffle with a "hold me tighter be a man!" 60 year old woman.

After the dancing,I went to the temple:

Its beautiful and much bigger and impressive than my poor pictures convey.

As I left the North Gate of the complex, I saw something common here in Beijing; the weird juxtaposition of old and new, money and poverty and I snapped the picture below of a street that sits cheek by jowel to one of the premiere tourist attractions in the city. I'm sure it won't survive the 2008 Olympics.
As I was taking the picture, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see a rather striking woman in army fatigues.

" You are a western man who cares for condition of Chinese people....no?"

I had no answer to that.

" I like that you took my picture"

"Ahhhh....what?"

I didn't take her picture, and we both proceeded to review my camera to prove that I had not.

With a shy smile , she produced a flask from within her "stuff" and offered me a sip which brought tears to my eyes.

Chinese women can drink.

I would have loved to have hung around , but my colleague had procured a taxi to take me to my office and off I had to go.

Tonight, as I downloaded pictures from the camera, I realized I had, in fact, taken her picture. I've cropped it and blown it up a bit to post:

She's looking right at me it seems.

Beijing is a city of appaling traffic.

Accidents happen all the time.

The picture below is the aftermath of an accident I witnessed from the back of a cab on the way to the office.

Check out the guy with the stick:

Thwack! was what happened next.

Fierce folks these Chinese!

The last couple of pics are from my lunch today, notable only because it was eaten in the cafe in the Wallmart superstore which is adjacent to my office. Never thoughy I'd eat this kind of food in a Wallmart. They took a fairly rigorous exception to the pictures.

Asians are a suspicious bunch!

Finally, an incident which occurred this morning served to remind me that this is a totalitarian regime.

All week I've been watching the account of a riot in Southern China between peasants and the army on BBC World. As I was drifting out of sleep this morning, (theTV has an alarm clock, and turns on at the appointed time), I heard the lead-in to the story.

The TV then went blank.

Ninety seconds later, the picture and sound came back on.

Big brother had censored the report.

To read about it and watch the video go here:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/061109/15/11dh2.html#

Take that you dirty commies!

Tomorrow, after a long day.....Thailand

Be well ...be safe

T