Finally! The Very Great Wall.

Monday we made it to the great wall at Mutianyu. It was about 70km from our hotel. We had an awesome taxi driver who took us out there and waited for us while we hiked. We decided to do it this way rather than pay for an official tour. Mutianyu is a restored section of the wall that is set-up for tourists. Its not a wild section of the wall which would be my preference but there were cable cars that we rods to a high place on the wall and hiked from there. It was quite crowded but the further out you walked the fewer people there were. Ted and elsa went further afield, up the 500 step hike to a glorious view and relative quiet. I enjoyed a rare hour to myself to wander the wall at my own pace.  It felt very luxurious! There were people from everywhere walking the wall. All languages all the time. I loved just walking along and hearing snippets of conversations in so many different languages! We walked around for about 2 hours. It was hot and somewhat foggy but there were welcome breezes blowing through the intermittent openings along the wall. It was a fabulous day and truly one of the wonders of the world that can only be truly experienced in person.

Many Wheels of China

One thing that is so amazing about this city is the amazing variety of wheeled vehicles! All coexisting on streets. We are in constant amazement that there are not more accidents. We've seen lots of close calls though. Everyone is super chill and unconcerned with the chaos (including pedestrians). Traffic signals don't seem to matter in the way we are used to and there's a logic unique to the streets of Beijing -- that we are just now beginning to understand and able to navigate (sort of!)

 Sweet 16 birthday present maybe??

Fobidden City Hotel

Some shots of our glorious R and R digs! The Marriott Renaissance Hotel Wangfujing.

We managed to get a room overlooking the Forbidden City (with a significant distance between us and it, but still, a view!). I love being up so high and looking out over the world. The hotel is huge and lush. There's a beautiful spa-world with a large pool (so Elsa can do some swimming 'training'), hot tub, lounge chairs and steam room, sauna and yummy showers. This is our final full day here in Beijing! Hard to believe. Today is stormy and yesterday was also a rainy day. It's challenging to get around in this city on a good day so we've decided to relax and stay in and enjoy watching the rain fall and take a swim later (maybe, if we feel like it). Dinner at our Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurant!

View down from our 16th floor. Whoa.

Living room/Elsa's bedchamber. And finally, english language TV.

The Forbidden City is off to the left. The pavillion on the hill is just outside the north end of the city. The hill was created by the dirt that was removed to carve the giant moat that surrounds the city.

Queen Elsa lounges and Daddy at work.

Kind of a strange idea of luxury - but we have enjoyed it none the less!

National Art Museum of China

This museum was just a short walk from our hotel. We ventured there on our first day in our downtown neighborhood. There were three very interesting exhibits:
1. Fine Arts Exhibition for the 95th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China (illuminating!)
2. Photography of Pedro Meyer (very moving)
3. Painting Stories - Collected Serial Pictures Original Works Exhibition
(These were collections of original 'story-telling' illustrative drawings). Beautiful watercolor, pen and ink, etchings and woodcuts. Historical as well as modern originals.

Here are links to the exhibits:
http://www.namoc.org/en/exhibitions/201607/t20160701_299826.htm
http://www.namoc.org/en/exhibitions/current/

Some raw pics below. Sorry - I'm just posting before cropping and doctoring! I didn't get any images of the other exhibits - just the story-telling.

A perfect interactive display of the picture books. Many of the original artworks were on display in the exhibit.

Elsa, the ever-patient museum goer!

798 Rauschenberg

 We were so lucky to see this piece - a 1000 ft long work of art that took 17 years to complete! I didn't know that he had a long history with China and Chinese artists. Beijing was so fortunate to get this exhibit!

Check out the following sites for more details.
ARTNET:
https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/robert-rauschenberg-longest-artwork-in-world-498899

UCCA website:

http://ucca.org.cn/en/exhibition/robert-rauschenberg-2/

I love the ever-present contrasts of this city: the lotus, graffiti and stray dog.

This was such a great exhibit for all of us! It was very accessible and had so much variety - subject matter and materials - something for everyone. Many of my students went to see it also, some more than once. I wish we had the time to go again... Happy happy joy!

Wangfujing Night Market TREATS!?

We happened upon the famed Wangfujing night market our first night
in our Forbidden City neighborhood. It's right off the main road, which
is full of bright western world stores (Apple and Prada, Addidas and McDonalds) - truly an other-worldly world. It was a wild warren of night treats. We didn't venture much further than the first stall of skewered scorpions and seahorses. Not a great place for veggie folk but an adventure nonetheless. Ted went back on his own to do some sound recordings.

These poor guys were still ALIVE! Skewered in mid-wiggle. Ted has a short film of them in motion.

Ummm, yum? Roasted scorpions and some sort of locust-like insect (in and out of it's shell).

Some of our favorite Chengrish translations...

Thankfully, we never did run into the elevator cat....

Not sure what the visual indicates...electricity? Microwave? Chairlift?

Yes, because smoking in bad is bed.

The Early Daze...

Day One - after 20 hours of travel (and as many hours of daylight due to our midnight sun north pole flight path....)

Carried this collection of Teabowls to China for gifties.

Elsa got the camera. This is her mama with Echo (my assistant)

OMG. Skippy in a TUBE!?

As IF technology is not enough of a challenge for me....OY.

Once again, the CHIP family is faced with subpar chip choices in the East. My favorite: tomato and chicken flavor. Oh, but the squid Pringles are tasty too.

These are some shots of our lovely 'long park' in our UIBE neighborhood. It was a long windy park lined with weeping willows. The first day we discovered this park we happened upon it on a day full of activity and celebration but in general it is full of locals doing TaiChi, martial arts, singing, walking doggies, playing badminton and strolling. This day in the park was our first sunny day (after about 10 days in China). We actually saw the MOON in the sky that night! What a welcome sight!

More Aquarium and Water Cube Pics!

Beijing Blue Zoo Aquarium.

Not sure what legless ram or creepy Tiki guy has to do with an aquarium....

Close-up Bird's Nest. I love the repetition of the white umbrellas, the trees and the lines. And, I love the guy in the foreground with the recyclables...