The highlight of our visit to Beijing was The Great Wall. Here we are at the Mutianyu section, which is called the wild wall because it hasn't been restored. It was built during the Ming dynasty in the 14th century.
We were fortunate that our new friend David from the tour invited us to join him and his nephew Will for a day trip.
In spite of the air pollution, we enjoyed the fall colors and changing leaves.
Will has been living and working in Beijing for almost four years, and he is fluent in Mandarin. He was an awesome guide since he has spent time hiking there, and even camped overnight with friends at a different section of the wall.
We also visited the Temple of Heaven, an impressive Daoist Complex built in the 15th century. We are in front of the Hall of Prayers for Good Harvests.
The cow sculptures inside show where the animal sacrifices were done.
The Emperor was also known as the son of heaven. We were struck with the round architectural style of several of the main buildings, and we could feel the long political history of Beijing as we visited this and other historic sites.
We visited the Yonghe Temple, which is also called the Peace and Harmony Lama Temple.
Here is Pete in front of a prayer wheel. The temple is Tibetan Buddhist although the architecture is Han Chinese.
Built in the late 17th century during the Qing dynasty, the buildings were originally the Emperor's residence. This is why the roofs have gold colored tiles, as gold is the color of power. Our first day in Beijing was windy, which blew away the pollution and revealed a clear blue sky.
The temple was saved from destruction during the Cultural Revolution due to Prime Minister Zhou Enlai.
This Maitreya Buddha is over 75 feet tall that was carved from the wood of a single white sandalwood tree.
We enjoyed watching Chinese acrobats, especially the performers who did impressive arm balances.
We find these poses to be inspiring for our yoga practice.
We will never try anything like this woman who balances on a bamboo pole, the bounced up, flipped and landed on the pole!
Of course we loved the bicycle tricks.
Can you imagine getting 12 people on one bike?!
On Halloween we went to Beijing's only craft beer pub called Great Leap Brewing. The beer was really good.
In a traditional Hutong neighborhood we sampled the most popular street food. No, we did not eat snake or scorpions. But we did line up for Japanese style octopus balls called yakotaki.
Yakotaki tastes similar to okonomiyaki, the Japanese savory pancakes, because both are served with the same sauce.
We ate dinner at Lost Heaven with cuisine inspired by the legendary Ancient Tea Horse Trail that winds throughout Yunnan, Burma and Tibet. This is Burmese tea leaf salad.
We heard about this restaurant from our good friend Pat Tura. She is an amazing cook and we've shared many meals together in San Francisco. It's Pat's birthday November 3rd so we send her birthday wishes! Pictured here is Mt Ka La pork, which was melt-in-your-mouth tender.
We went to Tiananmen Square and saw them taking down the flag at dusk. It was amazing how many people were there filming it on their phones!
Likely due to the attempted bombing of Mao's photo here on Monday, security was heightened and we were pushed to leave the square as soon as the flag was down.
There are so many security cameras in the square.
Some of the police vehicles are Priuses, and the scooters are largely electric in China.
We visited the contemporary art district called 798. It's a series of old warehouses and factories that have been converted into art galleries and shops.
As our architect friend Ken is fond of saying about museums "the building is the best work of art" and that was true in both of these buildings there.
In this space we liked the sculpture made of old telephone poles and Buddha statues. And the building was cool too!
Also in this gallery were these fun masks.
There were lots of statues in 798 Art District. We weren't sure what it means, but Pete was eager to imitate him.
Since it's so close to Halloween, we wanted to include some Halloween graffiti.
While graffiti is not allowed in China, it seems acceptable in the art district. This image of Jesus with the dollar sign made us think about how obvious capitalism is throughout the country.
The other graffiti we saw were stickers and painted tags.
We got a good look at the outside of the Rem Koolhaas CCTV Building on our clearest day in Beijing.
The locals call it the underpants since it looks something like long underwear.
We also liked the exterior of the National Center for the Performing Arts, but we didn't have enough time to go inside or see a concert here.
We have learned a lot while traveling in China and it's nice that the culture and country feel familiar to us now. Next we are flying to Burma where we will do a two week cycling trip.
We were fortunate that our new friend David from the tour invited us to join him and his nephew Will for a day trip.
In spite of the air pollution, we enjoyed the fall colors and changing leaves.
Will has been living and working in Beijing for almost four years, and he is fluent in Mandarin. He was an awesome guide since he has spent time hiking there, and even camped overnight with friends at a different section of the wall.
We also visited the Temple of Heaven, an impressive Daoist Complex built in the 15th century. We are in front of the Hall of Prayers for Good Harvests.
The cow sculptures inside show where the animal sacrifices were done.
The Emperor was also known as the son of heaven. We were struck with the round architectural style of several of the main buildings, and we could feel the long political history of Beijing as we visited this and other historic sites.
We visited the Yonghe Temple, which is also called the Peace and Harmony Lama Temple.
Here is Pete in front of a prayer wheel. The temple is Tibetan Buddhist although the architecture is Han Chinese.
Built in the late 17th century during the Qing dynasty, the buildings were originally the Emperor's residence. This is why the roofs have gold colored tiles, as gold is the color of power. Our first day in Beijing was windy, which blew away the pollution and revealed a clear blue sky.
The temple was saved from destruction during the Cultural Revolution due to Prime Minister Zhou Enlai.
This Maitreya Buddha is over 75 feet tall that was carved from the wood of a single white sandalwood tree.
We enjoyed watching Chinese acrobats, especially the performers who did impressive arm balances.
We find these poses to be inspiring for our yoga practice.
We will never try anything like this woman who balances on a bamboo pole, the bounced up, flipped and landed on the pole!
Of course we loved the bicycle tricks.
Can you imagine getting 12 people on one bike?!
On Halloween we went to Beijing's only craft beer pub called Great Leap Brewing. The beer was really good.
In a traditional Hutong neighborhood we sampled the most popular street food. No, we did not eat snake or scorpions. But we did line up for Japanese style octopus balls called yakotaki.
Yakotaki tastes similar to okonomiyaki, the Japanese savory pancakes, because both are served with the same sauce.
We ate dinner at Lost Heaven with cuisine inspired by the legendary Ancient Tea Horse Trail that winds throughout Yunnan, Burma and Tibet. This is Burmese tea leaf salad.
We heard about this restaurant from our good friend Pat Tura. She is an amazing cook and we've shared many meals together in San Francisco. It's Pat's birthday November 3rd so we send her birthday wishes! Pictured here is Mt Ka La pork, which was melt-in-your-mouth tender.
We went to Tiananmen Square and saw them taking down the flag at dusk. It was amazing how many people were there filming it on their phones!
Likely due to the attempted bombing of Mao's photo here on Monday, security was heightened and we were pushed to leave the square as soon as the flag was down.
There are so many security cameras in the square.
Some of the police vehicles are Priuses, and the scooters are largely electric in China.
We visited the contemporary art district called 798. It's a series of old warehouses and factories that have been converted into art galleries and shops.
As our architect friend Ken is fond of saying about museums "the building is the best work of art" and that was true in both of these buildings there.
In this space we liked the sculpture made of old telephone poles and Buddha statues. And the building was cool too!
Also in this gallery were these fun masks.
There were lots of statues in 798 Art District. We weren't sure what it means, but Pete was eager to imitate him.
Since it's so close to Halloween, we wanted to include some Halloween graffiti.
While graffiti is not allowed in China, it seems acceptable in the art district. This image of Jesus with the dollar sign made us think about how obvious capitalism is throughout the country.
The other graffiti we saw were stickers and painted tags.
We got a good look at the outside of the Rem Koolhaas CCTV Building on our clearest day in Beijing.
The locals call it the underpants since it looks something like long underwear.
We also liked the exterior of the National Center for the Performing Arts, but we didn't have enough time to go inside or see a concert here.
We have learned a lot while traveling in China and it's nice that the culture and country feel familiar to us now. Next we are flying to Burma where we will do a two week cycling trip.
