Revival!

Sometimes a blog dies a silent death...and sometimes your family (hi mom!) reminds you that it would be nice if there was another post.

 

Today my mom actually called me to tell me she received my post card from Shanghai, which goes to show that China's regular mail service is done by snail since I visited Shanghai already in early May. In addition to the paper post cards, here are two quick images of the city of rain.

 

 

The Pearl Tower in Dutch weather.

 

Hanging out at "the Bund." Only the Dutch would consider a biking tour in these conditions.

 

 

 

Architectural 'Selfie' - A Visit to Beijing's Museum of Ancient Architecture

Recently, with a cold wind outside and our boys happily playing at a neighbor's house (thank you!), Paul and I went on a mini-adventure to the Beijing Ancient Architecture Museum. The museum is located on the grounds of a renovated Ming Dynasty temple and--as we discovered after paying a hefty 15 Yuan entry fee (about US$2.50 or Euro 1.80)--includes lots of interesting information about the construction of the many temples, palaces, and pagoda's in China.

Museum entrance: 15 Yuan. Temple value: Millions. Taking your first selfie?  Priceless!


This might have been our first selfie...


Old (though re-painted) grain storage sheds on the grounds of the museum.

 
This particular exhibit showed how the temples can be constructed without the use of nails. Everything just neatly comes together to create the corner-structures for the building.


A typical building corner using the pieces shown in the pictures above. (I suppose there is a more technical term for 'building corner'?)

I can't even think of putting this together.


China's temples also usually have the most beautiful colors. Much more than I have seen in Europe, older buildings here are typically restored and repainted with original (?) colors.



After leaving the museum, we walk through the other ancient architecture: Beijing's nice hutongs and small streets.

In het Nederlands: Nog net voor kerst waren Paul en ik een middagje in het museum. Na drie jaar tempels bezoeken was het leuk meer te leren over hoe ze gebouwd zijn. 

T-House

A few weeks ago I took my thirsty self to a local tea house. (Well, actually, Mingbai's Inge Jansen en Monique Groeneveld from China Inside had organized a tour.)

After a short introduction to China's obsession and long history with tea, we sampled a few cups ourselves. If you are having tea in a proper Chinese tea house, better not be in a rush! "To go" is clearly not an option, as the goal is to sit down, slow down, and chat or do some business.

Lovely ladies -- with years of training in teaology -- will come to your table to help prepare the tea, choose the appropriate cups, and poor out the goods in whichever way is appropriate for that particular kind of tea.

Green tea? Let the water cool down a bit. Oolong tea? Be sure to rinse the leaves one time.
Strawberry-kiwi tea? That's a weird Western invention! (The Chinese in fact refer to these other "teas" that don't use any real tea leaves as "flower water." )


 
The "Confucian Tea House" is just across from the Confucius Temple on 28-1 Guozijian Street.

  
Preparing for the tea.

  
Notice the difference between the various kinds of tea. Although I can't remember now which one is which, I do know all the leaves come from the same plant (the tea plant Camellia Sinensis) but have been processed differently. The tea on the left (barely visible) in the green chickenpox cup is called "bai cha" or "white tea," which means it is a very lightly processed tea with excellent health benefits. The other teas we tried were oolong team, green tea, and "I-forgot-its-name-of-course-tea."

  
Patience is a virtue!

 
Finally enjoying my cup of T!

In het Nederlands: Wat kan ik anders zeggen? Lieve ooms en tantes, vrienden, moeder, en overige familie: Als jullie in Beijing komen nodig ik jullie uit voor een heerlijk kopje thee in het Confucius theehuis! Koekje zelf meebrengen.

Climbing Coal Hill

As if the pollution from the coal consumption here is not enough, last Saturday we climbed up the "famous" Coal Hill to get a view of the Forbidden City. The hill is located in Jingshan Park, just north of the Forbidden City itself. Coal Hill (or actually meishan in Chinese) was constructed from the soil excavated for the construction of the moat around the Forbidden City and other canals. It was then landscaped into a lovely area for imperial recreation.

Conveniently, the presence of the hill to the north of the Forbidden City (which is where the emperor lived) drastically improved the feng shui of the emperor's palace location, as it is considered favorable to have a residence south of a nearby hill (I learned all this from Wikipedia).

(Incidentally, not everyone was fully content while living in the Forbidden City, despite the excellent feng shui. Again according to Wikipedia, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, emperor Chongzhen, committed suicide by hanging himself in the Coal Hill parks in 1644.)

View from Coal Hill. You can see the outer wall of the Forbidden City and the roofs of the many buildings (for sleeping, living, governing, and ceremonies) inside.

 
Jingshan park has lots of little temples and pavilions.

 
Buddha overlooking the Forbidden City.

  
Mr. S.

 
Did I mention these bring good luck? (It seems luck does grow on trees!)

 
More good luck charms and the bell tower of one of the temples.

  
There's always a game going on in the park.

 
Buddha world.

 
S. and T.

 
Guys playing a game of Chinese chess. (I bet they just call it "chess"!)

 
From another exit we go through a hutong to go back to the car.

 

Simon in a contemplative moment.

In het Nederlands: Zondag brachten we een bezoekje aan Jingshan Park, een parkje net ten noorden van de Verboden Stad met prachtig uitzicht over het complex waar de keizer vroeger woonde. Het park is vol met tempeltjes, paviljoentjes en kaart- of schaak-spelende mensen.

[H2O]3

On a recent pollution day, I went on a field trip with Simon's class to the National Aquatics Center, better known as the "Water Cube." In 2008 the cube was the site of the Olympic swimming competition in Beijing.

I had seen the Cube already a million times from the outside, but had never gone in.

Turns out, it is a pretty awesome structure. The outside of the building contains no less than 3100 "pillows," which are those irregular, puffy things that are morphed together to form the cube.

The pillows are made of a plastic called ethylene tetrafluoroethylene, which apparently even at 0.2 mm of thickness (1/125th of an inch, for you Americans) is sturdy enough to not break and keep in  heat. Apparently you can drive a car over these plastic pillows (sadly we did not get to try) without them breaking.  The ETFE also lets in more light and heat than regular glass, which reduces energy consumption. I might consider cladding my own home in ETFE pillows!

A cube of ETFE pillows.

Obviously the pillows or bubbles represent water.

Technically, the building is not a cube, but a "rectangular box" (a cuboid), but I think only Wikipedia dares to point out the difference.

Where the swimmers went next.


The Olympic Pool. Site of 65 new Olympic swimming records and 25 world swimming records.



The diving area. I considered a plunge.


Simon (in red jacket) and his class mates listening to a presentation about the pool.


The roof. I checked, and no bubbles are the same.


Checking the strength of the pillows. Sadly we did not bring our car to drive over it.


The cube when it was under construction.

Today the Aquatics Center has an indoor wave pool with some pretty cool equipment.

I get dizzy looking at it :-)

The viewing terrace to view the Olympic records of the recreational swimmers.


The beach master himself.

The Beijing National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, is just across the street. The Water Cube and Birds Nest together reflect ancient Chinese architecture, with the circular Nest representing heaven and the square Cube representing earth.

In het Nederlands: Vorige week was ik met Simon's class op bezoek bij het Olympisch zwembad, de "Water Cube." Het gebouw heeft een mooie architectuur. De bubbels die je ziet zijn allemaal plastic kussentjes, bijeengehouden in een stalen frame. De Water Cube staat dichtbij het andere beroemde Olympische stadion, de "Bird's Nest."