Saturday Temple Hike

The weather in Beijing has been gorgious all week: blue skies and little pollution.

(Pollution counts for PM2.5 particles were around 60, which is low for here, but not so low if you compare it to these current levels in the U.S.)

To enjoy the weather, last Saturday we went on a hike in the Pinggu area, which is about 30 minutes east of us.

There are lots of beautiful nature areas around Beijing, but finding a good hike can sometimes be a challenge. There are not that many trails that are marked or mapped, and if a trail is actually in my hiking book it is quite possible you can not actually find the right spot (directions and road signage rarely agree), or the trail or park is inexplicably closed.

(This really happened to us: One time we drove for over an hour to find a certain hike around a reservoir, only to discover that the whole area around the lake was closed for construction. I had actually searched a bit online and--while my Chinese reading skills admittedly are extremely poor--I had not found any information on this multi-year construction project.)

In the case of Pinggu, we actually had found the spot before but had run out of time, so we now came back to compete our mission: hike up to the temple at the top.

The temple at the top.

Paul and Carter--neighbor, colleague and friend--actually made there all the way.



The boys and I taking a rest. The hike started with A LOT of stairs going up.

Simon dressed like Anna.

After the stairs, the path levels out and you just have an easy stroll around the mountains. We--women and children--could not go to the temple because the path to the left was too dangerous (or just absent really) to take, so we turned right and curved around the valley. After an hour or so of easy walking the trail went down into the valley, back to the hotel. The guys, meanwhile, ploughed their way through the bushes and made it to the temple.

Thomas dressed like Katrina.

Anna dressed like Anna; Katrina dressed like Katrina.

 Another view of the temple. (From the people who did not actually get there.)

Sometimes the trail (and people) were a bit hard to see.

The parking lot of the hotel where we started the hike. We had a bit of a weird experience in that someone from the hotel (in suit and nice shoes, mind you) followed us all the way on our hike. At first we thought he didn't want us to go through the hotel backyard to get to the trail, but later it seemed more like he was worried about our safety. Or perhaps some weird combination of the two.

Halloween is coming!

Pinggu city in the distance.

Local wildlife.

Thomas' photo smile.

Simon chased a bunch of lizzards to take pictures.

Yet another shot of the temple.

At the end of the hike. The trail puts you right back at the hotel. A few hotel staff are playing badminton during their break.

How to Draw a Panda in 10 Easy Steps-by Simon

1. Take a piece of paper.

2. Make an "open nine."

3. Turn your paper.

4. Draw the eyes.

5. Draw the nose.

6. Make two dots for the ears.

7. Draw one leg.

8. Draw the other leg. This one goes across the body.

9. Draw the hind leg.

10. Draw four claws on each paw. Your panda is finished!

If you want to make your panda happy, draw a line of rectangles for the bamboo.

Add lines on top of the bamboo sections.

Add branches with leaves. Each branch has three leaves.

Draw more branches and leaves.

Give your panda an extra bamboo plant. Then sit back and admire your work. 

 

 

Here's the artist himself.

Riding into the National Geographic: With the Tibettan Nomads in Gansu

Now that school and work has started again and regular life has taken over, it almost seems a dream that back in August we stayed a night in a tent with the Tibettan nomads in Gansu. (This was on the same vacation that we visited Guilin, Xi'an, and Qinghai Lake.)

While it was actually pretty rough--bitterly cold and high elevation--it was incredibly special. Just riding into the rolling hills around Langmusi, I felt like I was arriving in a National Geographic picture. The fields were green with white mountains in the background and the hills were dotted with yaks. And our guides, who spoke Tibettan (funny to realize that Chinese was now our common language!) were extremely nice and hospitable.

The landscape. Of course the pictures doesn't really do it justice :-)

Inside the tent with our new friends.


Still in the tent. After a day of riding, we were all so hungry and tired. The food--rice with veggies--was delicious, though not everyone was awake when dinner was served!

Pretty in pink in the valley. The white tent on the left is a typical yurt where the nomads sleep. We slept in a tent just like that. (In fact, the owners of our tent went to sleep with the neighbors to make some room for the eight of us.) The most exciting thing about the night was that we couldn't go to the bathroom (read: pee in the field) by ourselves because the guard dogs were on the loose. If we had to go, we had to wake up one of our guides. Luckily it wasn't necessary!

The horses on which we arrived.

One of our guides taking care of our horses.

Abu-debbie.

A new generation of nomads.

Also the new generation of nomads.

Staying warm during a break.

Only Happy When it Rains

There is so little rain in Beijing that when it rains just a drop, Thomas gets out all the good gear:

We're all always very happy when it rains. Not just because it doesn't happen a whole lot--though in Summer quite a bit more than in the Fall and Winter--but also because it cleans up the sky and usually means the next day will be nice and non-polluted.

Rain is also generated artificially here. I can't really tell how often the rain is induced or just natural, but it is quite a common thing here. Just the fact that there is a Beijing Weather Modification Office shows how serious the approach is. Apparently China is in the lead with using silver iodide, loaded on rockets, to seed clouds and create rain. (See for example this BBC article or this article in How Stuff Works.)

The technique is used apparently to fight droughts, decrease bad dust storms and pollution, and lower summer temperatures (to decrease energy consumption for air conditioning), but it also seems to me it is used a lot to create nice weather and reduce pollution for important national holidays. (You can for example reliably plan an outdoor event on October 1, China's National Day.)

Because I don't have any picturs of cloud seeding (though this Wikipedia page shows some), I'll just show a few more pictures of the guy who is so happy in the rain...

Busy in the play ground behind our house.

Very fast with the chop sticks.

Putting up his best smile for a picture.

At the art show.

Too tired to read!

H&M: Hennes & Mao?

Recently when my friend Meike was in town we decided to go see Chairman Mao in his mausoleum. Mao Zedong is of course China's former fearless leader, the founding father of the People's Republic, and the person who led China during the fifties and sixties. Much to the surprise of many foreigners in China, Mao here is still very much revered by most Chinese.

Ironically, when we found out the mausoleum was closed for the day, we walked into the shopping street just behind it and I quickly found myself flashing my credit card at H&M. I thought it was kind of funny, to have these two things--a communist revolutionary and an international clothing store--so close to each other and so close to Tiananmen Square. If Mao had a grave, I am sure he would turn over.

Later the same week, we did go back to see Mao, when he was able to welcome us. While I can't share any pictures, I can attest to the fact that he is still there.

Chairman Mao's final resting place. The line to enter the mausoleum is incredibly long, but you are whisked through pretty quickly. Inside you can put down a flower (30 kuai, no bargaining), but there's no time to cry or dwell on the past. Before you know it, you are on your way out and walking towards H&M.

This is just such an incredibly common view on Beijing, but it never ceases to amuse me.

See?

Defying communism.

In het nederlands: Twee weekjes terug was een Nederlandse vriendin uit Kameroen op bezoek en we gingen naar het mausoleum van Voorzitter Mao Zedong. Hij is nu al zo'n 35 jaar dood, maar je kan hem toch nog steeds bewonderen. Al denken wij misschien, "onkruid vergaat niet", de Voorzitter is in China nog steeds bijzonder geliefd en van heinde en verre komt men hem begroeten. De eerste keer dat we naar het mausoleum gingen was het dicht en kwamen we bij een winkel van Hennes & Mauritz uit, waar ik maar een lekkere oranje (alweer zeg je?) trui heb gekocht. Het communisme (Mao) en kapitalisme (H&M) ligt hier niet erg ver uit elkaar.

A Royal Visitor: Princess Laurentien

The life of the Beijing expat is such that while one day you might be exploring a typical Chinese hutong, the other day you find yourself in a room with the Dutch Princess Laurentien reading you a chapter of her book.

Wow. So this was my week--and I am not even talking about my friend Meike's visit, my birthday "cook-out" in a Beijing hutong, or our visit to Mao Zedong's mausoleum. That's all for another day.

Princess Laurentien, who is married to Prince Constantijn, was in town for the Beijing International Book Fair, for which The Netherlands was this year's Country of Honor.

In the busy, royal schedule, some room was kept for visiting Simon and Thomas' school, the Western Academy of Beijing (WAB). The Princess read--first in Dutch for the students of the Dutch Program, then in English for all students--from her book, Mr. Finney. It's a story about a fish-like creature who goes out of his comfort zone to ask questions about the world and what is happening to the planet. (SPOILER ALERT: glaciers are melting and forests are disappearing.)

Laurentien, or rather Princess Laurentien, also visited Thomas' Kindergarten classroom. What a blast! Thomas was wearing his favourite shirt and a paper crown. His Royal Highness Thomas. A picture of this visit even ended up in a Dutch newspaper, the Telegraaf.

The school wrote a neat article about the Princess' visit, and I also snapped some pictures with my phone:

There she is!

Mr. Finney & Thomas. (Thomas is wearing a red, black, and white checkered shirt and is sitting in the second row. Simon is not in the photo).

Up-close and personal with the Princess.

In het nederlands: Prinses Laurentien was even in Beijing en kwam langs op de school van Simon en Thomas. Ze las voor uit haar boek van Mr. Finney en kwam ook even langs in Thomas' klas. Hoera! Lang leve de...prinses!