Summer in the City II: Tuanjiehu Park

If you are not afraid of germs, one of the best things to do is visit a public pool in the middle of a public park, in the middle of the capital city of a country with 1,344,130,000 inhabitants. So we did. On one of those hot and steamy summer days, the boys and I went down to the water park in Tuanjiehu Park, along the third ring road of Beijing.

Well, even apart from the Russian roulette with a population of germs, this was an adventure. The boys played for hours and checked out all the ins and outs of the wave pool, the many slides, and water buckets.

 
Just like the real thing, right? We can pretty much see the office buildings where Paul is hard at work.

 
"You think you're alone now..."

  
Oops, the beach abruptly ends at the sidewalk.

 
Life guard on duty (?).

 
This picture (on the right) actually looks a bit like the opening scene of Gangnam Style ;-)  If only you could zoom out now...

  
On the way out, I watch these lovely ladies and men stretch their backs. Sometimes this country just seems made for senior citizens!

In het Nederlands: Een paar weken terug gingen we zwemmen in Tuanjiehu park. Misschien niet het schoonste zwembad ter wereld, maar wel een erg leuk park. 

Summer in the City I

Since coming back from the Netherlands in July, we've been nicely settling into the rhythm of things again. The last three weeks of their summer vacation, the boys went to a few soccer camps, jumped in the pool a lot, and (perhaps under some pressure from the parents) caught up with the sights in Beijing.


 
Thomas happy to be back on his own bike. (The tie is fake...). Simon participates in a Club Football Summer Clinic.

 
Blue skies above Beijing! While the kids play soccer I go for a run in the Beijing Olympic Forest Park. (Rio, here I come!)

 
These ladies make sure not to catch any rays of sun. I go from a country of umbrellas (the Netherlands) to a country of parasols. Thomas also gets his Club Football certificate. Football (soccer) was great, but according to Thomas he was "boiling hot."

 
We visit the Confucius Temple in the blistering sun. The only way to cool down is with a gigantic fruit smoothie. Turns out though that Confucius not only greatly influenced thinking and society in China, but also came up with the great, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself" ("Wat gij niet wilt dat U geschied, doe dat ook een ander niet") golden rule. Not bad for a guy from the 6th century BC.

 
A super cool bike and one happy child.

Dangerous animals in Beijing.

In het Nederlands: We zijn weer "thuis" en het alledaagse leventje begint. De jongens zijn alweer op school en--met deze blog post--blikken we nog even terug op de laatste weekjes van de zomervakantie. De foto's uit Nederland zitten nog op de memory card! :-)