Saturday, March 29, 2014

Magnolia

Flowers are blossoming all over Beijing. Very beautiful even though for couple days the weather was smoggy. 




Summer Palace

Summer Palace was built for summer  vacation when the weather was hot in Forbidden City. Meanwhile, China was close to being changed into a republic. The Emperor pretended everything was fine but a majority of the country was in poverty. The longest walkway is over 870 meters long. Inside are over 10,000 paintings from four traditional stories. Stone boat cost over a million ton of silver. 




Traditional House

When people built Beijing, they built each house like a garden right outside of Forbidden City. There are not many traditional house left today. Mr. Wang is forth generation to live at this family owned house. Right next door, the house is in the process to be rebuilt. His bird can speak, like hello, how are you, good bye. Very interesting. 





Lotus Market: 什刹海酒吧街

There are few man made lakes in Beijing around forbidden city. This was rebuilt for international restaurants. You can find Starbucks, German, Russian and local traditional food. A true mix of international. 




Street Vendor

There are a lot street vendors in China. Very convenient to live there. The owners are from all over of China. 



Friday, March 28, 2014

Bird Nest and Water Bubble: Olympic Park

2008, Olympic opening was held at Bird Nest. Most Chinese famous Chinese building has deeper meaning than just its look. So, there is egg looking building to make the nest completed: China Opera House. 





Great Wall

This part of Great Wall is climbed by million people yearly. Today, the weather is very foggy so we can not see very far. This side is much easier to climb. The locks show lovers' hearts to be connected forever. 



Thursday, March 27, 2014

Panda Zoo

Four years ago, there were more than ten baby pandas. Today, there are only four. 

Forbidden City

The palace with the most rooms in the world, 9,999 rooms by design. Love its setup. Very symmetrical, used to be the heart of Beijing.






Tea house

China uses the most tea. Tea art has been around over 5,000 years. 




世贸天阶

The Place  is a square with the largest screen in the ceiling, more than half of the soccer field. When we were there, it showed the story NiuWo Filling the Sky. Wonderfully made. 



Heavenly Temple

Heavenly Temple was built for Emperor to worship God every year. Weather meant everything to people. Emperor prayed for good weather and peace here. 



Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Beijing University

One of the oldest universities. Love its buildings. The best language learning school in China.

光明小学,一中

Bright Light Elementary School was a school that was built 50 years ago. Now it has been rebuilt. Once the classrooms were crowded and always had forty kids. But because there is only one kid in each family now, the classroom size is reduced. The fourth grade classroom we visited only had twenty students. Each grade used to have ten classes and now they only have two.