Yonghegong subway station is not only a transfer station between line 2 and 5,it was built beneath the three hundred year old foundations of the Lama Temple. As you emerge from the subway the temple buildings are there above you. A short walk of fifteen or twenty minutes takes you past many small shops selling [...]
Saturday we went looking for a camera with Mike and Chenxia at a place Chenxia called Computer City. We started looking on the fourteenth floor of the eighteen floors of consumer electronics.We bought our camera on the third floor.Chenxia’s haggling skills are a beauty to behold but somewhat confusing. In the heat of negotiations you [...]
We woke this morning to a three to four inch overnight snowfall. It was the first heavy snowfall of the year. Later in the day Kathy was told by a Chinese teacher it was the heaviest snow she has seen in her eight years in Beijing. At about 7:40 a.m. I heard noise coming from [...]
As Kathy’s second scheduled payday rolled around we were more in tune with how things work in China. Things happen when they happen. This is why nobody in administration felt it necessary to tell us that payday was six days later this month. Some teachers at this school are paid in cash – you go [...]
On Saturday we went to a shopping area around Haidianhuangzhuang subway station, which is known as Beijing’s Silicone Valley, where consumer electronics is king. There was one building with at least five floors of vendors. At this point in our stay in China we are still outsiders looking in and we are intimidated by their [...]
Woke this morning to falling snow – it’s that time of year. To this point we had not had any frost so the leaves are still on the trees. The green leaves against a white ground, the falling snow with its small light flakes,each snow flake standing out against an autumn gray sky – this [...]
Yesterday we left here at 4:30 p.m. to go to the Lotus Centre to shop. Rush hour is 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., and we arrived at Wudoakou subway station around 5:00 p.m. The street vendors were out in force – some had bike carts, some used tables, and others displayed their goods on blanket sheets [...]
The Blue Zoo Aquarium is a modern day type of attraction, and although it is very impressive, similar attractions can be found in many metropolitan centres. Personally we feel that people who come to Beijing for only a week or two would enjoy the old imperial treasures. These sites are steeped in history and forged [...]
In our last post we talked about the history of the Summer Palace and how it came to be in ruins. In this post we would like to show you some pictures of those ruins, and we thought of making some comments about why anyone would cause such massive destruction to such a beautiful place. [...]
We were invited to go visit the Old Summer Palace by Mike and his wife Chenxia. Mike teaches Grade one at the school and is from Wisconsin, USA, and his wife Chenxia is Chinese. They arrived at the gate of the school about 9:00 on Saturday morning and we set off. This park is situated [...]
