This week is the Dashanza Art festivel so there are a lot of gallery openings. The work is....at best okay. The food is better.
This is the New Museum in downtown, it had an opening as well but to our surprise it was more of a design expo so we were a little disappointed.
A kite in Ditan Park.
Look close at this. See the eye....Heike's friend from Denmark almost bit into this one. Its a chicken head and it is in the platter amongst all the other chicken bits. It is really hard to distinguish what is what. After the head discovery I stopped eating it.
This is from a trip out west from the city I took with Denise's daughter Cecelia. Basically all there was to do in the town was eat lunch...we both thought this chicken was a little too fresh for the eating.
Here is the town. It took us about three to four hours to get out here, via all means of transportation. We made it though. The town is REALLY REALLY small. There is one main street and one little path up above the town. All the other paths basically extend for about 2 feet until they turn into another house serving lunch. You can walk both main paths in under 20 minutes. There aren't any trails that go off into the mountains and you can't really hike anywhere as the mountains are all crumbling rock....soo Cecelia and I ate lunch and then paced back and forth over the two roads for about and hour and decided it was time to take that four hour bus ride back.
Here is a sign in the town proclaiming "Flower Fairy Pond" except the word POND is printed upside down. Not to mention there is NO POND!!! There is NOTHING!
This was one of my favorites. The town decided to beautify themselves by hanging fake leaves from all of its trees. Except all the fake leaves were really worn out.Look close at this and you'll see the leaves are attached to branched that are kind of just stuck into the tree. As Elizabeth syas, "A for effort F for class!"
This is what the top most path leads to, a nice over look of the city.
This is Cecelia with her camera (she is a photographer).
Working on a cutting in my studio
Working on another cutting.
A cutting I am still working on.
My studio.
Still my studio.
These are the last shots of my studio as I am moving out today and into Denise's studio.
This is Chaunce's tail...Chaunce is my rat....he is making a tunnel.
This is Chaunce backing his way out of the electrical box after hearing me coming.
This is Chaunce running away headed up the pipe and upstairs under the guest bed....Below is Chaunce under my kitchen range....
Chauncey in stuffed form given to me by Heike.
The place where I take my Mandarin lessons.

Where are we now.....? Let me just consult my official China puzzle map!
Ah yes, today we are in Orange! ( This is an amazing puzzle I found at a toy store in Wanfujing! I think I will consult it for the rest of my stay in china. Its color coded for easy viewing and even has matching icons for each province! Hey much easier than trying to read maps in characters!)
This is the tea shop Tianji recommended us to go to.
The is the White Cloud Taoist Temple. It is fully functioning, there are still monks that live there. In this shot however I was trying to capture the the white seeds that are everywhere in the air. they look like dandelion seeds and a white and fluffy and there are so many of them it looks like it is snowing....literally! Unfortunately my camera couldn't focus on them.
This is part of the living quarters of the temple.
The dragon/turtes sculptures outside one of the temples.
Stian eating in the food court, which is really very good! So good we ate there three times in two days!!!
Stian pointed this one out: an unfortunately named wedding band..."Givorsi"...sound like "Divorci" anyone....?
This was quite a sight. Over the course of several days these crews were tearing down this building. The building however is on one of the most pedestrian populated and tourist streets in Beijing, Wanfujing shopping street. They had bulldozers on top of the rubble (still can't quite figure out how they got up there) but nontheless, they were just jackhammering away at the floors beneath as well as the rubble piles they were sitting atop...sound like a bad idea to anyone else? Not to mention the tractors were precariously balanced atop the rubble to begin with, and that they sweayed with each chunk of concrete that topled off. In addition there was no fence really or anything keeping the rubble from hitting passers by. Even the Chinese were stopped and staring, and they NEVER do that at constructions sites! So you know its bad!


This is me finally eating Mexican food!!!! Stian and I made it to the Mexican kitchen which is out by a bunch of Expat housing. Not the best mexican I've had but it definitely cured the craving.

We spotted this one on the Bus on our way downtown. Cleveland????? Cleveland OHIO!!!!

Denise and her neighbor (I forgot his name) but he drove us to the Great Wall. We are having lunch after climbing.
This is a view of the Great Wall (in the distance). It is a section of the wall that is basically unrestored. Stian, Denise (my friend from Australia), Denise's daughter and I all went there this past weekend. We tried to get to Huang Hua (the place Denise was before) but we couldn't find it, so we ended up going here, but don't ask us where here is cause we have no idea. In anycase it was a park that was pretty rustic for Chinese standards (no manicured lawns and bushes) and had several paths from which you could see the wall.
This a view off one of those paths, Denise really wanted to get to the Great Wall so we sort of trail blazed off the stone path and down some ravines etc.
These were some Chinese students on an outward bound program of some kind. They were playing a game where they each had a stick to hold up right and on the count of three they had to drop their stick and run to catch the person's ahead of them. The goal was not to left any sticks fall. In this picture they are in the midst of catching the sticks.
This is the dam that was holding all that water in the previous pictures back from washing out the town below. The stairs are extremely steep.
Denise and her daughter descending the stairs.
Some wild purple flowers.
Look carefully at the white dot just below the wall in this picture. This is what we all began referring to as the troll we encountered. As I said we climbed off the path to get to the Wall and as we were descending this man runs out of the bushes and down the hill and blocks our way demanding we pay him 2 yuan each. He was equipped with a little axe and would not let us by. We tired to make our own path and scoot by him but he just got even madder and chased after us with the ax...so upon consideration we decided we might as well pay him. After paying him another man with a little machette jumped out of the bushes and stopped Stian. But we were able to yell our way out of paying double for him. This happens quite a lot I am told, little men running out of the bushes with small weapons and demanding money in order to cross the path. As it turned out we had over stepped the park boundaries and apparently tresspassed on "private land" what ever that means in China.
This is me on top of the Great Wall.
Me approaching the tower.
Our lunch spot.
Another view of the park.
Denise, her daughter, and Stian pausing for a break after thrashing through the shrubs.
View from inside a tower.
Denise pausing for a look.
This is just as we were starting our hike. Denise and he daughter in the fore ground and Stain behind.
The dam.
The trees that were in blossom all over. It almost looked liek snow on the mountains.
A little canyon and stream we crossed.
A really scarry brigde I crossed really fast. It swayed and creeked as you went over it.
Our hot pot dinner after the the Summer Palace. This is at one of my favorite restaurants, Oange, its really Korean Hot pot....but I love it!
Jonie and I at the hot pot place in a coma after the food.
Stian trying the fish ball.
Joni, Stian, and I went to the Summer Palace and rented a little row boat. The oars were totally off though. One was longer than the other and a little tipped forward, the were really skinny so you didn't get much catch with the water and over all we just sort of went in circles.
Stian rowing.
Me trying to row.
Still trying....
Joni rowing.
Its herder than it looks!
Joni brought some yogurt for Stian and I to try. It was strawberry and came in a bag with a little spout....very interesting....
Stian and I in the Summer Palace.
Another picture Joni took of Stian and I in the Summer Palace.
Our row boat going under the bridge. (Maggie this is the bridge that connected the main circular path to that little island with the pagoda. When we were there there was no water at all and people were just walking under the bridge on dirt...I guess give it a month and there is water! Enough water to boat!!!)
Some of the tour crowds.
The yogurt in a bag.
Someone pitched a tent int he park.

Swimmers just sort of appeared while we were sitting on a bench. They came out of now where in bathing suits, hung their towels on the trees, stretched out a bit, and then jumped in!
Stairs to the main tower in the Summer Palace.
These people just asked to take a picture with me so i agreed on account of taking a picture on my camera too. The girl's name was Yue too! Same as is in my Chinese name!
Here is a swimmer gearing up for the big dive. Mind you everyone else in the park is wearing winter coats still.
Field of purple flowers.
The main buildings of the Summer Palace.
The view from the top.
A nice spot in the park.
Joni climbing some more stairs to the Palace.
Joni and I near one of the bridges in the park.