Zhongshan Park - Looking for the Dedication Tree

May 12, 2013

Edith is leaving to go back to the Phillippines the next Friday, so we thought we needed to take one final outing to Zhongshan Park where President McKay dedicated China in1923.
We decided we would go after church.

In case you can't recognize me, I am the tall one in the picture between the two beautiful ladies.

We took our lunches to church with us so we wouldn't starve to death. A friend of Isabel's was visiting from another city in China, and we invited her to join us.

Zhongshan Park is one of many parks and lakes that surround the Forbidden City and were imperial playgrounds when the emperors ruled China.

A walk towards the Forbidden City.

Looking south across Tiananmen Square to Mao's Mausoleum.

The Great Hall of the People, which would be compared to our congress, is directly across the street.

Entrance into the park. 

Zhongshan Park is a quiet park and doesn't attract the mobs of tourists like some of the other places.

We took our time wandering through it and enjoying the surroundings.

We were told the Dedication Tree was by the moat and 11 columns from the west wall.  

We counted carefully and were sure we had located the tree.

But then we counted the columns again. That took us  to a square where a tree used to be, and we decided tree had died. We were told later that we were in the wrong spot, and the tree is still alive. I suppose we will need to go there again with somebody who knows where they are going. 

Even though we didn't find it, there was beauty all around us, and we had a lovely afternoon.

Beijing National Museum

May 9, 2014

It is hard to stay inside after a long winter when the blue sky and warm sunshine seems to be calling your name. Four of us - Marilyn Taggart, Edith Dela Cruz, Isabel Berrios and I - decided to answer the call and made our way through Tiananmen Square to the National Museum.

It is a spectacular building, but I forgot to take pictures until the very end of our walk through. That is when you know you have been in a place for a while. You forget to take pictures. We did see a fabulous show by a very famous Chinese artist. They asked us not to take pictures in it. I think they meant not to take pictures with a flash, but I am very obedient and didn't take any. I really wish I would have, but too late now.

Besides we couldn't spend all day looking at a museum. We had to move on to something more important like FOOD.

Just in case you're interested, the food was delicious, and the company was great too.

Beijing Hutongs

The Beijing Hutongs (old lanes) have a very special place in the rich history and culture of Beijing.

The alleys give a wonderful glimpse into yesterday’s world, the old way of life and traditional Beijing culture, and highlight the dramatic changes the rest of Beijing has undergone.

Hutong now means a lane or an alley, formed by rows of siheyuan (a compound with buildings around a courtyard) where old Beijing residents lived. The word "hutong" originates from the word "hottog" which means "a well" in Mongolian, in ancient times villagers dug a well and then lived around it.

Beijing still has about 400,000 residential siheyuan now, mainly distributed over the East, West, Xuanwu, and Chongwen districts. When urban construction threatens the existence of the hutongs, Beijingers become worried. The municipal government has earmarked a number of them for protection, but they are disappearing very quickly and being replaced by modern buildings. (china highlights.com)

A bird's eye view of a hutong in Beijing.

All of the streets are different. Some are businesses, some are homes, some are a combination of both.

 The one thing I have learned is that each hutong is a small community where people often meet together to talk or play mahjong - very similar to chess.

There is a hutong right next to the school that I can see it from my second story window. One day I realized they were tearing one part of the hutong down. However, two weeks later (May 3 to May 17, 2013), it was ready for the owner to move into it. Obviously it doesn't take long to build a place about the size of my front room, but I was still surprised at how quickly it all came together.

A Visit to the Botanical Gardens

April 30, 2013

Nothing like a beautiful sunny day to call us outside to explore. Isabel and I decided we should go to the Botanical Gardens which is in the southeast corner of Beijing. Keep in mind that Beijing is a city/state, and it covers a great deal of land - which is a good thing since it has around 22 million people. We spent around two hours getting to our destination, but some of the time was because we were lost and couldn't decide which bus to take after we came up from the subway. Fortunately, we picked the correct one and arrived at the Botanical Gardens. The rest of the time was spent wandering around and enjoying the beauty and the warmth.

Not all of the plants ware outside. Some of the most unusual and fragile ones were inside greenhouses. 

I am not fragile, but I am unusual - especially in China, so I took a picture with some of the plants. (I may be unusual other places too. In fact I am sure I am. I hope that is a good thing.)

This looked like a lot of fun, but we decided to just watch from afar and take pictures.

That was our day at the Botanical Gardens. Then we waited with all of the other people to catch the bus home which took about two hours even when we didn't get lost.