Dancing in the park

Today we experienced the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Really neat - this is a people's park, where many local seniors hang out. There was ballroom style dancing (at 10am) in the courtyard; individuals and couples exercising (tai chi and other); and along the long corridor (really long), there were groups of people, usually seniors being central to the group, but with younger people too. They were playing cards, or hacky sack (yes seniors!), or singing folk songs, or giving crocheting lessons, and so forth. The entire corridor was taken up with people sitting on the wide rail in groups doing their thing. One of the more entertaining was an older hippie looking guy playing the Chinese 2 string guitar, and his rythym section was a woman on snare drum, and another on a hand drum. He saw American looking types in the crowd and began a medley of tunes - Star Spangled Banner, Oh Susanna, Jingle Bells, Edelweiss, Waltzing Matilda and others! On a 2 string guitar - it was recognizable, if a little screechy. He did switch to saxophone for one number. He had quite a crowd gathered round. When he stopped, I put $ in his guitar case, and he smiled, and shook my hand. The rest of the Temple of Heaven (the historic part) was also very interesting - more pictures you'll have to see.

The vendors were intense at the south gate of the Temple - where we exit and leave. I did succumb to a couple of books that vendor was willing to sell 1/2 price once I walked away and he followed me for 2 blocks. I asked the tour guide about the vendors, and he said some of them are "off job" and this is the only way they can make a living right now. Some have kids in college, and don't really like doing this work. They are unable to help us bargain, as it puts them into an awkward situation "are you Chinese or American" type of complaint. So then I felt bad about the book ... It was a matter of $1.75.

More landmark renovation going on. Here they were working on a brick wall, faced with cement or plaster type material. Replacing it. I took pix, because I just know that you are all as fascinated as I am with historic preservation stuff. But, seriously, Nat'l Trust for Historic Pres should be teaming up with China Focus. :-)

We are now in Wuhan, a city of 8M people. Another boomtown in the rising Chinese economy. They have a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the middle of their shopping district! But, no Starbucks - yet.

Our meal tonight included things like - fried cabbage, kung pao type chicken, beef stir fry with snow peas, egg drop soup, a fish (whole), squash, tempura eggplant, rice cake, corn meal egg shaped cake. There was one dish that everyone thought looked a tad gray and surmised it was fish, but not too sure. I gave it a try, and so did another woman next to me. We declared it to be vegetable, starchy root of some sort. That didn't encourage anyone else to eat it, however. Turned out to be lotus stem - something none of us had come across before.

We get on the boat tomorrow, and start cruising. While I don't expect to find a compute on board, there will be massuese, sauna, and demonstrations or activities about local culture.


It is now 10:30 pm and this computer is costing me one Yuan (12.8 cents) per minute, so off I go to bed. The accommodations are very nice - better than some places I've stayed in US.

The good news is that I have found that I can type on the blog. The bad news is that I can't see my blog, and I can't see any comments anyone may have made. The computers seems to have a filter that won't let you get to actual blogs.