As a project for my chinese speaking class…

As a project for my chinese speaking class, we had to go out in groups of two or three to interview retired chinese folk about how they feel about retirement. We were to ask them a series of questions about how they feel about the empty nest, China’s development, etc. After the project, on all of my excursions into the city of Beijing, I keep seeing the retired out and about doing so much more than what I would see in the States. Here are some photos! 

Exercising! I can’t even do that…and they’re both at least 40 years older than me! 

Playing cards and Chinese chess. And smoking in a non-smoking area..

I’m not sure if everyone in this activity is retired but a lot of them were

I also saw a lot of people just singing and dancing in the parks. I think this is really cool, much better than rotting away in a retirement home. 

Traveling in Beijing…

Because I don’t have classes on fridays this semester, I have been trying to use these days to go see Beijing! Beijing is such a huge city both population wise and landwise and has thousands of years of history embedded into it. I have been here for over 2 months and I feel like I still have so much to see! 

Here are some photos of places I have gone to visit so far: 

Fragrant Hills (香山)—This area takes about 2 hours to get to from Tsinghua University by public transportation. My german friend Mark and I biked to the subway station and managed to catch the Fragrant Hills bus at around 10:30am. On this bus we actually saw a whole group of other students we knew from Tsinghua University! We finally arrived at around lunchtime and although it was sunny and blue-skyed in the morning, it got much hazier as the day went on. It was also very hot for a late October day. It took us about an hour to climb up the hill and the views were wonderful. I could have seen almost all of Beijing had it been non-smoggy. The leaves were starting to change colors, it was a good time to travel to Fragrant Hills. 

Temple of Heaven (天坛) — The Temple of Heaven 

The picture below is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. Constructed in the early 15th century, this complex of Taoist buildings was visited by Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to heaven for good harvest. 

Jingshan Park （景山公园）—Located directly north of the Forbidden City, coming to this park on a clear day provides beautiful views of the Forbidden City and of Beijing! 

I also have been making 11:11 wishes since I was about 12. So for 11:11 on 11/11/11 I made an epic wish! I was on the subway at the time. 

Our weekend trip to Chengde, in Hebei Province, China! Unfortunately the weather was not pleasant and we did not get to visit the Mountain Resort, a vast complex of palaces and ceremonial and administrative buildings built in during the Qing Dynasty, where emperors often spent time in this natural haven to escape the summer heat. Instead we went to see Puning Temple, a Qing Dynasty era Buddhist temple, constructed in both Chinese and Tibetan architectural styles. It also houses the world’s largest wooden Buddha statue!   

Walking around the hutongs of beijing!

JiuZhaiGou

After a 10 hour bus ride with a crazy bus driver, we finally arrived at the JiuZhaiGou area! The national park, JiuZhaiGou Valley means “Nine Village Valley” because of the nine Tibetan villages in the valley. This valley is so beautiful, I have never seen anything like it  before. The lakes are almost unnaturally blue and the mountains look like they popped out of a postcard. Gorgeous! 

tristanlovesbeijing:

WANGFUJING! Eat scorpions, lizards, and other bizarre things in China! Happy Nationals DAY!

Trip to the Great Wall.

Some more photos taken at Tsinghua University! (On the rare days when the sky is actually blue in Beijing.)