The day dawned on a decidedly dreary day - natural haze, smog or both, I can't say. At any rate I caught myself wondering, partly out loud,
how I could be seeing a full moon so frequently. And then I realized, that I was looking at the sun. Hazy sun, hazy moon, they look so similar. All I know is that the sunlight in Beijing casts a dim, gray hue onto everything it touches. I'm using this as an excuse for why I haven't taken many photos. To borrow from the great Simon and Garfunkel, it truly is a "hazy shade of winter". Grey, grey, grey. (This is a great web site I found that talks about the air quality:
http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/?m=200712 )
After listening to some Christmasy tunes courtesy of NPR's web site, I headed out in the world. I met up with an Australian couple who I barely knew but we had decided to spent Christmas together. I met the husband briefly on my Burning Man trip. Upon hearing that he and his wife were planning on traveling, via land, from Dublin to Singapore, on their way back to Melbourne, and would be stopping in Mongolia and Beijing in December, I suggested we keep in touch and see if we could meet up. And lo' and behold, we did. As with everyone I've met from Melbourne, Peter and Charmaine are great, friendly people.
We spent the day walking around Beijing, freezing. We visited the Jingshan park where you climb a man-made hill to look out over the Forbidden City - which we could barely see due to the haze (see pic of P & C above). I guided them to the Hutong neighborhood where we sought refuge from the cold in a tea shop with a very enthusiastic tea lady who seemed to provide a bottomless pot of tea and gave us eggs hard boiled in tea (though they were very salty so I'm not sure the cooking method was entirely true). It was a long day and so we parted ways, with them going to check out a famous night market and me heading home. And that, dear reader, was Christmas.
After listening to some Christmasy tunes courtesy of NPR's web site, I headed out in the world. I met up with an Australian couple who I barely knew but we had decided to spent Christmas together. I met the husband briefly on my Burning Man trip. Upon hearing that he and his wife were planning on traveling, via land, from Dublin to Singapore, on their way back to Melbourne, and would be stopping in Mongolia and Beijing in December, I suggested we keep in touch and see if we could meet up. And lo' and behold, we did. As with everyone I've met from Melbourne, Peter and Charmaine are great, friendly people.
We spent the day walking around Beijing, freezing. We visited the Jingshan park where you climb a man-made hill to look out over the Forbidden City - which we could barely see due to the haze (see pic of P & C above). I guided them to the Hutong neighborhood where we sought refuge from the cold in a tea shop with a very enthusiastic tea lady who seemed to provide a bottomless pot of tea and gave us eggs hard boiled in tea (though they were very salty so I'm not sure the cooking method was entirely true). It was a long day and so we parted ways, with them going to check out a famous night market and me heading home. And that, dear reader, was Christmas.
1 comment:
Ho, lady!
My day was spent working and chatting with the felines, then off to P&A's for a movie. I received rum (Perry) and a silver platter from my grandma which was inscribed to her as a golf trophy in 1972. I put the liquor on the platter and viola, home decorating.
I also appear to have injured my hand, which appears to be a holiday tradition for me.
Keep your toesies warm, no nibbling on your own.
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