Upon my arrival, I was told that the building was decorated for Spring Festival. “Spring Festival?” I inquired, puzzled. “Are two holidays in China in February?” (No.)
A tiny blurb in LP called the Poly Museum “sublime.” I agreed – even before spotting the array of gorgeous Buddhas on display there.
Stir-fried noodles topped with Peking duck. Sadly, very sadly, I did not enjoy any food beyond mediocre during my week in Beijing. No doubt this was part my fault as I didn’t bring friends to dine with and the Chinese do prefer to serve their best food to groups. Although, counter-intuitively, Chinese cream puffs were scrumptious.
Wafujing Catholic Church, also known as St. Joseph’s, a mere two blocks from the Forbidden City. Originally built in 1665, it was destroyed by earthquake, rebuilt, burned by accident, rebuilt, burned by revolution, rebuilt and miraculously, considering its history, managed to survive the Cultural Revolution. Their Sunday mass schedule announced a 6:15 am mass in Latin and I was so intrigued that I went. The mass was in Chinese.
Kids and their parents rented these special ice bikes to ride between the colored flags on the iced-over lake at Behai Park. Riding bikes on ice, who knew that was possible?
Buddhas receiving lap dances – I’m sure that there was a holy reason for this.
An acrobat – balancing a tower of glasses on her foot. She actually balanced six towers at one point but I was too busy gaping to take a picture at that point! The other acts during the acrobatic show that I attended were equally enjoyable or amazing.
Beijing’s Famous (?) Temple of Heaven at Sunset. Beautiful.
No comments:
Post a Comment