Tag Archives: Beijing
Borrowed scenery: Kyoto’s Golden Pavilion and Beijing’s Summer Palace
My standard travel practice involves avoiding anything that smacks of shiny; palaces, treasuries, and—most dreaded of all—collections of silver tableware. Nevertheless, I wanted to see the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto. HOB and I had both read Yukio Mishima’s novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion and were curious about this temple which had been rebuilt […]
Not sure what happened at the Peking Opera but it involved stage combat, butterfly feelers and intrusive ushers
Any of you have a work spouse? I’ve had one for 20 years; I call him the International Man of Mystery. Now you’d think after 20 years I’d know a lot about IMOM, but he is one seriously cagey dude. Try asking IMOM a question like “How was your weekend?” and you’re going to get […]
The Tao of inappropriate laughter: Dongyue Temple in Beijing
What I imagined I’d see in a Taoist temple was robed monks and maybe some other really spiritual-looking people, the kind of people who sit around contemplating the mystery of the The Way. And probably a lot of art with yin-yang signs on it. This sort of temple would not be a place for a […]
The Terracotta Warriors and Tiananmen Square: how to bury a people
It’s the artists I keep thinking about. There at least 6000 terracotta warrior sculptures, perhaps many more (their burial site hasn’t been fully excavated.) These warriors were created during the Qin dynasty, 2200 years ago, when China was sparsely populated. So how did the emperor Qin Shi Huang find and mobilize so many artists in […]
There are probably people who don’t mind pooping in a glass-walled Beijing bathroom
Here are some unexpected things about China: It is really clean! We’re talking about the most populated country in the world, but none of these people are littering. A small army of sweepers are constantly about looking to obliterate the smallest infraction of trash. Also, there’s hardly any graffiti (I don’t miss the litter but […]
Picnic at the Cathedral 