Photos from Beijing

These photos were taken on a trip to Beijing (China) in November/December of 2012. An amazing trip to a beautiful country.

Lots of bikes. As Beijing has filled up with cars over the past five to ten years, the use of bicycles has dropped significantly, but there are still quite a few of them being used.

My entrance ticket to the Summer Palace gardens.

Tourists in one of the courtyards near the southeast entrance of the Summer Palace.

One of the pavillions at the Summer Palace.

One of the stone carvings on the bridge to Nanhu Island. Every one of the hundreds of carvings on the bridge is different, with individual features.

A street vendor outside one of the subway stations. I believe that the fur is a spotted leopard. Probably highly illegal.

I think that this was a large piece of petrified wood. I saw these in several places, always protected.

The half-wall bridge.

I took this from the top of the Wanchun pavillion. This pavillion is the highest point in the area, and overlooks the entire Forbidden City. The hill that the pavillion is sitting on was created, by hand, from all the dirt that was excavated when the canal surrounding the Forbidden City was dug. Anyway, these water cannons were placed around the corners of the pavillion. I originally thought they were some sort of way to repel invaders, but they're so new that they must just be there to help water the trees.

The Guanmiao pavillion.

Tian'anmen Square.

Tian'anmen Square, with the Monument to the Peoples' Heroes in the middle of the square.

The Chinese love their cucumbers. I had vinegar cucumbers with quite a few meals during the trip. I was never really a fan of cucumbers before I visited Beijing, but I've come to enjoy them.

I have no idea what this was. I assume it is some type of quartz crystals.

One of the beverage vendors on the Great Wall, trying to sell a can of beer. The Chinese prefer their beer to be warm. This was the only time that I remember someone proclaiming that their beer was cold. I suspect that the only reason for this was because it was only a few degrees above freezing.

One of the sentry towers on the Great Wall.

Sushi time. This was one of the many tasty treats that I got to try while I was there. These were goose liver páté rolls with cavier on top. Goose liver páté is also known more commonly in the gastronomic world as páté de foie gras. The side, of course, is pink ginger.

A panda monument in the middle of one of the roads.

A steel installation in the 798 art district. I wonder if that's supposed to be a steel representation of spiderman on top at the front.

A group of posters. This particular group caught my eye because it included a poster for Psyfidelity, which is a party that I DJ'd at while I was there. Click here for more details.

A lunch menu. As you can see, if you don't know Mandarin, you are really going to have a challenge trying to order food! If you have an Android phone though, I'd recommend buying the Hanping OCR app, because it can translate characters for you.

I saw these empty jars outside stores all over the city, but I somehow never got around to trying one. I believe that they are some sort of yogurt-based drink.

The White Pagoda in Beihai Park.

One of the hundreds of mini buddhas on the side of the White Pagoda.

Another photo of the White Pagoda, from the south gate.

The Tian'anmen West subway stop. I was pretty surprised to see a subway stop that was almost completely deserted. That was pretty rare.

Fried "special donkey" burger. It was "special" because it was made specifically from donkey penis. Another of the strange delicacies that I tried while I was there. It wasn't the sort of the thing that I had expected to eat, but it didn't actually taste too bad. However, I'd just have a normal donkey burger next time, instead of the special.

A tea house.

A maple leaf! China has lots of maple trees.

A stone dragon carving.

Zhichun Pavillion, in the Summer Palace.

The "Golden Ox" in the Summer Palace gardens. It was said to control floods. There is an eighty word description on the back that was written by Emperor Qianlong in the 1700's.

A three-wheeled bicycle. I guess that technically makes it a tricycle. Many of the more modern bikes and tricycles are electric now.

A statue guarding the east side entrance (not for tourists) of the Summer Palace.

The Paiyun Gate, also known as the cloud-dispelling gate. It must work ... I didn't see any rain in the three weeks that I was in Beijing. Too bad it wasn't designed to dispell smog too.

Sizhou Street, by the north gate of the Summer Palace.

The National Art Museum of China.

Tourists looking over the city from the Wanchun Pavillion.

A lush area in one of the gardens.

Another photo of the Monument to the Peoples' Heroes. The Great Hall of the People can be partly seen in the background.

An official Beijing cab. Not surprisingly, it is parked on the sidewalk. I was told by several people to make sure that I never got into a cab that wasn't the standard two-colour pattern, and which didn't also have a license plate starting with a "B". The other "black" cabs (and there are thousands of them, with the drivers trying to hustle hard for fares) are not official cabs, and cost FAR more than these good cabs. The official cabs are very cheap ... around 10 yuan for the first couple kilometers, and distance based, which translates to a basic fare of around $1.50 unless you're going more than a few kilometers. Put it this way ... I had a cab ride that lasted for about a full hour in rush hour traffic, going a third of the way across the city, and the total cost was only around $8 Canadian. In Toronto, that would have cost me ten times as much.

More petrified wood, surrounded by bamboo.

Random minerals/rocks/antiquities in a room on the way up to the Great Wall.

A section of the Great Wall. This photo obviously shows one of the sections that hasn't been restored. There are four areas of the Great Wall that are essentially accessible from around Beijing, but a lot of the rest has collapsed or been torn down and taken away by locals, for use as building materials. The photos that I have here are all from the section at Mutianyu. This is one of my favorite photos, because of the various focal depths in the photo. I especially like the blurred brush stem down the left side of the photo.

Street vendors at Mutianyu.

The Yong'an Temple, on the Jade Isle at Beihai.

In the 798 art district.

A random telephone booth. It seemed a bit out-of-place. In fact, it seemed like it might be a Tardis from a Doctor Who show.

An umbrella store. All of the umbrellas were completely hand constructed from bamboo and oil paper, and hand painted.

More music posters. Unfortunately, I didn't see the one on the right until after the show, or else I would have gone to the show.

A random camel statue.

The Wanchun Pavillion, photographed from the White Pagoda.

These red wooden tiles can be seen at a lot of buddhist temples. You'll see that they each have handwriting with black marker on one side, which is from visitors to the temple who are asking for blessings.

The Beijing Grand National Theatre at dusk.

A street vendor.

Beijing tea-house. I think this one must cater to westerners, because you can see some magazines that were in both English and Mandarin.

A typical smaller Beijing street.

The southeast gate at the Summer Palace.

A bronze dragon at the Summer Palace.

Some rocks. I wonder if these are a Beijing version of an inukshuk.

The Seventeen Arch Bridge, leading to the South Lake Island in (Nanhu) in Kunming Lake.

A disabled street busker playing an Ehru.

A Beijing telephone.

The Marble Boat. This is actually made of wood, painted to look like marble, rather than actually being made of marble. And it isn't really a boat, since it doesn't move. It was constructed by the Empress Dowager Cixi in 1893, with funds that had been earmarked for the Imperial Navy.

One of the subway stations on line 2. Beijing's subway is really easy to figure out and use. If you're visiting Beijing, figure this out right away. It's very inexpensive, and thirty cents lets you ride an unlimited numbers of stops and transfers throughout the entire city. I've been on subways all over the world (London, Paris, Moscow, New York, Toyko, and more). Beijing's subway is one of the best.

Snack time. Straight sugar, probably not great for the teeth. My friends say that the Chinese don't actually eat this stuff. Actually, the food and beverages that I had around Beijing had very little sugar in them, which was especially noticeable in the tea, coffee, and other drinks.

A police car at Tian'anmen.

I have no idea what this is.

The Great Wall.

One of the places on the Great Wall that hasn't been restored yet.

A map showing access to Mutianyu.

Another street. You'll notice a red sign on the left side of the photo, on which the English lettering is upside down. Chinese characters seem to be read in different directions, so even though the symbols on the sign are right-side up, the writing is upside down. Perhaps the sign maker didn't realize that English generally reads from top to bottom.

A photo inside a jewellry store.

A local directory sign in the art district.

The Chinese are very good at recycling things.

A Hello Kitty ukelele. Many of the music stores were filled with ukeleles.

This seemed out of place - stores with a Christmas decoration theme.

Inside the White Pagoda.

A bronze turtle dragon.

Looking toward Tien'anmen at dusk.

The Archery Tower (Zhengyangmen gate) viewed from Tianan'men. The central axis running north/south through the city, which divides the city into east and west, runs through this gate.

Lunch. The thing that looks like a chocolate egg with mousse in it is actually just a hard boiled egg, possibly dyed with soya sauce.

This was an odd discovery, down an alley.

The southeast gate at the Summer Palace.

Paddleboats in Kunming Lake. The Temple of Buddhist Virtue is on the hill, overlooking the lake.

A photo of the South Lake Island, taken from the Seventeen Arch Bridge.

A man flying a kite.

A smoggy day. Beijing actually had pretty decent weather some of the time that I was there, but it also had very bad air quality other days. There were a couple times that the AQI was above 450, which is "extreme hazard." The US Embassy put its foot in its mouth a few years ago when it described the air quality one day as being "crazy bad." The smog was about the only thing that I didn't like about Beijing.

One of the staff members at the Summer Palace.

One of Beijing's many parks.

Some fancy new electric bikes.

Exercise group in Jing Shan.

Looking down on the Forbidden City.

Looking down on Beijing from in front of the White Pagoda.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace (Tian'anmen Gate), leading north to the Forbidden City.

The National Museum of China.

A tour group of Buddhist monks getting a group photo taken with the Gate of Heavenly Peace in the background.

Street venders at Mutianyu.

More rocks. The line at the top means the "12th Five-Year," which is a reference to the fact that China is currently in the 12th version of their five-year development plans for the country. The bottom line means the "sons and daughters of the Chinese nation," or the Chinese people.

Street vendors on the Great Wall.

One of the reconstructed sections of the Great Wall.

Our chef, working on our meal at Tairyo (in Gongti Dongmen). This meal was incredible, definitely the best dinner that I've had anywhere in the world. Unlimited sushi, cuts of sirloin and prime rib, different types of fish, vegetable dishes, cavier, oysters, sake (Japanese rice wine), and beer. And all of it was prepared at the table. I ate very well in Beijing. There was almost nothing that I ordered that wasn't well made, and I went to a variety of restaurants so I got to try a lot of really strange things. I didn't end up trying dog or cat or scorpion, but besides some of the strange things that I've mentioned elsewhere in this photo gallery, I also got to try some unique things like frog meat, peking duck, and yak tongue.

Street vendors near the 798 art district.

Tiger statue in the art district.

This was some sort of a photo shoot. I'm not sure if this was some famous Chinese celebrity, or a university photo class out practicing.

A pot of tea.

An exhibition in one of the studios on 798. It was also an interesting anatomy lesson.

The structure right in front of the White Pagoda.

Another red wooden "blessing" tile.

A tourist information kiosk. I was surprised to see this.

Buildings near the Qianmen subway station. My friend Chan took me out to dinner one night just around the corner from this area, at the Lao She Teahouse. She said that it has a very rich theatre history, and there was a musical/theatre group performing during our meal.

This was some sort of ancient stone container that was decorated with gold.

One of the unrestored sections of the Great Wall that is not open to the public.

A Kentucky Fried Chicken billboard. There were KFC outlets almost everywhere. Beijing has definitely embraced the chain. Of course, the menu is a bit different than in North America, but there is quite a bit of overlap. Also, the prices are low by western standards: a chicken burger meal with fries and drink was just over $2 Canadian.

Another art district.

Inside a music store.

Stone carvings on the railing by the White Pagoda.

Wang Pang's restaurant, a great place to get a donkey burger.

I liked this ad, which was in some of the subway stations.

A map of the Lama Temple, which is one of the largest and most important Tibetian Buddhist temples in the world. And conveniently, it was very close to my apartment.

That green bicycle looks like it would be a bit of a challenge to ride.

A bronze dragon statue.

Willow trees on Kunming Lake.

Another photo of Kunming Lake. The interesting thing about the lake is that it is only 1.6m deep at its deepest point. A tall person could definitely walk through/across it from one side to the other.

Another photo of the Temple of Buddhist Virtue and other structures at the north end of Kunming Lake.

I would like to own one of these.

Inside the Summer Palace gardens.

Suzhou Street, on the banks of the Suzhou River.

One of the more modern streets (Andingmen) in Beijing. It looks very neat and orderly. Don't be fooled ... the traffic in Beijing is usually complete chaos. I'm surprised that nobody is driving the wrong way in any of the lanes in this photo.

Looking down over the city.

At the top of Coal Hill.

A typical alleyway.

Photos inside a tea-house.

One of the electronic displays in Tian'anmen Square.

I haven't yet been able to figure out what this statue commemorated.

Red Bull advertising.

On the Great Wall.

Salmon sashimi.

Graffiti in the art district.

A butcher shop.

A male Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata). This duck is so colourful! Peking duck is one of China's national foods. If you weren't aware, Beijing is sometimes spelled Peking, as a romanization of the original pronounciation of the city.

The Chinese flag. The large star is supposed to symbolize the Communist party of China. The four smaller stars are supposed to represent the four social classes in China: the peasantry, the working class, the urban bourgeoise, and the national bourgeoise.

And finally, click here for details about DJ'ing while I was there. Here's a recording of the set: