Autumn in Beijing

Re-discovering Beijing again.



Mask show. As for most of the people in modern days Beijing opera would be something way too much, original operas used to be 4+ hours long. Nowadays it is possible to catch the best of all of it during the dinner - Beijing opera, mask changing show, acrobatic show - and at the same time fill yourself with roast duck. This is part of the re-discovering Beijing, had already been in that restaurant and had already seen the show...








... this time got one step further by participating in the show. The same barrel was one moment later spinning around on the legs of this lady, me "happily" sitting inside. Better no photo of it!









Lamp art. Re-discovering 798 Art District, one of the best places to wonder around if not into silk market shopping.











Crystal Chandelier Don't mess with Russia












798 District is an old factory district, some of the old buildings themselves are pieces of art. A workshop shark-fin roof inspired by German Bauhaus style.











The little red book, compulsory reading at one moment of time.











2 men











Modern architecture in Soho. There are at least 3 areas in Beijing where the houses have Soho written on. Seems this is the cool way of calling artistic house complexes. Beijing modern architecture is not always aiming for extreme heights, often keeps it little lower, but the structures and spaces seem to be worked out in more interesting and unique ways.










Re-discovering Sanlitun. Sanlitun is one of the bar areas in Beijing, from previous trips, I had labelled it as a place-not-to-go. The places-not-to-go are actually on the main street, but there are amazing places to be discovered in back corners of Sanlitun. A book cafe called Bookworm.











Re-discovering the Great Wall. The first visit of the Great Wall was to the official sightseeing spots with tickets and cable cars to the wall. This time tested the theory, that the best places to see have no tickets, the theory got proved once again.









There is a small team of people going for a hike on the wall every week, I had the opportunity to join them this time, thank you K>.











In some places it was hand-to-the-dirt climbing










Hiker









and hikers







Hike finished in a very small village, by the road a mill for making corn flour









Villager not believing his eyes.

Mount Tai (TaiShan)

This year we have been joking that some of the trips could be divided under 2 kinds of themes:

1. The AAAAA Trips. China National Tourism Administration has selected the best tourist destinations in China, the absolute best of them have received AAAAA (5A) ranking. Read more about it from here. Over the almost 2 year time I have finished up in quite some of them.

2. Other trip can be called the Chinese Yuan Trips. On the front side of every Chinese Yuan is always smiley Mao, but on the back side there are different landscape or important building views.
100 Yuan has the congress building in Beijing
20 Yuan comes with Yangshuo karst hills motives.
5 Yuan has the top of mount Tai

So by visiting mount Tai would give a good advancement in both theme trips :). If visiting China for first time and there are only 2 weeks to see all of it, this place for sure shouldn't make it to the list of places to visit, but as currently my home is just 3-7h bus trip from Tai, then it is definitely a must.


Mount Tai is one of the 5 holy hill tops in China. In past the emperors were making their pilgrim to this mountain, the saying goes that if mountain didn't let the emperor on top of it, then he is not the man for the job.
Today Mount Tai is 5A tourist location with about 10 million people visiting each year. The main front stairway is full of different famous rocks with wise sayings engraved in them. On the way there are different gates to pass: Midway Gate to Heaven, South Gate to Heaven, Archway to Immortality, etc. On top are the spots for watching sunrise, restaurants and some mountain hotels.




Sunrise, the reason for millions to climb the mountain.







Passage gate on the back side of the mountain








Same passage







On the way up. We had decided to climb the whole way up and down. Each direction took 4 hours of hard core stair climbing. For the people not in their pilgrimage, cable cars can make the whole trip, including sightseeing at the top, in 2 hours.











Sunset on top of the mountain










Waiting for the sunrise 1










Waiting for the sunrise 2











Waiting for the sunrise 3








Rabbit waiting for the sunrise. On this morning the sun rose unfortunately into the clouds









Gate keeper preparing his tea








In the cloud one pancake is being made, we can say that this is made by using the cloud technology.








Temple walls

Rizhao - street life investigation

Child terror in one of the compounds.













Actually Rizhao is also one of these new cities in China with all the high rises (though 50% empty). But for capturing the real life the old streets with market life are the places to stroll around. Man after shopping.









Some barbecued meat maybe? Dog paws