Beijing

The long and twisty road to Beijing...on the bus to Dulles Airport I looked in my backpack and didn't see the passports, jumped off the bus at Rosslyn, as the bus pulled away I realized that the key to the house was in my luggage on the bus, took the subway home, called Nancy to meet me with a spare key, looked for the passports, couldn't find them, took a cab to Dulles, where Gilles had the passports after finding them on the floor of the bus. I was too rattled to sleep on the 14 hour flight to Beijing. We arrived at the hotel about 4:30 PM, slept until midnight, then walked the streets around the hotel looking for something to eat, but the only places that were open did not look inviting.

                                                                      The Great Wall at Jinshanling

We spent the next few days touring the Forbidden City, Tiananmen, Beihai Park, the Great Wall at Jinshanling (very few people and undeveloped but very, very steep and stony), the Museum of Folk Art (where Gilles thought he might find some pigeon whisles but didn't), Panjiayuan Market (where we bargained down from 200 to 20 yuan for an original Little Red Book), the Temple of Heaven and the Park around it full of people playing hackysack, badminton, taiji ball, dancing, practicing taiji and qigong, singing, playing the erhu, matchmaking their sons and daughters...

                                                     Master Zhu Xiucheng teaching chen style taiji