MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas, blog readers!!

Less than two more days until Christmas and the celebration of the Savior's birth!

I am happy to have some time off after a difficult semester.

Christmas!!

Ten days until Christmas!! My colleagues at work have been of special holiday cheer this year and have decorated the doors of the offices. Mine is the one with the Nativity scene... Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and a donkey.

Snow!!

We got our first snow of the season. It's another month until it's officially winter. But, early this morning, we got a nice 1-inch blanket of snow. It caught many people by surprise. Traffic going to work was pretty bad. I was sure thankful for my 4-wheel drive! I wonder if this is an indication of a long, cold winter ahead...

Phillies & a new President

Last Wednesday, the entire city of Philadelphia erupted in jubilation! Our beloved Phillies won the World Series! Two days later, 2 million people gathered in Center City and celebrated with the players, coaches, and management. Nothing quite like this has been seen in Philadelphia since 1983 when the Sixers won the NBA championship. The last time Phillies won the World Series was 1980!

Philadelphians and baseball are deep in superstition. A statue of William Penn, founder of the city and for whom Pennsylvania was named, sits on top of City Hall. No other building in the city was taller than he until 1987 when Liberty Plazas were built. It is thought that when no more Philadelphia professional sports teams had won major championships since 1983, William Penn had placed a curse over the city for being overshadowed. A new building is nearly finished in Center City, taller than any other. On the top of this building, a new, albeit much smaller, statue of Mr. Penn has been placed. Perhaps because of that, the curse has been reversed?

About 24 hours from now, this country will have a new President awaiting to take over the Oval Office and reside in the White House. These are interesting days! Stay tuned!

Random...

Picture of my office... looking out. It is a nice size office with 2 large desks, 3 book shelves, 6 chairs (one for me, one for my stuff, and the rest for students). I can't complain! It could be more homey, with a nice rug, more pictures on the walls, etc.

The Philadelphia Phillies have made it all the way into the World Series. The city is buzzing with excitement. The Series will begin tomorrow (Oct. 22nd) in Tampa Bay, Florida. They will play 2 games there before moving to Philadelphia for 3 more games. The first team to win 4 games will win the Championship. If necessary, they will play 2 more games in FL. If it weren't for the Presidential elections in exactly two weeks, there would be tons more ado about it.

Speaking of the elections, I think the entire country is sick of all the campaign, candidates vying for votes on TV, radio, every media possible. Since Pennsylvania is a swing state (it could go to either McCain or Obama), both have been campaigning around the Philadelphia region. We've seen an avalanche of advertisements trying to convice the people how good or how horrible one candidate is over the other. I've already made up my mind.

Mushrooms et al

We've had lots of rain in the last few days, between Northeasters and hurricances (or reminants of them). Huge mushrooms have popped up in one corner of the backyard. These are huge!! They are almost as big as Doggie's head! I tried taking some pictures with her in them for perspective. But, it was getting dark and Doggie wanted nothing to do with them.

Here she is, happy as a clam, indoors, and getting very sleepy! She's not going to like the winter. She won't have the nice fluffy carpets to lounge around on. Carpets throughout the entire house was recently replaced by hardwood floors.

Doris, part III

Doris returns!!! For the last two night, Doris came back and weaved her web. On the first night, she was munching on something (or someone... I didn't want to get too close to find out). On the second night, she was idling in the center of her masterpiece, probably waiting for her dinner to arrive. Tonight, I haven't seen her yet. But, I have my camera ready, batteries fully charged, and will snap some glamour shots of Doris if she makes an appearance tonight. Now I know what it's like to be a Paparazzi. Doris is so interesting and her web is so beautiful!

Doris, part II

Doris set up her web twice more before saying good-bye. She was most likely a garden orb weaver. Spiders like Doris weave fancy webs for the night to catch prey, then pretty much eat back the web before dawn, including what they caught. One night, I saw what looked like a male garden orb weaver idling at the edge of Doris's web. She might have mated with him, then ate him, too! Such is the circle of life! That following night, I saw Doris twice more, but she didn't weave anymore webs and was just hanging on to the siding of the house. She was probably resting from her gluttonous buffets. I haven't seen Doris since... The weather has been on the cold side, rare for August. With some heavy storms that followed, Doris was smart to pack up and leave.

Doris

Meet Doris! She's a spider camping out over our back patio. I met her last night when she weaved a really impressive web and was looking forward to the morning so I can take a picture of her and her web sprinkled with the morning dew. To my dismay, she was gone with her web, nothing was left behind. Tonight, however, she returns with an even more intricate web. She's about the size of a large marble; her belly is mostly orange colored with some black spots. Because of the flash light, I couldn't capture her true colors, unfortunately. I think she'll pack up again in the morning. I hope she returns tomorrow night.

New Car & Flowers

My new car...


Another Volvo...


Summer lillies blooming in the front of the house. They send fragrant and sweet aromas into my room day and night.


Stargazer lily

Poor little car...

I got into a pretty bad accident this morning driving into work. The grey car was making a left turn from the oncoming traffic right in front of me. I didn't even have time to take my foot off the gas pedal to hit the breaks before I hit it. Before I knew what had happened, the airbags deployed and I was in shock. Thank God that He protected me! I walked away from this with only a gash on my neck from the seat belt. Thank God for Swedish Engineers for making good, safe cars! The insurance adjusters will get an estimate on the damages on Monday. It is possible that my poor little car is totaled! I just bought new tires for it!!!

This is one of my favorite pictures (I confess I didn't take it). It shows nicely the creatures that adorn the roof edges of almost all the buildings inside the Forbidden City. The very end is always a little man riding a bird of some sort. The largest hall within the City has the most number of these creatures, at 11. I wish I knew what each of these creatures represent, especially the chicken guy (as we have endowed him).

Beijing (d9) Flea market & Soap opera

This is our last full day in this exciting city. It will also be my last blog entry; the next one will be from home! We will leave for the airport tomorrow soon after lunch.

Today was souvenir day. We headed to Panjiayuan flea market across town. It is a giant flea market with thousands of vendors selling "antiques", jewelry (lots of pearls, jade, and amber), and an assortment of knick-knacks. It's a great place to bargain. Even haggling the price down 50% is not enough. I read that vendors will jack prices up 10 fold! It's not a place for amateur treasure seekers because one has to be an expert in antiques and Chinese history not to be fooled. I'm guessing 99.9% of the stuff they sell is fake. It was fun to walk through and experience the sights and sounds.

When we were not venturing around town today, I caught some TV shows. There's this soap opera that ran at least 10 episodes from morning until night today. It is set in modern Beijing, very sappy, and the story a little pathetic. The story weaves around a woman whose husband wants a divorce so he can marry his mistress. The wife refuses and hangs on to this un-reciprocated marriage. She relents eventually after seeing her husband's display of affections to his mistress and hearing that he never loved her. But, the mistress gives her husband-to-be an ultimatum sensing that he is still really devoted to his ex-wife and daughter. Before the news came on earlier tonight, the family appears to be reunited after the doctors reported that the man's suspected tumor is really benign. How's that for a synopsis of 10 episodes of Chinese soap opera.

Beijing (d8) JinShan Park & Dumplings

A pagoda sits on top of a giant pile of dirt that came from the building of a moat around the Forbidden City.


The pagoda is the highest point of the city. A giant buddah statue resides in it with a mini-me buddah on its lap.

A rose garden adorn the picturesque Jinshan park.

From the pagoda, smog can be seen blanketing the northern section of the Forbidden city.

Our Beijing vacation is winding down. We hadn't much on the agenda other than heading up to Jinshan Park where the view from the pagoda on the top of the hill offered a panoramic view of the city. We couldn't see much because the city was blanketed in smog. We were able to catch the red roof tops of the Forbidden City and take some pictures. Today was fairly hot and humid. We found another shopping plaza that had a much better and more authentic food court. We'll be going there again tomorrow for lunch and/or dinner!

Earlier tonight, we met up with a friend who was also visiting Beijing. We had dinner at a dumpling restaurant that was rated the top 10 restaurants in the world by the New York Times!The food there was indeed delicious. The dumplings just melted in my mouth. Even the dessert, mango over ice shavings and almond jello over ice shavings were terrific!

Tomorrow is souvenir day and packing up to head home!

Beijing (d7) Wal-Mart

Today was to be a low-key day, a break from the Forbidden City excursion that made our feet sore! We headed to this Wan-Da Plaza that housed an international movie theater, some stores, the Sofitel hotel, and Wal-Mart! The movies being shown were disappointing... everything we had interest in seeing were dubbed in Chinese. So, instead, we took a tour of the Beijing Wal-Mart Supercenter. It was HUGE! There was a full supermarket with meats, vegetables, and all sorts of goods.

The Wan-Da Plaza was in the center of the business district in Beijing. It was perhaps the first place we were at where the people didn't blatantly stare at us. Everywhere else we went, people stared (not short glances!) as they walked pass by us. I didn't think we looked that strangely, but maybe we did. I think it was more amusing for me to study the Beijing people and learn the culture of a people in a very different country. The generation gap is vast. The young people seem stylish and sophisticated while the older generation are stoic and apparently weather-beaten!

We will head to Jin-Shan park tomorrow. If it's a clear day, we might be able to get a really spectacular panoramic view of the Forbidden City and Beijing.

I will upload pictures when I get home!

Beijing (d6) Forbidden City

Entrance to the Forbidden City. You still have to walk about half a mile to get to the ticket office to see the Halls.




Carving along the slope is one single piece of stone weighing over 250 tons.


Female lion has a baby cub under her paw.


Male lion has a ball under his paw.


All the roof edges are adorned with these little animals, the bottom-most is always a man riding a chicken/phoenix. The Hall of Supreme Harmoney has the most, 11 of them.











Today was Forbidden City day. What architectural wonders! I was most impressed by the 250-ton stone carving, the brass sculptures of phoenixes, lions, turtles, and the little animals (including a man riding a chicken/phoenix) that adorn the roofs edges. The palace was huge! It was another exhausting day to walk around the compound. Our feet screamed in angry protest. We decided to rent an audio guide to accompany our tour which explained many of the things we were looking at. Many buildings or halls had poor explanations plaques or were just too crowded to carefully read through them. The doors to each hall were heavy and thick; each door had 99 round pins representing "forever" and "longevity". Porticos in each hall made the buildings quite cool in the Beijing spring breezes. We were also able to recognize several spots where "The Last Emperor" was filmed. Disappointingly, the main hall, "Hall of Supreme Harmony", was scaffolded for renovations. Several other less significant buildings were under renovation.

Dinner was at the KungFu diner/fastfood joint in the Oriental Plaza. Images of Bruce Lee decorate the KungFu place. My meal was very tasty and homey.

Today was a great day! We will rest tomorrow and head to see the Olympic park and perhaps the Summer palace in the next few days.

Beijing (d5) Hutongs and duck

Prince Gong's mansion


Prince Gong's mansion


Siheyuan courtyard house






Hutongs are narrow alleyways weaving through neighborhoods of Beijing. They've got lots of character and charm. Most of them have been renovated and modernized since the wooden construction could not have withstand centuries of man-made and natural disasters. They still led to courtyard homes of wealthy as well as common folks. We toured a hutong this morning west if Qian Hai. The mansion of Prince Gong was there. He was the second in command to Emperor Xianfeng (Qing dynasty 1851-1861). His mansion was quite extravagant. There were 9999 bat figurines throughout his home in his desire for longevity. The most charming part of the tour was really the siheyuan courtyard home where we had tea (in paper Dixie cups) with a young woman whose family has lived there since the late 1940's. The rickshaw ride was delightful in the almost perfect Beijing spring weather.

That was an exhausting morning! We spent the early afternoon converting currency, buying some groceries, and taking a nap. In the late afternoon, we decided to head back to Qian Men, the southern most edge of Tiananmen Square to visit a night market. Night market was under major renovation, but we did find a restaurant serving Peking duck (the fried rice was far better than the duck!). Heading back to the hotel with the sun had just set, we noticed how pretty Beijing city is lit up in lights. This is a very beautiful city. What a showcase for the world in August!

Tomorrow... Forbidden City...

Beijing (d4) Tiananmen Square

Front Gate to Tiananmen Square. You can see Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall through the opening.


Monument to People's Heroes


People gathering chanting patriotic slogans to support and encourage the earthquake relief efforts.


Gate of Heavenly Peace and the entrance into the Forbidden City.

Today was suppose to be an easy day, no agenda, nothing to have to get done. Yet, it was an exhausting day. We're still recovering from the Great Wall excursion yesterday. All we really wanted to do was explore the subway system which was fairly straight-forward. We ended up riding it to Tiananmen Square, just 2 stops away from the Beijing Train Station. The country is commemorating those who lost lives in the Wenchuan earthquake by having a 3-minute silence at 2:28pm (one week to the minute of when the earthquake set off) and closing down all forms of entertainment for 3 days (no theater, no movies, no celebration, etc, and suspension of the Olympic torch relay). A group of young students passed out little white flowers. We decided to head to Tiananmen Square to see the activities, but missed it by a few minutes. The entire country is in solidarity to support and encourage those affected. It was quite amazing to see.

Tiananmen Square is a huge expanse of open space... very impressive. There were people everywhere! We will head back in the next few days and see the Forbidden City near by.

All this walking has made my feet very sore even with good hiking shoes. I'm putting my feet up for the rest of the night and get to bed early. Tomorrow is the Hutong Tour where we'll be riding in rickshaws and drinking teas in some one's courtyard house.

Beijing (d3) Great Wall

Spectacular view of the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall


Some portions of the Wall, especially areas less touristy, remain in ruins


Approaching Simatai section of the Wall where it looks like the back of a dragon


View from a tower


A short cut had taken us through a small farming community.

A very simple farm had livestocks with goats, chickens, one horse, and donkeys.



Simatai section of the Great Wall looking back to where we had come from


My tired and aching feet
















We woke up at 6am this morning to ride for 3 hours to the Great Wall of China from Beijing. The Great Wall is an impressive structure. We joined a tour that dropped us off at the Jinshanling section of the Wall to hike about 10km (I think about 6.2 miles and 4 hours) to the Simatai section of the wall. These are the least touristy area of the Great Wall because it is also the furthermost away from downtown Beijing. There were sections with very steep staircases (up and down) and very dangerous (some parts remain unrepaired and crumbling), not too different from the ones Frodo and Sam climbed on "Return of the King". We were exhausted! We actually had to take a short cut, led by some Hebei farmers/peddlers trying to sell us souvenirs (these Hebei farmers reminded us, then, of Gollum). The view along the hike was spectacular! We're taking a break from heavy sight-seeing tomorrow and have nothing planned but to look for a place to do laundry (apparently, these probably do not exist in the country...). Dinner tonight was Papa John's Pizza and corn flavored ice cream!

Beijing (d2)

Today was still a very tiring day from the jet lag and traveling. We decided to take an easy and just walk around the city a little bit, at least a few blocks from the hotel. We had good intentions to walk to Tian'anmen Square, but was just too tired. We found a really posh and ritzy shopping center-Oriental Plaza (more like the Court at King of Prussia in PA) with the latest fashions and really high end merchandise. This definitely does not resemble the China most people know from text books. I think the world will be quite surprised when they are welcomed here in August. After all that walking, we came back to the hotel and took a 4-hour nap! Even the loud trains outside my window would not wake me up from my slumber. I was dog tired!

Meals are always interesting ventures. It is trying to figure out what to eat that is the hardest part. So, tonight, it was hot pot. At least, we know the food is well cooked! We were tempted to try the Chinese version of Papa John's Pizza. But, after wandering around the mall (another one that is not as posh) for some time and not finding it, we settled on the hot pot place. It was almost perfect since it was as light (more veggies and not as meaty) as we can make it, and we can be really filled.

Tomorrow is off to the Great Wall. It will be an all day excursion!

Beijing Arrival

Greetings from Beijing! It is now 5am; I am up and about from the jet lag. This is an interesting city, very similar to the old Taipei I remember as a kid. People are everywhere! There are tall & modern skyscrapers interspersed by really ancient neighborhoods with narrow alley ways (hutongs). There are new constructions everywhere as well. The city is teeming with excitement for the upcoming Olympics. Our first impression of the city was the Beijing International Airport. How impressive that was! It's got the reputation for being the largest airport in the world (so far). We're staying at a hotel near the Beijing Railroad Station. The window to my room overlooks railroad tracks. It's a bit noisy, but didn't really keep me awake. I think I was just really tired from the traveling the day before. We were trying to find a place to eat last night in the Station, but couldn't get into the building at all without a train ticket. Wow... what a sea of people there! We'll be exploring the city some more today, at least figure out the best way to roam around.

Spring, Taxes, and Beijing

Today is April 15th! Taxes are due today. I'm never good at putting things off until the last minute. So, I've actually already gotten my refund... over a month ago!

We are well into Spring here in Eastern PA. You can really begin to smell, see, hear, and taste Spring! In another week, new crisp green leaves will blanket the dry tree branchs. Tulips and daffodils are already abound. So beautiful!

In exactly one more month, I am Beijing-bound! Great Wall of China, here I come!

Kitchen, II

More pictures of the kitchen. Top 2 pictures show the new oven/range (left) and the sink with dish washer (right). To the left with Doggie is the breakfast island no more! These were confusing times for Doggie!

Kitchen

Mom's new kitchen! Gates are to rein in Miss Doggie. New ceramic tiles are very nice but cold. Roses were for me, from someone special.