Floozy Speak!

It seems our man Dan is having time issues while on the inside of the wall. Perhaps it's some nefarious scheme by the Reds to introduce some instability to his western philosophies.

--The Shadow Keepers

ok i thought it was day 9, but picasa tells me its day 10

today we hit the summer palace and the temple of lamma

im obsessed with chinese temple architecture, i cant seem to have enough of the roof tops, the buildings, i snap tons of pictures of these ancient relics and old style bits, something about them is magical to me, the curved shape, the attention to detail in each shingle, the stone carvings, an old door, a drainage pipe, an archway, a stone step, its all amazing, sometimes i feeel like ive taken the same picture a dozen times, and always, always, ALWAYS, i love perspective, i'm a perspective junkie, anything that gives a sense of perspective, depth, far but near, close but not so close, historic yet in your hands, cant explain it but must capture it

today was a gorgeous day to visit the summer palace, by far the sunnyest, prettiest, and best blue sky day we've seen yet in beijing, a cool breeze blew over the palace area and it was welcome breeze indeed,

the main chunk of the palace was under construction, a slight bummer but the views of catching it, framing it amongst the trees was worthy enough for me, its massive, grand and spectacular to see from the lake surrounding it, off in the distance surrounding the waters edge are various buildings, bridges, and a lone tower.. , i ask chen "what is that?" she giggles and shrugs, i say "longevity, goodness, happiness?" and she giggles a nodding yes, "temple of everything" i say, and she agrees, "temple of everything", chen has an intoxicating laugh, it puts everyone at ease, shes so funny, yet simple, and pure, honest, respectful, something about her is so honorable, traditional in the old ways of life, yet aware of the new ways,

dozen of boats make their way across the lake, in the distance towards one end is a small island connected to the main area via a bridge with 17 archways chen tells us, "anything special about 17?" i ask, lotta numbers in chinese mean certain things, lotta buses around town have phone numbers on them always have lots of 8's and 6's and 9's, all very lucky we've been told, so figured maybe there was story behind the 17 arches..."nope" she says... heh in a single nod we move on...

i keep seeing various mosacis around beijing, typically in walkways and what not, at the china japan friendship hospital there were some in the garden/welcome fountain area and now here at the summer palace along various parts of the walkway surrounding the lake, most of them are symbols, a flower, a coin (the old money look), tree, a house, a vine, boat, a duck?, etc, speaking of symbols, i keep seeing the stone carving of a flower in most of these structures at these temple sites, almost like a air hole or decorative drainage grate, my flickr photostream has a few pics of it

birds, lots of them, first time ive seen them in a great number before, and they are fast whippin by back and forth, the higher we go the more we see, yes steps!, actually before the steps we get to check out the marble boat, that jen later had found out that its not really marble, just made to look marble, still its an impressive stone/marble looking boat, at this point jen and chen want me to make the next decision on where to go, huh? wah? me? why me.., ive had a nice time riding on the whatever of wherever we go, ok lets go backside of mountain,

up some steps and around a few bends i spot it, the rock, darla wants a rock, darla, marys roommate had requested i get a rock from beijing, sadly i didnt get one at the great wall, but hey this place was better really, and this is a summer palace rock, yes, behold the awe of a summer palace rock i say, ok i got a rock, why she wants a rock, who knows, its darla, she probably collects them, talks to them, brings them to picnics etc, just kidding darla

now we're splunking, cave diving, rock climbing and i think to myself this is where bob and lynn need to be, no hill too great, no cave too mysterious for that couple, and sure we have basic steps and the view is amazing, and i have some video going thru the mini cave walkways, still there was much more to explore, we just got a taste of it, another imperial lunch awaits me

"hello!" i hear behind me, two women and a man stand together as if knitted together or something under a tree branch, i wave back "hello" they giggle and blink at me, so far not too many looks really, i do get the occasional "i could take him" look from young teens, like the assement of damage look, everytime i get into a cab i get that "woah!" look...and since im always red people tend to think im hotter than i usually am, though if you ask me, i'm hot baby

its time for imperial lunch!, we walk down to the restruant, another yellow all around, all you can see yellow lunch, its good, we probably didnt go too far off the beaten path with food choices, i saw the occasional odd dish on the menu though, dog this, eyeball that, and course we did experience the chicken hand soup,

after lunch we head out for a boat ride across the lake and to the mini island, now were crossing the 17 archway bridge, lets snap a few pics of this lion here, yes, i say "sexy lion, sexy lion" i blurt out loud as jen and I take turns getting our picture taken with the stone lion, we get a few more looks there

next up is the temple of lamma, or lamma temple or, lammaville,

the first thing i notice about the temple of lamma, is that across the street it looks like they are selling fireworks, i swear i thought fireworks and my love for fireworks blinded me from the truth, incense, but still all those packages, that red thin blackcat like paper wrapping, i can spot from miles away makes me think fireworks, "no..no" chen says, "not fireworks, incense...",..dang!

the temple of lama is the first landmark ive seen where vendors did not invade every aspect of the historical place, in fact there was really only a few, mainly incense vendors, the place smelled great too, obviously people burning incense and all, big iron ash buckets were burning, people were paying their homage, and hey i should too, for 20 rmb i got some incense and did my bow, my homage, and we moved along, these were the scenes ive seen in so many movies, the incense burning, the big buddha statues, many many buddha statues in fact

like all these temples you go thru one to get to another, and another, and another, at the end you get the big kahuna, this time it was a 5 story buddha carved out of one single standing sandalwood tree, a big guiness book of world records plate outside the temple there, it was a huge buddha, i mean huge, big, 5 stories high, a massive polished bronze or copper looking buddha,

i'm going to miss beijing, just when ive gotten used to it, i have to leave, ahh well, i saw parts of beijing today that reminded me of dublin back home, many newer areas, shiny buildings, clean etc, though there is always a pile of stone, dirt and brick on every street in beijing, its the look of construction i guess, but wherever i go i see it, even in the resturant last night i saw it, another vision of a pile of dirt,

beijing, china, is here to stay, before when people talked about how china was going to be the next economic superpower i didnt know anything about them, not knowing i did what every other american would probably do, assess them via their number, yes alotta people there, odds are sure they will be, but being here and seeing this vast sprawling city is more of a stamp in my mind that yes they will be force, but they have much to do,

in talking with chen we stumble into the conversation of the "me" generation in beijing often, "its about money now" she says, "money money money, want more, worry over money, need more money" chen says about how her people are getting that western influence alright, the personalization of wanting more heh, individuals are on the rise, the wants and needs for better life, better stuff for "me" is on the horizon, this part from what ive seen is like china waking up to the possibility of seriously being more noticed, and thats good and bad, good in that they are a massive economic power, good that they are taking note of the past and restoring the temples and learning from their history, bad in the sense that i dont feel like they innovate within enough, the goverment battles against that element as well, the paper talks about chinas own ability to innovate is hindered by their drive to copy, heh

well time to pack, the long 13 hr flight awaits, chen will join us once more for lunch today, we've created quite a bond with her, if i could take her and her family to the states i would heh, shes a good friend, i wish her well, she will no doubt be a busy girl as china continues on its path