March 25th

Beijing
Now I am in Beijing, China. We arrived late last night after a short plane ride from Qingdao. Beijing is a huge city with 16 million people! There are many sights to see and things to do and I am only here 1 day! I went by myself by taxi to see the Summer Palace of the emperor. It was a cool spring day and I walked and walked through the grounds. Many people were out enjoying the day, not just tourists. Here are some of the sites I saw.




This bridge was fun to climb!

This video didn’t turn out very well but I wanted to show you a bit of what I saw. Many people exercise in groups in China. It’s really neat to see groups of people, large or small exercising together. Often they are doing a form of exercise called Tai Chi which is a slow motion dance. It ‘s really nice to do, I took a class once in Maine. But I don’t see groups of people doing it in Bangor! The people here in the Summer Palace were doing three different forms of exercise and some were just watching a soccer game(or football, as it is know here) on a giant screen. The group I joined was dancing to popular songs. There were set dance moves and a leader to follow. I managed one dance but then the moves got more complicated so I stopped. Another group was waving long ribbons around and the last group was doing moves to music using a racket with a ball that they had to keep balanced as they moved. It was really neat to watch. I didn’t try that one but maybe I will some day.

China is a fascinating place. I don’t understand a word anyone says but they all try to be helpful and kind. Many of the streets and stores have English writing which helps me figure out where to go but when the signs are in Chinese it is much more difficult….I do not read Chinese! Although I wish I did!