Beijing Zoo

Went to the Beijing Zoo. I haven't been to a zoo since I was a kid. It was fun seeing the wild animals up close. The vultures were pretty cool. Seeing the carcass on the ground was weird. The Pandas were great! Seemed like all they do is eat and lounge around. Wish I had more time to stare at them like the Chinese stare at me. Don't mind a few of the shots that have haze in them. That's from either shooting through a window or the fence.

While watching TV here in Beijing, I found another organization that I would like to support. Its a non-profit organization that works to stop illegal wildlife trading and killing of endangered animals. For those of you who are interested, you can find it here.

_Vince

Tiananmen Square

Remember this picture? You can read about it here. Tiananmen Square is across the street from the Forbidden City.

On the south side of the square is the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. He was the chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from 1945 to his death in 1976. Facinating information about it here. 

Click here to see a picture of his body on display. 

_Vince

Forbidden City

This is where 24 of China's Emperors lived several hundred years ago. It was constructed in the early 1400's. This place is huge!! I walked through 3 main gates and still wasn't even close to the museum. It took 15 years and more than 1 million people to build it. It houses thousands of ancient artifacts, sculptures, paintings, gold, jewelry and more. It is named the Forbidden City because the common man back in the day could not get inside. Only the Emperors workers were allowed inside. Even as workers they were only allowed so far into the palace. Here's a picture of what it looks like from the North. Click here. (That is not my picture and yes that is pollution in the air). Just about every rooftop you can see in that picture was part of his palace. It is said to have more than 8,000 rooms. You can read more about the Forbidden City here.

_Vince

Village

Here are some photos of the village I stayed in the past 5 days. This is the swap meet we went to. People here really don't see many foreigners if at all. Everyone was staring at me. Felt weird and funny at the same time. I had a few people even ask to take a picture with me. Imagine that.

This guy was so excited to see me. Before he invited me into his store to sit down, I could see that he was video taping me on his cell phone. After he invited me in, he asked me if he could take a picture with me. I had no idea he was going to do what he did in this picture. I realized this was probably the first time he'd ever seen a foreigner. I bought a few bags of food that he had in his store and he offered me a free jar of spices. Then he gave me his email address so I can stay in touch with him. Not sure how that is going to work considering I don't speak or write in Chinese.

The same guy who raises the Tibetan Mastiffs gave us a ride to a local burial site. Here is what a burial site looks like in the village. The dead are buried north and south with a mound of dirt. The yellow ribbons are laid on top periodically out of respect and remembrance of the dead.

More pictures of the village I stayed in

Took a picture of the little red car driving through the intersection. The look on the guys face is what I get all the time.

Here's a guy lighting yellow paper on fire in the street to remember the dead.

_Vince

Tibetan Mastiff

I had a chance to visit someone who raises Tibetan Mastiffs here in China. These dogs are by far the largest I've ever seen. They can weigh as much as 200 lbs. As I walked through the kennel, all of the dogs were barking like crazy and wanted to get at me. Good thing they were chained up and their master was there because I would have absolutely no chance defending myself if they got loose. These dogs can sell for as much as $5000.

_Vince

Fireworks in China

These types of fireworks are going off all the time here to celebrate the new year. Even louder ones going off in the streets constantly. 

_Vince

Chinese New Year

On the first day of the Chinese New Year, I went to see a 3000 year old tree. It's tradition for the locals to visit this tree on New Years day. The red ribbons tied to the tree are for good luck and wishing the tree many more years of life. That tall skinny tree in front is fake. Its there just to support the old tree at one of its branches. There were so many people taking pictures and walking around. Of course it was another cold day at 20 degrees.

Here's a video shot on my iPhone. Those are firecrackers going off in the background. Calling them firecrackers doesn't sound right. They sound more like rifle shots.




On the way back down the hill, there were many people selling food, playing games and just hanging out. Here's a couple of pictures of the food they were selling. 

Squid on a skewer and baby chicks on the grill!

_Vince

Apple Store in Beijing

The Apple reps showed me that I don't need a special plug to charge my MBP and iPhone in Beijing. Figured that out after almost frying my D700 charger last night.

Here's a picture of the Apple store in Beijing. Looks just like the ones in the US except for all of the Chinese writing.