Just a Touch Belated

[kaitou]

So, you know, I never did get pictures up from my trip to China in 2004. But now that I have a Flickr account there's no good excuse for not posting. So here's Day One from my trip to Beijing, where we went to The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven and The Summer Palace.

Comments

[flidgetjerome.livejournal.com]

Man, was the smog as bad as it looks?

Also, I am stealing your heist book once you get it.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Some of it's smog, some of it's dust, and a lot of it was clouds. The second day, when we were on the Great Wall they let us know that if it started to thunder instead of just rain, we'd all have to get off the wall, because there was too much risk of being hit by lightning.

[mewsrissicat.livejournal.com]

Those are wonderful! Thank you for sharing.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I should have pics from the rest of the trip up soon. All depnds how much of April file space I have left without having to upgrade to pay.

[soranokumo.livejournal.com]

Working my way slowly through these as I go... but man, even though I have much less desire to go to China as I do Japan, the architecture will always blow me away. So beautiful.

>^_^< Thanks for sharing.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

China was incredible...wait till I can get Day 2 pictures up. And at some point I'll get the Japanese ones up. The only problem is that you get 100MB a month free on flickr, and after that you have to pay. I only have about 10MB left for April. I like both architecture styles, though I think I lean more Japanese on that. But I do have to say that China wins for furniture. Someday I want a Chinese style chair.

[melf42.livejournal.com]

That was nostalgic, thanks for sharing! Those were three places I got to actually see (though I think you went to the Forbidden City on a much more popular day... I went when it was relatively empty; maybe I just went on a weekday.) Good catch on the zodiac animals on the roof - totally missed that. So question - did being on a tour keep you from begin harassed by people coming up to you and wanting to sell you something? Or did they still zone in on the white girl. Looking forward to your Wall photos.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

You know, I don't remember what day of the week it was! There was still some harrassing by the vendors, but the tour guides warned us and gave us advice on how to deal with them and protect your bag from pickpockets before we got off the bus.

I'm really glad I took the tour option (not the least for reasons that will be clear on my day 3 photos). I know 'touristy' things get a bad rap, but I don't know I would have made it to all three places in one day, or learned so much about what I was looking at without the tour. And it was fun to meet all these people from around the world...the tour guides, the mother and daughter from Sweden, the British guy, the dentists from the Phillipines...

[velithya]

wow, those are some delightful photos! Do you know if it's common in chinese architechture to put the zodiac animals on the edges of roofs? I thought I saw them in one of your other pictures (towards the end) as well.

edit: also, I hear it is your birthday! Happy Birthday! :)

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thank you.

I'm not sure about the zodiac thing, though I know the tour guide talked about it. I know Japan puts fish on the roof to protect the building from fire.

[velithya]

oh, is that why the Japanese have fish? Very neat! :D