Family Visit

Peter's mom and her friend, Sharon, arrived a few days ago, and we've been touring them around Beijing. They're fabulous guests, always pleased and entertained. The tour group is scheduled to expand soon when Andy, Peter's brother, and Kim, his girlfriend, arrive, along with Oliver, Kim's 1 1/2 yr old kiddo. I'm looking forward to seeing all the attention Oliver's going to get as a little white baby here. The Chinese love kids, and foreign babies are generally quite an attraction.

We started off with a little of Old Beijing, with meandering through hutongs. Of course, modern life intervened, see the below pics of a hutong traffic jam.





Next, we went to Jingshan Park, the highlight of which is a tall hill from which you get a great overview of the Forbidden City. And finally, a short walk over to Beihai Park, to see the famed Nine Dragons' Screen, a beautiful example of porcelain art.




On the next day, we tried to show them New Beijing, so we went back to Dashanzi/Factory 798, the largest of the contemporary arts districts in the Beijing area. Peter and I had gone about a month ago, but many exhibits had changed, and we hadn't seen anywhere close to the whole complex before anyways. It's a factory commune converted to art galleries, just an amazing space to display art.