北海公园

I have been so busy this last month with  working at the school I attend. I had a oppurtunity to go to Bei Jing to meet up with some old mission buddies and I had a blast, even though I got lost on the way to see the summer palace and spent the whole day in a park with locals which was really fun to do and enjoy being alone. I will try to post some pictures of what I saw and experienced.

This is the White Pagoda in the park I went to. Its a Buddhist landmark it represents the 13 levels of heaven it was very pretty on top of a hill with four walls surrounded with miniature gold Buddha's, and it had dragon and phoenix statues on all corners. It had lots of damage to its structure because of earthquakes and has been rebuilt many times. I was happy to see it because it is a shrine for believers of the Buddhist faith. 

Above is a picture of sidewalk calligraphy I talked to the very talented man that was doing this with just a water bottle in his hand and strategically writing Chinese characters and pictures. The Chinese characters above is my name in Chinese with the date on the side. Below is a picture of a bull/cow he drew because he thought I looked like an American cowboy lol!

The picture below is the giant pond 

I like this picture of this giant pond in the park with all the little "duck" boats that you could rent and have a nice relaxing ride. I think I will go back here very soon hopefully next time I will not get lost and be there alone.

餃子 Dumprings!

 This is my favorite place near our hotel that I go to to eat dumplings. Its because its also the only place that knows me well enough with my horrible Chinese they understand what I am saying. I walk in and sit down the waitress cautiously walks over to me and hands me a menu in Chinese and I point to a list of about 100 different kind of dumplings and the great thing about trying a new dumpling they almost all taste the same! I like to have my dumplings with vinegar and hot chilies peppers its so good! The first time I tried the dumpling I forgot about the insides being steamed they are a lot hotter then the outside of the dumpling so I burned the crap out of my tongue and mouth !

 Below you can see that the window is shattered its a funny story. As Randy and I were enjoying our dumplings there was a large group of girls that was staring at us so naturally we said hello and they start to laugh and point. Then the lights go out and we here some chatting then a huge shatter they started screaming and Randy and I were laughing at them and they didn't like that it was great fun!

If you cant see my pictures

www.kingofcartoons.info/p/http://giawenhau.blogspot.com/2010/10/peng-and-gang.html go to this website and type in the username and password and surf my blog this way it should work so you can see the pictures let me know if it works cause i can see them. my username is jakebgriggs787@gmail.com and password is 178943 sorry for the inconvenience.

Peng and the Gang!

This is a picture of me and my friend Peng he asked me to give him an american name and I told him that James was a good american name after  of course because they love basketball his favorite play Lebron James I convinced him that Kobe was a loser in America. I really hanging out with peng he is so interested in what I like and what we do in america. He has an ambition to learn and that is something that is an example to me to keep learning and do not let something like the chance of failure keep you from trying. His English is not that great but he is learning very fast and he helps me with my Chinese. There is a whole gang of his friends that have been hanging out with us this last week and we play pool, play basketball, then they take us out to eat and we sit back and chat in our broken Chinese/English for hours laughing and having a great time. This picture was taken yesterday after a long game of basketball I played with his classmates at his school and I played in my jeans and flat shoes it was so humid after like ten minutes I was winded but kept playing because they were amazed  by me how I played even though I am not that great at basketball being vertically challenged. We then headed to the pool hall for a few games to relax and then ate some great food dumplings, spicy tofu, vegetables, and fried potatoes mmmmm so good 

SPICY NOODLE!

The food in china is sooo good I love to try a new place to eat everyday. There is a mall near our hotel where we live in Lang Fang it is called the Yummy mall its full of restaurants and places to shop. Also the place we play pool and eat our favorite dumplings. So this noodle place we walk in and its such a dive but that is not surprising because all of the restaurants are a dive the floor is nasty and there is like what seems to be a a buffet of vegetables of every kind , tofu, and meats on a stick. 

The 

This is a picture of the noodles if you can see the edges its covered in spicy chili peppers that they loaded in my noodles when they ask me if I want spicy next time i will be smart and add my own spice. So as I eat the bowl of fire I am sweating back into my bowl just a little added sodium right ha ha! It was a lot of fun to eat here and I cant wait to go back it was actually really good.

This is the place where you add what you want into a basket that they add to your noodles. I didn't know what half of the vegetables were and the tofu or meat so I asked a local girl to help me pick which she thought I would like being an american. The total cost for a bowl of noodles that was more than enough and a coke 10 yuan which is like 1.50$ american well worth it and the experience!

Olympic Park / Tienanmen Square

The rick shaw ride through the oldest village standing in Bei Jing. We got kind "weaseled" into this rick shaw ride a lady convinced randy that her husband could take us on a rick shaw ride to find a hostel or hotel in bei jing to stay for the night. So we followed her to behind the Forbidden palace into the village where the emperors government leaders and concubines would live. Also is the place of Bei Jing University the first university in Bei Jing. So as he gave us a brief history of the village showing us bricks that date back to almost 1600's and were Mao went to school for one year at the Bei Jing university. Our driver also tried to help us find a hotel to stay in that is cheap but because of the holiday no one had any room near the forbidden city. So after checking three places we just told him to drop us off we would find our own way. Then came the ride fee he charged us a piece 160 yuan which is like almost 25$ for like a 20 min ride WHAT A RIP OFF!  

We made it to a bus and found our way to Olympic square and found a hotel so we were able to rest a bit after the long walk.

 Above is the Birds Nest on a Olympic Square it was such a site to see I remember the opening ceremony there probably the best one I have ever seen. Birds Nests are a symbol of good health and prosperity for Chinese people there is a province in China that eat birds nest in there soup. When we walked around this area it was fun to see all the little kids flying there Olympic kites and there was music playing that was playing during the games in Bei Jing, also a song that just counted to ten and there was people lined up hundreds just doing stretches and exercise kind of like tai chi.

 Above is the Water Cube were Michael Phelps set the world record for most Gold medals one in a single Olympic event. GO USA! I wish I could have gotten a picture of it at night it was so awesome how it looked like just a giant water cube.

 I know they say do not go to Chinese zoos because they treat the animals poorly, but this was more exciting then the hogle zoo in Utah. The animals were a lot more active and they do not let you ride a speed boat down a tiny channel in the zoo and try to splash people that walk by. I like this stone statue of the tiger because tigers I think are the most beautiful big cat.

Tienanmen square was so big and really cool to just say I have been there. It was a major civil stand against the formation of the Peoples republic of China when Mao was destroying all old traditions, old architecture, and the genealogy records of the Chinese people it was such a horrible thing that he did. China is now very much like the western world but you do see some traditions have stuck around for the new generations to remember there ancestors and the hard work and sacrifice they went through to build such a strong nation.

Forbidden City

 After a crazy taxi drive and I mean weaving in and out of traffic driving on the side walk and nearly side sweeping pedestrians, because they don't have the right of way in China the bigger the vehicle the more freedom you have! Randy and I made it to the Forbidden City and it was a sight to see here are a few pictures to explain what I saw and felt. As we walk towards the massive entrance to this GIANT and not exaggerating 720,000 sq meters Palace home to the Qing and Ming dynasty. Above is a picture of me and a Giant stone that hand very detailed work of a Dragon and Phoenix which I am blocking. The meaning of them together is to help bring in knowledge of the past and to remember what you have been taught before, and to give eternal knowledge of the future of what is to happen to help make decisions on what we are to do with our lives.

 Above is a picture of the first gate to the Forbidden City it is guarded by Lion Statues that symbolize wealth and security because if you have money you can afford security.

 This picture above is  of Coal Hill is were we hiked to get a birds eye view of the Emperors Garden and the Forbidden City. It was a good hike took almost 2 hours including we got lost on our way and took a rick shaw ride around the small village behind the Palace were the emperors 40 concubines, eunuchs, and political advisers would live. When i got to the top my cameras battery died so I was so upset I hike up there to get a good picture of the Forbidden City and to see the palace garden.

Here is a picture of the tree the last emperor hung himself in the palace garden at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

This is just one of three banquet halls or thrones that the emperor would sit on. At this throne the emperor would give his decree and have wedding banquets for his family.

Just look at the Size of these walls they are huge I was so amazed at the beautiful architecture of this palace they were so big kind of like a city inside a city. I learned there that the emperor was born in the palace and would never leave that is why he had his summer palace built with a man made lake so he could imagine what the sea looked like. I then understood why the palace was so large and had so much detailed work of art, and traditional banquet halls, thrones and statues so that the emperor would never get bored of his palace. It was such an amazing thing to see to see something that was built almost hundred years before America was even a country.