Dandelion School

We visited a very unique, privately funded middle school in Beijing that was built specifically for the children of migrant workers.  The 9th graders had just graduated and will hope to be accepted to various high schools next year.

Lucy and Bai Jing were my students for the afternoon. We got yo know each other a little, they practiced thei English and I sketched a portrait of them...

The giant woks in the cafeteria kitchen.

Front of the school building. Many artists from around the world have come to the Dandelion School to create murals and do collaborative art projects with the students.

A couple of the girls decided they wanted to entertain us by singing "Let it go" from the movie Frozen!

Wangfujing Market

Some of us went out on an excursion on our own and got to experience the metro as well as the crowded Wangfujing market.  When you first enter the market you are bombarded with a multitude of bizarre smells and exotic foods. The boys in our group were determined to chow down on some of the unique food offerings; which included scorpions, silkworms, spiders, seahorse, and entire squids. I am proud to say I was brave enough to try a silkworm that was offered to me by fellow art fulbrighter, Gerry.  It was not tasty to my taste buds, but it wasn't terrible either!

Entering the busy market

Hundreds of vendors are jammed into the market shouting deals and reaching out to grab your attention...

Reams of fabric line the walls in a store front.

Walk right up and pick out which delicacy you would like to eat! :)

Hutong Visit

Most of Beijing has a buzzing modern city feel to it, akin to any large US city.  Most tradotional "old Beijing" style neighborhoods have been demolished to make way for the growing demand for housing and constant growing population and subsequent lack of space.  In recent years, China has made an effort to preserve the few remaining small, one story, courtyard style neighborhoods.  These are called hutongs.  I don't know if all the remaining hutongs are this way, but the community we visited has been transformed into a quaint and trendy hangout spot fit with cafés, bars with local musical acts, and shops galore.  Many of these venues arrived as a response to the ex-pat community.

We were treated to an amazing dinner (most delicious yet) in the home of a local chef, "Martin." His grandfather was the imperial chef for the last emperor and created the secret recipe for the delicious carrot balls we devoured.

The area backs up to the river and no cars are allowed.  So, there are lots of bicycles and rickshaws constantly zooming past.

Evidence of construction is a constant in rapidly expanding Beijing; even in the hutongs. 

A table outside of a restaurant in the hutong is strewn with lotto scratch offs and yogurt drinks...

The Great Wall

Here I am in all my sweaty victorious glory!

We made the trek up to the section of the Great Wall located outside of Beijing that was a stronghold during the Ming dynasty.  The benefit of getting up there early in the morning was that it was slightly less hot...the downside is that the fog was thick so it was hard to capture a great photo.

There were lots of little side openings where you could catch a glimpse of beautiful mountain vistas.  I wasn't able to capture a picture of them, but there were lots of dragonflies buzzing around!

We rode the cable lift up, did a two hour hike on the wall and got to dry our sweaty brows with the breeze on our way down the toboggan!  Check out my video above!

Dashanzi 798 Art District

This area of Beijing used to house rows of factories in an industrial park. The 50+ year old decommissioned factory buildings were turned into contemporary art galleries and studios in the mid 1990's and continue to be home to many unique art exhibitions, shops, street vendors, murals, performers and more!

When we arrived our group broke into smaller groups to explore...the place is so big we never ran into anyone else in our larger party. I could spend days weaving in and out of the maze of galleries...getting lost again and again!

Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City

Standing in Tiananmen Square before entering the Forbidden City

So serious, so still...

The picture of Mao Zedong that adorns the entrance facing the square is a painting that is replaced annually...it weighs a whopping 4 tons!

The artistic garden area in the square is redone every year with a new design

The three levels of lions guarding the various levels of entrances in the Palace complex signify the rising importance as you get closer to the royal inner sanctums...outside they are made of marble, next bronze and finally gold.

The female lions clutch a baby lion under their paws

Look how playful he is!

The male lions clutch a ball (signifying that they are the ones to play and make important decisions while the females tend to the children)...also notice how this last golden lion, which is located in the Imperial concubines quarters, has his ears down.  This sent a message that the imperoror was not to listen closely to the contradicting advice from all of the concubines.

This shows the repainted exterior as it would have been during Imperial times. The Chinese government adorned this area with layers of gold leaf in preparation of the 2008 Olympics.

Royal garden...the rocks were brought from the south by the people in exchange for a year free of taxes

Our guide "Vivian" showing us the pose the concubines would stand in while the Emperor chose his Empress...there were often as many as 3,000 concubines (many of which waited in lonely solitude never to even meet the busy emperor) . The forbidden city was ripe with paranoia as many deaths happened as they poisoned each other as a way to rise the ranks...the emperor would eat with silver chopsticks so that the suspected poison would react with the metal and change the color of the silver before the emperor could take a contaminated morsel

Next Stop Beijing

The last 3 days have been a blur! We, the other 15 teachers going on the trip to China and I, have been bombarded with information on Chinese history, cultural perspectives, etiquette, food, the Mandarin language, and more.  We have shared our hopes and goals of what we wish to get out of the experience and how this will impact our students upon our return. And, of course, we have had many laughs as we have just begun to get to know one another.

I am sitting at the gate waiting to board the 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Beijing. I have never seen a "double decker" plane before...way cool!