May I have your picture?

Often when we travel people who don't encounter westerners very often like to have their picture taken with us. Hannah is especially in demand since she has light hair and fair skin. On this day at the Temple of Heaven I was taking a picture of Hannah when a Chinese girl moved in very close to her and Hannah looked over to see what was going on. Either they just happened to be in the same place at the same time or the Chinese girl may have wanted a picture with her and stepped in close to get it. Anyway, we laughed about it and ended up sharing some nice pictures with her!

Beijing - the last stop

We left on Saturday morning from Shanghai on a flight to Beijing. Once in Beijing we had a two hour layover in the airport before heading home and we had time to explore the airport.

Top Right: On the tarmac at Beijing airport. Passengers disembark from the plane and then take a shuttle to the terminal. This airport is huge and is set up to handle the immense crowds they expect for the 2008 Olympics in August.

Top Left: View inside the Beijing Airport. When Hannah, my son, Seth, and I first landed in Beijing in 1998 the airport was just dull, gray, plain concrete. It is now a world class airport and probably one of the best in the world.

PS: This is the last entry of our Buddhist Mountain tour. You can read older posts by selecting "older posts" at the bottom of this page or you can click on the small black triangle next to "May" or "June" at your left to see any other entries.

Temple Tour in Beijing

On May 26, 2008 My daughter, Hannah, and Chinese language group friend, Mark Van Loan, arrived in Beijing, PRC for a tour that would take us to China's four Buddhist Mountains and other areas of significant Buddhist art and places of worship. The trip was comparable to visiting the famous cathedrals of Europe or going to the Holy Lands where people travel to worship.

We were joined on our first day of our tour by my friend Wang Leyan and her husband Wu Cen. Leyan was my language partner when I studied Chinese language briefly at Beijing Language and Culture University (Beijing Yu Yan Wen Hua Da Xue) the summer of 1999. It was really special that they were able to join us for the day!

Our tour started in Beijing where we visited the Cudrania Pool Temple, Jietai Temple, the Miaoying (White Pagoda) Temple and the Lama Temple, the most renown Tibetan Buddhist temple in China and outside Tibet.

The layouts to Buddhist temples are all very similar. The first building contains the Guardians of the four directions. We learned that when you enter a Buddhist Temple men are supposed to step over the threshold with their left foot. Women step over with their right foot. Pictures are usually not allowed in temples and these pictures of the four guardians were the only pictures I was able to take inside a temple.

Top Right: (left to right) Wang Leyan, Hannah, Michel, Mark Van Loan, Wu Cen

Other pictures are of the Four Guardians