Tourist Distraction

I'm someone's tourist attraction.

Among the very odd things that have happened to us here in China, one is being approached by complete strangers who want to take our picture. The first time this happened was when we visited Tiananmen Square. We were standing at a low iron fence outside the building where Mao is entombed when a girl of about sixteen came running up to us. After a few moments of rapid Chinese and hand signals, we figured out that she wanted to take our picture. We dutifully posed in front of the building, with her standing in front of us like we were old friends, while her parents took the picture.

This happened again when we were at Heavenly Lake in the Xinjiang-Uygher Autonomous Region, pictured above. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about being such a novelty. Do the roaming characters in Disneyland get paid for this?

No Snow!

I'm sure glad we heard that it never snows in Beijing.  Otherwise, I might think the white stuff falling from the sky  for several hours this morning was snow.

 

Brrrrr.

Born To Be Wild

Flat. As a pancake. The cliché was designed for Beijing's topography. Which makes Beijing perfect for bicycle transportation. After watching Chinese traffic for a month, we traded our walking shoes for pedals. Actually, we traded one hundred dollars for two bikes equipped with fenders, a rear rack and front basket, and two heavy cable locks.

Then we cycled into the twilight zone of traffic. First, there's no such thing as right of way; might of way, maybe, or speed of way, perhaps. Second, there's no daydreaming, talking on cell phones, eating or doing anything else while on the road. It is simply not humanly possible to manage the flow of traffic without total concentration on what you are doing. And while there are bike lanes on every major street, the bicyclist must take care to avoid collisions with the cars, scooters and every other strange contraption that also uses the bike lanes--going both directions I might add. Any paved surface is fair game for any form of transportation (yes, we have even seen horse-drawn carts rolling down the road).

But what fun we've had seeing the city from the "Jingers" point of view!

PS: Thanks for all the comments.  Because I can't access the blog (these posts are coming via email), I can't post the comments, but I sure enjoy getting them!