Pollution

http://pyongyangsquare.com/beijingair/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18415235

Although the government would like the world to believe the pollution challenges in Beijing will be nothing to worry about for the Olympics and Paralympics, the consensus is that we are hoping for the best, but will believe it when we see it.

After 4 decent health weeks, outside of my eyes burning after a few minutes when go outside, I finally fell victim to the pollution. I have had random coughing and my sinus has been blocked a few days this week. We are all feeling the pain here, as I imagine most managers have now been affected by the poor air. Several managers have had to head to the doctor to get checked out for their upper respitory infections!! I now value clean air as one of the most important pieces of helping decide where I would like to live. Luckily Alaska has beautiful air!!

There are some taller buildings down the street that are shrouded.
The pedestrian bridge is about 200 yards ahead. You can see how far the pollution affects your sight!
The sun is high above at 8 am in the morning. There are plenty of buildings off in the distance, it sure would be nice to see them!
This is from one of the worst pollution day's since I have been here (Thursday). This is taken from my hotel room.
Here is what it looks like a better day (Saturday). Although better, you can still feel the weight of the air when you go outside.

YongHeGong Lama Temple

http://www.kinabaloo.com/yonghegong.html
http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/attraction/lama-temple.htm

The sky broke for an amazing 8 hours of relatively light pollution on Saturday! It was perfect for a trip to the Lama Temple, where 70 practicing monks continue to pray to Buddha. The temple is open to the public, so there was a mix of monks, Buddhists praying, and westerners snapping photos.

Our taxi let us out in front of the entrance. Newly painted Hutong shops sold many types of different incense sticks. The sticks will be used to honor the different Buddhas that are located in several halls located on the temple grounds.
The entrance walk was very nicely shaded. Nothing could get me ready for the peacefulness and spiritual feeling I felt as I walked around the temple. Where is my sister Jen when I need her to experience this with me?
There is an outside worship area in front of every hall. On the left side of the photo you see a kneeling cushion where people kneel to pray. Incense is lit and put into a container outside every hall. There is no burning inside the buildings, so people will place unburned incense sticks as an offering. The monks will later burn these sticks in their ceremonies.
Inside the Hall of Ten Thousand Happiness stands an unbelievable site. I was awestruck by the 52 foot high wood carved Buddha named Maitreya. No photos are allowed to be taken inside, so I have included one from the Internet below.
Here is the kneeling pads, as well as the incense burner.

This was carved from one single piece of White Sandalwood. Completely Awesome!

Summer Palace

Although the pollution made the long distance viewing very challenging, I had the opportunity to check out the Summer Palace today. My eyes were burning, and it feels like there is something in my throat, but I have to get out to see the sights!

http://en.beijing2008.cn/spectators/beijing/tourism/list/n214068413.shtml
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/summer.htm

Every support beam along the Long Hall, had a separate painting! Unbelievable for being around 150 years old!
This boat isn't going anywhere too soon! But I guess a stone boat would be hard to power!

I have finally found the correct design for the boat that Chaz and I are going to build out of milk cartons to cross the Olentangy River!

Links to Help You View the Places Better

From here on out I will try to remember to put links to my places I visit or see when I can find a good website with background information. My photos can't do most places justice, so here are some links that I should've thrown in (Thanks Mom!)-
Forbidden City
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/beijing/forbidden.htm
http://www.chinavista.com/beijing/gugong/map.html
The Great Wall at Badaling
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/badaling.htm
The Ming Tombs
http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/atam/115650.htm
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/ming_tomb.htm
2008 Summer Olympics
http://en.beijing2008.cn/
Venues Map (I work near #3, I live west of #4)
http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/

Forbidden City

On Saturday I went to the Forbidden City. This was a place that was had been off limits to everyone for 500 years, and it was home to the Ming and Qing dynasties of emperors. The place is so huge it was hard to take pictures to actually show its size. The one courtyard was able to hold imperial audiences of up to 100,000. Tienanmen Square is directly across the street from the FC. Chairman Mao's body lays in rest in his memorial building. I will go to visit him at some point this summer. We definitely don't have a shortage of labor. These ladies were out front scrubbing and scrapping gum and dirt off the ground.Look at the throne, it had to be awesome to rule from this position. The FC is undergoing some renovation in preparation for the tourists coming to visit for the Olympics. Many of the posts and outside ornamental pieces have been painstakingly restored. They were glistening in the sun!! We barely scratched the surface of this huge place after 2.5 hours. There are 9,000 items that have been saved to show how they lived (clothing, military uniform, weapons, crowns, bedrooms), as well as royal gifts (huge jade carvings, ornate decorations). I will return here once the renovation is complete so that I can go up the steps to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. After the FC, we stopped to get lunch at Fuwongjing, just a few blocks over. After scarfing down some Pizza Hut, yes I ate Pizza Hut, we headed down to the the one back alley to find some more snacks. Look closely to what my snack is, if you are thinking a grasshopper, you are correct! It takes nutty, but I think that has to do with the oil that it gets fried in. Some Chinese people were in shock that I was eating it, which is weird because I guess I give them the same look when they starting eating the sparrow on a stick, or the other skinless rodent items on a stick!It looks like I didn't get all of this guy in my mouth!

The MPC opens this week, so I will be busy receiving products and on-boarding my staff. We open the staff dining hall on next Tuesday, June 10. I will have some more updated pictures from my venue. Next Sunday is the Dragon Festival, so I don't know what that means, but they have some triangle wrapped things in the grocery store that you can usually only get around now. I will need to pick some up this week.