Beijing Series Part 6

Here are some more random pictures. I am sorry for not having any of the scenery in Beijing. A lot of the places were obstructed by scaffolding or positioned awkwardly so the camara angle and/or the composition of the picture would have been bad. At least you get commentary with these pics.

One day we tried to get close to the flag pole while the guard was removing it before sunset. As we were walking, we were stopped by a row of guards blocking the way. Apparently, too many people were too close so they were inhibiting the flow of traffic towards the flag. We were pretty respectful of the guards but many of the Chinese would create diversions and let their families sneak across this mysterious boundary. It is equivalent to tapping someone on the shoulder farthest from where you are standing so they turn the wrong way - and then you dash across the line. We just laughed. We also took our pictures with the guards. The one below on the left is me and Mr. Guard (who happened to be duped a million times). The way some of these Chinese people were acting you would think that they were trying to escape from Bosnia.















The picture on above on the right is the countdown clock for the Olympics. I tried to take a picture of it everytime I saw it. The ones I took at night were the coolest but they were very blurry. At least you can tell how much time was left until the Olympics when I snapped the picture. (Click on it to enlarge it.)

Below are some other random pictures. The one on the left is the room the Yichang 4 lived in at the You Yi Hostel in Beijing. 2 bunkbeds. It wasn't glamorous but it was fun. I love hostels - though this one wasn't the best. It didn't have a common room where we could meet other travellers. The best we could do was catch people in the hall. There was a bar connected to the Hostel but we only ate b-fast there. The picture on the right is of me and Amy in a rickshaw in the hutongs. (A hutong is kind of like a shanty town but generally nicer. The houses aren't shacks just little concrete buildings connected to each other in such a random way that the walkways tend to be mazelike.) We took a ride in one for 30 minutes. We bargained with the guy who would peddle the bike - 30 kuai for 2 people for 30 minutes. He dropped us off at a tea place in the middle of the hutongs. I asked how much for the tea - they said something that I thought meant free. After enjoying 30 minutes of tea they told us we must pay up. 25 dollars apiece. I had feeling cheated but whatever. Then the rickshaw driver peddled past our time and demanded we pay more. Heck no! It wasn't our fault he peddled too much. All he had to do was stop and drop us off at the road. It was fun seeing the hutongs though. No one knows how much longer they will be there since Beijing is becoming more and more modern and all the hutongs are being replaced with skyrise apartments/condos/buildings.