“Crowded” no longer begins to describe Tian’anmen Square and the Forbidden City! May Day has not even arrived yet! Stamp collecting guided the entire Forbidden City trip. By circling from station to station, I somehow visited every building, including the Meridian Gate and Gate of Divine Might, both with temporary exhibitions. I also joined a volunteer tour of the Ceramics Gallery and took photos of everything along the way. Explore! ...
Today was tourism on special-forces difficulty: I finished the Great Wall at Juyong Pass in three hours, then went to the northern section at Badaling that afternoon. But this is exactly the time to run around while I am still a student. After all, I visited two sections of the Great Wall for the price of one adult ticket! I’m exhausted and going to bed early, so here is a quick record of the route and expenses. Almost everything was half-price with a student ticket, for reference only. (The route too, probably. Does anyone else actually climb the Great Wall like this?!) ...
Zhuge Tianyao skipped one update and never rose again. The End. Alright, I was simply lazy. Now I am living alone, feeling bored, and want something to write—so the updates return. … A planetarium must contain a sufficient quantity of astronomy! (Applause.) As the name implies, it must be hardcore enough that every child thinks the displays were written in an alien language (?) before it earns my approval. Ahem. Perhaps that goes too far. But the dome theater at the planetarium truly was orders of magnitude better than the one at the science museum. I even heard parents consoling children who had fallen asleep by telling them the show was “too technical.” ...
Spent today writing my Art History paper. One-day hiatus.
The gale warning has already expired, so why is the wind still this strong today…? At last, I got up and ran! After only a few weeks away, Aobei Forest Park seemed completely transformed. Flowers of every kind bloomed beside the path, and one “good morning” after another opened the new day. Running really should happen right after a gale. At least the willow fluff cannot attack you and achieve maximum lung penetration ( ...
Did I spend this weekend meaningfully? Beijing’s gale trapped me at home with nowhere to go. (My Forbidden City reservation, noooo.) I had firmly resolved to use the time for serious study. What actually happened: MC, launch! Plus puzzles. I was supposed to take responsibility for my service. I was supposed to improve at my part-time work, even teach a classmate. I was supposed to tutor another classmate in English. I was supposed to submit every assignment and the paper before leaving. I was supposed to make time to talk with my parents. I was not supposed to forget my daily Bible reading… ...
Trapped at home by the gale, hence the missing update.
After basketball today, the kids and I made a promise. If you have followed the previous entries, you may have noticed that the geocaching content is reaching suspiciously high levels. The truth is that I have become thoroughly obsessed with this game, born in the year 2000. After finding so many caches, it was time to hide one of my own! We happened to need someone to give a short talk after basketball, so I told the story of me and geocaching. To me, searching for hidden things carries the strange pull of exploring the unknown. Judging by the children’s half-understanding expressions, they may not have shared my enthusiasm. ...
Another day of failing to get up for a run ( After NT today, I galloped after a classmate to Wangfujing to meet some of his old schoolmates. That evening we ate “authentic” zhajiangmian and heard all manner of amusing stories about people and events at their school. Passed St. Joseph’s Church in Wangfujing. Beautiful from the outside, though sadly its cache was missing. Passed a rickshaw statue and discovered that the driver had become separated from his vehicle. I cried: “The Force—activate!” This, too, was a kind of cache; all it required was a photo together. (So naturally I photographed my bag with the rickshaw. Classic me.) ...
Nothing much to say about today, so let me fill in yesterday’s trip to the botanical garden. We followed a friend to the Beijing Botanical Garden for a spring outing. Spring in Beijing is brief and brilliant. Besides the beautiful flowers, of course, there is willow fluff filling the sky. Once you let yourself mistake that all-enveloping white for snow, you cannot help marveling at how perfectly Xie Daoyun described it. ...