Stories and Photos...
As part of the continuing adventures in China, we wandered early this week to the site of Tian Yi’s tomb out in the westernmost suburbs of Beijing (just past the last subway stop heading west) Tian Yi was a eunuch of the Ming dynasty and pretty much ran the Forbidden City for three emperors over 63 years. His tomb involves a lot of pretty stonework, some burial mounds for he and some subsequent eunuchs who were buried in the same place and a hole in the ground.
The hole in the ground is, of course, the entrance to the tomb itself, and there are steps to wander down and check it out, though there isn’t a whole lot there anymore.
The grounds were completely empty except for us… this isn’t a well known site.
Afterwards, we wandered through a hutong and tried to go visit a temple nearby that is supposed to have some really cool frescoes, but the temple was closed. No clue why. No signs or anything. Just a locked gate and an empty ticket booth. Oh well… this is China…
At the end of it all, we decided to wander through Wangfujin, an area of much strange food and the occasional strange mascot…
Meanwhile, back at the homestead…
We got an ayi. Literally translated, this is something like an aunt. There is no actual Western comparison, but the closest we can come is a maid. She comes in twice a week for 2-3 hours and cleans everything in the apartment- floors, windows, dusts, does dishes... She apparently will also cook, iron, and bring drycleaning laundry to the drycleaners, but we haven’t needed her to do any of that yet. People with kids also have ayis that serve as babysitter/nanny to varying degrees.
Oh… and she charges approximately US $1.40 an hour… yeah, you read that right…
B
The hole in the ground is, of course, the entrance to the tomb itself, and there are steps to wander down and check it out, though there isn’t a whole lot there anymore.
The grounds were completely empty except for us… this isn’t a well known site.
Afterwards, we wandered through a hutong and tried to go visit a temple nearby that is supposed to have some really cool frescoes, but the temple was closed. No clue why. No signs or anything. Just a locked gate and an empty ticket booth. Oh well… this is China…
At the end of it all, we decided to wander through Wangfujin, an area of much strange food and the occasional strange mascot…
Meanwhile, back at the homestead…
We got an ayi. Literally translated, this is something like an aunt. There is no actual Western comparison, but the closest we can come is a maid. She comes in twice a week for 2-3 hours and cleans everything in the apartment- floors, windows, dusts, does dishes... She apparently will also cook, iron, and bring drycleaning laundry to the drycleaners, but we haven’t needed her to do any of that yet. People with kids also have ayis that serve as babysitter/nanny to varying degrees.
Oh… and she charges approximately US $1.40 an hour… yeah, you read that right…
B