China Day Five!
Ok! So today was another very late start. I'm not sure why this morning, but things seemed to just run late., Had a better nights sleep, but I have now woken up with about three extra bites. Totally lost count, and despite the pills and the cream they're getting bigger, But hopefully that'll be them. John successfully killed a flying beastie about an hour ago, so here's hoping that's it away!
So today Lewis, Tina and I went to the Ritan Gardens.
They were built about 500 years ago, and are old Imerpial (Ie, connected to the emperor). There was also something about an old Communist matryr. I can't remember who. Anyway, it was a big ritual place with a big Alter mound in the middle. There was also a sacrifical area where a big well had been filled in. So it was a little ruined. It was lovely - lots of paths to meander through lovely trees and lots of grass. There was even some rather lovely flowers.
This a welcoming lion - they are often found outside big gateways, placed as guardians. This one here is a Male. You can tell, "Because He Has The World Under His Paw."
And this one is a female, as she is landed with a cub under her paw - typical, eh? They're guarding the same bloody gate and he gets the easier job ;)
Flowers! There was a big massive collection of these wrapped around a few of the trees. They've been littered throughout the city - probably due to the 60th celebration. Many of them are looking a bit sad now, with the day past they're not being watered in their little pots and are being left to die. =C
Mound Alter seemed to be a recent square construction of cement, but it was surrounded by a big circular wall, and they have this habit of putting little roofs on their tops. Rather beautiful, ornate complicated little roofs - apparently they're even more complicated the more important the place, and everything has a meaning. Don't know what the dragon means, but he's ever so pretty.
Not sure what this little pagoda was, but it was up a wee hill, over some very nobbly, uneven steps (they must be old) and had a fantastic view. It was lovely to sit up and just relax in. As you can see the sun was out and it was quite warm, save for the wee breeze that was blowing. In addition, there was quite a few mums and kids, so the serenity of this shot was rather "ruined" (I liked it) in reality by screaming wee'uns playing.
(Argh, I'm in this one!)
The view. :)
There was also this rather pretty pool surrounded by...um, things. The little structure you see in this was actually a little cafe called Stone Boat. We had lunch there - Lewis had Beijing noodles and a Tsingtao beer, which I believe he is now rather fond of as it appears to be his tipple of choice out here. Tina and I both ordered little pork dumplings, I had iced Tea and she had a rose tea of some sort. So, Lewis' noodles arrived and he tucked in - in China it is the custom to eat as food arrives, starters do not turn up seperatly unless you ask. So Lewis munched (and we tasted) and then we waited. And waited. And waited. About half an hour later there was still no dumplings, so Tina investigated incase they had forgotten. They had! So the dumplings eventually arrived, and were super yummy. I need to learn how to make them, or find a decent source at home as dumplings are just so tasty.
Another lake view. :)
So, after lunch we meandered through a little more of the garden, and headed off in search of the Walmart. While we never actually got lost it felt like we had, as the whole darn walk was so super long! We eventually found Walmart, which was exactly where it was supposed to be, despite me being convinced we were throughly lost. (A block here is like, a thousand miles long as opposed to,ya know, BLOCK sized.). It was huuuge. And I hate food shopping. Lewis loves it. And loves it even more when you can't actually identify what your picking up.
We planned to have dinner in this evening, so had to shop for food. Bought some sort of green leaft thing, ginger, garlic and various other bits and bobs, to make stir fry when we got in.
This evenings entertainment was watching Tina in a play that had been recorded back in Dingwall - very funny, but unfortunatly the sound was a bit crap so quite a few of the jokes were lost on us. Then caught the tail end of "mamma mia" which has throughly made me more determined not to watch it all the way through.
The boy is currently falling asleep - usually I am the one finding if difficult to stay awake at ten o'clock. but now it's him and I'm sitting up late at night listening to Nation on my Ipod (incidently, I haven['t actually read it yet. I'm a terrible pratchett fan) and trying not to giggle at the funny bits.
All the while evading the bite of my mosquito nemisis. No symptoms of zombie plague yet. ....Yet.
Tomorrow - picking up Lewis' suit (there will be pictures!) and tiananmen square!