China Incoming

Hi everybody! This is Parker. I just arrived in Beijing. I hope that everything is going well back in the U.S., especially in math.

Dallas: Don’t go on an escalator backwards, that’s what I always say.

 

Tokyo: After a 13-hour plane ride, I felt welcome!

Tokyo: This is awesome! Can you see all the toys!

 

Tokyo: Yum, yum, yummy.

 

Tokyo: They checked our temperature for swine flu and gave us masks.

Beijing: Happy faces.

Beijing: I love noodles!

Later, folks. I’ll be back with you tomorrow.

My Trip to the Forbidden City

I think that the Forbidden City so far was the best place that I went in China. It was huge and there were a lot of people selling popsicles. There were so many places to get lost. The Forbidden City is where the emperor used to live. By the way, how’s the China project going?

Also, it was really hot there (95 degrees). That’s why I was drinking water with ice in it. You can’t drink the sink water in China. P.S. Don’t brush your teeth with it either!

 

 One of the guardians of the Forbidden City.

 

If you look at these things closely, and you’ve read “How to Be an Explorer of the World,” and since it’s so hot out, you might think that they were concrete ice-cream cones. 

In China, dragons are lucky symbols. They are the symbol of rain. But they’re also the symbol of the Emperor. In the Forbidden City there are dragons everywhere.

Dragons up high.

Dragons down low.

Ceramic dragons.

And stone dragons.

And dragon orbs.

The tiny golden dragon Mom is touching is good luck. So many people have touched it, that it’s all shiny. The rest of the frame is tarnished.

A parasol and a popsicle are a lot different from each other. But they are so good in hot weather!

The Temple of Heaven

Behold the Temple of Heaven. The Emperor came here once a year to give his report to Heaven, and make sacrifices.

The main temple building, where the Emperor prayed for good harvests.

How did that kite get stuck up here? This is sad.

 

By the way, I forgot to tell you – we saw this really awesome building yesterday. Hey, there’s a small detail I didn’t notice. Aw, not another kite stuck! I am definitely going to keep my eyes peeled for these kites on buildings.

Hey, another temple. Ah, silly me, it’s only a model. Hang on, what’s that inside it? Aaaaaaaaah. The Holy Grail? How come I didn’t see it there when I took the picture?

 

This is a sketch. This is a sketch. This is a sketch.

To James.

I love sliding down ramps! There are a lot of ramps in China.

Oh, hi Dad.

Hi, son. 

The temple area is very big.

 

We had to do a lot of walking.

After doing all that, my legs felt like pencil lead. I felt that they were going to break at any minute. Krc . . . AAAAH!

                 

But after a long rest back in my hotel, I figured that my legs were well enough to do some Chinese hacky sack. A Chinese hacky sack has four feathers on the top, and on the bottom there are little metal rings, all arranged differently. I bargained with a lady in the park, and bought it for four yuan (60 cents).

Here’s the lady who sold me my hacky. In China you bargain for everything. Ok guys, I’ll let you in on the secret. First, the seller says a number. Always say a lower number. If she has a calculator, you look at what the seller has typed in, and then you type in something. What you pay is somewhere in the middle. If you have bargained for a while, and her price is still too high, you walk away. She’ll probably give you it for your price.

A New Friend

Well, this morning I went to a churchyard right up from my hotel, and we practiced Chinese hacky sack.

But I wasn’t the only one.

I guess maybe old people play it for exercise.

All of a sudden a man playing hacky sack saw me.

He took me by the hand and rushed me over to a bench. At first I thought he was going to teach me a hacky sack lesson. But instead he led me to a person that spoke English. I think that he might have been interested that I was part Chinese and part white. They asked a lot of questions.

I told him about going to the Temple of Heaven yesterday, and he gave me something kind of like a mini history test.

But I was a quarter of the way right.

 

And I told him that I would return tomorrow for more lessons.

The Water Cube

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On Friday we went to an art museum. There was a lake there, and a bridge that went halfway to a big cube with curtains. You could go into the cube. After the bridge ended, there were underwater steps.

I went with Ken, my dad’s boss. It felt good to be walking in the water. It was really hot in Beijing. 

June, Ken’s wife, came in too.

When I was walking that morning, I saw something like the steps to the cube. They went to a public toilet.

When you were inside the cube, you could sit down. There were a few white rocks in the lake.

 

We made the rocks into a circle.

I put my feet in the circle.

The cube moves around. It was probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

At the edge of the lake, someone had written Chinese characters. Our friend Zhongjie told us they said “Do you need to cool off?”

I wrote my own characters.