Dispatch from China: Summer Palace

Written by Andy

On my last saturday in BJ I went on a tour with Cindy. Cindy is a friend of my host Andrew. She grew up in Haerbin but has lived in BJ for some time. She actually never had been to the Summer Palace before so I thought where better to visit. I have to say, traveling with a native speaker is much easier than not. After the palace she took me to the hutongs in the Dongcheng section of town.

Lily pads in Lake Kumming

my generous host, Cindy, being surprised by a photo. I said I'd delete it, whoops :)

The summer palace and lake kumming

Lake kumming. the summer palace photo before this is taken to the right of this shot.

Lily pads in bloom

The island in the middle of lake kumming.

The long corridor.
read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Corridor

The famed marble boat.
read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Boat

I forget the history and name of this bridge. I just sort of like how it had this massive arch in it.

summer palace from the other side of kumming lake.

Our rickshaw driver in the Dongcheng hutongs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutong

tight fit

a very old building in the Dongcheng hutong.

The more commercialized hutong streets. They've turned the streets into trendy restaurant, bars and clothing stores. Also, they have tones of chinese "crap" stores. these are the stores that sell random cheaply made Chinese souvenir and junk stuff.

Beijings Drum tower

Beijings bell tower.

Cast Iron, the choice of real men and grandmothers

The facts on Cast Iron, it's awesome and cheap. There is no denying this. Cast Iron pans are like the cockroaches of cookware. Think about it, did Viggo Mortensen cook his last can of beanie weenies in All-Clad in that horribly depressing movie before eating his son? Of course not, that crap isn't going to survive a nuclear fall out. (was any of that a spoiler?)

The Circumcision Post: When You Talk About Penises, You're Gonna Meet Some Assholes.

Several weeks ago I posted a note to twitter that I was in the process of making a decision about whether or not to circumcise my son. Admittedly, by writing on twitter that it was on my mind, I put it into the public arena. What I was unprepared for was the speed at which people who were not in my friend graph appeared and tried to influence my opinion. Within seconds, I had messages from @circinfo and @intactbydefault, for and against. So what exactly does that mean? It means that these dudes were sitting at their computers, or more likely ipads searching for the word circumcision on twitter, and probably myspace and facebook.

I thanked them both politely for expressing interest in my sons penis, until the douche canoe calling himself @intactbydefault had the nerve to quote Gandhi by way of comparison to what he perceives as his own struggle for human rights. motherfucking Gandhi. My response was: "Yes. You are exactly like Gandhi, if Gandhi spent all day trolling the internet for mentions of baby penises and giving unsolicited advice. ass".

So here's the decision I made.... Just kidding. That will never happen, because frankly, it just isn't anyones business outside of your family. Not your Rabbi, and certainly not the creeps out there wailing over foreskins while people starve in the streets and hundreds of people are maimed every day by roadside bombs. My advice to you is that when you make your decision, go no further than your own conscience, culture, and family for your answers.

Dispatch From China: Trans-Mongolian Railway

Written by Andyfatherfolk

Andy blogs at http://herenow-nowhere.blogspot.com/

Though I wasn't fortunate enough to make it into Beijing via Moscow on the Trans-Siberian route, I was able to take the train from UB to BJ on the Trans-Mongolian line. I had read about how it was a social train and it sounded like many other like minded travelers would be on it and endless fun would ensue. You may have already guessed this, but this was not the case. Passengers mainly stayed in their rooms and the cafe car that I had read was a hotbed of social interaction was actually a restaurant car where people got food but did not really communicate. I did meet a few other travelers who had had similar thoughts and were surprised at the sterile like environment of the train.

Thanks to my local government we got to worship the devil, twice!

Kids accepting sugar bombs from mostly strangers happened over the weekend, you may have heard of it and may have even participated, on a Sunday no less!

This was not to be in our county, which apparently decided about a month ago that celebrating this day of cavities and pudge on the day of his almighty wasn't in our best interest. Boy did we get the last laugh.

We saddled the horses, hitched up the wagon and made our way all the way across the county line on the 31st of October. We spent a long night imbibing, chanting (imperial march for every plastic Vader mask), pentagram drawing (it just happened to appear as hopscotch), candle burning (we burned candles) and shuffling around a 16 month old lion cub from stranger to stranger.

Last night, free of the complications in sharing this day of rampant paganism and devilry with Sunday, we did it all again. Thank you County Council, for allowing us to be our pagan best twice this year.