A visit to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square certainly stirred up some reactions. I traisped across the square so I could see the bullet holes on a statue; the only evidence of the Tiananmen Square protests and resulting massacre in 1989. When I took pictures of the guards I got yelled at and one guard help up his hand and said, "No pictures!" in English.
The Great Wall is absolutely breathtaking. It seems almost rainforest-like with all the greenery and the mist that hangs in the sky. One of the group members got lost while we were hiking the wall and she ended up walking 25 kilometers. The Great Wall is a huge place and there are six different entrance points. She was lost for about 3 hours or more until she got to a police station. I was actually a little jealous (I know that's not a good thing) because it sounded like she had quite the adventure.The Chinese peoples' reactions to me have been a bit unnerving. At the Great Wall two young Chinese girls kept taking pictures of me and then they both wanted to take pictures with me and they were so excited. Everytime I saw them they would shyly smile and wave and just watch me. I guess I am an oddity here.
A visit to a Cloisonne factuory was amazing. Cloisonne is original to China although now people associate it to France. Cloisonne is made out of copper and then a design is made and painted.
This is a Naxi man in native dress in Li Jiang. To get this picture, I had to pay the man 2 yuan...less than 50 cents. The Naxis are similar to American Indians. They were originally in Mongolia, but the Mongols drove them out and they settled in Li Jiang. In Li Jiang a beautiful woman is one that is dark and very fat...I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder! Daughter
It's the fair hair, and straight teeth, that they are in awe of .
ReplyDeleteWhen our daughter and her family visited, she literally had to fend them away from our grandson. He was about 8yrs old,but taller then most of the men. One man walked up to him, and opened his mouth to look at his teeth. The women wanted to touch his blonde curly hair.