a weirdo in china, pt. 13: elision

It was my second-to-last day in China, and it was time to play a bit of catch-up. Off to the Emperor's Summer Palace!

This actually passes for a sunny day in Beijing.

It's going to be hard for me to adequately convey the feeling of this place in words and cloudy pictures alone. It gave me the sense of being in a nice park, but we were in Beijing in the summer, so nowhere outside is really actually nice. Still, there were some cool things to look at.

A very Long Corridor.

A Marble Boat. Actually wood, painted to look like marble. Still can't float. A classic example of misappropriation of government funds; it was apparently constructed with money earmarked for the Imperial Navy.

I even got to ride the boat, which definitely ranked in my top-10 boat-related experiences. But no, the most interesting thing I saw at the Summer Palace was definitely this family:

Somebody told me Peppa Pig was banned in China, but Peppa was EVERYWHERE.

After that, we headed over to a shopping arcade, which was a bit overly-gentrified and boring. Yet I found fascinating sights wandering some nearby back alleys!

This guy is advertising a clown-themed laundromat, rather effectively, I think.

Entrance to Cat Castle, a cat cafe...

With quite a large resident!

I dearly wanted to experience the joy of a WAFFLE STICK, but resisted.

Guan Yu in all his well-deserved glory.

I also visited the home of Qi Baishi, the most famous Chinese painter of all time.

I found his painting Pine to contain a truly ethereal sense of beauty and impermanence.

And some kids playing badminton in the street.

The back alleys of Beijing were great, because it was the only time I had in that city where I saw how people really lived. And to be honest, it seemed like they were doing a lot better than Shanghai. There are still heaps of random crap everywhere, but in Beijing, it isn't actual garbage, and there is some sense of order to local life. Shanghai, on the other hand, was just a mad scramble for survival. If it wasn't for the horrendous air quality, I would have preferred Beijing much more.

Neighborhood water purifier