I Seem to Have Misplaced My Notes

Which means I'll just have to tell the rest of the story via pictures.

The lake outside the Summer Palace. Just a short drive from Beijing city, it was raining proper by the time we arrived. The lake was pretty much invisible. But I really like how this picture turned out. It's not shot in B/W either.

These are candied sweet potato fries. They were piping hot when they were served. You grabbed a few with the chopsticks and pulled them straight up off the pile. The little strings are like molten hard candy and once you have a lot of longevity (as evidenced by how high you could pull the fries up and still have candied webs), you dipped the fries in that little bowl of water next to Plate of Fiery Love in order to cool them off to just under the temperature of the sun and eat them. De-fucking-lish.

A path outside the Temple of Heaven. I really love this picture. I wonder what those two were talking about. I wondered that a lot on this trip. Not being able to communicate makes me uncomfortable.

And on the last day of the tourist extravaganza, we went to an art museum. The featured exhibition was Art in America, I wish I was kidding. It was actually a pretty cool exhibit, but still. I wanted some real ancient Chinese art and I got Art in America, some white couple's art collection and one floor's worth of art from Southern China - which is nothing at all like Beijing as far as climate or landscape. Interesting, yes. Disappointing, maybe a tiny bit.

Then we had lunch and then we went shopping at the Mall O' Knock-Offs. I bought a Mao magnet (that I can't find) for 5 yuan - less than $.75. I also bought some knock-off Chanel sunglasses - the kind that make you look like a bug or something Audrey Hepburn might wear - for my hair stylist. He loved them. I knew he would. He definitely doesn't look like a bug (like I did wearing them). It was high-pressure sales and I did barter for the couple of things I bought. But I don't get into that too much, so I was thankful we only had about an hour here (yes, longer at the Mall O'Knock-Offs than the Great Wall, but who's counting?).

And our final dinner. They brought out some sesame rolls and I realized it was the first time I'd seen bread since we got there. I must have been drooling because they handed the beautiful biscuits right to me. We also had some traditional sweet chestnut dumplings - traditional for the Lantern Festival, otherwise known as the last day of Chinese New Year. Those were damn tasty. I wouldn't advise biting into them and looking inside though. Nope, just pop 'em in - they're way better that way.

Since it was the last night of their New Year, there were fireworks going on in every direction IN THE CITY. I saw them bouncing off tall apartment blocks after being shot off from the street below. I can guarantee that shit wouldn't fly over here. It was mayhem, but it was pretty. There were even some people shooting them off in an abandoned lot just by our hotel and they were pretty much exploding right outside our hotel window. Our own little fireworks display.

Taken on the last day before I checked out and headed to the airport. I give you: Travel Dogs in Beijing.