Chinese Intimidation, For Free!!!

Cliff, Maggie (Taiwanese), Micheal and I decided to make a pilgrimage to the Military Museum in Beijing. The building is appropriately large and ominous and we were very excited to see what the common people can see about the military.
The front is flanked by two huge statues, one is the common people (peasants, farmers and factory workers, all holding rifles and grenades), the other side is members of the army and air force, all looking into China's bright future (holding weapons, of course). I joined in.
Of course, Mao was the first people to welcome us. Seriously, I know that the military has alot to thank him for (allowing them to bloat into one of the largest money making entities in the country), but when are the people here going to recognize him for the egotistical, insecure, little man that he was. OK, I'm off my soap box.
The entrance hall was pretty impressive...filled with old missile, airplanes, tanks, anti-aircraft artillery.
Apparently, even the military comes here to get a look...in the background is an old SA-2...one of the first surface to air missiles Russia developed.

There was also an extensive collection of rifles, handguns, semi-automatic weapons, rocket/morter launchers from the US, Russia, Germany, France (dropped once, never fired) and China. I"m not sure how comfortable I feel about such a proud and blatent display of weapons, but I suppose China has a very strong military history, so it makes sense.

Some of the sculptures were pretty damn neat...this one celebrates the fight against the japanese.
This is a display on the rape of Nanjing, which no Chinese will ever forget. Even many of my classmates declare that they HATE Japanese, even though they admit that they have never met one. The feeling is pretty strong, even amongst the younger generation, so I don't think this will change anytime soon.
I didn't want to blow this up too big, but the pictures are really graphic.
Another great sculpture/relief with our friend Michael caught up in the passion of victory.
Michael and Maggie fighting for communist freedom.
This picture is a perfect commentary on China today: propaganda, uniformity and a f@#kload of people.
I suppose this is meant to evoke fear, but it makes me laugh. He's sooooo intense.
The PLA marching into the red sunset of victory.
All of us (plus ice cream bar) at the end of our sufficiently intimidating day.

Rock Climbing--MiYun County

So, I owe everyone an apology...I posted all my pictures backwards, so you'll have to read from the bottom up. REgardless, we took out point-and-shoot camera to the basement of a local electronics mart and got it repaired, so it is temporarily up and running. It was just in time, as we had a long weekend. This past weekend was Tomb Sweeping Day in China--all the peeps try to return home and sweep/clean up the tombs of their ancestors. In reality, its a holiday to return to the country, get piss drunk, eat lots and try to make it to the tomb of grandparents. Anyways, this is the part where you have to work from the bottom up.

Our new friends:
The White Rive valley is beautiful.

Our new friend Dean had a pretty spectacular climb and we took some great pics with out new camera.
Here is our group, pictured from a bird's eye view.
Cliff is large and in charge.
The wall looks pretty intimidating from the bottom.


In the distance you can see a turret from the Great Wall--its quite sobering to be rock climbing in the shadow of the great wall. To think that so many Chinese gave their lives to defend this area so we can rock climb...

We took a couple of pics from the canyon the first day--the weather was perfect, about 75 degrees and sunny. We couldn't have asked for better weather.

It was a long way down.
Cliff was so happy to get his first climb of the season.
I'm pleased to say that our climbing companions were reallly great people. For a bunch of strangers we got along really well and had alot of laughs. In the foreground is William, who is holding our lunch for the day...oil cakes (like fried, think crepes) and boiled eggs. We were fed like construction workers.
Below are two pictures of the surrounding area, taken from the roof of the hostel.

This is the courtyard of our place...the layout is typical of traditional Chinese dwellings--a center courtyard surrounded by four walls that contain living quarters, eating areas and a kitchen.
We planned to stay a couple nights, so we got a place at a local hostel which is popular with rock climbers...the room was standard, but I wanted to show you the bathroom. This is a common squatter toilet...the ridged area for your feet is an exact science. I've stood a couple inches forward and back from the ridged area and it was disasterous. btw, not showed is the shower head sticking out of the wall...the toilet bowl is also the drain for the bathroom. Many places in Asia have this shower/toilet multipurpose room combination. Its pretty gross, but something you get used to.
Even after we got in the bus station, we had to join a snake line and rush the bus as it pulled up...one more great experience from China.
Since it was the holiday weekend, it seemed like all 17mil residents of Beijing were trying to leave at once. We planned to take a bus to MiYun County, which is only about 1.5 hours out of town...when we got to the bus station at 6pm, the line was out the bus station, down the block and around the corner. It was crazy.

Broken Cameras, morning commutes and other bafoonery...

So, we broke our camera while rock climbing and then snowboarding a couple weeks later. Our SLR had a slow painful death, but it lived a good and honorable life. So, unfortunately pictures will be slow to come for a couple weeks. So, I've been meaning to post a chronicle of morning commute. So, this was a couple weeks ago when it was still pretty chili. Here is my husband, doing his best kenny impression. We drag our electric bike out from the apartment, I hop on the back and hide my face in Cliff's back to avoid wind burn as we weave our way thru traffic.
The Dongzhimen station has some interesting ads decorating the station...the penguin ad below (for I don't know what) looks just like the average subway station queue...people are already crowding before you get into a car.

There are also a ton of Panda ads, also for God knows what. Do you love me?
This is another panda ad...why does the daddy panda look so sinister?
There has been a big public service push in Beijing to gentrify the locals. I'm not sure why a fully sashed beauty queen is riding the subway, but she's nice enough to give an elderly man her seat.
The other lesson is that Zorro will always let pregnant women go first...
As you can see below, these valuable etiquette lessons aren't really realistic...if you can find space to stand during the morning commute, count yourself lucky. Cliff and I get on the first stop of the line, so we always get a seat...and then we are privied to an hour to commuting hilarity.
The fight off of the train is of epic proportions. Its the best reason to put up your elbows and charge a crowd.
The commute is tedious, but entertaining everyday. I also wanted to post a picture of a couple of our guy and girl friends on Peking U campus. This is right by the lake (which is famous), crowned with a multi-tiered pagoda.

We'll try to get the camera fixed soon...TTFN.