Grampa Bill

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This web site has been under construction so long it is now technically Great Grampa Bill.


2011 Index | Uncle Don 2012 | Adelaide 2013 | USA Amtrak Trip | 2012 Shandong Travels | 2014 Viet Nam | 2014 Cambodia | 2015 VietNam-Cambodia
 
Grampa Bill lives in Beijing/DaXing, China March 31, 2011 to ??
December 25, 2013 Mao's 120th Anniversary of Birth
January 26, 2014 CCTV's taping of the 2014 New Years Eve Party for the Year of the Horse
DAY 1

2014 February - HongXia was given tickets to five of the Beijing Parks that are celebrating the Year of the Horse with "Fairs". This is one of the big activities that families in Beijing do to celebrate the New Year.

Ticket value - 20 RMB each

The parks have games people can play to win stuffed animals, rides for children, performances, Photo Ops, and lots of FOOD.

The tickets at left are to Long Tan Guan. It took over an hour to get there from our home in DaXing - subway line 4 north to line 10, then east to line 5, then line 5 north for three stops and finally bus 6 or 116 north and east to the park.

The crowd was just about right on February 1 - a big park, easy to get around.

More Pictures

DAY 2 More Pictures

February 2, 2014 - we rode bus 410 to the 2nd Ring Road in the southwest part of Beijing. HongXia lived and worked in this area in the past.

Ticket value - 40 RMB each - not so crowded - probably because of the price of the tickets.

Much the same as yesterday - this park was not as large as the one yesterday. Most of the activities were the same but we didn't see any performance - probably because it was lunch time.

DAY 3

February 3, 2014 Beijing Bai Yun Yuan (White Cloud Park Taoist Temple)

This is really a temple comples - with lots of places to burn incense and lots of people burning it and praying. Last year we were here with Angela - a student from Shandong Sports University.

When you go in - at the enterence there is a Brass Monkey you can rub for good luck - we did that last year. Also, inside is a brass horse (or mul¶ö) that everyone stood in line to rub.

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DAY 4

February 4, 2014 Di Tan Miao (Lama Temple) - I have been here before at New Year time but we came in through a different gate and I didn't recognize it right away. This is really a big park - lots going on - and, hey, let's face it MY MEMORY IS NOT AS GOOD AS IT USED TO BE.

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DAY 5 February 6, 2014 Lian Hua Chi Park - We had a nice outing to Lian Hua Chi Park yesterday. Lian Hua means "lotus flower" in Chinese - and the park has 250 varieties - of course, this time of year they are dormant. The attraction was a New Year fair - entertainment, food to eat, crafts and toys, games to play, and people to watch. It was a good excuse to get out and exercise.

It took us an hour to get there on two subway lines - not so crowded as we got seats both going and returning - it also helps that I am an older Westerner - many of the people are still quite respectable of age and foreigners. The entrance ticket was 10.00 RMB (about $1.50). In the five days of visiting parks I may have seen two other foreigners - but several hundred thousand Chinese!

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Uncle Don goes to market with THIS LITTLE PIGGY



Auntie HongXia and the Dynamic Duo