Huang Caoliang - Beijing

A few weeks ago we went on a hike organized by the China Culture Center to an area in Beijing called Huang Caoliang.

Huang Caoliang is in a district of  western Beijing called Mentougou. As you can see it is quite mountainous while central Beijing is as flat as a pancake.

This rock formation is known as the elephant trunk. It looks like this chunk of rock sort of slid down from up above.

There are a lot of flowering trees in the area.

This area has seen a lot of investment in tourism infrastructure over the last few years. The roads into the area are in good shape with a lot of spots for picnicking, etc. They even have emergency location towers along the trail.

There are a lot of fruit trees under cultivation in the area. This farmer is walking along an irrigation channel. It looks like he has a saw in his pack for trimming the trees.

This little cemetery was located at the trail head. The stone on the left is for a man named Wang. It was erected by his children in 2011, I believe.

These beekeepers were working in the area.

Here Margot and I are standing on the trail.

The flowering trees were very pretty.

Some are apple and some are wild peach.

Several different types and colors.

Some sort of wild flower I think.

A lot of trees.

I'm not sure if these are all the same or not.

At this elevation (about 4000 ft) the tress were not nearly as leafed out as in Beijing city.

Another wildflower.

This is about the only wildlife we saw other than birds. I understand this centipede or whatever is used in Chinese medicine.

No idea what this hut was used for.

There were hundreds of these walls forming terraces up the valleys. Someone spent a lot of effort lugging these rocks around to make the walls.

It looked like it was mostly fruit trees planted on the terraces.

There was a herd of goats grazing near the entrance.


Here is a link to Google Maps location. We started our hike at the very bottom-center of the map.  Huang Cailiang

Bell Tower - Beijing

May 1 was Labor Day in China and a big holiday. We tried to go to the zoo but the subway stop there was out of service because of the crowds. The train just blew through the station. So rather than walk from the next station we decided to go to the Bell Tower. The crowds were big but not out of control.

We had to walk through the Houhai area to get there. I've posted about this area several times.

Here is a link to one of them. Houhai

The guy with the single oar seemed to have better control than the people in the pedal boats. I guess that is the difference between amateurs and professionals.

We didn't walk down Nanluoguxiang but it was very crowded.

I realized I didn't take a picture of the outside of the Bell Tower so I recycled this one from an earlier post about the Drum Tower.

You can find that post here.  Drum Tower

Actually, there is a  better picture of the outside at this post.  Drum and Bell Towers

Here is shot of the stairs up to the bell. Very similar to the Drum Tower. They are pretty steep.

This is the Bell. It was cast about 600 years ago out of solid copper.

The bell is stationary. The red log is used to ring the bell.

The bell is 23 ft long and weighs 63 tons. It seems that 63 tons of copper would have been a huge investment in the early 1400s. It would have taken a lot of effort to mine, refine, and cast that much copper. On the other hand, I guess a country that can build the Great Wall can gather up 63 tons of copper.

The steles are in a courtyard that is closed off. Steles were often constructed to commemorate some action or proclamation by the emperor.

Not sure what to make of the saw.

This is a picture of the gate to the Bell Tower with the Drum Tower in the background.

Here is a picture of the Drum Tower from the Bell Tower.

Yuyuantan Park

Last week, during the May Day holiday, we went for a walk in Yuyuantan Park in western Beijing. It was a very nice day even if a little windy. Lots of people out enjoying the day.

This guy was doing ribbon dancing.

This was actually just outside the park. It looked like several barbers had set up shop on the street.

There were many families out in the park. This little guy was having a grand time.

Here a group of young people are enjoying a picnic. Pretty much the same as in the U.S. - just substitute fish balls and pancakes for fried chicken and potato salad, chopsticks for forks.

At first glance I thought this was a young girl blowing bubbles. The flower garlands are very popular with the younger crowd.

Closer inspection, like the tattoo on her chest, suggests she is older than 12.

Click to enlarge.

I think this is an erhu that the old man is playing. An erhu is two string instrument. However, this one looks like it had three strings. I guess that makes it a sanhu.

This little - I'm going to go with girl based on the shoes and jacket - just had to hold out her bubble hoop and let the wind do its work.

I hope her parents have a picture of the outfit to share with her boyfriends when she is older.

These girls looked like they were posing for pictures. It didn't look like a professional shoot. I wonder if maybe it was for a photography class.

There were several large and small lakes in the park. The park is big - about 2 km by 0.7 km.

It really was a nice day.

Fortunately this scene was on the other side of the lake. It took a telephoto lens to capture it.

I'm not sure I'd swim in any of the lakes or rivers in Beijing. I don't have enough confidence in the sewage collection system.

There were a lot of flowers in the park. The tulips were very nice.

More tulips.

These are Japanese Cherry tree blossoms.

The park us famous for its thousands of Cherry trees.

Not sure what these are.

We came across an art auction set up in the park.  We didn't understand anything except the prices but you could just imagine the auctioneer overstating the quality and provenance of the paintings. Margot didn't want to leave - she seemed to enjoy deciphering the prices. This one might have fetched 100 to 200 RMB. I don't recall exactly.

All sorts of knick-knacks and snacks for sale.

This bridge spans the link between the 2 lakes.

This is the Beijing TV tower. I was located at the west end of the park.

Another flower picture.