24 degree celsius, sun, blue sky! Sitting next to a fountain, watching children play with the water and drinking a Frappuccino felt just like I could be anywhere Mediterranean, but not in China.
This weekend feels most relaxed, probably also due to the weather.
Yesterday Agnes and me went strolling through a Chinese landscape garden - 'Daguanyuan' at the other end of Beijing. We wondered why the entrance was relatively high (40 Yuan, approx. 3,80 EUR), but as we had left our guide books at home we just enjoyed the garden with its stone formations, its lake, the beautiful blossoming flowers. At home I then read that the garden was was built as a replica of one of the most famous Chinese books, the 18th century 'Dream of the Red Mansions' by Cao Xueqin. Well, shall try to buy and read the book now that I know how important it is in Chinese literary history. At night, after having had dinner in a Vegetarian hutong restaurant with own house altar (Bodhi-Sake) we decided to walk a bit and walked till Tianmen. Tianmen square by night is also worth visiting.
Today I visited Sunhe kite market, quite out of town. Spring is kite season (kite = German: Flugdrachen) in China: just look up into the sky and you'll see extraordinary kites flyiing in many places; not just children fly them, but mainly old men. Kites are something very Chinese: the first kite was invented in China approximately 2300 years ago. They were first used for military purposes to deliver messages or check the direction of the wind. Later on making kites became a Chinese handicraft and flying kites a popular spare time activity. Sunhe market sold anything from vegetables, meat, Xian terracotta soldiers duplicates, clothes to kites. The kites themselves were available in many forms: dragon, butterfly, batman, Mickey Mouse, Beijing opera themes etc. Although I had planned to buy nothing, I could not resist and bargained some decorative kites.
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