The Sleeping Dragon

 

I first became acquainted with the Chinese culture as I grew up in my native Peru. My earliest memories recall an old Chinese gardener pulling the weeds in my mom’s garden. And then there was the ubiquitous “Chino”, the little corner store, owned by Chinese folk, where the whole family lived and sold essential foodstuffs, sweets and cheap toys.

In my adolescence I discovered the “Chifa", that delicious and unique blend of Chinese and Peruvian cuisine. Other than those humble early acquaintances I basically knew that China was a huge, far away country with an astronomic population, an inscrutable language and a mysterious reputation.

In the U.S I saw the Chinese mostly concentrated in their own “Chinatowns”, like in San Francisco. I never thought I would one day visit China. But the opportunity materialized when my son attended Tsinghua University in Beijing to study Mandarin.

It was in this extraordinary land that the first emperor Shih Huang-Ti ordered the erection of the great wall and the burning of all books because he wanted history to begin with him. It was this culture that first gave us silk, the folding umbrella, lacquer, toilet paper, playing cards, gunpowder, porcelain, printing, the abacus, the compass and gunpowder.

My two week Beijing experience included the following historical sites: The Great Wall, Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum, The Bell Tower, The Forbidden City, The Gate of Heavenly Peace, Tian An Men Square, The Hutongs of Chong wen men, The Summer Palace, The Lama Temple and the Imperial College.

 

Bicycle madness

                                  

Traffic madness

 

Marching Dragons

 

The Qilin

 

The Sage

 

The Drum Tower

 

Scorpion shishkabobs

 

Beijing cityscape from the Summer Palace