Xiangshan "Fragrant Hill"

This week Lacey and I had the pleasure of hosting one of our old friends, Matt. He is an awesome fellow who used to live here in Beijing and has returned for the summer to backpack around China for seven weeks. Please check out his website: backpackinchina.com. 

Matt must have worked some magic because as soon as he arrived the pollution index dropped to unprecedented levels. I'm talking about a 19 on the scale instead of the usual 150-200 range. Check out the current levels here to see what i'm talking about: BJ Air Quality.

This amazing weather prompted a much needed escape from the city to see Xiangshan, Fragrant Hill. This park outside of Beijing was first built by the Jin Dynasty in 1186 and gets its name from the giant incense burner at the top of the mountain.

As you can see from the above picture, it was in fact one of the most beautiful days I had ever seen in beijing. There were clear blue skys and amazing fresh air. Until we got to the top and looked back at Beijing. It seems that even on such an incredible day the City was still covered with a layer of nasty pollution.

Matt, Lacey and I still thoroughly enjoyed the Xiangshan and would recommend that anybody living in Beijing wait for a clear day to visit it. Otherwise you won't be able to se anything up there but a big grey blob.

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BJ Sandwich

Traveling abroad is always exciting. Seeing new things, eating different foods, learning new languages, cultures and histories are a few reasons people break away from their comfort zones and routine lives. We have all been a tourist at one point or another, on a guided tour or following maps around a city. When you know a city very well and are no longer a tourist, picking out the tourists is easy and sometimes very fun.

After living in Beijing for two years, we have seen every tourist destination. Now that it’s summer again, tourists are flocking to the city, foreigners and Chinese alike. The Great Wall is crowded, the Nest is swarming and the hutongs attract tourists looking for a more “local” experience.

There are many more noticeable sites in Beijing in the summer that you wouldn’t see in the winter. For example, babies with slit pants so that they can pee with ease, kites flying, men with their shirts rolled up exposing their bellies, watermelons in plastic bags, ladies carrying umbrellas to shade their skin from the sun, a lot of drunk men eating BBQ, and much more.

So after all our time spent in the city there is little that surprises us anymore. We would not usually take pictures of foreigners; the sites and the local people spark our interest more. With that said, a few weeks ago while visiting the Ho Hai hutong area we saw a site that was not only hilarious but also worthy of a picture.

Every foreigner, resident or traveler, enjoys I ♥ BJ t-shirts, for obvious reasons. It is also very clear that a lot of foreign men like Chinese ladies. To see these two foreign men wearing matching I ♥ BJ t-shirts, riding a tandem bicycle with a Chinese lady in the middle was comical and the epitome of a tourist in Beijing. Now that we are preparing to leave Beijing we have officially captured the typical, amusing adventures of foreign men in the city. 

Hip Hypocrisy

Yesterday, while visiting the sites in Beijing with my new Couchsurfer friend, I stumbled upon this interesting scene. A monk taking a picture with an ipad. At first I thought it belonged to the nice people he was taking a picture of but as I watched him for the next few minutes it became clear that it was his.

So... whats wrong with this you might ask. The second noble truth of Buddhism states that suffering is caused by the desire for material goods and immortality, both of which cannot be satisfied and thus can only cause suffering. Therefore a Buddhist monk should adhere to those teachings, right...? When Lacey and I got married in Thailand, by nine Buddhist monks we paid them with a cup of tea, a flower and a take away lunch.

In China and Korea Buddhist monks have gained quite a reputation for doing un-Buddhist stuff. Check this out: Buddhist Monks Caught Gambling, Smoking and Boozing. On a few occasions when the topic of Buddhism comes up around our local friends, some of them start to tell us how much their father despises Buddhist monks because they get rich of of donations and never have to work for their money. This completely baffled me, I thought these guys had to beg for their daily meal, not for enough money to buy a luxury automobile. The Monk Who Got A Ferrari

While these examples are unique and definitely not a general representation of the Buddhist religion, it is a humbling reminder that we are all imperfect beings regardless of our individual faith.