Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
China Pics 2
Yay we're going strong! These pictures are still in Beijing... but since Beijing is so big and has SO many tourist attractions, we stayed there for 4 days (and I should mention, at a HORRIBLE hotel).
...
(YOU DON'T EVEN WANNA KNOW)
Enjoy the pics.
This is the Forbidden City!! Has anyone heard of it? The Chinese Emperor lived here from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (...A LONG TIME)... and a river separates the first temple from the rest of Beijing.
The first temple of the Forbidden City, or the Northern Gate.
The detail on these buildings was absolutely amazing!
Unfortunately, when we arrived, it was WINDY!! Wow all these potted trees blew over (like dominoes :)!
Around the front, there were these bronze elephants.
This is one of the "fake mountains" that the Emperor owns. (Sorry, I don't know anything about this.)
A little, insignificant temple (compared to the other temples)... within a temple.
A fancy outdoor stone furnace.
Two of these bronze dragons guarded the main temple.
This stone is considered "sacred"!! Do you see that it has two different colors? A peachy color and this dark purple? Well. The dark purple shape on the left looks like...? A praying monk!! He's bowing to the temple on the right :). Cool, huh?
Every temple had these "good fortune" animals on the roofing.
On the walkway to some of the "more important" temples was this giant stone tablet with carvings of dragons.
Once we were past the Northern Entrance, there were a couple of temples, then this other important temple (I'm so sorry!! I don't really know much about the Forbidden City... my dad just told me about every temple (and I shamefully forgot most of the info.))
However, I DO know that that temple was a clock museum, with these spectacular clocks.
Ok. This is the NINE DRAGON SCREEN WALL :)! "This wall is composed of 270 glazed decorative bricks. with seawater as the background, nine dragons are encircled by waves and clouds, and separated by six groups of rocks. A yellow dragon is in the center, and eight dragons in blue, white, purple and yellow are on both sides. The dragon was the symbol of the emperor in ancient China. The roof has five ridges, each having a dragon, and the main ridge also has five dragons."
In this picture you see the center yellow dragon, plus the individual bricks.
On the opposite side of the Nine Dragon Screen Wall, there's yet another temple. "Guarding" it were another two bronze dragons, but they had this ornament under their claws.
This temple was an ancient theater ;).
A mountain! Carved into a HUGE block of jade stone! Enclosed in glass!
There's nothing particularly interesting about this temple... it was the one I was just in :).
YES! THE EXIT! We've been walking around the city for like 6 hours (from ten in the morning to 4 in the afternoon!!)
Sigh... the sun was SO intense... I got like 7 shades tanner that day :(
I don't know what this stone totem pole is for...
Ugh! The day's not over yet. We still had to visit Tianmen Square! It's kind of like China's Washington D.C... except in Beijing.
Left side of Tianmen Square.
Right side of Tianmen Square.
This is the Tianmen gate/entrance to the Forbidden City.
Comment please! For example... which clock was your favorite? (FYI, mine is the sunflower one :)
...
(YOU DON'T EVEN WANNA KNOW)
Enjoy the pics.
This is the Forbidden City!! Has anyone heard of it? The Chinese Emperor lived here from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty (...A LONG TIME)... and a river separates the first temple from the rest of Beijing.
The first temple of the Forbidden City, or the Northern Gate.
The detail on these buildings was absolutely amazing!
Unfortunately, when we arrived, it was WINDY!! Wow all these potted trees blew over (like dominoes :)!
Around the front, there were these bronze elephants.
This is one of the "fake mountains" that the Emperor owns. (Sorry, I don't know anything about this.)
A little, insignificant temple (compared to the other temples)... within a temple.
A fancy outdoor stone furnace.
Two of these bronze dragons guarded the main temple.
This stone is considered "sacred"!! Do you see that it has two different colors? A peachy color and this dark purple? Well. The dark purple shape on the left looks like...? A praying monk!! He's bowing to the temple on the right :). Cool, huh?
Every temple had these "good fortune" animals on the roofing.
On the walkway to some of the "more important" temples was this giant stone tablet with carvings of dragons.
Once we were past the Northern Entrance, there were a couple of temples, then this other important temple (I'm so sorry!! I don't really know much about the Forbidden City... my dad just told me about every temple (and I shamefully forgot most of the info.))
However, I DO know that that temple was a clock museum, with these spectacular clocks.
Ok. This is the NINE DRAGON SCREEN WALL :)! "This wall is composed of 270 glazed decorative bricks. with seawater as the background, nine dragons are encircled by waves and clouds, and separated by six groups of rocks. A yellow dragon is in the center, and eight dragons in blue, white, purple and yellow are on both sides. The dragon was the symbol of the emperor in ancient China. The roof has five ridges, each having a dragon, and the main ridge also has five dragons."
In this picture you see the center yellow dragon, plus the individual bricks.
On the opposite side of the Nine Dragon Screen Wall, there's yet another temple. "Guarding" it were another two bronze dragons, but they had this ornament under their claws.
This temple was an ancient theater ;).
A mountain! Carved into a HUGE block of jade stone! Enclosed in glass!
There's nothing particularly interesting about this temple... it was the one I was just in :).
YES! THE EXIT! We've been walking around the city for like 6 hours (from ten in the morning to 4 in the afternoon!!)
Sigh... the sun was SO intense... I got like 7 shades tanner that day :(
I don't know what this stone totem pole is for...
Ugh! The day's not over yet. We still had to visit Tianmen Square! It's kind of like China's Washington D.C... except in Beijing.
Left side of Tianmen Square.
Right side of Tianmen Square.
This is the Tianmen gate/entrance to the Forbidden City.
Comment please! For example... which clock was your favorite? (FYI, mine is the sunflower one :)
Monday, July 20, 2009
China Pics 1
OMG IT WAS FREAKY... on the plane arriving in China, these people came in and scanned everyone's foreheads for their temperature... it was painless, but their suits freaked me out.
The Bird's Nest was AMAZING! I was so excited to be where OLYMPIANS have walked!!!!
The walkway leading to the Bird's Nest was lines with these little ornaments... cool.
The Water Cube!! Where Michael Phelps won his gold medals and his title.
Just a little info about the Great Wall of China (I read this little part from a giant sign): The Great Wall was first built in the 7th century B.C. After Emperor Qinshihuang united China, he had all the sections of the Great Wall linked. That was the earliest Great Wall. In the Ming Dynasty, massive repair was done on this basis and turned the Great Wall into an important defensive system in ancient northern China. The Great Wall, which has lasted more than 2000 years and extended 50,000 kilometers (or about 31,069 miles!!), is a huge and lengthy history book. It has become a symbol of the Chinese nation and the soul and ridge of the country, which has been deeply rooted in every Chinese.
Wow I was SO excited to be hiking this section of the Great Wall of China!!
.......Looks threatening.......
This isn't even one TENTH of the Great Wall.
Yay we made it this far! My aunt and my grandma were like WAY too tired after about... *1* section of stairs.
My dad and I AAAAALMOST!!!!! MADE IT!!!!! ALMOST!!!! Omg we were SO tired... my legs were sore and numb (ouch).
The steps are sometimes more than KNEE-HIGH!!
Since the steps are SO tall, you can imagine how much more dangerous it is to actually climb DOWN the wall... I was gripping the rusty, germy, muddy handrail for dear life!! My hand was absolutely FILTHY by the time we reached the bottom again... BLECH
After dinner, we went to the most famous restaurant in Beijing... the PEKING DUCK RESTAURANT! Have you ever heard of it? We witnessed the chef slicing the roasted duck in front of us. The smell was mouthwatering.
Outside our "hostel" (hotel), there was a RIDICULOUSLY NAMED clothing store.
The Bird's Nest was AMAZING! I was so excited to be where OLYMPIANS have walked!!!!
The walkway leading to the Bird's Nest was lines with these little ornaments... cool.
The Water Cube!! Where Michael Phelps won his gold medals and his title.
Just a little info about the Great Wall of China (I read this little part from a giant sign): The Great Wall was first built in the 7th century B.C. After Emperor Qinshihuang united China, he had all the sections of the Great Wall linked. That was the earliest Great Wall. In the Ming Dynasty, massive repair was done on this basis and turned the Great Wall into an important defensive system in ancient northern China. The Great Wall, which has lasted more than 2000 years and extended 50,000 kilometers (or about 31,069 miles!!), is a huge and lengthy history book. It has become a symbol of the Chinese nation and the soul and ridge of the country, which has been deeply rooted in every Chinese.
Wow I was SO excited to be hiking this section of the Great Wall of China!!
.......Looks threatening.......
This isn't even one TENTH of the Great Wall.
Yay we made it this far! My aunt and my grandma were like WAY too tired after about... *1* section of stairs.
My dad and I AAAAALMOST!!!!! MADE IT!!!!! ALMOST!!!! Omg we were SO tired... my legs were sore and numb (ouch).
The steps are sometimes more than KNEE-HIGH!!
Since the steps are SO tall, you can imagine how much more dangerous it is to actually climb DOWN the wall... I was gripping the rusty, germy, muddy handrail for dear life!! My hand was absolutely FILTHY by the time we reached the bottom again... BLECH
After dinner, we went to the most famous restaurant in Beijing... the PEKING DUCK RESTAURANT! Have you ever heard of it? We witnessed the chef slicing the roasted duck in front of us. The smell was mouthwatering.
Outside our "hostel" (hotel), there was a RIDICULOUSLY NAMED clothing store.
China Pictures!!!
My entire collection of China pictures are here at last!!!!! Gosh, it took long enough. The first four days of my trip were in Beijing! I went to the Forbidden City, the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium, and LOTS more :)! I have to warn you, though. I've figured out how to post an entire month's worth of pictures (we estimate that there are about 5000 pictures in all.... * shudder *). The only thing I can tell you is that there are going to be a LOT of new posts... keep up :D.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Weird, Unique, and AWESOME Hairstyles
I got REALLY bored, so I started surfing the web... and searching for random pictures on Google Image.
I found this... or THESE slightly creepy hairstyles... but my favorite is the first one! What about you?? Comment please!!
Awesome!!!!
Oh my goodness...
WHOA!!
WOW... now THAT is amazing.
OMG!!!!
Wow. That. Is. A. LOT. Of. Hair. And it's all frizzy too...
How on Earth can someone have THAT much hair?! I mean just look at it!! IS IT A WIG?!
I wonder how much hairspray and mousse it takes to get that amazing hair...
Comment please! Which picture was your favorite?
I found this... or THESE slightly creepy hairstyles... but my favorite is the first one! What about you?? Comment please!!
Awesome!!!!
Oh my goodness...
WHOA!!
WOW... now THAT is amazing.
OMG!!!!
Wow. That. Is. A. LOT. Of. Hair. And it's all frizzy too...
How on Earth can someone have THAT much hair?! I mean just look at it!! IS IT A WIG?!
I wonder how much hairspray and mousse it takes to get that amazing hair...
Comment please! Which picture was your favorite?
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