Old Peking

	While the band practiced for their big Forbidden City concert, Kevin toured Old Peking and I went shopping. This is one of a pair of towers, once used to broadcast the time to the old city's residents. They did not often use bells, because they are sacred temple items in the Buddhist religion. Large drums were used to mark the passage of time.
	This is a water clock, made of several graduated containers called clepsydras. It measures time by the flow of water through the vessels. (Using three graduated canisters helped compensate for the fact that water flows more slowly as a vessel empties and the pressure decreases.) As increments of time passed a bronze automaton, or Kelou, struck his cymbals periodically.
	Close up of the Kelou, made in the image of a Confucian scholar. This is actually a re-creation, as the original disappeared many years ago. It's probably hidden away in some mysterious private collection of ancient artifacts, or has been recycled into coat hangers.
	When the Kelou struck, the tower staff beat HUGE drums like these, to indicate the passing of time for the residents of Peking.
	The remaining fragments of Old Peking are very cramped, with impassibly narrow streets and one-story buildings. Only a few pockets of it are left, and many buildings are in disrepair. Some roofs are tarped over, and held down with bricks. The city planners are tearing down large sections if the old city, to make way for modern apartment houses. A small portion of it near the towers will be restored and kept as a museum.
	Rows and rows of apartment buildings are EVERYWHERE, and many are much taller than these. The city is huge. The guide told us that if you wanted to drive around the perimeter of Beijing, it would take all day.
	Here is a typical Beijing street, with lots of parked bicycles. None of them are locked, and most of them are basic one-speed models. In the morning, many people of all ages gather in the local public park for Tai Chi. Yes, they really do!
	And this is a typical Beijing bad neighborhood -- part of Old Peking that is scheduled for demolition and currently used by squatters. (We were warned never to go into the old city after dark!) The owners of the property are compensated by cash payments, and are given an apartment when the complex is finished. Where they live during the demolition & construction, I do not know.
	In public places, we often saw men demonstrating their calligraphy skills by writing blessings with water on the pavement. This is how they advertise their availability for special personal calligraphy jobs. They use a large sponge-tipped brush that has a teardrop-shaped tip.
	Beijing has some fascinating buildings. This is the "Dragon" building, which I believe is in the Financial District. A rainy day gave us gray skies that day, but sunny days weren't all that much clearer -- but a good deal hotter.
	This is the new ChinaTV building, still under construction. It looks as though it can hardly stand on its own, and I imagine the view from the bridge will be fantastic. I hope it holds up. The blurry blobs are raindrops on the bus window.
	Ah, the "Golden Arches." We didn't get to eat there, but a lot of us wanted to! No wonder the Chinese took to MacDonald's so quickly -- Red and Gold are very auspicious colors, near and dear to the Chinese heart.
	In Beijing, our hotel displayed this banner the entire time we stayed there. The staff was very accommodating, and almost everyone spoke at least a little English.
	The breakfast buffet each morning was grand! Eggs cooked to order, potatoes, croissants, bacon, a few Chinese dishes, and CHEERIOS! When the kids saw the Cheerios on our first morning there, you might have thought they were made of gold.
	The concert at the Forbidden City was fantastic, but it was a closed event -- the general public was not allowed in. Check the Videos page for some footage of their concert there! ChinaTV taped it for broadcast, and we learned later that this was only the second time that Western musicians were allowed to give a concert inside the Forbidden City. The first were the "Three Tenors," Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti. Not a bad act to follow!!
	And here's our happy little musician! She's probably going to be mad when she reads that caption. <<Grin>> The courtyard where they played is in a part of the Forbidden City that is not open to the public. The acoustics were lovely, and we felt very privileged to be there.
	After the Forbidden City concert, they took us to the Beijing Zoo. The grounds have recently been given a beautiful Olympic facelift, but unfortunately the improvements did not extend to the animals' living quarters. They were cramped, bare, dirty and smelled bad. We were all depressed by it.
	The Panda House was OK, but seemed small considering the number of pandas that lived there. Some Chinese like to pound on the glass or bars to get a reaction out of the animals. We saw this behavior a surprising number of times during our brief visit to the zoo.