Noodle Cooks

Fresh hand-pulled noodles in a Beijing noodle shop. For a quick, inexpensive lunch, it doesn't get any better than this.  And these two young cooks made it all seem so simple and effortless.  

Beijing Recycles

Beijing is a big city, and it generate a lot of empty plastic bottles.  These are the guys that deal with this problem. They collect the empties, sort them, pack them into huge bags made from old rice sacks, load them into a truck, and take them someplace where they are undoubtedly paid a very small price per kilo of plastic. [NOTE: The "someplace" where they take all of the empty plastic bottles is probably a pretty impressive site. Mountains and mountains of plastic].

Landslip Carefully

Have just arrived to Beijing and am advised to landslip carefully in the bathroom of my hotel room.  I certainly will. I hate landslips...

A Ride on the Beijing Subway

Just what it says.  A late night ride on the No. 10 Line of the Beijing Subway. Relative to the subway in New York, I found the Beijing metro to be remarkably clean, efficient, and quiet, although a bit lacking in personality.  

Kite Seller

My last evening in Beijing, I went to the Olympic Green to see the National Stadium and the Aquatics Center. Both buildings were unforgettable, and my interaction with this lively kite seller made the evening complete. [Note: Thanks to Luzhiyao and Yuan Yuan Zhang for being enthusiastic guides]. 

Thermos Bottles

Apropos of nothing, a diverse selection of Thermos bottles waiting to be filled outside a dormitory at Minzu University in Beijing (previously known as the Central University for Nationalities). [NOTE: At first, I thought this was a student art project].

Beijing at Work

A decidedly subjective selection of occupations observed in Beijing.  In order of presentation: 1) youtiao cook, 2) window cleaners at the Beijing Botanical Garden, 3) calligrapher, 4) tour guide at the Summer Palace, and 5) crossing guard at Tiananmen Square.

Forbidden City

Sprawling over 72 hectares in the middle of Beijing, China, the Forbidden City is the largest palace complex in the world.  This awe-inspiring collection of over 980 wooden structures from the Ming Dynasty was declared a World Heritage Site in 1987.  It is easy to spend an entire day exploring the buildings and courtyards of the Forbidden City and fantasizing about the life and times of the Chinese Emperor.   It is not so easy to exit the complex at closing time on a Saturday afternoon (thx, Zhang).