Easter in Beijing

Easter in Hong Kong means a five-day weekend, so I took the opportunity to travel to Beijing (which literally means the Northern Capital), a vast metropolis of more than 16 million people and the seat of Communist power in China. It’s a city that is vast in scale, sprawling over 16,800 kilometers, or roughly the area of Belgium, and that overwhelms the senses in almost every conceivable way. 

The weather in Beijing varies greatly, from freezing cold temperatures that rival Boston’s winters to summers so dry and blistering hot that they must be nearly insufferable. I was fortunate to travel to the Northern Capital in April, when the skies were mostly blue (aside from the general haze of pollution) and the temperatures were cool and springlike. Had I arrived a couple of weeks earlier, I would have been caught in one of the horrific sandstorms known to plague the city (and much of Northern China) this time of year.

I’ve broken up the trip into several entries all of which I have to post now that I'm back in Hong Kong since my access to this blog was blocked while I was in the mainland. Censorship is alive and well in the PRC.


Below a couple of random pics of my tourguides in Beijing, Andrew and Michelle...


Enjoying Peking duck...

At the Temple of Heaven...

Michelle negotiating the terms of our ride in a pedicab....