Beijing Parks

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The parks in Beijing are well worth a visit. Most will cost you money to enter. 20yuan was the dearest and that was for Benhali park near the forbbiden city and Tianeman Square. The park had lots of small budha monistries inside and many small paths weaving in and out of the old buildings and courtyards. In one of the courtyards i came across a small group of local who were playing the violin and singing and dancing. The setting was superb and the music very relaxing. I felt i was in one of those chinese movies like crouching tiger or house of the flying daggers. Only thing lacking was some Kung Fu.The park also had a huge river, which reminded me of Hogganfield loch, except it had lots of boats in the water.
The park next to the Beijing Childrens Palace is lovely to. The number of people who are working in the parks is very high. Every time I go to put something in the bin, someone almost always comes up and takes it out and puts it in its correct recyling bag. The seem to be doing this recylinging drive in the lead up to the Olympics next year. The paths are reguarly swept by dozens of park attendents, removing both dust, leaves and spit. You can spend a whole day in any park in the city just relaxing and watching the locals sing, dance, play games like mahjong, cards and kicking a long feather with a metalic base. Have bought one and will put a picture on soon to show you what it is.

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Photos

park life
inside was a group of locals singing and dancing away. The place was typical of most beijing parks

steep climb
china is mostly flat. But when you climb uphill, you do climb