Bye Bye Beijing

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In less than 12 hours I will be heading stateside after this month-long adventure in China. Today in Beijing began with a trip to the Yonghegong Tibetan Buddhist Lama temple, the biggest one of its kind in China. I've never seen anything like it in my life, and a Guiness Book of World Records plaque confirms that the major statue of Buddha, measuring 26 meters tall, was carved from a single tree. Because it was inside a temple building, I could not take a photo, but let me say it absolutely floored me.

I began my day with a coffee from Starbucks, had the best dim sum of my life for lunch, then walked by the Beijing Hooters, an Outback Steakhouse, a Subway restaurant, and a Cold Stone Creamery. The pockets of Westernization here are surprising, comforting, and disturbing, all at the same time.

So after 12 hours of walking around the city, all the gifts have been purchased, photos taken, and sights seen that I could muster, and now it's time to organize, repack, and begin the long trip back home. Nothing can compare to the people I've met, the work I've done, and the things I've seen. Thank you, China, for a wonderful, interesting, strange, amazing, hilarious, frustrating, near-disasterous, triumphant, incomparable experience, and I hope to return again, maybe next time with some more language skills...

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Photos

Entrance
This is only a small glimpse of this immense complex.

Santa loves Korean food
One of my personal favorite moments: the creepiest Santa statue ever in front of a Korean restaurant. He is, in fact, giving two thumbs up.

Well-dressed
Only one of many fashionably dressed dogs in Beijing, but he was willing to pose for me.

Baby Hut
In case you weren't in the mood for pizza...