China 2012 revisited

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I never used my blog last summer. Looking back I realize it is a good memory jogging tool for me as well as sharing with friends. Even though now June 9, 2013 I am going to enter a 2012 experience summary, then start with my experience while presently in China.

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Photos

Flying into Beijing
This year I flew Hainan Airlines, a Chinese airline that flies from Seattle to Beijing a few times each week. With making the connections I stayed overnight is Seattle before leaving the next day. It was nice to break up the long trip into two legs. I chose Beijing this year to visit my friend Xiaowen and new friend Lily.

Lily
I met Lily in Columbia, South Carolina the past year when I was giving a workshop at the University of South Carolina-Columbia and they also hosted a Chinese film festival. She works in Beijing as a film cataloger.

Opera
Lily was kind and bought tickets to take me to a famous opera house performance.

Opera
Here is Lily posing next to a wax statue of the original opera performer who made the role famous we were to see of impersonating a female on stage.

Opera
Beautiful, intimate stage setting.

Opera
Maybe the next star!

Afunti restaurant
Lily, Xiaowen and I gathered the next evening to have dinner at Afunti, that serves Uighur food. I have been here a couple other times as it is dinner theater with singing, dancing and stage performance while you eat. Tourist trap but fun.

Foot spinning a giant ceramic pot
Anyone can spin a pot with their hands...now try your feet!

Snake dancer
They try to fool some guy into being blind folded and sit on stage thinking a beautiful girl will dance around him. She comes out with a snake and then he is surprised when they take the blindfold off. This guy new what to expect.

Temple
Xiaowen took me to Lingguang Buddhist Temple (built during the Tang Dynasty 770 AD) that had a special occasion where you could see a relic of the Buddha's tooth. The only other Buddha's tooth relic is in Sri Lanka. We stood in line for over two hours. We were then asked to take off our shoes and a small group of ten were allowed into a small room in the pagoda filled with relics. A small gold blob sitting in the mix was said to be the tooth. ??? Use your imagination.

Temple
Monks can't eat meat but cell phones are plentiful.

Monk and doctor
Xiaowen and I met Tibetan monk who we spoke to for a long time. Then a traditional Chinese medicine doctor stopped to talk. The monk had some stomach issues so the doctor did some touch therapy. I asked him to work on my back and Xiaowen asked for her shoulders. He would place his hands on us, close his eyes and then pull away suddenly, then look at us with expecting eyes that we would be fully healed.

Back to Jingdezhen
I flew to Jingdezhen to work for two months. Anticipated working in a studio attached to the gallery I exhibited in last summer only to find they changed ownership and no longer wanted foreigners around.