Capital City 1

My parents came to visit in late May and we had some fun adventures. The first pictures listed here are at T. Square, in front of the Forbidden city (entrance seen in the first picture). I apologise for the blurry pictures. I was trying to take pictures over people's heads to get some images of the guards lowering the National Flag that evening. The last pictures are of the Summer palace. I also didn't get very many pictures there because it was so hot and crowded that day. These are good for pr. reminders, though, as we consider this country's past and present.

Summer Palace

A few more scenes from campus

A few more campus pictures here (with the beautiful mountains nearby) plus pictures of some groups that won prizes in the school dance competition. Some
very cool costumes.

My first real winter

In addition to this being my first full winter, locally it was one of the coldest winters they have had in a while, but I unually enjoyed it, besides the fact that 2 out of the school's 3 furnaces broke midwinter leaving my apartment colder than it should have been. Overall a great adventure, though, and you'll see pictures around campus, Christmas trees and a snowman at different restaurants, a music staff drawn into the snow, and some pictures of the Olympic areas under construction when I passed through last January.

The characters to the right are the Olympic mascots, and are named Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. If you take the first part of each name it says, "Beijing huanying Ni" (Beijing Welcomes You).