3.19.2006


The male has a ball that means strength.

Ever wonder about those lions you see guarding some buildings? Well, they're a couple. This is the female one, and you can tell because she's got the baby cub underneath her paw.

View of a very long stone carvingn.

Closeup of the roof.

This is a vat the royalty would use. The outside is pure gold, supposedly, but the rest is copper or brass.

Another hall. I swear, they start looking the same after a while.

The famous stone carving.

Here's a dragon along one of the windows. It's the male symbol of power.


Inside another main hall.

Here's a higher-up view.


A lot of pillars in the Forbidden City are carved like this.

Eddie (a guy in my tour group) took this, and I thought the patterns were really cool.

Closer to the big hall.

Here's how freaking dirty the water is in Beijing. We stuck to bottled if we were thirsty.

Lisa, our tour guide.

Here's a gander at the architecture.

Going towards the place where the emperor would have meetings.

Entrance to the Forbidden City.

This is the outside of the restaurant. Bling bling.

There was also this woman who sat down at a piano and started plonking out the most horrid crap. Dad and I couldn't take it anymore, so he had me take this.

This was one of the nice things about the restaurant--its cool ceilings. This could be an autumn wallpaper for my desktop, since I need to change mine soon

BLING.

So we went to this restaurant that was freaking gaudy with a lack of sophistication. This is their bathroom. You may have to tilt your head a bit to get the view, but really, take a gander at the mirror.

Renmin Park.

I still don't know what those things are...

Shanghai just after lunch.

One old French building in the shikumen area, Xintiandi.

Plum blossoms in Shanghai.

Lianting wanted a closeup of me.

The top in all its beautiful entirety.

In front of the Oriental Pearl Tower.

Here's the entrance, where you can see the people milling about with all the shops.

Second famous view.

One famous Yuyuan view featuring yours truly.

Shanghai skyline from the ferry.

Here's a closer view. According to Lianting's cousin, this is a famous teahouse you're seeing in the picture.

Yuyuan, from where we were sitting in our eatery.

Graduation day, in the robe and honors cord.

Roy at Connie and Mog's. XD

chalk dove!

Here's another gun picture.

There were the two main girls. I think the dudes on the teeter-totter were for the hospital.

This girl was kind enough to let me snap a photo of her drawing on the Diag. Now you know what one of the main hubs at UM's like.

I thought this one was especially cool.

Sometime in November or so there were these people chalking the Diag, writing all sorts of things about peace. I thought it was cool.

A closer look at the leaves. We've got a lot of maples in the area.

Foliage from a tree at work.