Testing the waters

The police arrived within perhaps 5 seconds of us getting the large, multicoloured parachute out in the middle of Tiananmen square. I had warned Phill that perhaps the authorities wouldn't view parachute games in the same way that he did and sadly, on this occasion, my guess was right.

Having spontaneously organised two large crowds to play games on the Great Wall and a couple of classes at a local primary school to spend an hour or so having a lot of fun, meant that taking the props cross-continent had been worthwhile. Tiananmen would simply have been the icing on the cake. The puppets (Susan the tarantula, Blodwyn the rather amorous orangutan from the Welsh valleys and Barbara the sheep) came along almost wherever we went and were met with a huge range of amusing reactions, from shock and incomprehension to laughs and smiles, they did at least seem to placate the policemen at Tiananmen.

Sadly I don't have photos of the all too brief appearance of the parachute on the square, though there is evidence of the Great Wall games. A few here and many more, including more Dashanzi on here.




More photos to come...

On the move

I have my sister and uncle out here in Beijing at the moment (complete with puppets and parachutes - photos may follow) which means that I'm working in the day and seeing them in the evenings, hence no extended blogging time. Beijing has opened its skies today and the plans to see the Forbidden City have probably been washed away.

Last weekend was very enjoyable, meeting up with fellow blogger, Michael, to celebrate the release of his book 'The Pisco Kid' - sounds intriguing. We dined at Houhai which is a lovely area to come on a summer evening and steal a relaxed few hours.

A couple of photos from the weekend, but that's all I have time for now - work to be finishing.

Houhai lake, click to zoom in larger:

The Houhai hutongs:

and this photo of Vela as she was pensively staring out of the window in between English lessons:

Lots more on the photo site...