Panjiayuan

Panjiayuan has become one of my favorite places in Beijing, so I had to be sure to go again before I leave.

 I love the colors of the items from Yunnan. This market is unique because it is a flea market. 

 People come with handmade items, antiques, and so much more.

 Everyone can easily find sometime they LOVE and it's easy to spend money on quality items.

 Some are neatly displayed, others thrown into piles begging to be searched through.

 But, if you are willing to search there are hidden gems waiting to be found.

 If you want mass produced items, go to the silk market, don't come here

 here you find minorities from Tibet, Yunnan, and other provinces selling items you can watch them make. They happily tell you that "I made this!" and you happily buy it knowing that you have a truly unique item.

I think I'm gonna miss this place...

the reason for my absence...

So, I know I don't post often, but I really do promise in the past few weeks I have had several things to post about.  However, I also live in a country called China.  China doesn't really like things like facebook and blogs.  Luckily, there is a thing called  a VPN which I have purchased that allows me to bypass the blocks China puts on the internet and access all of those websites.


Then there happens to be a little thing called the 90th anniversary of the founding of the communist party in China.  Actually, I guess it wasn't so little and there was a lot of celebrations, even though I didn't see any of them.  I just saw the signs and billboards all over the city.


When things like this happen China decides to be extra strict, which means that my VPN doesn't always work.  See...even though China isn't always smart, they do understand how these things work, and try to stop them when they really want to.  However, they aren't as smart as other people, so as soon as China blocks it the company does whatever they need to to unblock it.  Pretty much its a crazy cycle that has left me frustrated at times lately.


But, right now it works!  So I am going to hopefully write a lot of posts that will appear in the next few days.  I know, I know....you'll believe when you see it :)

Fall in Beijing!

Last year Beijing was blanketed in snow on November 1st which left no room for fall.  Winter swept in and never left.  Much to my enjoyment, fall made a wonderful appearance in Beijing this year!  Right now it is starting to get cold, but we have enjoyed several weeks of beautiful weather and consistent blue skies.  While I have started to wear long underwear because it is getting considerably colder inside (except my room which continues to be nice and toasty thanks to the radiator next to my bed) I have yet to wear my winter coat which makes this Indiana girl very happy.

I've said it before, but I am so thankful that we are next to the old summer palace.  For only 15 yuan a month, or about 2 dollars you can get a month pass and visit as often as your heart desires.  It has been a wonderful place to go on walk lately.  The fall foliage was amazingly beautiful as were the sunsets over the mountains.  Most trips i went sans camera, but lucky for you I took it on one trip so here are a few picture for you to enjoy and to hold you over until I post next :)