Dust Devils in Heidian

A strong wind today cleared people from the streets. Market stalls and shacks were closed shut, and the for stands had tarpaulin weighted down by rocks draped over them. On days like this, you can feel the sand behind your ears and on your eyelashes; the way it grinds between your back teeth when you try to work up some spit and wet your lips. I took a few photos of the mostly empty streets in my neighborhood before the weather kicked up.

A back alley.

Peking University West Gate.

Heidian district.

Flyers.

Bicycles outside of the philosophy building.

A dry lake.

Yellow Hills

Saturday was spent traveling to the Great Wall, after having settled in Beijing earlier this week. The city-wide urban renewal policies are most evident as seen from a dusty stretch of highway leading westward toward the mountains. Entire neighborhoods known as hutong have been reduced to rubble by groups of migrant workers who go from site to site with nothing but sledgehammers and the clothes on their backs. The foundations are left in neat lines, like graves along the side of the road. In an adjacent district, tall, modern apartment buildings are being erected. Each has a large crane on top, and some are simply metal skeletons wrapped in bamboo scaffolding, ready to be completed. Beijing is dominated by cranes. They have an eerie quality when they are still, especially at dawn -- looming like a fleet of alien arbiters.
In the wintertime, the countryside is a sweep of brown and pink rock, dotted by scraggly sun-bleached pines. The Great Wall is incredible and beautiful; it seems to be such a natural and fluid element of the landscape when you see it snake along the tops of the hills then plummet over a distant ridge. From the top of one tower I could see the mountains extending into the wastes, like the knuckles two interlocked hands.

The Great Wall at Ba Da Ling.

Tower summit.

A path to the Great Wall.

View to the northeast.

Where I called my parents from.

Locals.

Hong Kong and the Tiantan Buddha

We arrived in Hong Kong two days ago without incident. I'm staying at a guest-house adjacent to Hong Kong University, and there is limited internet access outside of some of the public cafes on campus.
Today was our first opportunity to explore the island and surrounding territories at our leisure. I traveled by rail to Lankau, across the bay. Above the village of Ngong Ping rests the world's largest outdoor bronze-cast Buddha, over one-hundred feet tall. The weather was clear and cool and it took several hours to reach the site. Included below are photos from the trip, and a few examples of some of the night life on the harbor.

The Tiantan Buddha.

Statues surrounding the base of the Buddha.

Looking out from the south face.

Gondola to Ngong Ping.

Downtown Hong Kong.

Sunset at Lamma Island.

Hookah bar.

The South China Sea.

Taiwan.

The Biaoyuan Trail

From our hotel in the mountains beyond Hualian there are a number of trails that wind further into the Taroko nature reserve. The below photos were taken on the Biaoyuan path that followed a tributary of the larger gorge system. The highest peaks in the area reach almost 3,000 meters. The forest was soaked from linger clouds that didn't dissipate until late in the afternoon. Fist-sized yellow and black spiders hung across the path on webs that seemed to crystallize in the fresh rain.




Buddhist pavilion above Tiantsing.
Stray dogs staying out of the rain.
Tiantsing market.
Tiantsing gorge.

Taipei, Kaoshiung and the Changchun Temple

The last week has been spent traveling by road across Taiwan. We arrived Monday evening after a twenty-hour flight that transfered at Osaka. The photos below are a few taken over the last several days from various parts of the island, from Taipei in the north to Kaoshiung in the south.

Dawn over Kaoshiung.


The road to Hualian.


Club Dreams. Foreigners enter for free.
Outside of Hotel Formosa.
Kaoshiung neon.

Dolphin doctor.

New Year's Update

I haven't bothered to begin packing. In my passport photo, I'm wearing a white shirt and my whole face seems washed out. I drove a couple of hours today to say hello and goodbye to an old friend from Florence. He hasn't changed much, so I suspect that I haven't either.

I made an appointment this morning for a consultation with an immunologist. We were given a list of suggested vaccinations for the coming months, depending on where we plan to travel. The intern said at the very least I can expect one for hep A, typhoid, and possibly encephalitis.

Still looking for the receipt to my plane tickets.