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Beihai Park
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Beihai (North Sea) Park

10/03/2000 

We arrived at Beihai (North Sea) Park.  Beihai (North Lake) Park, located in the heart of Beijing, is the oldest ancient imperial garden in Chinese history (since 1179). We took our time strolling through a small portion of the park. There were a lot of people around.

More info: ( http://china-window.com/beijing/nbjwe/lvyou/scenic/bh.htm )

During lunch we met up with the delegates. In the courtyard there was a souvenir stand. Normally I'm not big in buying trinkets. However, since Theresa is so busy attending meetings, I thought I better be the official shopper of the family. :-) Don't get me wrong. I'm not into buying expensive antiques nor art pieces. I thought I'll just buy a few items for fun and also to help the local economy. :-) I admit it. I'm a tourist, so I don't mind picking up a few kitschy items. 

   One of our traveling guests said that normally her policy is not to buy anything that she has to dust! I violated that guideline by buying this pair of hand-painted lioness and lion. It is supposedly hand carved out of oak tree roots in Herbei. Who knows? Maybe it's made out of plastic. But then again as long as I like it, it's okay. I bargained just a little, but I really don't mind paying extra since a $1 or $5 means much more to the locals than me.

Perhaps the best item I bought was the hand-painted THERESA by the sales girl. She did that in just a couple of minutes. I'm looking forward to getting it framed. The normal price was 40 yuan. She charged me a good price for 30 yuan, but I gave her 50 yuan because I was so happy with the results--this is call reverse bargaining :-) 

 

The 115-feet tall White Dagoba. We did not see it, but Inside a gold box there are two teeth belonging to Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. This is built in the Tibetan style in honor of the fifth Dalai Lama on the occasion of his visit to Beijing in 1651.

A crescent bridge contains 495 stone tablets bearing Chinese characters representative of almost all ancient calligraphic styles.