Beiling Park

What a wonderful day it is in Shenyang! A cool sunny fall day, the leaves are changing, the smog is lifting and the horns even seem quieter.
It is about 50 degrees and breezy, a perfect fall day for a walk in the local park. Well, the local park that happens to also be the tomb of 500 year old Emperor (Zhou Lin tomb of the Tai Zong) of the Qing Dynasty.

We had a unique peek into the life of everyday Shenyang today at the park. First of all it is under construction so we were watching people work. They were laying bricks to fix a stair case in a wall of the tomb. They were making new paths, by hand. They would smooth out the dirt with shovels, lay the stones and smooth some more. They were also making very large, new flower beds. There was no bobcat to move dirt, no rototiller to til, just shovels and hands.

We also saw some local morning traditions. First there was a raised marble "stage". A large group comes here every morning to dance. They had the "boom box" with Chinese music and they just danced, if they did not have a partner, they danced alone. Well when in China right... Of course I danced with them (Stacey are you proud?) A woman invited me up and showed me her moves. It was so fun. Next there was a group of unicyclists. One member in our group walked over and jumped on one and took off. Go figure, he has his own unicycle at home! Well the Chinese were extremely impressed by this. They had their cameras out and were so excited. They wanted all of us to try, but Shiyan explained this is not something we all can do.



Then we walked to the tomb and along the palace walls. It was beautiful, very creative. We were surrounded by an abundance of trees, stone statues, lakes and even some magpies (sorry dad z. I could not get a picture for you!)

The ironic part of the day is after that beautiful park and all that history, I have to go to WalMart. (Jason/Becky I'm sorry, It can't be helped!) Thank you faithful readers for journeying with me today!

Here are some more pictures of the park...

Shiyan and Sarah at Beiling Park

View of the lake, elderly men fishing

Where all of the Emperor's treasures are buried.

man writing Chinese poetry on the sidewalk with water