Next door

As I have know, but had yet to explore until Friday, we are right next door to the Beijing International Sculpture Park. We took this holiday opportunity to also explore this little slice of the Beijing pie.

The park is completely surrounded by roads. I didn't expect to find any quiet or calm in this park. Despite my expectation of complete chaos, I did find a bit of calm. There were very few people pushing or rushing to get anywhere. This is very uncommon in Beijing. Kites on very long strings were drifting up in the cool wind. The temperature was in the 70s and very low humidity. The sky was mostly cloudless, and pale.

The entry fee to enter the park was 10 yuan each. We wandered in, not quite knowing what to expect, other than the few famous photos of the horses and the whales in the ground that we had seen so far.
The size of the park was remarkable. We had attempted to enter the park the day before the closing ceremonies, and we were told that it was closed. We suspect they were setting up fireworks that day. The entrance we had tried to go in was about a block from the one we actually entered in on This Friday.

The walk-way to cross the street was actually a pedestrian underpass only accessible through the park itself. A perfect pedestrian accident preventative. The landscaping, as is all around Beijing, is remarkable. Their flowers are all in bloom, and healthy. All the shrubs are kept cut, as well as the weeping willows. I am certain that the person that trims back the willows is much much shorter than either Cullen or I. It's difficult to walk under the trees without a swift swat at our heads.

The two ponds in this park were both beautiful and interesting. The first pond we encountered had some fascinating sculptures, of course, and had bumper boats. They were deserted at the time, but we were certain that since the bumper boats had guns on them, and there were what appeared to be targets in the center of the pond, there was a game afoot. Our suspicions were later confirmed on our way out of the park.

The second pond had a small island on one side with a bridge leading to it, and some stepping stones mostly submerged on the other. Looking down into the green slimy water, I had that queezy feeling of slipping in. I was imagining the rest of the walk through the park completely soaked. We both managed to make it across with no real issues... though one of the oxen-shaped stepping stones was quite unstable.

This second pond had children rolling around in blow-up tubes with nets attached to one side, to keep them from falling out. I was wishing that I was five again, and able to hop into one of those huge floating tubes without sinking it.

The diversity of the sculptures was matched only by the range of the countries they came from. Many were from China, as should be expected, but there were some from Czechoslovakia, Russian, and Japan for sure. Most were impressionistic renditions of reality, but about a third was complete abstract. There was a lot of chrome. It was hard to ignore in the bright sun.

The other park explorers were quite diverse. There were two musicians practicing some sort of string instrument. There were so many people flying kites. Some people were riding around in little golf-cart/ go-cart like vehicles. There were enough amusement-type things in the park to keep children and adults both entertained.

I have a feeling that I will be spending more time in this park as things begin to cool off and the crowds start to thin.