Mountain Resort Living - Qing Style

Pipkin and Domo were in Beijing for just one day before deciding to leave the pollution of the city behind to relax at the Mountain Resort in Chengde, north of Beijing, where the Qing emperors built their escape from the blistering summer heat. This isn't the Great Wall you see here. Pip and Domo are trekking along the 10 km perimeter wall of the Mountain Resort.

The Mountain Resort is a beautiful, large park, noted for its lakes, woods, mountain terrain, and the Eight Outer Temples, built just outside the palace walls. There are three main regions to the park: the Hills, Lakes and Plains. The Hills area of the resort provides views of Chengde from its walls. In the far distance is the famous Sledgehammer Peak, a rock in the form of an inverted sledgehammer.

During their visit, they met this Duck from New York, New York, who was also visiting China. He was not only taking in the sights, but the many tastes of Chinese cuisine. He loves to eat at new places and takes photographs of exotic dishes.

In the background, you can see the developed urban area of Chengde.

The Lakes region has peddle boats, bridges, pretty gardens and pagodas. Look carefully in the background of the photo below. Can you make out the Sledgehammer Peak?

A human powered water wheel that scooped up water from the lake and poured out into a trough sits at the edge of one lake. Pipkin thought the sight of a monk with a digital camera playing tourist was quite amusing.

In the next post, Pipkin and Domo continue their visit of the Mountain Resort, and meet a resident of the park.

Good Little Labbits

Remember bucks and does...good little labbits get candy and presents from Kris Kringlor.

Bad labbits...bad labbits get crap for Christmas.

Poor Clover doesn't want to clean up this crap. So be good for goodness' sake!

Welcome to Beijing!

Welcome to Beijing, China...where you can't access yearofthelabbit.com?!? Welp, these posts are a bit behind as Pipkin has to be very sneaky careful about posting from behind the Great FireWall of China. HE WON'T BE SILENCED!!

No, it's not a drizzly, foggy day. It's just a smoggy day.

Unless, of course, he has to wear his gas mask. 'Cause it's crazy polluted in Beijing. You know how your mother warned you never to stare at the sun? Well, you can totally do that here in Beijing because on a bad smog day, the sun looks like this:

Pipkin's not going to go blind staring at the sun like this. He brought his own gas mask to Beijing, but the hotel where he's staying keeps gas masks in the room closet for its guests. How thoughtfully kind!

To China!

Pipkin and Domo enjoyed their time in Hong Kong and Macau, then headed off to Beijing, China. It was just a short flight but they were happy to be served ice cream.

...very cold, hard ice cream. Pipkin's tongue practically froze to it and it took a good half hour to eat his serving. Domo wasn't so patient so he went with a double fist scooping method. One of these guys got an ice cream headache, I'll bet you can guess who!

Moments of Solitude in Macau

Pipkin and Domo find a quiet courtyard in Macau.

It's crowded in Macau. The population density, according to wikipedia, is 20,497 persons per square kilometre in 2013. Vermont, where Pipkin and Domo live most of the time, has a population density of 26 persons per square kilometre. BIG difference! It's no wonder this shop cat looks so skittish:

Pip and Domo certainly know what it feels like to be small and underfoot. This cat just hates it when people step on her tail.

But there are quiet corners to find in Macau, especially during the high heat of day. If you can take the heat, most everyone is indoors under extreme air conditioning, and there are some lovely places to be alone, like in the shade of this library's garden patio:

 In the back of this garden, there was a cat enjoying peace and quiet.

He was pretty zen.

What Pipkin likes most about this library is its mix of old + new architecture. You can see where the original Portuguese structure meets the modern expansion.

This scooter parking alleyway was cheerfully decorated with colourful flags. It's funny to see a space that screams, "PARTY!" be so empty.

This courtyard was quiet and empty after lunch time. No one seemed to mind the two climbing up onto the garden ornaments, where they caught sight of a cool looking fountain.

Pipkin: It's too hot out here. I'm going for a swim!!