Gathering of Birds and Men

7th April, 2007

It was a beautiful day in Beijing today.

The sun is shining. People are so chilled on a hot saturday.

I got the sunnies out a week ago. To protect from sandstorms + from bright sunshine.

Yeah BJ is surrounded by the Gobi desert. The sand blows into the city.

Went and met up with a guy in beautiful Bei Hai park.

at Bei Hai the water was shining. I walked up to the pagoda (was under construction last year).

my friend B told me that in Chinese culture trees are treasures (especially ancient trees)

I told him that in Australia we just chop them down. Not many people think of trees as treasures. They think of objects and buildings as treasures. Not trees

He said _? they think of them as a resource? I was like yep.

The Chinese seems to have more respect, more reverence for things.

There was an ancient tree in the park. In the past the Empress gave this tree the title "Marquis of Shade" --- can you imagine giving a tree a title?

I need to think of a Chinese name for me.
Johns name is something like marble stone...everyone laughs when he tells them.

The best part of today was!!!! I went boating. How cool - heaps of little boats, pedaling along, sunshine, breeze, beautiful chinese bridges, architecture and amazing Willows. The Willows in China are named after the sight of woman in ancient times and the beautiful shape of their eyebrows. very thin eyebrows

i had a dream. i was in a park. there was a boy i was suprised when he looked up to find he had blue eyes.

Today I came up from the subway. old men gather in groups and hang around on park benches. there was a string hanging from tree to tree. on it they had hung all their bird cages out in the public space. beautiful birds that were chattering. the men were chatting. it was like they were giving the birds a chance to see each other. to chat. that is nice i think. they live in units. the birds (and men) - the gathering of birds + men.


Another thing at beihai people have big 'paint brushes' caligraphy brushes. they dip them in a bucket of water and write characters in water on the ground. i love that.