Sites Most Excellent, a Continuing Lecture Schedule and (gasp!) a Close Call with Poison Mushrooms

Steve's teaching schedule eased a bit recently, and he and Qiang were able to get out into the city of all cities, Beijing, and do a little site seeing.

Buddhism arrived in China around 3rd century B.C. and flourished alongside Daoism, which both influenced Buddhism and was influenced by it. Religious practice got a little "sticky" during the Mao years, but has revived to some degree in the post-Mao years.

Okay, history lesson over, since that's about all I know (and perhaps all you want to read). In any case, there are some big-ass and beautiful Buddha sculptures and temples throughout China, and Steve and Qiang visited a few of them in Beijing. Here are some photos of where they went.









In addition to their on-going work with the art students at Tsinghua, Steve and Qiang continue to on their lecture circuit. Last week, they went to the China Fashion Institute, where Steve presented another one of his red Wisconsin baseball caps to Professor Shun Du Du. She looks charming in it.

Professor Du Du Displaying the Royal Badger Crown

And, she and Steve posed for a picture in front of another poster announcing the lectures he and Qiang are doing. Steve pointed out that he wore his "dress" pants for the lecture at the Fashion Institute. Can anyone guess what brand they are?

They also lectured at the prestigious CAFA (China Central Academy of Fine Art) and toured some of the studios there.

Over the weekend, Qiang left Steve to go visit

his family who lives in one of China's western provinces. One of Qiang's friends, Julia, and her boyfriend scooped up Steve for the weekend. They treated him to a little more site-seeing and much needed dog exposure. To the right are Julia and Steve and Julia's sweet Akita, who seems to be fixated on Steve (I had to hide this picture from Lucy.)

Julia and her boyfriend treat Steve to some fun

And, they treated him to almost a non-stop English conversation, which made him almost as happy as being with a dog, and a delicious hot-pot dinner, featuring mushrooms that must be boiled in the hot-pot for a prescribed amount of time or they will be "poisonous". I guess that was pretty wonderful too.

"Poison" Mushrooms

 Qiang returns to Beijing this week and their travel schedule really accelerates. They'll be going to Changchun City in the northeastern corner of China, then to Shanghai and on to the historic and beautiful Nanjing. I leave in just about 2 weeks to join him, and because of a schedule change, Steve, Qiang and I are all going to go to Guangzhou City, where the boys will be lecturing and I'll be able to listen to their lecture for the first time and recuperating from the time change. I can hardly wait!