Beihai Park and the Dragon Boat Festival

Sunday we went to the Dragon Boat Festival at Beihai Park. Beihai Park is a beautiful park that surrounds a lake. It has cobblestone paths and is shaded all along the winding edge. A Buddhist temple climbs a hill on the island in layers and is topped by the White Dagoba, built in the 17th century for a visit by the Dalai Lama. Climbing to the top was quite hot (you can probably tell from most of the pictures that it is always very hazy and hot here). The other little boy who is Xiufen's friend tried out the calligraphy brushes (something that you find in every park). We also came across two musicians near the top of the temple playing traditional instruments. When we started taking pictures, they began playing "Jingle Bells" for us. The Dragon Boat Festival was going on in the park itself (the Spring Festival) and I wish we could have spent more time there instead. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated in memory of Qu Yuan, a famous poet who drowned in the lake while trying to prove his innocence. The fisherman were so upset that they threw rice into the lake to keep the fish away from his body. Now for Spring Festival, people eat little pouches of sweet sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. People were dancing all along the shore in different spots and musical bands would set up in different areas. We found a harmonica orchestra being conducted in one area and they would switch from a traditional folk song to a Russian march. There were lots of benches to sit down and it would have been a lot of fun to just sit and people watch. Before we left the park, we saw the Nine Dragon Screen, which is 88 feet long and 16 feet high. It was designed to deflect bad spirits and is made up of 400 glazed tiles. Annie has been quite popular with the locals and is always being asked to stand for a picture because they think she is cute. Xiufen I think will become the next spokesperson for Sunmaid Raisins, since she will eat a whole bag in a day if we let her.