Unplanned APEC break

The powers that be around here decided in their infinite wisdom that we needed an extra holiday so that Beijing could be car and pollution free for the big APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meetings that were scheduled to be held in November. Given that we already know the dates and host cities of APEC through the year 2017 I'm thinking this wasn't something that was thrown together at the last minute and yet, the schools were asked to close oh....about one month prior to the conference. Driving was restricted to every other day, TV stations were shut down, internet slowed to whatever is slower than the normal snail's pace and we decided to get the heck out of here for a few days, which is exactly what the government had in mind given that they also gave Beijing residents half price on travel and admittance to tourist sights. We flew to Henan province where we spent three days and toured Shaolin Temple (the birthplace of Kung Fu) and the UNESCO Longmen's Grottos, which are caves housing as many as 100,000 Buddha statues. It was a fun little getaway although it was really crowded with people from Beijing and said people also seemed to bring their pollution with them. We left the (unusual) blue skies of Beijing and while in Luoyang the AQI was around 250.

Shaolin Temple

Getting ready for some Kung Fu

Pagoda forest

Where the martial artists practice hitting tree trunks with their fingers, hence the holes. Not sure what this is good for, but we saw a lot of moves and demonstrations of strength that kind of made you go, "Hmm...cool, I guess. I wonder how much a dude who can break a metal rod over his head or wriggle around doing the 'scorpion move' can demand as fair market value?"

There was one westerner in the group. He seemed to speak Mandarin. So curious how a guy like this ends up living and training at Shaolin. I read the book American Shaolin when we first moved here and it was a great read. May need to go back and reread it. Here's a link if anyone is interested.

Longmen's Grottoes

View of all the the caves from across the river

Quail egg on a stick, anyone?