Beijing. Sipping warm Coke in front of the Temple of Heaven.

I remember that I'm supposed to be back in 20 minutes, but I don't remember 20 minutes from when. It's hard to keep your focus when you are hot and can't understand the language. I was busy examining a swallow perched on a fence when my aunt nudged me and said, "20 minutes for photos and then come back." So off I went in search of a new place to sit. Now I'm crouching behind a huge red door, trying to retain body moisture. These places are murder because they are enormous and don't have any shade.

It's packed with tourists here, who always fuck up my shots. Nothing ruins a a picture of an ancient structure more than someone in a floppy hat, sunglasses and a camera slung around their neck. It brings me a little comfort that they are all baking in the Beijing sun, slowly but surely getting skin cancer.

This is at the entrance of the place where you'd find the Temple of Heaven. Check out the penmanship. These guys are writing something out of an ancient poem, using water and a brush.

It's incredible the amount of skill these old men have. I wanted to ask someone exactly what they were writing, but no one could tell me because the words were all drying up before they could piece it together.

Every bit of free space is utilized here. We take it for granted back home, most of the parks are virtually empty where I'm from.

You don't see too many Chinese women playing hackey sack back home. Click on the photo to see a short clip of these two ladies playing.

I sat and watched this group of seniors practicing Tai Chi until the tour group tracked me down and dragged me away. You can watch them too, just click on the photo.

Fan dancing. We're not even in the temple grounds yet and I've seen enough for the day.

See that second tower in the background, a little to the left of the tower in the middle of the photo? That's where we want to go.

This is some sort of sounding board to heaven. It consists of three perfectly circular platforms, nine steps going from one platform to the other.

The top platform is made up of tiles arranged in nine cirlces. The middle of the inner circle is supposed to be where some sort of holy energy is channeled and is a prime spot for speaking to heaven.

People in the olden days used to come here to pray for a good harvest.

Left the temple grounds now and I have no idea where we are. Look at this garbage can. I guess China doesn't stand for hippies and environmentalists.

If you can believe it, this is what my parents named me after. This is a statue of a Kay Lun (Qylin), a legendary Chinese animal that had the power to punish evil and repel the wicked. It has the head of a dragon, tail of a lion, hooves of an ox and the horns of a deer, with scales all over its body. Thanks mom.

This is the Summer Palace. It's like a cottage, but for Royalty.

After leaving the Summer Palace, we headed to a small tea shop in the middle of nowhere and saw a presentation about Chinese Tea Ceremonies. We learned how to drink tea properly. I didn't know it, but I've been doing it wrong for over two decades.

I got this little porcelain man. Submerse him in cold water for an hour, then pour hot water on his head. He pees.