Beijing in the Spring

I've just added to Picasa web some photos from two street corners in Beijing in March & April. The March pictures were taken near the north entrance of Workers Stadium at rush hour while the weather was still chilly.

The April pictures were taken near the gate of ChaoYang Park during late afternoon one of the first warm "blue sky" days, when everyone was out flying kites. On this day, dozens of kites added Spring color to the sky above ChaoYang Park just before the flowers and trees began to bud, while the decorations for an upcoming festival lent plenty of color to the scene on the ground.

I love the kite-flying tradition in Chinese cities. Everyone, from young children to old men, gets out there with ornately decorated kites, and they let them roam so high it's impossible to tell whose is whose; indeed, if you didn't know some of them were kites, you would assume they were high-flying hawks.

I've seen some men in the parks flying kites for hours, meticulously managing an impossibly long length of string, varying winds, and the interference of other kite-flyers.

This couple struggled to reel in their kite as it stubbornly clung to its freedom above. It took the two of them, working together, over 10 minutes to retrieve the kite from the clutches of the overhead winds.


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In & Around Beijing, general