So… we arrived back in Beijing from Hong Kong on Sunday, May 1… hit the ground running… and haven’t stopped since.  On the 2nd (a Chinese holiday similar to Labor Day) Art was admitted to the international hospital while the girls and I went off to the Summer Palace to meet up with our friends the Smiths who were in from Wuhan.  Of course, we would have gone with Art to the hospital, but honestly there was nothing we could do.  And as it turned out, his hospital stay lasted all of about 4 and a half hours. After a bunch of blood work and not much else to do except wait two days for results, he got dressed, discharged himself (with a new bottle of prednisone in hand), and managed to catch up with us for dinner with the Smiths.  [Just to be clear: we still have no idea what plagued him for the better part of 4 weeks (some sort of arthritis?), but he’s really quite fine now, and working his way off of the low dose of steroids he’s been on, ready to get home and back on his bike.]

This month (in addition to day-to-day living which in itself is an accomplishment) we’ve continued to take in Beijing.  We’ve done the Summer Palace (second time), the Temple of Heaven (on Mother’s Day), all of the big “markets” (pearl, jade, silk, toy), the Forbidden City, Beihai Park, and a bunch of other excursions that I’m sure will show up in the pictures.  And there was Shakespeare (Much Ado…), then Tosca (!!)… plus school field trips, international day, Cece’s first track meet and Art’s trip to Taiyuan for a couple of guest lectures.  And we’ve still got Chinese acrobats, Peking duck and the 798 Art District coming up in this week alone.  We are workin’ this town, folks.  That’s all I’ve got to say.

One of the best dates Art and I have had in a long time was our night out at the National Grand Theater (aka the Performing Arts Center, or the “Egg” after it’s basic shape) for a breathtaking Tosca.  First of all, the hall (where we’d previously come for a Night of Puccini) is jaw dropping.  Designed by the French architect Paul Andreu and built in 2007 just across the boulevard from Tiananmen Square, it is pure magnificence to me, though controversial in Beijing where it is surrounded by boring square communist buildings. All of the elements are represented: water, metal, wood, fire and earth.  I’m sorry that I had to check my camera and got no interior pix…

And the Tosca really was breathtaking.  Art (who has seen and heard a lifetime of Tosca) said this was the best production he’d ever experienced, both musically and artistically/staging. We had 10th row seats and never blinked, never moved a muscle. Also, two rows ahead of us, surrounded by a dozen Chinese secret service agents was Liu Yandong (China’s equivalent of Hilary Clinton; she is the highest ranking female in the communist party) and her husband.  That was interesting.  She worked the crowd just like Hilary would have.

Took us three subway lines to get home and we barely made the last train… but what a wonderful evening…

Date night...

Here's a shot I found on the internet that better explains why they call it the Egg...

Below are the pix from our second trip to the Summer Palace, then Mother’s Day at the Temple of Heaven…

I keep looking at this image and seeing the English countryside. It's actually Beijing... just outside the gates to the Summer Palace...

And while most everything inside the Summer Palace is pretty pretty pretty... I continue to gravitate toward the old doors...

The Marble Boat...

Summer Palace wall...

More...

I repeat...

Elle, Alison, Cece, Lindsey...

Girl hanging on pot...

Dinner at the Angel Restaurant... with Barb and Lars and Barb's mom... (khaki pants all around! They must be the Americans...)

Sweet Elle... back to school on May 3...

Just before Mother's Day, Art took me on an afternoon excursion to find the perfect jade bracelet (which we did). From the cab window, I snapped his favorite building in Beijing (the CCTV headquarters)...

Different from every angle...

On Mother’s Day we took off for a “leisurely” Sunday at the Temple of Heaven.  We’d been there in 2005, with Cece and Beebs, and it’s a lovely spot… though nothing is ever really leisurely with Art now is it…

Concert at the entrance to the park...

Quilt image 17 (Temple of Heaven flowers)...

Mother's Day kiss...

Quilt image 18 (the first China quilt I make will probably be in these shades of grey... LOVE these old walls)

All together now...

Peach...

Peach again. I have a picture of her and Beebs in 2005 on this very spot of the circular "Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests"...

Fancy lattice...

Seems every dynasty shared a fondness for large doors...

Another shot of the circular hall... built of wood with no nails, by the way...

Great big green grass? So rare in Beijing. For looking only. No one is allowed on this grass...

Still loving the glazed tile... in green...

And blue...

Nice wall...

The very shade of blue we painted our front door 12 years ago. I still love it...

Have I mentioned before that Art has captured about 9,000 hours of video...

The white hats...

The blue hats...

Behold... the Empress Elle...

Girl power...

I say it every year: this was my best Mother's Day ever. And it was.