Tulips

Beijing Botanical Gardens

April 2012

Tianjin

One day this week, just for fun, some of my friends and I went to Tianjin (天津), a neighboring city to Beijing. Even though it's also a city with millions of people, it has a different look and feel than Beijing, and is also quite a bit less crowded. I took a few pictures here and there while we explored:

A sugar creation, made by the man you see below.

Posing with her sweet treat. 

 Do you notice the kid waving at the camera? 

Mornings are the best.

Yesterday, the weather was nice. 

Extremely nice. 

The kind of nice that makes people who don't like running like running.

Anyway, while I was running yesterday, I got the idea of getting up early some day and going to one of the big parks nearby to check out the trees in bloom. 

So, this morning I went.

The sun comes up early here--this morning it rose at 5:38. At that time, I was still brushing my teeth and was not at the park, so by the time I arrived a little before 6:00, the sun was already a ways up into the sky.

 That aside, the light was perfect for some early morning shots, and I was glad I had awakened when I did. And to top things off, I evidently beat the ticket taker to work and was able to enter the park for free. 

 This park is usually really crowded in the spring time, so to see only a few other people there was an added blessing.

 Some early morning elderly swimmers...

...who I guess are old enough to disobey the rules. 

It was a very beautiful morning, so you'll have to pardon the plethora of pictures. 

If you don't like photographs of trees and flowers, you'd better just stop reading here. :)

 I wasn't the only one taking pictures today, but I'm pretty sure I was the youngest one taking pictures.

Can your grandpa do that?

An amazing morning.