I ♥ LA

 

Pacific Park

NYC!

 

ByeDon!

 The evening before Election Day. Even more barricades are being erected around the area of the White House.

Photo from our hotel room. Election Day evening we checked into a hotel very close to the White House, and managed to get a room overlooking the newly renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza. This plaza leads right up to a gate that's part of the White House barricade.

You can see in a photo above, a large screen was set up on BLM Plaza to monitor the polls on Tuesday night. At around 8 pm it looked like Biden was going to win by a landslide, but a couple hours later states were quickly flipping blue to red, and it seemed like the 2016 election all over again. Then when I woke up at around 5:30 Wednesday morning, I was surprised to hear that Biden was still in the race. What a nail-biter of an election! 

By Thursday it was obvious that Trump was going to lose, but news reports were saying that all of the remaining ballots in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Arizona would not be completely counted until Sunday or Monday. Thus I was startled when the news that Biden won was announced on Saturday morning. I headed for the White House at around 1 pm and, as you can see from the above photos, people were already rushing out onto the streets of downtown DC to celebrate. 

While thousands of Biden fans were quickly converging on BLM Plaza to celebrate, some Trump supporters gathered at the Washington Monument to protest. The Stop the Steal movement has begun. So stupid, really, considering there is no evidence of voter fraud, and, as the joke goes, if the Democrats were clever enough to rig the election and orchestrate Trump's loss, they most certainly would have also set up Mitch McConnell for defeat. 

You can see in the above photo BLM Plaza on Saturday night. Beyond those red lights is Lafayette Square Park, and beyond that-- and more barricades, is the White House. With revelers drinking, drumming, cheering, playing music, dancing, shooting off fireworks, it's unlikely that Trump got much sleep last night. So here we are with a new president already starting the transition process, while at the same time Trump is declaring himself the winner. He can continue to rant and rave and refuse to concede all he wants for now, but should he decide not to vacate on 20 January 2021, ironically, the very people whose job it is to protect him - - the Secret Service, will be escorting Trump off the White House premises. 

China - - parting shots

Mini car with sunroof, Beijing. Time for me to leave China now, so I'm posting some photos of my final few weeks there. 

Hands down my favorite fruit. Sweet yet tart, mangosteens are absolutely delicious. 

I feel fortunate that I got to see quite a lot of China while living here, and I loved riding the bullet trains. 

Above 3 photos: street food snacks, Hangzhou. 

Above 4 photos: Hangzhou, near Shanghai, is without a doubt one of the most beautiful places in China. 

Recently in China there have been several minor outbreaks of covid, but overall it is pretty rare here now. 

Subway workers lined up, Hangzhou subway station. 

Hangzhou East RR Station. 

Above 3 photos: and my final trip, Badaling, the most visited section of the Great Wall.

 Packing out our stuff to move it from a large house in Beijing then squeeze it into a small apartment in DC. 

Nice place to stop en route to DC. I Love LA. 

 

Farewell Xi'an

Xi' an, central China, is one of my favorite cities in China. About 6 hours by bullet train southwest of Beijing, it's the gateway to the ancient Silk Road, and also home to many Chinese Muslims. I've been here at least a half dozen times, and feel very fortunate to get this one final visit. 

Beijing West Train Station. Early train out so I took a taxi to the station at around 5 am. Most my better photos involve some amount of luck. As I was taking this photo the mom happened to look up at me, which made it a much better photo. 

Another lucky shot. On a train platform during a stop from Beijing to Xi'an, I was taking a photo of this attendant getting back on the train when she suddenly turned around to look back at me. 

Above 4 photos: Xi'an's colorful and lively Muslim Street is one of my favorite places in China. 

Gigantic broth pot. 

Chinese memorabilia for sale at a Xi'an flea market. 

That would indeed be a priceless book, but as is always the case with this sort of thing, this too turned out to contain just a lot of worn out truisms. 

I always travel with a thermometer and take my temp in my hotel room from time to time. Now in China your temp is taken whenever you enter grocery stores, hospitals, airports, train stations, cafes, malls, subway stations, etc. and I don't want to find out what happens to those found to have a fever. 

Futuristic movie theater at a Xi'an mall. For about 30 yuan, or $4, you can pick a movie off a list for a private pod viewing. 

I always seem to be able to put together some sort of vegan dinner. On this particular evening I had brocolli, greens, and a bag of cashews. 

Time to head home to Beijing. I spotted this futuristic gadgetry for sale at Xi'an North RR Station. 

Also at Xi'an North RR Station - - looks like this guy's doing some rough traveling. I remember hitchhiking up in Maine about 20 years ago and to lighten our loads Dawn and I wrapped a bunch of stuff in a blanket and mailed it like that back to Ohio. 

 

So it's goodbye to Xi'an. I don't know when or if I'll be back, but I sure love that city. I've about 3 weeks left before returning to the US, so this could be my final trip in China - - or maybe not...