Countdown to the Olympics: Scenes from Beijing

In honor of the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing, I've added a new feature to this page. Check over there to the right, now up a little bit and you'll see pictures of Beijing. My sister and I spent two weeks in the Chinese capital and I have to give her credit for all the good shots (that would be about 90% of what you're seeing). As an interesting note, we didn't have bad weather but we did encounter a lot of pollution. All those pictures of very grey days are really sunny days mixed with car exhaust, construction dust and a lot of superfine debris blowing in from the Gobi Desert.

By the way, the picture in this post shows balloon versions of the Olympic mascots on display in Tian'anmen Square. If you'd like to see a larger (easier to see) version of the slide show, double click on any image and you'll be transported to my Beijing album on Picasa or click here.