Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Beijing Day 3 : Haircuts in Front of Wangfujing Cathedral and Cafe People


It was Sunday, and we were going to have mass at the Wangfujing Cathedral in Beijing.  I had been informed by the Philippine Embassy that there was an English mass at 4PM, but seeing as my mother in law was very serious about making sure there was a scheduled mass today I walked my way to the cathedral at 9AM in the morning.  After looking in vain for any signage that announce a special Easter Mass, I tentatively walked over to a Chinese nun who confirmed that there indeed was a 4PM English mass that day.  Feeling more relaxed now if there wasn’t a mass at 4pm, it’s on her head, not mine), I took a seat at the little park area in front of the church and noticed a couple of old ladies cutting other old ladies’ hair.  I have no explanation for this cute cultural practice, but I knew that I had to sketch these endearing little old ladies.
After hearing mass (which was preceded by a series of events which included a taxi driver miming shooting an AK 47 to indicate confirm that we wanted to go to the military museum) we decided to relax in the afternoon and rest up for our great wall trip the next day.  We sat ourselves at Cafe Costa (which sold mango lattes) and while the girls chatted in the background my brother-in-law Luigi and I took the opportunity to sit down and sketch some of the cafe patrons.

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