Sailing Hobycat in the Stockholm archipelago

Normally I only blog about my travels, but also Stockholm can offer some treats. This is just so cool that I have to share it with those of my friends who may be interested…

I am fortunate to have some friends who sail. Two of my salsa friends Anders and Karim are enthusiastic sailors and frequently take off into the Stockholm archipelago. One weekend not long ago I was offered by Anders to accompany him and Karim on Anders’ Hobycat (a Catamaran) for a few hours’ intensive sailing on Askrikefjärden (the Askrike Bay) close to the peninsula Lidingö east of Stockholm.

It was fantastic! See photos below (the ones of me are taken by Anders). It was wet and cold but went fast! Very liberating and like balm for a stressed soul. Anders has promised me to hang in the harness next time – I’m going to hold him to it! :-)

Karim and Anders

Quick trip to The Big Apple

A few weeks ago, I went to New York for 3.5 days again. I had some meetings with my PR agency, a couple of press interviews (read an interview with Fast Company here) and then a whole-day press event together with a couple of US colleagues. The PR agency also took me out to dinner at Asia de Cuba, a fabulous and trendy restaurant with a fusion of Asian-Cuban cuisine. As I walked in they played salsa music and kept doing so the whole time we were there, so I felt right at home. :-)

View over Lower West Side from one of my press interviews – Ground Zero where the Twin Towers once stood are to the bottom left of the picture

On this June trip, I was staying at the Sheraton Manhattan near Times Square with a short walking distance to my PR agency. I flew in already during the weekend so I could meet some friends and go salsa dancing. New York is fabulous for that!

I went to Greenwich Village – usually shortened to “the Village” by New Yorkers – to have dinner with my Swedish friend Vinay who has moved to New York and one of my On2 salsa friends, Marlon. We met for a drink at Sushi Samba on 7th Avenue and Bleeker Street. This was a hip restaurant with a sushi kitchen in the middle where everyone can see, a trendy bar with good cocktails being served and modern music coming out of the speakers. It was very crowded and the waiting line for a table was over an hour so we gave up and walked around in the West Village until we found a good Italian restaurant called Morandi who could seat us after some wine and a starter at the bar. The food was excellent, as was the wine and service. This was a very good pick in a quiet area on Charles Street / Waverly Place, away from all the traffic on the bigger avenues. The West Village felt like the narrow streets in some Southern European town, not like the hectic Manhattan. New York is full of surprises.

Vinay was tired after many travels so I accompanied Marlon to someone’s birthday party at the dance studio where he teaches mambo and ballroom dances. There was an interesting mix of people, mostly dancers of various styles.

I had Sunday brunch with Vinay. We walked up on 7th Avenue to Columbus Circle and Central Park West and found a restaurant that served pancakes and some sort of wine cooler which was a mix of melon (or was it orange? I can’t remember anymore) and Champagne, apparently very popular among New Yorkers this summer.

7th Avenue

Monument at Columbus Circle

Vinay and I went for a walk in Central Park in the afternoon. It was a hot summer’s day with sunny weather and lots of activity in the park. First, we sat down to watch a couple of Sunday afternoon baseball games. I am not familiar with all the rules but was intrigued by the passion that all the locals poured into this game. Baseball is such a natural part of regular Americans’ life but we don’t have this sport in Sweden other than among some elitist sportsmen who see it as a more advanced form of the Swedish “brännboll”.

Baseball in Central Park

We went for a stroll in the park, saw the regular horses and carriages with tourists (one of these days I’m going to take a ride myself; it seems like a comfortable way of exploring central New York and the vast Central Park) and passed beach volleyball courts, various drummers and jugglers drawing attention from the Sunday strollers. We went to see the Central Park Dance Skaters, meaning people on rollerblades dancing with their own DJ spinning old-school disco tunes. This was an interesting phenomenon. I suppose that some people might compare it with salsa fanatics like me who attend Sunday salsa socials and get totally absorbed by the music, rhythms and sweat like pigs. Some of these dance skaters have made their own “disco costumes” and show off their dance moves with a series of skating routines, spins and even couples’ dancing. Quite fun to watch – until you get sick and tired of the same beat / tempo of the music and have to move on to greener pastures.

Central Park

Every second Sunday evening, there is Jimmy Anton’s salsa social at the Manhattan Dance Studio. I was lucky to be in the city on the right week, because this is one of the best salsa nights you can get in New York City. I had barely walked in and put on my dance shoes when I was lucky to be invited to dance by Angel Ortiz from Stepping Out Studios. He’s a well-known international instructor, on occasion arranging events where Eddie Torres, the king of mambo from Latin Dance Studio, gives classes. I had a fabulous night with many great dances. The tempo (and temperature) is high at Jimmy Anton’s and you need to drink lots of water to be able to keep up the energy. I am already looking forward to next time in New York. But I suspect I will meet at least some of the same dancers at this summer’s salsa congresses, which some of my next blogs are likely to cover. So stay tuned.

Beihai Park – Classical imperial garden with 1000-year-old history

After my visit to the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park, I stopped for a few minutes to watch some locals play some kind of old Chinese board game. I then continued to China’s oldest and most impressive classical imperial garden, Beihai Park. As you walk between the parks, there are a number of bicycle taxis (I would say “rickshaws” but I’m sure the Chinese have their own word for it) offering you a sightseeing tour in the old parts of Beijing located to the east/north of Beihai Park. It was however already getting late in the day for me, so I prioritized taking a stroll in Beihai Park and digest all that I had seen at Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Jingshan Park.


Street area between Jingshan and Beihai Parks


Men hanging around and playing a Chinese board game

Beihai Park is located west of Jingshan Park and has a history of nearly 1000 years. It has existed throughout the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Beihai was first built in 938 A.D. during the Emperor Huitong of Liao Dynasty and in the 12th century improved into an imperial summer palace. In the second half of the 13th century, Kublai Kahn – a name recognized by most Westerners thanks to the Marco Polo travels – took Beihai as its center to establish the capital of the Yuan Dynasty in Beijing. Beihai means “the north sea” in Chinese and the park actually contains a large, artificial lake with Qionghua Island in the center of it. In1267, Kublai Khan had an imperial city called Dadu built around the Qionghua Island. He called the island Longevity Hill, and the lake around it Taiyechi.

The park is huge and there are many walkways through it. There’s a path next to the water around the whole lake, so I strolled around it for a while, passing tourist boats for rental and some restaurant or teahouse overlooking the lake. It was getting windy and cloudy and the big lake really behaved like the North Sea, with big waves rippling the surface and making the tiny, colorful tourist dinghies pull their mooring ropes.

By the northern shore of Qiong Island, at the foot of Longevity Hill, there is a palace-like, lake-side building with a curved walkway “corridor” along the waterfront with colorful pillars, beautiful wall paintings and red lanterns lighting up the evening stroll.



There is also a very elaborately decorated restaurant with a big, golden, imperial chest at the entrance and various artifacts displayed outside, like imperial China vases and an ancient imperial sedan chair. Waiters and waitresses in traditional costumes dashed in and out of various side doors to the restaurant and kitchen areas, with plates of food that were exquisitely adorned with vegetables and fruit carved into fancy decorations, pastry looking like a swan etc. It looked like a very expensive place and I saw many dressed-up Westerners go there, perhaps for business entertainment. See photos below.

Restaurant and waitress

Beautiful wall and ceiling decorations at the lake-side restaurant

After contemplating the imperial ways of living by the lake, I started climbing up the hill and discovered lots of colorful pavilions, chambers, towers and terraces among the rocks, some Taihu Lake stones apparently moved here during the Jin Dynasty from Genyue Garden in Bianliang (capital of the North Song Dynasty in 990-1127), ancient trees and pathways.

Ceiling details in pavilion

At the top of the hill on the Qionghua Dao (or ‘Jade Flowery Islet’) in Beihai Park, the Tibetan style White Pagoda (Baita) Temple is the landmark visible from miles away. It’s an almost 36 m tall Buddhist temple constructed on the former site of the Palace in the Moon where Kublai Khan received Marco Polo. I arrived after closing hours so unfortunately I missed the thousands of Buddha statues that are apparently on display in the temple.

Baita – The White Pagoda

It was getting really dark at 8:30-9 pm and since I couldn’t enter the temple I looked at the view of Beijing and the lake from the terrace at the hilltop. The evening sky was very pretty with a pink sunset breaking up the heavy clouds.

View over Beijing and the Taiyechi lake from the top of the Qiong Island

Beihai Park is probably one of the fondest takeaways from my trip to Beijing. Located in the middle of a modern city, this multi-faceted but harmonic imperial garden showcased the powerful elements of nature and history in a beautiful mix. I left with an impression that I could return many times to let the winds by Taiyechi lake wash away contemporary problems and to discover new historic treasures every time.

Jingshan Park

Directly north of the Forbidden City you will find the beautiful Jingshan Park. It contains a number of imperial pavilions and the one located at the top of the hill in the park has a marvelous view overlooking the city. From here you can view the whole Forbidden City with all its imperial palace buildings to the south.


View to the north from Wanchun Pavilion (All Time Spring Pavilion)

Jingshan Park's hill is topped by five pavilions, the main one of which contains a large Buddha statue. The pavilion is from 1751, named All Time Spring Pavilion and is 17.4 meters high.

Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square

These are my last reports from the China trip back in May. I thought I'd better finish the series before my summer vacation travels start...

To give you a little background to ancient and imperial China, I suggest you read up on history:

• A very comprehensive and interesting history of China from Wikipedia>>
• Timeline of Chinese dynasties>>
• Ming Dynasty>>
• Qing Dynasty>>

The hotel concierge pointed out some of the main attractions and sites in Beijing on a small fold-out map, and the Beijing Travel Guide helped me get acquainted with the capital of China online before I started exploring the city physically.

In the city center of Beijing you find Tiananmen Square which is not very imperial, but nonetheless located right next to the Imperial Palace grounds (called the Forbidden City) so you can’t miss it and it’s a good starting point for a sightseeing tour. Tiananmen Square is apparently big enough to fit half a million people and as such the biggest central square in the world. During the Ming and Qing eras, there were red walls around the site which also had buildings. The walls were pulled down in the 1911 revolution (see photo below with revolution sculpture).


1911 revolution

The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, commonly known as the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong, or the Mao Mausoleum

The square is used mainly for big, momentous occasions. This is where Mao Zedong announced the new “People’s Republic of China” in 1949. This is also where a series of mass demonstrations for democratic rights and against the ruling of the Chinese Communist party were held in 1989 led by students, intellectuals, and labor activists, resulting in the Chinese army storming the demonstrations and many civilians being killed or injured (numbers vary from a few hundred up to thousands of people who died) – in Western media known as “the Massacre in Tiananmen Square”.


Tiananmen Square with the Monument of the People's Heroes to the right


In front of the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of Chinese Revolution: a count-down sign keeps track of number of days left to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

On the northern side of Tiananmen Square you see the entrance to the Forbidden City, with a big portrait of Mao Zedong on the facade of the Tiananmen Gate. This “Gate of Heavenly Peace” is a 20th century creation but the gate sticking up directly behind it is a Ming Dynasty structure.


Tiananmen Gate


It was very interesting to walk around in the Forbidden City. The Imperial Palace, today a Palace Museum complex, was completed by Emperor Yongle (one of the Ming emperors) in 1420. A moat and a 10 m high wall surround all the palace buildings (apparently there are 9,999 of them but not all are open to the public). The area was forbidden to all but the imperial court and the only westerners allowed were Jesuit scholar-priests in the 17th and 18th centuries, plus ambassadors who tried to trade with China.




The Forbidden City is almost 1 km long and 750 m wide and divided into two parts. The southern section – the Outer Court, housing the throne halls of Supreme Harmony which was under repair when I was there, Central Harmony and Preserved Harmony – was where the emperor exercised his supreme power over the nation.


Hall of Central Harmony

First built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty and originally called Hua Gai Dian (Hall of Overwhelming Glory), the Hall of Central Harmony (Zhong He Dian) was destroyed and reconstructed several times over the centuries. The existing hall (seen on the photo above) was constructed in 1627, but received its current name in 1645 during the Qing Dynasty. This square building has a single pyramid-shaped roof, with a gold plated bronze covering. The floor is paved with high-quality square clay bricks, commonly known as “golden bricks”. A throne is placed in the center of the hall and a board hangs above the throne with an inscription by Emperor Qianlong, which according to a sign outside the hall says: “The Way of Heaven is profound and mysterious and the way of mankind is difficult. Only if we make a precise and unified plan and follow the doctrine of the mean, can we rule this country well.”

The emperor used to rest in the Hall of Central Harmony on his way to attend an important ceremony or hold court, and officials kowtowed to the emperor here. The day before the emperor held a sacrificial ceremony, he would read the prayer tablet aloud in this hall. The words “Zhong He” come from the Book of Rites, meaning “When we handle matters properly and harmoniously without leaning to either side, all things on earth will flourish.”



Hall of Preserved Harmony

Originally called Jin Sheng Dian (Hall of Scrupulous Behavior), also the Hall of Preserved Harmony (Bao He Dian) (seen on photos above) was first constructed in 1420 but destroyed by fire and reconstructed several times. It still retains its original beams and columns. During the Ming Dynasty, the emperor changed clothes in this hall before an important ceremony. In the Qing Dynasty, the emperor held banquets here for his princes, dukes and ministers of ethnic minorities on the lunar New Year’s Eve and the Lantern Festival. The words “Bao He” are from the Book of Changes and mean “Maintaining harmony between all things on earth to have a long period of peace and stability.”

Gate of Heavenly Purity

The emperor lived with his royal family in the northern section – the Inner Court – featuring the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of the Union, the Palace of Earthly Tranquility and the Imperial Garden.

Hall of Heavenly Purity

The Palace of Heavenly Purity (Qian Qing Gong) was constructed in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty and rebuilt in 1798 during the Qing Dynasty. The emperor lived and handled political affairs in this palace. After an emperor passed away in the Qing Dynasty, his coffin was kept in the hall to prove that he had died peacefully. After the memorial ceremony, the coffin was moved to Guan De Dian (Hall for Observing Military Virtue) in Jingshan (Prospect Hill) Park (see separate blog post), north of Forbidden City. Finally, the funeral was held and the deceased emperor was buried in the imperial mausoleum.

Emperor Yongshen (1678-1735) secretly set up a succession system with an “Heir Apparent Box” placed behind a board in the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The name of the emperor’s successor, written down by the emperor himself, was kept in this box and after he passed away the secretly appointed crown prince would ascend the throne.

Hall of Celestial and Terrestrial Union

The words “Jiao Tai” mean “the union of heaven and earth” and hence the square Hall of Celestial and Terrestrial Union (Jiao Tai Dian) (see photos above) is situated between Qian Qing Gong (Palace of Heavenly Purity) and Kun Ning Gong (Palace of Earthly Tranquility) in the Inner Court of the Forbidden City. In the center of the hall is a throne, above which hangs a board inscribed with words by Emperor Kangxi, meaning “doing nothing.” Below this board there is a screen with an inscription by Emperor Qianlong. In the Qing Dynasty, an annual grand ceremony was held here on the empress’ birthday, the lunar New Year, the Winter Solstice and on the “Day for Opening up Treasures” in the first lunar month.

The Inner Court housed not only the residences of the emperor and his empress, consorts and concubines, but also administrative buildings.

The Inner Court has been the home of fourteen emperors of the Ming dynasty (from the third Ming emperor Zhu Di) and ten emperors of the Qing dynasty. The Qing Dynasty fell to republican revolutionaries in 1911 and the last emperor of China (the last Qing emperor Puyi) was forced to abdicate. He was finally driven from the Inner Court in 1924 during a coup launched by the warlord Feng Yuxiang.

Read more about the Forbidden City here>>