Advertisement
Published: November 17th 2008
Edit Blog Post
07.11.08
Today we have some more good news. First thing in the morning we walked to the Vietnamese embassy. The whole area is populated by embassies, one after the other. At the office we talked to a nice lady that reassured us telling that the flood caused no problem in the centre of Hanoi but touched only the outskirts. Same for Ninh Binh. She said we're not going to have any problem. Nearby we stopped for breakfast at a French bakery and walked the five minutes to the silk street. We have to say, it's been a horrible experience. Five stories of everything that can be possibly faked on earth. I don't even want to comment about the morality of this empire of counterfeit, not to mention the slavery in which people producing these things are put. But to see this crowd and everyone taking away full bags, it was quite disgusting. We walked away after five minutes. For the next hours we wandered around the Olympic Village. That Chinese don't excel in architecture I already knew it, and Beijing clearly shows no sign of significant contemporary architecture. So I'm afraid I have to say that the only truly interesting
buildings within the Olympic Village, are the ones built, or better designed, by foreigners. I'm talking about the National Stadium, designed by Herzog & De Meuron, and the National Aquatic Centre, by PTW. Better the first, at least to see. After the Olympics this place has become destination for tourist coming mainly from all over China. I don't know how long is going to last, but it gives the impression that is soon going to be a deserted place. With 100 yuan we get access to the Stadium, but we cannot enter the Aquatic Centre. The idea of the aquatic Centre is interesting but it looks cheap, if you get what I mean. It's already dirty and the curtains behind the façades make the bubbles look like plastic bags. Still from a distance it has its beauty. It's hard to imagine the future of this place. Now it looks like a waste. But hopefully it won't be.
Mike has been chosen to pose for another picture here as well. It's quite funny. We don't know if we feel more like aliens or souvenirs. When we got bored of the crowd and the place, we took the tube back. We stopped
for some food along the way and called for the day quite early.
08.11.08
It's cold and cloudy. It seems like the first day of winter has come. In the morning we made a desperate as much as useless attempt to reach the Summer Palace. But we lost faith on the way. Instead we went to visit the Lama Temple, the most magnificent Buddhist temple in Beijing. And because of that, also the most visited.
The road leading to the temple entrance is a row of shops selling incense. We found out inside that people burns the incense as an offer outside the temples. Inside the temples they leave incense that the monks will then burn outside. The place is beautiful and richly decorated. Every hall contains statues of Buddha in his different forms, the most incredible of which is the 18m tall Tibetan one housed inside the Wanfu Pavillion. This human wonder has been carved in a single piece of sandalwood from a 26m tall tree from Tibet. It's truly impressive. We've never seen anything like this.
Walking around within the temple walls I realize that Beijing is the first place along our way where I
see many Italians around. I must admit that it's a nice feeling. After a break to eat something and get warm, we went for a walk along our favourite street in Beijing, Nanluogo Xiang, for some shop watching. We're too skint for the shopping, so we try just to watch. This street has a good number of great shops. Hard to resist the temptation. But fortunately without money there's no chance anyway. I still get pleasure at looking, and there's always something small you can buy!
We have a long walk back to the hostel. Tomorrow is our last day in this gigantic city. It's not been long but I think during this week we've been able to get an idea, if not of Chinese people, at least of Beijingers, and know few of their habits. Like squatting instead of sitting when they want to have a rest. You'll see plenty of them, reading the paper, chatting in a group, or maybe simply waiting for someone. Why they like it more than sitting we don't know, but looks curious. For western standards we could say that they're pretty rude (as many westerners anyway), common courtesy doesn't exist and don't expect
anyone giving you way. At the tube station no one would wait for the people to get off the train before getting on. Even London seems amazing if compared!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.037s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0182s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb