Lama Temple（雍和官), Xidan （西单), Wangfujing (王府井）

What do you do when you are itching to get out of the dorm rooms? Explore Beijing of course!

Besides the travel seminar and some trips here and there, I have not really taken the time to explore Beijing. So these past few days, I went to those places where I always said "someday I'll go there...."

On Friday, I went to Xidan and Wangfujing with my Thai friend, Ake. We know each other through Chinese class and have become really great close friends. We wanted to do a little bit of shopping and I had never been to Wangfujing before. In both Xidan and Wangfujing I definitely did not feel like I was in Beijing. Because this city is so large, every district/part of Beijing feels like a completely different place. Both of these two places made me feel like I was back in Shanghai again. The streets were clean and the buildings were all so modern. Everything felt fast-paced, but at the same time not as fast as I how sometimes Beijing feels. Xidan is known for its commercial area. As we walked outside the subway, on one side of the bridge was the modern, expensive shopping malls and other side was the typical Chinese market (this is where all the bargaining happens). We went to both shopping areas and since I had gone to Xidan before I got to show Ake this really eclectic Chinese store. Everything in store had some other meaning attached to the objects they sold. Everything was so "true" Chinese modern day culture. Things relating to politics, culture, society were sold here. For some reason after living in China for almost 4.5 months, I still found this type of store shocking. It was a form of "freedom of speech" which I'm not use to here. Definitely a cool store.

Afterwards, Ake and I went to Wangfujing by subway. By the time we arrived it was evening and the streets were all lit up. I honestly felt like I was walking down Nanjing Road in Shanghai. We went to the famous Wangfujing Snack/Eating Street and I saw lots of scorpions and beetles on a stick. I didn't try, but I hear they are very crunchy tasting. We stopped at the Xinhua Bookstore and spent almost one to two hours pouring over all the books. Needless to say, we spent quite a while in the children's section of the bookstore.....the only way to learn a language is to start from the beginning. :) Overall, I had a good time exploring more of Beijing and getting off campus! Must do this more often.......

On Saturday morning, I met my Chinese friend, Zhang Qian to go to the Lama Temple (Yongheguan). I had wanted to go here months ago, but never got around to it. We went by subway to the temple and it took us about an hour to get there. When we arrived, all the streets were lined with shops selling many different kinds of incense. As we entered the temple, I felt really excited and relaxed. Yongheguan is a Tibetan Buddhist temple and it is one of the most famous and important monasteries in Beijing. On this morning, there were already many Chinese folks visiting the temple and praying. Everywhere we went there was the smell of burning incense. I have this growing fascination with temples and the Lama Temple was no exception to the greatness of these structures.

After these two days, I definitely going to visit more temples and more places in Beijing. Enjoy the photos!

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