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Published: April 23rd 2007
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The day dawned a bit cloudy (smoggy?) and, being the Girl Scout I am, I packed my trusty little umbrella in my bag and headed out for a day of Temple hopping. . .thankfully, it wasn't needed!
I started out with the Lama Temple. I got there about 10.00 and it was not crowded at all . . . just a handful of tourist groups. The Lama temple is really spectacular. It was built in the 17th century and is now a Tibetan lamasery, where young men study to become Buddhist monks. The air is filled with smoke from the incense that the believers bring to offer up to Buddha, and it was so much more peaceful than the other places I’ve visited so far, probably due to the lack of tour groups, but I think that most people respect the fact that this is an active temple and people are worshipping here.
The architecture was stunning . . . a combination of several different motifs: Han, Mongol, and Tibetan. The first Hall is dominated by a large laughing Buddha, back-to-back with Wei Tuo, the Protector of Buddhist Doctrine. The next hall has three different Buddhas and he
is surrounded by 18 statues of people who are believed to have been freed from being reincarnated into human form on their death and have achieved nirvana.
The most incredible sight, though, is the 55 foot (17 meter) high statue of Maitreya (the Future Budda) carved from a single block of sandalwood. Unfortunately, Buddhists do not believe it is appropriate to take photos of Buddha, so I can’t show you. I appreciated the scale of this temple complex after the huge spaces I had been visiting and highly recommend it in the morning before the tour buses start arriving.
Next stop was the Temple of Heaven . . . another giant complex, four times the size of the Forbidden City. Its Chinese name is Tian Tan and it's the largest temple complex in China. It was here that the Emperor would make animal sacrifices and pray to his ancestors and the gods for a good harvest. Again, the names conjure up all sorts of images: Hall of August Heaven, Imperial Vault of Heaven, Hall of Abstinence, and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.
The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests is by far the most impressive,
though all are incredibly beautiful. The blue of the roof represents heaven and the building is made without any nails at all! It's 125 feet (38 meters high). The circular roof symbolizes the sky. In one of the other temples there is a whispering wall where the acoustics allow one to be heard (it is said) from the other side of the wall, even if spoken in a whisper. And the place where the emperor made his proclamations, the Round Altar, is the place where the winter solstice sacrifices were made. In China the number 9 is the luckiest number and the arrangement of stones and stairs around this altar reflect 9 and multiples of 9. The center platform also has acoustical properties that allow the speaker to be heard extremely well so that his proclamations can be heard by all.
Again, there was the wonderful audio guide I described in my Forbidden City blog. These are really great, although once again I wasn't able to see a fraction of the surrounding park and adjacent buildings. There are many centuries old cypress trees here and there was a field of flowers in a stand of cypress that seemed to
These flowers go on forever!
In the park at the Temple of Heaven stretch for acres!
When I left the temple complex, I was accosted by a bunch of folks selling things. I've gotten used to this by now, and waved most of them off. However, there was a woman selling baseball caps and I wanted to buy a couple. She started off at the equivalent of 2 Euro each. We haggled and I offered her the equivalent of 50 cents for both of them. Finally she agreed, not happily, but she agreed. She handed me the hats and I handed her the 50 cents (5 yuan). Then she said, no, its 6 yuan. Now, you may think that a few cents are not important. But a deal is a deal and I said so. She started to argue with me and about that time I saw a policeman stroll by and when I looked back to her, she was headed very quickly in another direction. Hasselling tourists is frowned upon here and I've heard there are some very harsh punishments meted out for it.
At this point I was ready for some lunch. I found out that bus 120 would take me back to Wangfujing Street and hopped on. Because
this is the start point for the bus, I actually got a seat!
Made my way to the mall attached to the Beiing Grand Hotel. Mega-mall with stunning architecture and every kind of expensive brand known to man. Found a quiet restaurant and enjoyed a very simple meal of scrambled eggs and barbeque pork. For the first time since I had been in China, my stomach had acted up a little that morning and I thought eggs might help settle it. And it did, thank goodness!
My feet were beginning to give out so I hopped another bus (they only cost the equivalent of 10 cents) to my hotel. But first, I stopped for another foot massage. Vey nice place, right next to my hotel. The masseuse was really good and I was beginning to relax when, CRACK, he twisted my foot and my ankle made a sound like a rifle shot. Painful, really painful. He massaged around it a little and said it would feel better in the morning. I sure hope so. My feet feel just great, only now it's my ankle that hurts. Not swollen, so I'm hoping for the best.
Not to be
daunted by a painful ankle, I met up with former InHolland students Tony, along with William and Charlotte, and their six-year-old daughter, Guoyuan. We had made a date to have Peking Duck.
We strolled down the Wangfujing Street to a place famous for their Peking Duck, Quanjude. It has been operating since 1864 and I received a certificate to say that we had be served their 1.15 and something billionth (billionth!) duck. Mega-yummy. One of my all-time favorite dishes. They carved the whole duck and placed the slices on a platter. You take a thin crepe, smear a little plum sauce on it and place pieces of duck, spring onions, cucumber on it then roll it up like a spring roll. We also had Chinese kale and a celery dish with nuts. We finished off with the soup made from the bones of the duck. An event to be remembered, but unfortunately not with photos as I left my camera back at the hotel . . . duh. I did grab the camera from the room to take some pictures before they left. Really wonderful people. I'm so glad to have met them.
I'm not sure what I'm
going to do tomorrow. I have two more full days before I leave. One day must be devoted to shopping. The other to sights. Decisions, decisions, decisions! One thing I want to do is take in an acrobatics show. Perhaps tomorrow night . . .
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Going strong
Nice one Sally,still going strong. I have just been chatting with my daughter in Australia and now a little bit of China. again a good piece. It is a small world indeed although dark overhere. Good luck. A