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Published: October 18th 2010
The Great Wall
its amazing and we have the whole place to ourselvesBefore heading home we have time for a few days sightseeing in Beijing. They are having a heat wave here, in fact they are having the highest temperatures for 40 years, it should be between 24 and 32 degrees but today its 43 degrees, that's a bit hot. The heat and humidity slows me down a bit but there's still enough time to see all the big “must dos”: the Forbidden City, The Summer Palace, The Great Wall, Tianamen Square, The Hutongs, The Olympic Stadium etc. etc.
We jump on a coach with the rest of the, now motorbike-less, group and head off to visit the Great Wall. We want to go to Huanghua which gets very few visitors mostly due to its unofficial status but its an interesting exercise getting there when you are accompanied by 2 official tourist guide. Slowly but steadily, John, who has been with us since we entered China works his magic and sure enough after a brief visit to the, very dull, official site (an impressive dam and a some very crumbly bits of wall you cant touch) we are dropped at the unofficial site by a nervous coach driver and tour guide. But
its worth it - the wall snakes its way across the high ridges and into the distance and we have the whole place to ourselves - just magic and a perfect end to the official motorbike trip.
There seem to be a lot of Buddhist monks on the tourist trail in Beijing. They are wandering round in their yellow/orange robes just posing to have their pictures taken - just doesn't seem right, they should be in a remote cave meditating.
In the Forbidden City we shuffle along between the groups of local tourists (at least I can see over their heads) and the only thing that keeps us going in the 40degree is the constant supply of refreshing, peach flavoured ice-lollies for 10p each. A lot of the buildings were done up for the Beijing Olympics and are sporting fresh, bright, almost gaudy paint jobs. For me the slightly scruffy outlying buildings with their faded paintwork and muted colours are much more evocative and do a much better job of conveying the faded grandeur of the place. The names of the buildings helps too: The Pavilion of Scarlet Snow, The Hall of Supreme Harmony, The Palace of Earthly
Monks on Holiday
and some of them had very expensive cameras - no austerity for these chaps Tranquillity conjures up all sorts of images. One of the most amazing parts is the clock museum, something I wouldn't usually rush off to see but there were some magnificent specimens in there. Some were enormous, not far off the size of a room and others performed amazing feats as they struck the hour - like having an autometon write a series of Chinese characters with a calligraphy brush.
Beijing is also a great hunting ground for temples: Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist all next to each other. I always through Confucian and Taoism were about philosophies on how to live your life so it seem strange to have temples - what do you worship? So off I go to try and find out but its like most things: as you start to learn a bit more it just seems to get more and more complicated and confusing. Nothing is straight forward.
“Confucianism (founded by Confucius 551-479BC) is a system of thoughts, ethics and philosophies that strive for social harmony and the common good. Its based on relationships (father-son, ruler-subject etc) that if carried out properly allow social order to be achieved.” Well that's what the books say but
here we are in the Temple of Heaven Park which is dedicated to sacrifices to get a good harvest. To maintain harmony in nature it appears sacrifices are required which just doesn't seem to fit with the philosophies. I'm more confused than ever, more study is obviously required. Anyway the buildings are jolly nice and aesthetically very pleasing so its best to stop trying to understand and just enjoy.
Taoism is also based on philosophical texts but they also like to add in a very healthy sprinkling of folk legends, over 1000 gods, alchemists, healers, hermits etc.. And the Gods depicted in Dongyue Temple are truly amazing. They are divided into different departments with wonderful names and job descriptions: The Plague Performing Dept (but don't worry as long as you perform good deeds and keep a great spirit you will ward off plague), The Department of Insect Birth, very important as there can only ever be a set number of insects in existence, The Department for implementing 15 kinds of violent Death, The Department for Wandering Ghosts. They are just wonderful names and the gods come in an amazing range of shapes and sizes.
Finally there's the Buddhist
Forbidden City - imperial roof decorations
very important, they tell you all about the builidng and its use - the most important has a man riding bird, nine beasts, an immortal figure, and a dragon at the end. Temples. The Lama Temple is the most popular and on the day we visited it was full of people praying. But its a Tibetan Buddhist Temple so it seems ironic that all these people are here worshipping the Tibetan Gods when at the same time religion in Tibet is still being repressed to some extent.
We've been in Beijing for 5 days now and slowly but steadily all the rest of the group have departed to the airport. Now there's only us left. But when our time comes we don't head to the airport - like I said we got here without a plane so we'll get home without one too so we head for the train station to catch the first of many trains. .
(there will be a 3 week brake now while I'm out of internet contact - but the story will continue)
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Carol and James
non-member comment
Beijing endings
Hi, Glad you managed to get around the traffic jam that extended from the ? Tibet border to Beijing - it was even reported here - I was just hoping you hadn't caused it!!! As ever wonderful photos and interesting commentary. A great achievement. Carol and James.