Beijing Part 3

Lama Temple

After a busy first four days in China, we opted for a more relaxed pace on the fifth. After a later start and a large lunch, we headed to the Lama Temple. It was built in the late 17th Century by the Qing Dynasty as the residence of a prince. Once he became emperor, it was converted into a lamasery (a temple of Tibetan Buddhists), which is what it remains to this day. Many practicing Chinese Buddhists visit the temple on a regular basis. The entire complex smelled of incense, which is lit for ceremonial purposes. The smoke you see in the picture below is form the incense.

The architecture becomes more impressive as you walk along the axis of the temple complex towards the back. The final structure you reach is the one pictured below on the left. It houses a massive statue of Buddha that I sneaked a quick picture of.

Confucius Temple

Right across the street from the Lama Temple is the Confucius Temple, which was built to honor the most influential Eastern philosopher. Confucius is to the East what Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle combined are to the West. Confucianism is actually most deeply embedded in Korea because Mao sought to rid China of its influence when he came to power. That said, China is still a deeply Confucian society. Understanding Confucius can help you understand a lot about Asian culture, even why Asians tend to out perform Americans in school.

Confucius was born in 551 B.C. He was a teacher and an on-and-off adviser to many administrators and rulers. He emphasized the importance of studying because education could be a form of social mobility. He stressed that people should receive government positions based on merit, as opposed to heredity. Thus the harder you worked and the more you studied, the better position you deserved. Imperial China did not always work out that way, with its long ruling family dynasties, but the work ethic and obsession with studying stuck. Confucius also emphasized the correct roles that certain groups were supposed to play in society. Harmony could be achieved when each group performed their role without challenging the other groups. This meant natural inequality between the rulers and the people, children and parents, men and women, etc. You can see how this is not particularly compatible with Marxism, which is why Mao sought to diminish Confucian influence. Confucius also taught that rulers should be moral; he was a staunch opponent of corruption and coercion. He thought rulers should lead by example and help their subjects internalize a sense of right and wrong. According to Confucius, shame and sense of duty, not fear of punishment, should guide human actions.

The temple itself was not that impressive in comparison to the other sites we saw, but I really enjoyed learning about the history and philosophy of the influential thinker. Here are a couple pictures of the temple:

Massage

After visiting the temple we headed back to the hostel, but not before stopping at a massage parlor that Alvin had recommended to us earlier. There are plenty of options if you want a massage in Beijing, but this place looked very professional. The full-body massage lasted an hour and cost about $20 USD. It was performed in a candle-lit room and was extremely relaxing. We were all satisfied with the experience, and you certainly can't beat the value.

Drum and Bell Towers

We began the final day of the trip at the Drum and Bell Towers, which are right across from each other. The Drum Tower (right) has an hourly drum performance, but we missed it by about 5 minutes. We could hear the performance finishing as we approached the tower. We found out that they take a two hour break for lunch, so we couldn't stick around for the next one. The tower contains several different sized drums and that's about it. It was unfortunate that we missed the performance because everyone we talked to said it was very impressive. The Bell Tower (left) features a giant bell that was used to keep track of time in the imperial era.

Pandas

Growing up near the Toledo Zoo, which had pandas until recently, I assumed pandas were a staple of any reputable zoo. If they had them at a regional zoo like Toledo, I figured they had them at most major zoos. Apparently this is not the case. Ian and Kristy (our co-teachers from Canada) had never seen pandas, so we headed for the zoo. After an overpriced cab ride for which the driver had obviously rigged the meter, we arrived at the zoo. There are hoards of people around the glass looking into the panda area, so you have to fight your way just to catch a glimpse. I got one good picture of a panda by holding my camera over the masses and snapping a picture. Generally Asian zoos are a PETA member's worst nightmare. They throw three or four tigers in a 25 foot x 30 foot pit. The pandas, however, had more than enough room. In fact, all of the pandas sat within five feet of the zookeeper's door waiting for their next meal. All these animals do is eat and sleep. Some of the pandas had an entire pit to themselves, complete with a playground the monkeys would envy, yet all they did was sit by the door waiting for food.

One of the reasons pandas are becoming extinct, despite the best efforts of all kinds of activists, is that they are the only species that would rather eat than reproduce. Panda pornography is actually used to get them "in the mood". Here is a humorous example below:

Food

One of the best things about China was the food. I'd heard from many people that real Chinese food is nothing like American Chinese food. I found that some of the flavors were similar, but there were much fewer fried dishes, though we did find some. Also, in China you can find dishes with any animal part in them, so there are many dishes we avoided. Most of what we did eat though was delicious.

Food in China is so cheap, but instead of eating for next to nothing, we opted to feast for the price of a normal meal. Occasionally we would grab a quick lunch, but when we sat down we bought an entree for every person, fried rice, dumplings, vegetables, and maybe a soup. Above are two such feasts. On the right you may notice an untouched noodle dish that was called "noodles in potato sauce". We thought it was a low mein dish, but it actually was spaghetti and tomato sauce. It wasn't great, so we focused on the other dishes which had a more local flavor.

These are pictures from the Peking Duck dinner. They carve the duck up in front of your, giving you pieces of meat and fat. You eat the fat after dipping it in sugar; it melts in your mouth. You eat the meat by placing it on pancakes with spring onions, carrots, and sauce.

Left: Kung Pao Chicken. This was my favorite dish. It is from the Sichuan region of China and contains peanuts, peppers, and onions. It was much better than the Kung Pao Chicken in the US. Right: Dumplings; very yummy.

We also had hotpot, which was similar to the shabu shabu we had in Japan. You dip meats and vegetables in boilings both, then eat. The dish originated in Mongolia, then spread to China when the Mongols ruled. There were such an array of dishes because China is a very ethnically diverse country. The Han Chinese are the largest group by far, but there are many minority groups. China also has a sizable Muslim community, resulting in some delicious lamb dishes with a Middle Eastern flavor.

Now for the not-so-appetizing dishes. The Wangfujing snack street was really close to our hostel. It featured some good looking snacks, like noodles, interspersed with some of the most exotic snacks in the world. I could not bring myself to try any of them. To the right are sheep testicle skewers.

Centipedes and Snakes. Yum!

Scorpions too. There were a lot of humorous Engrish signs on menus too. I did not have any pee beef ball soup.

The most exotic thing I did try was donkey. It actually tasted okay, but it didn't have any sauce on it, and was kind of dry. That's all for China. It was a great trip and I had a lot of fun. I only got to see Beijing though, so I will have to go back to the country for another trip eventually.

Beijing Part 2

Great Wall

Ask anyone the first thing that comes to mind when he thinks of China, and you will likely here: The Great Wall. We went on the third day of our trip. I'll give you a little bit of narrative and some history up front, but the pictures and videos do a better job of telling the story than I could. We decided to visit the Mutianyu section, which is a little bit out of the way, but much less crowded than the Badaling section. This section winds its ways through the mountains, providing some breathtaking views. The Wall is literally built along the crest of mountains, and you have to either climb the mountain or take a cable car to get there. We decided to take a cable car to the top to save our energy for walking along the Wall. The Great Wall may be the most impressive thing I have ever seen, but it takes some time spent hiking it to fully appreciate it. It doesn't immediately take your breath away the way some other historical monuments do. The wall itself is only about 20-25 feet tall and 15 feet wide. You need to get to a good vantage point, with the wall extending farther than the eye can see in either direction, before you realize just how majestic it really is.

The Mutianyu section of the Wall was built by the Ming Dynasty in the 14th Century in order to keep out the Mongols (it has since been restored). The Mongols were a nomadic people that relied on cavalry to overrun their opponents, so the Wall was especially helpful in keeping the horses out. It curves and winds in many "U" shapes to allow archers to surround the attacking enemy and rain arrows down on them. The bricks are held together with a mashed-up rice paste. This paste that was originally used actually is more intact than the concrete that was used to renovate the Wall hundreds of years later. At the time of the Ming Dynasty all men owed 1 month of labor each year to the government, unless they were able to buy their way out. It was the labor of these men (which according to our guide was not slave labor) that built the Great Wall.

Now for some pictures:

This is how Alexa and I made our way along the Great Wall:


More Pictures

We couldn't have asked for a better day to visit, other than the fact that it rained for about 15 minutes. The clouds and fog rolling over the Wall gave it a mystic quality.

There came a point where we had to hike some stairs as the Wall literally went up a mountain's peak.

The view at the top was the best.

Ming Tombs

After visiting the Wall we headed to the Ming Tombs, the burial place of the emperors from the Ming Dynasty. When planning our trip our guide warned us that they were a bit underwhelming, and were only included on most itineraries because they were close to the Badaling Section of the Wall. Given that we had six days in Beijing, we decided to include them. The best part of the Ming Tombs by far is the Spirit Way (below right), a long cobblestone pathway flanked by willow trees and statues of Chinese animals, both real and mythical. A soul tower (left) marks the tomb of each individual emperor. The actual tomb we visited, called Dingling, is almost entirely empty, and the interior is reminiscent of an unfinished basement. Some of the treasures that have been excavated are on display in a museum outside the tomb, but there are no English explanations, and there is a lot of overlap between what was there and what we had seen at the Forbidden City. All of us agreed that we would have used the half day spent traveling to and visiting the tombs differently knowing what we know now.

One of the statues along the Spirit Way


Temple of Heaven

When Alvin (our tour guide) dropped us off at our hostel, we bid him farewell (we only used a guide for the first three days of the trip). The next day, after returning to Tiananmen to see the square from above and Chairman Mao (see previous post), we headed to the Temple of Heaven. Like so many of Beijing's historic monuments, it too was built by the Ming Dynasty. The main building of the complex is the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests (below), but the Temple grounds are more like a park, and are larger than the Forbidden City. The emperors prayed once a year at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests for, well, good harvests. For Kirk, Karl, and other former (or current) Age of Empires II players, the hall is the wonder for the Chinese civilization.

To give you some perspective, the black figure standing next to the hall is Alexa.





Below is the Imperial Vault of Heaven used to store the Emperor's tablets that were used once a year to pray for good weather.


















Shopping

After visiting the temple we headed to a market, which was essentially a 5 story building with sellers of clothes, appliances, trinkets, and just about anything else you can think of. I wanted to buy some souvenirs, and a former teacher at our school had recommended this market to me. Those that know me are aware that I am a hunter type of shopper, as opposed to a gatherer. I go in, buy what I need, and come out. The shopping experience in the US (outside of books) is not something I really enjoy. Shopping at this market, however, was the most fun I have ever had at a store. These markets are known for their negotiable prices, and haggling is a must. By the end of the day I had it down to a routine:

I would walk up to a vendor, who immediately perked up when she realized I was interested. In broken English she would tell me how good the prices are, or how fine the quality is, even if she is only selling T-shirts. I would ask "How much?" and she would give me an exorbitantly high price that is more than the product would cost in the United States. For some T-shirts we bought the first price was about $20 and for a pair of shoes I bought the starting price was about $200. I would immediately put the product down and say, "No, too much," and pretend to lose interest. She would pull me back and beg me not to leave, then gesture for me to name my price. I would name something absurdly low to start as my anchor, $1 for a T-shirt or $5 for a pair of shoes. The vendor would say, "You joking," reiterate how fine the product is ("this shirt 100% cotton"), then say, "No joking price, serious price." The more stubborn you are in terms of sticking to your anchor, the lower the final price. I get the sense that they make money at just about any price, but they want as much profit as possible, which is why their anchor starts 10-20 times higher than the price you will get the item for. I would try to get them to lower their price a few times before I upped mine, so they could see I meant business.

There would always come a point where they refused to lower their price anymore, and I would respond by walking away. Again, they pulled me back and lowered the price even more. By the end of our trip, Antonio had perfected the role of shopping wingman. Just when it appeared I was about to settle on the price the vendor was offering, he would swoop in and ask what the price I was getting was. Then, he would shake his head and say too much, forcing the vendor to further lower the price. The whole experience was like a competition, a battle of wills. I felt that I won most of those battles (T-shirts for $2, shoes for $20, an 8 gig memory card for my camera for $10, an authentic Steve Yzerman Jersey for $35), but maybe they were laughing at me for the price I finally settled on.

These were some interesting shirts:

I'm not sure if the ObaMao T-shirt is intended for Tea Partiers, or hipsters ironically making fun of them, but either way it was funny. Mao must be rolling over in his grave due to the types of products his face was used to sell in capitalist markets everywhere. It's as if he is the face of a communist-on-the-outside, capitalist-on-the-inside new economy, wrought with all kinds of contradictions. The above shirt with the Nike slogan and Mao's face was the most ironic of the bunch.

Streets

The streets in Asia are bad everywhere. Drivers are aggressive and prone to using their horns. In China this was even worse than Korea. Crosswalk signs changed with minimal warning, and pedestrians often got stuck in the middle like these poor people:

I had to turn back once when I was 1/3 of the way across the street (normally in that situation I'd just finish walking across) because the drivers were so aggressive. Also, just because you have the green light to walk across the street does not mean that drivers turning right will stop or even slow down for you.

We did find some nice pedestrian shopping streets like the one below, but even those had occasional cars and trucks driving on them.

Drivers also make very risky, poor decisions. One night, Alexa, Antonio, and I were trying to catch up with Ian and Kristy, who were already at a bar outside Olympic Park. We wanted desperately to find a taxi, but only certain taxi are legit, and many of them won't stop for foreigners at night because they aren't heading to the traditional tourist stops. We found a group of taxi drivers waiting outside their taxis, so that they could negotiate a flat rate to rip people off. Just like when we were shopping, we had to barter. The driver was stubborn though, so we ended up settling on the exorbitant flat rate of 100 RMB (which was still only about $5 a person for us, but in China that's a ton of money for a cab ride). Once the ride started though, he was the most friendly cab driver in the world (most likely because he was pocketing all the extra cash). He told us he loved "America people" and loved "America people music". He then popped in a CD and started blaring Backstreet Boys and Lady Gaga. He laughed loudly and was generally a lot of fun. I took a lot of videos of this cab ride. After a while though, he started swerving in an out of lanes, as if he was dancing to the music. It got scary. I happened to be taking a video as this happened.

Water Cube and Bird's Nest

One of the few disappointments of the trip was that when we got to the lounge overlooking the Water Cube and Bird's Nest from the 2008 Olympics, the stadiums were not lit up with the colorful lights. I did get a drive by shot of the bird's nest the first day of the trip when it was still light.

Okay, that's all for now. Still one more to come.