China: Day 4

Day 4

Okay, this account of China has gone on far too long and I am getting FAR behind on Spring in Korea. With that in mind, here is my last day in Beijing in pictures and videos:

First, a stop at the Lama Temple - the most famous Buddhist temple outside of Tibet.

 

I’m not sure if it was a special occasion for the New Year, but tons of people were burning incense and praying. We strolled through the five main halls, snapped a photograph of a giant Buddha (got yelled at my security) and decided to move on to the next destination before frost bite set in.

 

Next stop, the National Olympic Stadium – aka “The Bird’s Nest”.

 

After watching the 2008 Olympics, this was a must see so soon after all of the work that China put into hosting the event. The Bird’s Nest was pretty fascinating to see up close, but long lines (and freezing temperatures) prevented us from venturing inside to get a different perspective. Instead, we walked around the park to see all of the new buildings constructed specifically for the event, and then tried out a new subway line that was also recently built.

 

Last on the agenda was the weird food market! We were hungry for some scorpions!

  

 

 

With an open mind I bit into the deep fried, seasoned scorpion that looked a lot like the ones you find back in Arizona, and I was pleasantly surprised. The worst part was that you had to chew it for quite a while, like the bad end of an asparagus. The flavor wasn’t half bad, but I don’t think I would go back for seconds.

 

Other possible treats that I didn’t partake in were locus, starfish, BIG scorpions, seahorses, crickets, various animal testicles and penises… I didn’t want to upstage Bear Grylls.

 

THE END

China: Day 3

Day 3

The Great Wall! If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already ready my post on this amazing day. Hands down it was the highlight of the trip. What I didn’t mention in the earlier post is that we were on the wall for SIX hours!

To get to the wall we hired a cab driver to take us two and a half hours out of the city to Jingshanling. The agreement was that we did the 10K to another part of the wall called Simatai. The driver would meet us there and take us home.

At first I felt bad that he would have to wait for us, but when he picked us up at 7am his wife was in the front seat to keep him company for the day. It was a holiday, so I was happy to know we weren’t keeping him away from his family.

The 10K was only supposed to take 4 hours, but we were having such a great time enjoying the views, sunny weather and taking pictures that we stretched it to 6 hours. By the time we met up with the driver, we were exhausted and he might have been a little irritated with our lollygagging.

That night Rob reluctantly agreed to some Chinese opera, but in all reality it was not a variety show with a display of Beijing Opera. The Lao She Teahouse is pretty famous for these shows and has been visited by various world leaders and celebrities. Unfortunately, there was not photography during the show, so I have no visual images to display… the few I did snap were really blurry.

China: Day 2

Day 2

When you are in one of the largest cities in the world, with only 4 days to explore, sleeping in is not an option. With that in mind, we woke up fairly early to find a Chinese Tea House to visit for some morning tea and dumplings. The one we came across was called the Confucian Tea House, which happened to be up the road from the Confucian Temple.

We ordered a few types of tea to get a good sampling, and a very nice, but difficult to understand, woman taught us (or tried to teach us) everything about the different types. I was pretty excited about this since I take my tea seriously. Tea pots are beautiful and it was interesting to learn a little about the different types, why they are used and even the purpose of different tea cups (taller, narrow cups are used for more fragrant teas). There is a whole art to making the tea that includes rinsing and warming the pot with boiling hot water, rinsing the leaves (the first time you pour the water in you are supposed to dump it out! Who does that?) and even washing the tea pot with a paintbrush.

The other factoid that I am very aware of now, is that men and women are supposed to hold their cups differently (Who knew??)

Here I thought you just steep a bag of Lipton’s and call it a drink…

Once our bellies started sloshing around, we walked over to the Confucian Temple to educate ourselves on Confucianism.

Confucius was born in Shandong Province, south of Beijing, during an age of uninterrupted war. Confucius (551-479 BC) was prompted by the suffering around him to develop a practical philosophy built on the principle of virtue. He died unrecognized because no one would apply his rules of governance.

The temple was first built in 1302 during the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Around 200 ancient stelae stand in the courtyard in front of the main hall, inscribed with the names of those who successfully passed the imperial civil service exams.

(stelae)

Overall, the temple was pretty standard as far as temples go. There was a small museum in one of the halls that provided details about his upbringing and his struggles as he tried to win over followers.

After the morning lessons, it was time to SHOP! It was also an inspired idea because walking around temples in near-sub zero temperatures is not the best way to see China. An indoor shopping market is MUCH, much, MUCH better!

The Silk Market, more properly known as Xiushui, is one of the most popular tourist destinations next to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. The reason is most likely the abundant surplus of cheap knock-offs.

When we arrived I was not disappointed. Four floors of everything that you could ever want. I easily could have spent all day dickering and haggling with the shop owners, but they do close at 5, sharp. A song started to play over the intercom and everyone got very excited. It’s probably why I got such a good deal on my jacket! OR, it could have been that they were just really excited for the Lunar New Year. It happened to be a wise choice to visit that day since the New Year celebrations started that evening and the Silk Market was closed for the next two days.

As for the New Year celebrations, I can best describe them as being caught in a war zone. I have never seen so many fireworks in my life. We opted to grab a drink and stay as warm as possible before heading to the madness. As midnight ticked closer, we started walking towards the commotion. Moments before the new year we came across the drum tower and hundreds of people standing around a court yard, setting off fireworks. There was never a countdown, but it was evident when the commotion a few moments earlier turned into complete chaos.

Rob and I pushed our way to the front for a better look and before I could even get my camera out there was a bright flash, Rob jumped back and BANG! It took a moment to register that a firework (a loud one, not a pretty sparkly one) flew into Rob’s leg, ricocheted over to me and BLEW UP ON MY FOOT! I couldn’t feel my toes for a while and I started getting really scared. My shoe looked fine but when the feeling came back I thought my toe was broken.

Since the party didn’t seem to be slowing down, but rather amplifying, we began looking for a cab to take us home. The Great Wall trip was planned for the following day and our pickup time was 7am, just a few hours away. Like New Years in the states, cabs are hot commodities after midnight and we had no luck. Instead we wandered the streets, dodging the random fireworks being set off in the middle of the street every 20 yards or so. By 2am we were headed down the road that lead to our hostel and I was thankful for the cold that numbed my throbbing toe. We finally did catch a cab and he drove us the last 100 yards to the hostel door.

Pretty good for Day 2 of the Tour de Beijing, and a great way to welcome the Year of the Ox!

China: Day 1

Day 1

I could tell it was going to be a memorable trip when we got to the airport about an hour before the international flight and were told by the attendant that we were too late. With a little persuading, she made a phone call and said we needed to hurry. After cutting in front of a long line at security and running through the terminal, we made it moments before taxing out to the runway…where we sat and waited for half an hour for ice treatment (it had snowed the night before).

The flight was only two hours and we arrived before 11am, leaving the whole day for sightseeing.

First on the agenda was The Forbidden City.

Officially known as the Palace Museum, this is a grand monument to the emperors who ruled from its halls over a period of almost 500 years. The symbolic center of the Chinese universe, the palace was the exclusive domain of the imperial court from its completion in 1420 until the last of the emperors was forced to abdicate at the beginning of the 20^th century. The modern world intruded in 1949, when the public was finally admitted through the palace gates.

The last emperor, Pu Yi, ascended the throne at the age of 3 in 1908, but his brief reign was brought to an early end in 1912 by a new Republican government. The young ex-emperor continued to live in the Forbidden City until ejected in 1924. He was later imprisoned under the Communists, until Mao granted him amnesty in 1959. He died in 1967 after working for 7 years as a gardener.

The hostel we stayed at was conveniently right around the corner from this famous landmark, so we set off on foot. A 10 minute stroll and we were standing at the Meridian Gate.

Once inside we spent a few hours roaming the various side alleys and halls… and probably didn’t manage to see more than half of it. It really is a huge, impressive place to see.

When we were sufficiently frozen from meandering, we made our way through a little hallway and stumbled across a very recognizable landmark.

Who hasn’t seen this place before?

Tian’an Men Square is the world’s largest public square and the final resting place of Mao Zedong.

Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 from this Ming-dynasty gate, where his huge portrait still hangs.

Seeing a dead guy decomposing in a crystal casket (that he has been in since 1976) didn’t sound very appealing to me, so I passed on that attraction. Plus, I am apparently the only oddball in China who doesn’t want to see some dead guy… and lines are rumored to be massive.

What did peak my attention was the flag ceremony that is performed every day at dawn and dusk. We got there just in time to join the masses that shared my idea and then we waited. When I couldn’t feel me feet, fingers or nose, a large group of soldiers finally appeared under Mao’s portrait and goose-walked across the street to the flagpole. It was freezing, but a great thing to witness. These guys had everything timed down to the millisecond and took a lot of pride in their country and duties.

After warming up at the hostel for a bit we headed out (the huge group of us) for a roasted Beijing Duck dinner!

The most memorable part of this was when I actually ate the head of an unfortunate duck…which happened to be pretty unfortunate for me, too.

Something about crunchy skull bones, eyeballs and brain goo that wasn’t appealing to my sophisticated palette… weird!