China is a fascinating place to visit, and from famous attractions like the Great Wall to lesser known ones like Jingshan Park, Beijing has been brilliant!
Our first tourist outing was to the Forbidden City. And even though it's horribly clichéd, I'm going to say it: the Forbidden City is far from forbidden now! (Well, I guess it's still forbidden for foreigners who don't want to pay 60 RMB...) Despite the crowds though, it was quite interesting to wander through both the main sections (the audience hall and the main throne room) as well as the smaller halls, lodges, and pavilions built for various reasons and named things like the Lodge for the Proper Places and Cultivation of Things or the Hall of Crimson Snow.
Our most brilliant find was Jingshan Park, which we randomly decided to visit because it was close...and only2 RMB. It used to be an imperial park and the hill at the center was actually built as a windbreak for the Forbidden City. We hiked to the top of the highest hill and the view over the Forbidden City was fantastic! The temples on the hill were also interesting (even if the Anglo-French invaders stole four of the five Buddha statues.) A random tidbit from this park is that it's the place where the last Qing Emperor hanged himself, to avoid meeting the peasant army marching on the city. This somehow made him a national hero... still a bit confused as to why...
The Temple of Heaven was fun in that it was different from all the Buddhist temples we saw in Korea and Hong Kong. Not too surprising since it was a Tao temple and not a Buddhist one. It was round and it's where the emperor used to go pray for a good harvest each year. The craziest thing here were the locals hanging out in the surrounding park! There was this long walk-way area where people would bring sound equipment, set it up and start singing. Often others would congregate round and join in...or they would move about 20 feet down the walk-way and set up their own sound equipment and sing their own song... When we walked by the first time there were at least 6 or 7 different people or groups singing within a few hundred yards. I don't know if they were trying to outdo each other or what, because most places you stood you could hear at least 3 distinctly different people singing! It was insane!
Tienanmen Square where many Chinese locals know nothing about the Tienanmen Square standoff... Seriously, they don't. They do come to pay homage to Mao though. We walked past there the other morning and there were thousands (yes, thousands) of people lined up to get into his mausoleum.
The swimming building and the National Olympic Stadium weren't built yet when I was here before. They are quite the buildings...very ingenious architecture! We didn't bother going in though. They are just barely open to the public and a bit expensive. Instead we stayed outside and took pictures. When we were trying to capture this picture, we had one tout who wanted to take the picture for us. We said no, but he took pictures while I was jumping anyways. Afterwards he was showing us his pictures (which didn't look nearly as good—his shutter speed was too slow) and asking if we wanted to buy them. We said no and showed him ours. He was suitably impressed and immediately quit trying to sell us his...but then whipped out his printer and offered to print our picture out for 20 RMB. We gave him an A for effort—but still refused!
Peking university was fun to visit too. It was free—but I think we were supposed to be students to get in. We just smiled, looked confident, and walked past the guards. It's amazing how often looking confident gets you into places! And...it's a beautiful campus! We both thought it was time to be students again. We tried to get into some classes, but it's harder to beat an electronic card reader with confidence...
We went to the Beijing Zoo on Amanda's birthday. (Yes, all the requisite jokes about visiting home for your birthday were made!) It ended up being a good day to go since the low season started November 1st! Some of the zoo was rather depressing—like the poor bears who got to hang out in a mostly bare cement pit... However improvements are being made and newer areas—like the giant panda section—were much better. And the giant pandas were quite adorable! We also liked the big albino python and all the monkeys.
Now as a tourist there are things to see and then there are things to do. One thing to do in China is to try the local street food on a stick. In terms of food on a stick, there are normal things like chicken or lamb kebabs, sweet things like sugared apples, odd things like tofu or squid, and scary things like scorpions and silk worms! We tried most of the above. (Check out our picture folders on facebook for proof!)
Our last tourist stop was to the Confucian Temple. Confucius, of course, never claimed to be a god and would probably be quite ticked to find out that there are temples dedicated to him! None the less, it was interesting to visit. According to the people who set up the display on Confucianism in one of the buildings, Confucius is the sole reason anyone in the world lives in a civilized society. Now, I think Confucius was an amazing guy, but that's just a bit of a stretch! The other display that was set up though, was about the Great Wall and that was fascinating. It was a rephotography exhibition based on photographs mostly taken in 1908 and then retaken in 2006 or 2007. It's amazing to see how the wall has or hasn't changed, depending on the area.
And yes, we did visit the Great Wall! In fact, no post about Beijing would be complete without a mention of the Great Wall, so consider this the mention! :) Our Great Wall experience was brilliant—and we have so many pictures that I think it warrants it's own post. Consider this the preview.
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