Well this will likely be my last post from China. Its been an amazing couple of weeks. The best way to develop cultural appreciation is definitely to spend some time embedded outside of your own.
The last few days have really just been shopping and little exploring here and there. After learning about how easy the subway is I've been riding it at every opportunity since we don't really have those in Milwaukee.
A little summary of what I did each day -
Thursday: I walked Nanjing lui the first time. Its a wide road just for pedestrians with a ton of modern shopping structures like you'd imagine in any large city. So many touts. ugh. I'm not a violent person but I'm going to punch the next person who comes up to me saying "bag, watch, dvd". Made a fast friend accidently because he spoke more english than those 3 words. His name was Jiang Wei (sounds like john) and he did talk me into looking at his dvds. I'm sure Nanjing lui is probably the worst place to buy dvds since I've seen a ton of stalls all over the city since then. whatever. I ended up buying 10 probably at twice the price I should have negotiated though I did get a good price break when I said I might come back and buy a bag. I'm not sure if all the touts take you to the same type of shop but this was a locked back room kind of place. wierd vibe. hope I didn't buy anything stolen.
Friday: Walked nanjing liu for a bit before heading to Pudong which is like the Manhatten of Shanghai. Lots of new money there. I went up the Jin Mao tower to the observation floor at the top and got a nice birds-eye view of the city. Ate some kinda lame 5-spice beancurd noodle soup in the upscale cafeteria in the basement afterwards.
After returning to nanjing lui to buy a hard suitcase with wheels I once again acidentally made a fast friend. The lesson learned? I'm pretty sure 99% of chinese people who speak speak english on nanjing lui are solicitors. For me, walking end to end of nanjing is strenous because I'm not used to throwing so many cold shoulders. It actually takes energy for me to ignore somebody. Luckily most of the touts aren't too persistant if you just keep quiet and don't make eye contact.
Unfortunately, the first time person who asked me where I was from friday got a brisk "nowhere" and that was enough to make him persist. I ended up overpaying for a tea, a hot sweet milk (which was full of fail. supposed to be a cold, black tea) and some watermelon. I had already decided if my friend "john" just started ordering stuff, I'd storm out of there, but they brought out a menu to at least show me what kind of exhorbiant prices they were charging. I was sick of walking by that point anyway.
uh ohs. Internet is about to run out. I'll post the rest of my adventures in shanghai once I get back. Catch you all on the flip side.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Shanghai Noon
Well Shanghai has been the toughest city to get the hang of so far. It seems that fewer people speak English here than the first two cities.
Yesterday, I flew in from Xi'An at around 5:30 which really wasn't so good. For one thing I think they stop operatinging the airport buses at 6 so I think I might have caught the last one. The other thing I'm a little sick of is having to get the adresses and names of my hotels translated. Luckily one of the guys trying to book me at a hotel was able to help me with that. He also showed me approximately where it was on a map so I was able to figure out which bus I needed. Shanghai is pretty freakin big and the bus trip to the railroad station took almost two hours so it was about 8 by the time I was going to start trying to find this hotel.
I don't know why I was surprised there were people trying to hawk hotel rooms when I got off the bus, but I was. After turning one down and with another hounding me (who didn't really speak english) I managed to make it to a taxi and showed him the address. I don't think he really knew where it was because he typed about 8 times the price I was expecting into his phone to show me and I didn't know how to really ask him to run the meter so I was going to start looking for another cab. What happened next was kind of a stroke of luck. The hotel hawker asked to see the address and I figured it couldn't hurt to let him see it. Then, to my surprise he pulls out one of his brochures that has an approximation of the name I was looking for and he types a much more reasonable number into his phone for a taxi ride. A short walk later and I'm in a minivan that I wasn't getting the best vibe from, but I decided to let it play out.
After about 4 or 5 minutes we pull up to a hotel which didn't have a stitch of english on it, but I'm automatically a lot more relaxed after getting out of the van. The no english thing definitely worried me though. I think in Beijing and Xi'An the city regulates which hotels can take foreigners since both previous hotels had signs to that effect near their entrances. So I walk inside this place with the hawker following me instead of just asking for the taxi fare since he probably got a commision if I wasn't already booked. Then to my utter despair, the receptionist shakes her head no when I ask "English?" But I refrained from panic since I knew that wasn't going to help. With a sigh, I pulled out my reservation which we proceed to look at with about 3 other Chinese people gathered around. We can't seem to communicate what the reservation printout is about.
Right then, I had an epiphany about why I came to China. I remembered I was asking for these disorienting and stressful situations. I wanted to test myself in unknown waters and see how I faired. I could tell this was the first major test of my patience. The last two cities I've visited paled in comparsion to this. What happened next was almost as relieving as when I saw the guy had brochure for the hotel. The receptionist says in broken english, 9 o clock friend come who speaks english. Ok, I thought, this could be a lot worse. Waiting 20 minutes didn't really seem like a huge deal. With my newly found serene center (though I'm sure I looked pretty travel worn by this point), I started running the possible senarios. 1) I was at the wrong hotel and I'd have to figure out how to get to right one, but at least I'd have someone who speaks english be able to help me get a cab or 2) I was at the right hotel and just needed to wait a few minutes to check in. Neither of these seemed like the end of the world and I was just happy I wasn't walking around Shanghai looking for my hotel in the dark with all my luggage .
The taxi guy finally couldn't wait anymore, made some 'pay me' guestures, and I gave him double since it was still significantly less than what the first guy wanted. Not ten seconds later, the receptionist finally asked for my passport which I already had out and tried giving her. She must have remembered the procedure for checking in foriengers right then. As soon as she opened it she saw my name and instantly pulled the registration form that had my name on it. I started smiling ear to ear. Typing it out makes it seem like this didn't take too long, but while it was happening it certainly felt like an eternity.
So today (my first day here) has been pretty unsucessful. After leaving the hotel at 8:30, I started walking around. I put some bread and vegetable dumplings in my stomach since I didn't eat dinner the night before and about 3 hours later I started getting some worse-than-mild stomach cramps. Sortly thereafter, it became a humid, and fairly hot day. The combination was to much to handle and I got back to the hotel around 10. I proceeded to sleep until 1 at which point I was feeling a significant deal better, and it was drizzling a bit so I decided to try and get out again. This time I thought I'd try taking the subway to the people's square which is pretty much in the center of Shanghai. This was an awful idea. For one thing, just the sheer number of people in Shanghai means the subway stations are packed (probably from sunup to sundown). The next problem was that the ticket booth (which was a massive four sided thing with 20 to 25 windows) only had a few windows open so the lines to get a ticket were pretty long. The last issue which pretty much made me get out of line, was that unlike Beijing where you just buy a ticket and you can ride, here you have to tell them how far you're going. I'll be taking taxis now after that little foray.
After some subway fail, I started wandering around again, but this time in search of the intertubes. I finally found this place after almost walking past it. You can find these little hole in the wall (100 computer) places if you look for the video game posters outside. This is the worst computer I've used by far. They cap the download speeds so I can't even get firefox and be rid of IE6. Not to mention the norton virus-detection popping up right away. ugh. I'm also surrounded by WoW playing chain smokers which doesn't help.
So yeah. Had to rant a little. Still not feeling the best, but I'm going to try and fully enjoy the last part of my stay in China.
Yesterday, I flew in from Xi'An at around 5:30 which really wasn't so good. For one thing I think they stop operatinging the airport buses at 6 so I think I might have caught the last one. The other thing I'm a little sick of is having to get the adresses and names of my hotels translated. Luckily one of the guys trying to book me at a hotel was able to help me with that. He also showed me approximately where it was on a map so I was able to figure out which bus I needed. Shanghai is pretty freakin big and the bus trip to the railroad station took almost two hours so it was about 8 by the time I was going to start trying to find this hotel.
I don't know why I was surprised there were people trying to hawk hotel rooms when I got off the bus, but I was. After turning one down and with another hounding me (who didn't really speak english) I managed to make it to a taxi and showed him the address. I don't think he really knew where it was because he typed about 8 times the price I was expecting into his phone to show me and I didn't know how to really ask him to run the meter so I was going to start looking for another cab. What happened next was kind of a stroke of luck. The hotel hawker asked to see the address and I figured it couldn't hurt to let him see it. Then, to my surprise he pulls out one of his brochures that has an approximation of the name I was looking for and he types a much more reasonable number into his phone for a taxi ride. A short walk later and I'm in a minivan that I wasn't getting the best vibe from, but I decided to let it play out.
After about 4 or 5 minutes we pull up to a hotel which didn't have a stitch of english on it, but I'm automatically a lot more relaxed after getting out of the van. The no english thing definitely worried me though. I think in Beijing and Xi'An the city regulates which hotels can take foreigners since both previous hotels had signs to that effect near their entrances. So I walk inside this place with the hawker following me instead of just asking for the taxi fare since he probably got a commision if I wasn't already booked. Then to my utter despair, the receptionist shakes her head no when I ask "English?" But I refrained from panic since I knew that wasn't going to help. With a sigh, I pulled out my reservation which we proceed to look at with about 3 other Chinese people gathered around. We can't seem to communicate what the reservation printout is about.
Right then, I had an epiphany about why I came to China. I remembered I was asking for these disorienting and stressful situations. I wanted to test myself in unknown waters and see how I faired. I could tell this was the first major test of my patience. The last two cities I've visited paled in comparsion to this. What happened next was almost as relieving as when I saw the guy had brochure for the hotel. The receptionist says in broken english, 9 o clock friend come who speaks english. Ok, I thought, this could be a lot worse. Waiting 20 minutes didn't really seem like a huge deal. With my newly found serene center (though I'm sure I looked pretty travel worn by this point), I started running the possible senarios. 1) I was at the wrong hotel and I'd have to figure out how to get to right one, but at least I'd have someone who speaks english be able to help me get a cab or 2) I was at the right hotel and just needed to wait a few minutes to check in. Neither of these seemed like the end of the world and I was just happy I wasn't walking around Shanghai looking for my hotel in the dark with all my luggage .
The taxi guy finally couldn't wait anymore, made some 'pay me' guestures, and I gave him double since it was still significantly less than what the first guy wanted. Not ten seconds later, the receptionist finally asked for my passport which I already had out and tried giving her. She must have remembered the procedure for checking in foriengers right then. As soon as she opened it she saw my name and instantly pulled the registration form that had my name on it. I started smiling ear to ear. Typing it out makes it seem like this didn't take too long, but while it was happening it certainly felt like an eternity.
So today (my first day here) has been pretty unsucessful. After leaving the hotel at 8:30, I started walking around. I put some bread and vegetable dumplings in my stomach since I didn't eat dinner the night before and about 3 hours later I started getting some worse-than-mild stomach cramps. Sortly thereafter, it became a humid, and fairly hot day. The combination was to much to handle and I got back to the hotel around 10. I proceeded to sleep until 1 at which point I was feeling a significant deal better, and it was drizzling a bit so I decided to try and get out again. This time I thought I'd try taking the subway to the people's square which is pretty much in the center of Shanghai. This was an awful idea. For one thing, just the sheer number of people in Shanghai means the subway stations are packed (probably from sunup to sundown). The next problem was that the ticket booth (which was a massive four sided thing with 20 to 25 windows) only had a few windows open so the lines to get a ticket were pretty long. The last issue which pretty much made me get out of line, was that unlike Beijing where you just buy a ticket and you can ride, here you have to tell them how far you're going. I'll be taking taxis now after that little foray.
After some subway fail, I started wandering around again, but this time in search of the intertubes. I finally found this place after almost walking past it. You can find these little hole in the wall (100 computer) places if you look for the video game posters outside. This is the worst computer I've used by far. They cap the download speeds so I can't even get firefox and be rid of IE6. Not to mention the norton virus-detection popping up right away. ugh. I'm also surrounded by WoW playing chain smokers which doesn't help.
So yeah. Had to rant a little. Still not feeling the best, but I'm going to try and fully enjoy the last part of my stay in China.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Adventures in Xi'An
Getting to the hotel here in Xi'An turned out pretty easy with a touch of good fortune. I probably should have just taken a taxi, but I was feeling pretty adventerous after using the subway in Beijing so I decided to take the bus. After a few minutes of deliberation I picked the bus I figured would bring me closest to the city center based on the little maps they had posted in front of each bus. A short ride later and I found my self very near to the center of Xi'An, the drum and bell towers.
Compared to the last hotel I stayed in which was a combination hotel/hostel, this hotel was quite a change of pace. Comfortable chairs, glass tables and leather furniture in the lobby. Certainly more asthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, comparing the actual comfort level of the two, I found this new hotel lacking. The first (big) surprise was a fair-sized water jug amidst the other single serving hotel fare with a little placcard in front that read something to the effect, 'Cordial Recomendation: Xi'An tap water is not potable. Water jug= 10 yuan.' I'm not complaining about the price of the water. Its just that non-potable tap water decreases my comfort level. I get wary about even taking a shower in the stuff since nonpotable must either be biologically or chemically unsuitable. The other major thing that left me wanting was the bed. I'm sure its a pricer bed. No doubt in my mind, but it just doesn't sleep as well as the last one.
Chinese beds, BTW, = amazing. I love firm sleeping surfaces and these things are basically plywood with a thin pad over the top. Fantastic. I'll have to build something equivalent in my next apartment.
So the first day, I decided to visit the Wild Goose Pagoda without any idea of what it was. To my sheer delight, it was yet another Buddhist temple! Many interesting pieces on display, my favorite being a huge 3-wall 3D painted jade piece showing the life of Siddhārtha. Wish I could upload some pictures. The only unfortunate part part of my visit was that I learned the pagoda itself has been permanently closed since the earthquake in the Schezwan province.
http://www.china-travel-golden-route.com/goose_pagoda.html
Minus the pagoda, the rest of the temple is pretty small and I was back at the hotel by two. Upon returning I decided to visit the hotel restuarant which was more or less an internation class dining facility. Its just a little unsettling seeing dog chili on the menu next to a really upscale selection of entrees. Anyway, I decided to get my first seafood since arriving (in the middle of china, great planning) and went with a shrimp and squid stirfry which was really more a soup and definitly big enough for two. I've been training myself to go in with minimal preconviced notions, but still they managed to surprise me with unpeeled shrimp. The included (detached) shrimp heads were pretty much comical after the first realization. Being a big boy, I bit off tails and chewed each shrimp throughly. Not like I was going to send it back, ya know? The shells really weren't that bad. Lots of calcium I bet.
So lunch was great, but afterwards I made the most near panicked move I've made on my trip so far. Without consulting my travel itinerary, I thought I'd better schedule a tour to go see the terracotta army Friday which was really unneccesary since my flight was two days off. All I really needed was the bus number which I later found on Wikitravel. Anyway, I called the "reservation exectutive" from the hotel who happened to catch me by chance earlier in the day. After about 5 - 8 minutes of some really unproductive Q&A, the assistant manager of the the hotel stepped in, luckily for the touring agency. With his significatly better english he clarified some things and I decided to go with the *sigh* guided tour after he really talked it up and made it seem like there was a lot of added value.
So thrusday morning my tour guide, "Diana", calls my room pretty close to 8 and I go downstairs trying not to be frustrated with myself that I caved and went with this tour thing. The first of a string of pleasant surprises was that Diana was young woman about my age who was none too hard on the eyes (forgive the colloquial). The next thing that turned out better than if I had just taken the bus was a stop at the Bampo Musueum where I got to see an excavated settlement site of a village between 5 and 6 thousand years old. Pretty amazing. In comparison, I think my ancestors where just coming down out the trees learning about fire while these people were burying their dead and digging primative moats. So then there were the obligatory factory "tours" where a different guide or representative would show you what they do at the factory then try to hawk overpriced stuff. In all honesty though I found the tours of the silk factories very interesting. I didn't really know how silk stuff was made. Especially the time it takes to make the more ornate larger rugs. Some of the fancier, larger rugs can take up to 15 years!
All the dragging around led up to the the museum with the TCWs. I won't bore you with the details. you can read them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army . They try to pitch it as the 8 wonder of the ancient world. I'm not sure if I'd go that far. The pits are very impressive and massive in scale. Just not as massive as a pyramid, I think. The warriors are pretty impressive themselves and they're supposed to be lifesized so I wonder if Asians have been shrinking because they're also pretty tall. The other thing on exhibit at the museum was a pair of half-sized bronze chariots which were found shattered in one of the pits and subsequently reconstructed. The metalworking for 2000 years ago was already fairly advanced, given their complexity.
Today on Saturday was a bit slower paced. I walked to the drum tower once again and headed to the south gate of the Xi'An wall. The wall is the best preserved of its kind in China and makes a full ring with moat around inner Xi'An. After walking around for a few minutes on top of the wall, I decided I rent one of the bikes and rode the whole 13.7 kilometers. It was a nice change of pace interacting with the historical site rather than looking at it. Plus, I really needed to bike or run or something. I'm starting to get some summer restlessness in my legs.
So tommorow I'll be leaving Xi'An for Shanghai. Still have a list of things I didn't do here just like Beijing. Oh well... Next time.
Compared to the last hotel I stayed in which was a combination hotel/hostel, this hotel was quite a change of pace. Comfortable chairs, glass tables and leather furniture in the lobby. Certainly more asthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, comparing the actual comfort level of the two, I found this new hotel lacking. The first (big) surprise was a fair-sized water jug amidst the other single serving hotel fare with a little placcard in front that read something to the effect, 'Cordial Recomendation: Xi'An tap water is not potable. Water jug= 10 yuan.' I'm not complaining about the price of the water. Its just that non-potable tap water decreases my comfort level. I get wary about even taking a shower in the stuff since nonpotable must either be biologically or chemically unsuitable. The other major thing that left me wanting was the bed. I'm sure its a pricer bed. No doubt in my mind, but it just doesn't sleep as well as the last one.
Chinese beds, BTW, = amazing. I love firm sleeping surfaces and these things are basically plywood with a thin pad over the top. Fantastic. I'll have to build something equivalent in my next apartment.
So the first day, I decided to visit the Wild Goose Pagoda without any idea of what it was. To my sheer delight, it was yet another Buddhist temple! Many interesting pieces on display, my favorite being a huge 3-wall 3D painted jade piece showing the life of Siddhārtha. Wish I could upload some pictures. The only unfortunate part part of my visit was that I learned the pagoda itself has been permanently closed since the earthquake in the Schezwan province.
http://www.china-travel-golden-route.com/goose_pagoda.html
Minus the pagoda, the rest of the temple is pretty small and I was back at the hotel by two. Upon returning I decided to visit the hotel restuarant which was more or less an internation class dining facility. Its just a little unsettling seeing dog chili on the menu next to a really upscale selection of entrees. Anyway, I decided to get my first seafood since arriving (in the middle of china, great planning) and went with a shrimp and squid stirfry which was really more a soup and definitly big enough for two. I've been training myself to go in with minimal preconviced notions, but still they managed to surprise me with unpeeled shrimp. The included (detached) shrimp heads were pretty much comical after the first realization. Being a big boy, I bit off tails and chewed each shrimp throughly. Not like I was going to send it back, ya know? The shells really weren't that bad. Lots of calcium I bet.
So lunch was great, but afterwards I made the most near panicked move I've made on my trip so far. Without consulting my travel itinerary, I thought I'd better schedule a tour to go see the terracotta army Friday which was really unneccesary since my flight was two days off. All I really needed was the bus number which I later found on Wikitravel. Anyway, I called the "reservation exectutive" from the hotel who happened to catch me by chance earlier in the day. After about 5 - 8 minutes of some really unproductive Q&A, the assistant manager of the the hotel stepped in, luckily for the touring agency. With his significatly better english he clarified some things and I decided to go with the *sigh* guided tour after he really talked it up and made it seem like there was a lot of added value.
So thrusday morning my tour guide, "Diana", calls my room pretty close to 8 and I go downstairs trying not to be frustrated with myself that I caved and went with this tour thing. The first of a string of pleasant surprises was that Diana was young woman about my age who was none too hard on the eyes (forgive the colloquial). The next thing that turned out better than if I had just taken the bus was a stop at the Bampo Musueum where I got to see an excavated settlement site of a village between 5 and 6 thousand years old. Pretty amazing. In comparison, I think my ancestors where just coming down out the trees learning about fire while these people were burying their dead and digging primative moats. So then there were the obligatory factory "tours" where a different guide or representative would show you what they do at the factory then try to hawk overpriced stuff. In all honesty though I found the tours of the silk factories very interesting. I didn't really know how silk stuff was made. Especially the time it takes to make the more ornate larger rugs. Some of the fancier, larger rugs can take up to 15 years!
All the dragging around led up to the the museum with the TCWs. I won't bore you with the details. you can read them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army . They try to pitch it as the 8 wonder of the ancient world. I'm not sure if I'd go that far. The pits are very impressive and massive in scale. Just not as massive as a pyramid, I think. The warriors are pretty impressive themselves and they're supposed to be lifesized so I wonder if Asians have been shrinking because they're also pretty tall. The other thing on exhibit at the museum was a pair of half-sized bronze chariots which were found shattered in one of the pits and subsequently reconstructed. The metalworking for 2000 years ago was already fairly advanced, given their complexity.
Today on Saturday was a bit slower paced. I walked to the drum tower once again and headed to the south gate of the Xi'An wall. The wall is the best preserved of its kind in China and makes a full ring with moat around inner Xi'An. After walking around for a few minutes on top of the wall, I decided I rent one of the bikes and rode the whole 13.7 kilometers. It was a nice change of pace interacting with the historical site rather than looking at it. Plus, I really needed to bike or run or something. I'm starting to get some summer restlessness in my legs.
So tommorow I'll be leaving Xi'An for Shanghai. Still have a list of things I didn't do here just like Beijing. Oh well... Next time.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
ugh. airports...
So here I am in the international Beijing Airport 4 hours early only to find out your flight must be leaving in less than 2 hours for you to even get to the gate! Luckily I found this outrageously priced internet bar. At least the tea was included.
They were running ie6! After about half an hour of that I couldn't take it anymore and installed firefox. Not to mention the fact i'm on an old lenovo thinkpad with a max resolution of 1024x768. I'm also super sick of hearing the same chinese song over and over.
But soon I'll be off to Xi'An with a laundry list of things to see and do! Thanks Jim!
They were running ie6! After about half an hour of that I couldn't take it anymore and installed firefox. Not to mention the fact i'm on an old lenovo thinkpad with a max resolution of 1024x768. I'm also super sick of hearing the same chinese song over and over.
But soon I'll be off to Xi'An with a laundry list of things to see and do! Thanks Jim!
Monday, June 2, 2008
So much to see, so little time...
Wow. Long time, no post. Sorry about that. I've been busy exploring as you can imagine. Plus, I didn't feel like I had much to post about saturday or sunday.
Saturday and Sunday were just a ton of walking. Saturday my goal was to get lost in Beijing. Needless to say, I achieved it, but I did have close shave with impromtu navigation excellence. After walking from 10 AM to 2 PM, I was starting to get pretty tired and I figured I'd be back at the hotel in no time. Well, the lesson that day was it's perfectly ok to have no intended destination, but always have a map for when you're really tired and disoriented and your internal compass is screwed up. I actually walked to within 2 or 3 blocks of my hotel, but I thought I was still too far north so I kept walking south until I thought I'd hit the 3rd Ring which my hotel is on. You see, Beijing is set up in Rings. My hotel is on the 3rd ring. Unfortuantely I thought I was on the 5th Ring. So then when I started to get on the north side I said I better start heading south to get back to my hotel. Well, that wound up with me walking all the way back into the city to the 2nd Ring before I found a city map to see where I was. Eh. Live and learn. I ended up getting back around 6ish so it was quite a walk.
So walking was fun. I saw a lot of multinationals' buildings. Toyota, Microsoft... mmm. can't remember them all. I walked through a mall in a rather affluent part of town more or less north of all the embassies. Nice mall. They had a little waterfall. I ended up walking past both the Hard Rock cafe and Sheraton Great wall, but I was certainly a little road by the time I walked past them.
Ok so I did all this walking and Sunday night I decided I'd go see the Temple of Heaven on Monday, but there was a small problem. After purchasing a map and seeing the distance I actually walked, it occured to me that if I walked to the temple of Heaven I'd be totally wiped out by the time I got there. Ok, i said. no problem, I'll take a cab. And a cab would have worked, but it didn't have that element of adventure. So I set my mind on taking the subway and I'm glad I did. After getting to the subway station and looking at the system map for about 20 mintues, I decided which stop I needed to get off at and proceeded to write the chinese characters down to show the ticket lady. Of course, the subway is easier than that. You just pay the ticket person 2 yuan and you get to ride the subway! It was super cool. I think that was the first time I've been on a subway. Awesomely fast.
So I get to the Temple of Heaven with the idea that its just some park, but no. Its this huge sprawling historical park. I had no idea. So I pay for a ticket and start wandering around the outer area, but I figure all the cool stuff to see is in the inner area like the cool stuff was at the back of the palace museum. The first place I went to was the Temple mound. Its a circular stone daius/platform thing where the Emperor would offer sacrifices to heaven. After a brief rest, I went to see the Fasting Palace which is were the Emperor would stay and conduct business for three or four days before the ritual. Really beautiful. A whole palace inside of a temple. mind blowing. I also took about an hour to go see the Divine Music Administration. Last I went up to the Hall of Prayer for Good Havests. Very interesting layout based on ancient Chinese time with 4 pillars for the seasons and 12 pillars for months.
here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven
Today was my last day in Beijing which makes me a little sad :( I still haven't visited the Temple of the Moon or gone to the Hard Rock cafe. Major fail. Oh well. Leaving some things to see yields lots of reasons to come back :) Excellent traveling advice Jim!
So for my last day it rained. I made the best of it however and purchased an umbrella to set off to see the Lama Temple. I was a little worried that it would be closed, but they were still open. I rode the subway again; this time not quite as far. The station was right under the temple which surprised me a little. After a little wandering I found the entrance toward the south side. This was a really amazing place. So many statues. One even in the guiness book of world records. Its really amazing to see a 26 meter tall Maitreya B-man (trying to avoid extra eyes if you catch my drift). Lots of people burning incense and praying as you can imagine. The architecture was a little different from the buildings I've seen so far, but mostly the same. Maybe a little more color. I knelt and prayed a little and kept you all in my no-thoughts ;)
wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonghe_Temple
Well this will be my last post from Beijing. Sorry about the infrequency of postage. I'll try to be a little more diligent. From here its off to Xi'An: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi'an. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Terracotta Army.
Saturday and Sunday were just a ton of walking. Saturday my goal was to get lost in Beijing. Needless to say, I achieved it, but I did have close shave with impromtu navigation excellence. After walking from 10 AM to 2 PM, I was starting to get pretty tired and I figured I'd be back at the hotel in no time. Well, the lesson that day was it's perfectly ok to have no intended destination, but always have a map for when you're really tired and disoriented and your internal compass is screwed up. I actually walked to within 2 or 3 blocks of my hotel, but I thought I was still too far north so I kept walking south until I thought I'd hit the 3rd Ring which my hotel is on. You see, Beijing is set up in Rings. My hotel is on the 3rd ring. Unfortuantely I thought I was on the 5th Ring. So then when I started to get on the north side I said I better start heading south to get back to my hotel. Well, that wound up with me walking all the way back into the city to the 2nd Ring before I found a city map to see where I was. Eh. Live and learn. I ended up getting back around 6ish so it was quite a walk.
So walking was fun. I saw a lot of multinationals' buildings. Toyota, Microsoft... mmm. can't remember them all. I walked through a mall in a rather affluent part of town more or less north of all the embassies. Nice mall. They had a little waterfall. I ended up walking past both the Hard Rock cafe and Sheraton Great wall, but I was certainly a little road by the time I walked past them.
Ok so I did all this walking and Sunday night I decided I'd go see the Temple of Heaven on Monday, but there was a small problem. After purchasing a map and seeing the distance I actually walked, it occured to me that if I walked to the temple of Heaven I'd be totally wiped out by the time I got there. Ok, i said. no problem, I'll take a cab. And a cab would have worked, but it didn't have that element of adventure. So I set my mind on taking the subway and I'm glad I did. After getting to the subway station and looking at the system map for about 20 mintues, I decided which stop I needed to get off at and proceeded to write the chinese characters down to show the ticket lady. Of course, the subway is easier than that. You just pay the ticket person 2 yuan and you get to ride the subway! It was super cool. I think that was the first time I've been on a subway. Awesomely fast.
So I get to the Temple of Heaven with the idea that its just some park, but no. Its this huge sprawling historical park. I had no idea. So I pay for a ticket and start wandering around the outer area, but I figure all the cool stuff to see is in the inner area like the cool stuff was at the back of the palace museum. The first place I went to was the Temple mound. Its a circular stone daius/platform thing where the Emperor would offer sacrifices to heaven. After a brief rest, I went to see the Fasting Palace which is were the Emperor would stay and conduct business for three or four days before the ritual. Really beautiful. A whole palace inside of a temple. mind blowing. I also took about an hour to go see the Divine Music Administration. Last I went up to the Hall of Prayer for Good Havests. Very interesting layout based on ancient Chinese time with 4 pillars for the seasons and 12 pillars for months.
here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven
Today was my last day in Beijing which makes me a little sad :( I still haven't visited the Temple of the Moon or gone to the Hard Rock cafe. Major fail. Oh well. Leaving some things to see yields lots of reasons to come back :) Excellent traveling advice Jim!
So for my last day it rained. I made the best of it however and purchased an umbrella to set off to see the Lama Temple. I was a little worried that it would be closed, but they were still open. I rode the subway again; this time not quite as far. The station was right under the temple which surprised me a little. After a little wandering I found the entrance toward the south side. This was a really amazing place. So many statues. One even in the guiness book of world records. Its really amazing to see a 26 meter tall Maitreya B-man (trying to avoid extra eyes if you catch my drift). Lots of people burning incense and praying as you can imagine. The architecture was a little different from the buildings I've seen so far, but mostly the same. Maybe a little more color. I knelt and prayed a little and kept you all in my no-thoughts ;)
wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonghe_Temple
Well this will be my last post from Beijing. Sorry about the infrequency of postage. I'll try to be a little more diligent. From here its off to Xi'An: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi'an. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Terracotta Army.
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