On my second full day in Beijing I went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, which is on the other side of the main entrance. The Forbidden City was the home to 24 Chinese emperors starting in the early 15th century during the Ming Dynasty. The complex is massive with more than 800 buildings and dozens of separate palaces. I came out on the wrong side of the subway and having intended first to go to Tiananmen Square instead headed right into the Forbidden City. There was so much to see that it took me nearly five hours to get from one end of this literal “city” to the other. The best part was the Imperial Gardens at the rear of the complex, though there were so many other tourists crowded into the space that it was hard to fully appreciate it.
After coming out of the gate on the far end of the Forbidden City, I went up into Jingshan Park where you can climb a hill to a series of pagodas and get a panoramic view of the city of Beijing. It’s the one angle where you’ll get a bird’s eye view of the Forbidden City and actually get to take in the entire complex all at once. It’s also where some general hung himself in protest of something at some point. I declined to go visit the site where said hanging took place.
In the late afternoon I wanted to go back to check out Tiananmen Square, but by this point I was completely on the wrong side of the neighborhood and had to walk at least a few kilometers all the way back along the side of the Forbidden City. The light coming through the trees as I was walking was really soothing and almost hypnotizing. I realized I could have taken a bus, but was enjoying myself so much that I decided to keep on going on foot.
I finally got to Tiananmen Square and had to go through a metal detector and put my bag through an x-ray machine just to go inside. The square is huge with the People’s Culture Palace on one end and Chairman Mao’s Mausoleum on the other. Along the way you walk past the phallic-shaped Monument of the People’s Heroes. The mausoleum is only open in the morning so that was something to put on my list for another day.
After leaving Tiananmen Square, I raced across town to pick up my computer at the repair shop. I got a bit lost coming out of the subway and got there later than I had intended. Thankfully my laptop was fully repaired and I even had them add a bit more memory to try to make it run a little faster. I’m not sure if it’s really made a difference, but I’m just so grateful to have my computer back that I don’t even much care.
Since I was so behind schedule, I ended up being late to meet a friend of a friend named Maggie who currently lives in Beijing. I was supposed to join her and her friend for dinner, but instead met up with her at a microbrewery deep inside one of the hutongs near the Drum and Bell Tower. A bluegrass band made up of mostly Western musicians was playing, but I was only there to catch their last song. After that, Maggie and I went to another bar called Mao Mao Chong, which is known for its inventive cocktails. I got the “maojito,” a mojito made with ginger ale. The bar was in a different hutong not too far from my hostel so I was able to walk home. It was definitely another side of Beijing that I had not expected to see.
On Saturday, I spent most of the day at the Yonghegong Lama Temple. It’s a Tibetan Buddhist temple that features a giant Buddha, which is the largest sculpture made out of one continuous piece of sandalwood. There were lots of people lighting incense and kowtowing to the various Buddha statues, but since I didn’t really know what I was doing I just basically watched them.
That night I was supposed to meet up with a friend who I worked with during my first year in Korea, but at the last minute she had to cancel. Instead I had dinner with Maggie and a few of her friends at a dim sum restaurant not too far from the Lama Temple. Of course I had already gone all the way back to my hostel before I got Maggie’s message so I had to come all the way back out to meet them. Afterward, we went to an Australian bar in a hutong nearby and then back to Mao Mao Chong at the end of the night.
On Sunday, I went to the Temple of Heaven, which is where Chinese emperors offered sacrifices and prayers for a good harvest starting in the Ming Dynasty. The central feature of the park is the three-tiered, round Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. It’s really a beautiful structure architecturally, although visitors aren’t actually allowed inside. The temple is in a huge park with really pretty grounds full of Cypress trees. As I was walking around the area, I saw a group of people gathered and went over to see a small Chinese orchestra about to start playing I listened to a few songs before walking through a nice rose garden, which unfortunately was past season.
I then went to the Circular Mound Altar, which is a three-level platform of marble stones that are organized according to the sacred number nine and multiples of nine. The altar reminded me in some strange way of a Chinese Stonehenge. Apparently if you stand right in the center your voice is supposed to really resonate when you speak, though there were so many people gathered around that I didn’t get a chance to give it a try. Throughout my wandering through the Temple of Heaven I kept bumping into an annoying tour group that would randomly give out loud yells so that somewhat diminished the whole experience.
Sunday night I finally got a chance to meet up with Portia, my friend from Korea. We actually went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, which was a nice change of pace from Chinese food. It was great to catch up with her, but we weren’t able to stay out too late because Portia had to work in the morning and I had to buy train tickets and then head out to the Great Wall. That is definitely an experience I will never forget, which I will tell you about next time.
Posted courtesy of George Merrick
No comments:
Post a Comment