My last day in Beijing (Wednesday, May 5) started a lot later than I had planned.
I wanted to catch up on my journal, which I tend to keep only during special events or short trips, so I spent quite a while on the hostel's deck, writing. When I came back inside to finish my packing, my roommates were awake. Michael, a Christian from Nigeria, and I started chatting. We finished about two hours later when I had to check out or pay a late fee. It was a great talk.
After storing my bags behind the hostel's desk, I started walking north, trying to find a big Lama Buddhist temple that I had read about. The walk was a lot farther than I expected, but I enjoy walking. I found the temple, but finding the way in was more difficult.
The Lama Temple is an active Yellow-Hat Buddhist temple, so as you wander around, you'll see a lot of monks and many people burning incense and bowing to the idols. And the idols are horrendous. Some of them are the standard peaceful Buddha statues. But many of them are monsters, some with skulls hanging from their necks or emerging from their foreheads. Most have a cartoony aspect to them, but it doesn't take away from their hideous nature. In some ways, it enhances it as you realize that the stylization may be an attempt to make these demons more endearing somehow. And sometimes the demon gods aren't alone in their statues but are "imposing" themselves upon naked women. While I've never been a fan of Buddhism, that temple made me a pretty strongly opinionated opponent.
After my disgust at the Lama Temple, I decided to try out a Red Guard lunch at a restaurant that the guidebook said was nearby. As with the Great Wall information, my book appears to have been out of date yet again. So instead of grass and fried cicadas for lunch, I had some beef and potatoes at a normal Chinese restaurant.
Once I had finished my meal, I headed back toward the Lama Temple, not to see it again (I've seen enough of that to last a lifetime), but to visit the Confucius Temple about a block away.
The Confucius Temple was the center of the Imperial Exams for the last four- to six-hundred years of the Chinese empire. In it on a "forest of stele" are the names and hometowns of more than 51,000 men who passed the top exam, qualifying them for the highest levels of political and administrative responsibility. This temple was a lot smaller, or at least a lot quieter, than the Lama Temple. In a side hall I looked at a display of recently hand-made cut-paper scenes from the life and legends of Confucius. Some of the translations were hilarious: "Five immortals and two dragons fell on his house at his birth."
Confucius was into "decorum" and music. There was quite a collection of ancient instruments in the main hall, and a small group of performers played some of them for us tourists. But as I read some of the other placards in the hall, I was disappointed to discover that the emperors had sacrificed to Confucius as a god. Not only that, but their sacrifices and ceremonies for him were as elaborate and important as the sacrifices to the "God of Heaven" at Tiantan, the Temple of Heaven park. Some people here try to tell me that the ancient Chinese were monotheists who worshipped the true God, but as I tour the imperial parks and temples, I find that difficult to believe. For monotheists, they sure had plenty of false gods.
When I finished touring the Confucius Temple, I headed back to Tian'anmen Square to get some food for the train ride home. I had found a great little Chinese bakery on one of the back streets. They didn't try to cheat me and always gave me a fair price. And was their food ever good! Once I bought my munchies I slowly wandered back to my hostel, picked up my bags and went to the train station.
The ride home was completely uneventful. I slept really solidly, thanks to my earplugs, and woke up with plenty of time to watch the countryside as we worked our way toward Dalian. I was home and unpacking by 8:15am.
I'm really glad that I went, and I'm thankful that Julia forced me to get on the train that Thursday night. Despite and difficulties along the way, it was a fun trip--probably because of the difficulties, actually. They make for great stories. Also, I think it was a good thing that I went alone. I imagine that anyone who went with me would have been frustrated with my putzing around the sides of all the "big" sites, trying to get a feel for the details. And it was nice to be able to come and go as I pleased, especially since that normally meant early mornings that probably everyone I know would have objected to.
So here's my summary advice for those of you who want to visit Beijing:
1) Take the audio tour at the Forbidden City. Stop in at the Starbucks for fun.
2) Have tea at Jingshan Park (this is a must-do!). The gate to the teahouse is on the side of the peony garden.
3) Don't take the audio tour at the Summer Palace. While it's informative, the locations are poorly marked, making it difficult to know which number to listen to at what time. But do go to the Summer Palace.
4) Make sure you go to the Temple of Heaven park early in the morning so you can watch the people doing Tai Chi. This is almost as enjoyable as the tea at Jingshan Park.
5) Try the roast duck (Beijing kao ya).
6) Skip the Great Wall tour buses #1-5.
7) Do visit the Great Wall some other way. There are plenty of other options for getting there, including renting a minibus or going with an English tour from your hotel.
8) Eat the street food, but be careful that the vendors don't overcharge you. Few if any foods should cost more than 3 yuan on the street. Most of it should cost much less.
9) Wander around the hutongs (back streets) for a while. They have a lot of character and will make you forget that you're in one of the largest cities in the world. Sometimes you'll think you're in rural Kenya.
That's about it.
Posted by at May 14, 2004 7:28 AM