Ok Beijing, what's left?

My second week in Beijing involved daily walks past this unique structure, in transit from the conference to our efficiency apartment/hotel.  To keep you on your toes a bit, I'm not going to tell you what it is--you'll just have to be patient.  [If you know the answer--don't tell.]

Also nearby our apartment/hotel was a mall with a grocery store that sold the pure bliss that is green tea ice cream, as well as a bakery that dealt in deliciousness by the loaf.  

We practically moved in.  In our heads, we referred to the mall as "ours".  We felt in control of our worlds as we bought lunch for the next day and snacks for at night.   

It was a very well situated apartment/hotel.

Another benefit to our place of residence was that we could book ourselves a sight-seeing tour.

That would be why I found my solitary-white-person self on this bus one day, gleaning as much knowledge as I could from the non-English speaking tour guide.  

She had a lot to say.

I understood none of it.

[It's a good thing I had my very own personal translators with me...]

Our first stop was at the Ming Tombs, which is exactly what it sounds like:

Tombs, where the important people of the Ming Dynasty were buried.

With a lot of expensive things.

Like Jade and Jewels.

In the background here you see the entrance to the Tombs, and in the foreground is the entrance back into the world.  My translators helped me understand that it would be awkward for all present if I tried to walk through that foreground gate on my way in--did I want to acknowledge that I was heading into the land of the dead?  

They suggested that I did not, and should only walk through it on my return.  

They also informed me that--if I was so inclined--I could tap the foundation of this gate with my toe, 3 times, to shake off any evil spirits I might have picked up.  

[I was not--as it turns out--thus inclined, so hopefully the only thing I picked up while up in the Tombish region was this picture of the entrance from behind...]

After visiting a jade factory nearby and getting some lunch, we were taken to a hospital started by an ancient Emperor's doctor.  We were educated in traditional Chinese methods of medicine, and I got my pulse checked to see if all was well with my internal organs.  [Good news--if my translators are to be trusted, I'm as healthy as a horse.]

Next was the moment we'd all been waiting for--the drive to the Great Wall.

It's a good thing we didn't know what else the Great Wall held in store for us, or we might have committed mutiny on our poor little tour guide in our hurry to get there:  

1) Pits of fighting bears.  

[Well, ok, they weren't all fighting.  It's just a lot more interesting if I suggest that they were. Some, as you can see, were merely teetering.]

2) The rickety cable car to take us up

3) The ridiculous line that I would prefer to call a riot to get onto the cable car. 

[There is no such thing as "oh, here--you go first" in China...]

4) My moments of celebrity, of course.  

[Interestingly enough:  I noticed that the people on our bus--who up until this point had only stared at me, pushed me, and shook their umbrellas in my face--suddenly started paying me a lot of superfluous attention on the Wall and once we started driving again.  Big smiles, big waves, inquisitive looks toward the back where we were sitting of "who are you because I'd really like to get my picture taken with you but I've been so rude to you thus far I don't know how you'd react if I asked?"...really nice things like that.  My reaction to this turn of events was "Sorry people, all I can offer you is this authentic American saying: too little, too late.  I'm from New Jersey, which means I'm angry."  It's a good thing I don't speak their language.  And that my translators slept on my shoulders the whole way home.]

All of those things were just bonuses, however.

The real draw is the Wall itself.

Steep in places.

Steeper in others.

Cascading.

Curiously winding.

Amazing.

On our way back down to our waiting bus, I shared with this hungry bear a roasted corn cob that I bought from a vendor for practically nothing.  He was really grateful for the attention.  

He asked me to liberate him, and take him to see The Birds Nest.  Apparently he had been hoping to partake in The Beijing 2008 Olympics with his teetering skills, but couldn't make his way to freedom in time.

Though it was tempting to alleviate some of my New Jersey anger by introducing him to my new tour group friends, I chose to return to our apartment/hotel without him.

He'll just have to see these Olympic buildings some other time.

Just like you'll have to wait for the last [2, maybe 3] installments of my China Travelogue...

[But never fear.  Your wait shouldn't be nearly as long as his, poor guy...]

Sunday Peace--in Beijing, in my Heart

Yes--our day started peacefully, on the patio of our hotel.

We reveled in our food, knowing it was our last morning of tranquility before the inevitable conferencing that was kicking off later that evening. 

We drank our warm beverages slowly, while soaking in the heat of the morning and the view.

When we were finished, we headed over to the Lama Temple so that Yi-Ting could take my picture by this door.

There were a multitude of doors--and buildings to wander through.  The Temple used to be a palace complex, but was turned into a Buddhist compound in the 1700s.

There are numerous incense burners outside of the buildings, and lining the street outside the compound are store after store offering sticks of incense for sale--for those looking to offer it to the idols found inside.

A variety of these Buddhist statues fill each of the buildings, and I was longing to take pictures so that I'd remember the strangeness of them for posterity.  There were signs posted everywhere saying photography is not allowed of them, however, so out of respect for this religion I am an outsider of, I have no pictures to offer you. 

Instead, let me share with you what I was thinking as I wandered around observing the practices of the people who were there less for sight-seeing and more for worshiping;

my thoughts as I gazed at the immobile and sometimes terrifying faces of the statues, as I watched people lay their unlit incense at the feet of them,  as I saw fruit and other items placed as sacrifices on tables nearby.

As I watched people show devout reverence toward these external structures,

as I watched them bow 3 times in a row with incense held at their foreheads, and as I felt the urgency flowing from their movements.

As I prayed in my heart to a Living God that is with me always, and dwelt gratefully in the peace of walking with him through the chaos around me.

I thought about the reality of Christ in me, the significance of what Paul meant when he said "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?".   I thought about how Christ calls me by name, and promises to be my Counselor.  I reflected on the peace of knowing that I do not have to beg for grace, or pray for it without knowing if I will receive it, but that I can count on it--as a child dearly loved. 

If I had spoken the language of the earnest people around me, I would have asked them "Are any of these thoughts true for you?"  

I would have asked them if they find security, direction, wisdom.  Love that cannot be lost, redemption.  Peace.

Because if they don't? Then what I was observing all seems like a tragedy of wasted time, and I want to understand why they do it. I want to understand what the treasure is.  The point.

I found myself thinking some of the same things at our next stop--The Temple of Confucius.  Seen here in wooden depiction, Confucius is known for being a philosopher and teacher (and much more, of which I am unsure of the details....)

He was also a proponent of musical instruments such as these:

And since Yi-Ting and I are such dedicated musicians and scholars, we decided that we liked him.  We probably would have been good friends, had we shared a portion of a century together.

Our time with him was a good way to remind us that next on our agenda was to check out of our hotel and find our new one, so that we could get that conferencing going.

So that we could glean more wisdom about our roles as musicians, scholars, and teachers.

Sadly, however, I think he'd most likely be disappointed in us.  See, we didn't last long at that conference before we realized there was so much more to see in the city that we were quickly becoming sad to leave.

[More accurately, it was that peace that I'd found that didn't last long, as the cranky monster that hates all things academic took up residence in my soul and caused me to claw my way out of the conference center....] 

So stay tuned for my final days in Beijing--the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, the Beihai Gardens.  They are all awaiting our arrival...

Beijing, it is time to become your friend

Last you knew, I was bouncing up and down on the bed in my hotel room while waiting for Yi-Ting to arrive.  By the time she did, I had worked up quite an appetite.

We marched ourselves out to the subway [which I will tell you more about later], and followed the underground until we found this lantern-lined & restaurant-laden street.

There were a few other interesting sights, including a variety of men sitting out on the street, watching the crowds go by and practicing their English by saying hello to me.  [I also got a "how do you do?"  He was special...]  [It wasn't this guy.  That would have been more than special...]

We found a swanky place to eat dinner, and ordered lamb, beef, greens, cabbage, mushrooms, and sweet potato noodles to drop into our steaming hot-pots.  We laughed at ourselves--did we really need that much food?

Then we found out that yes.  Yes we did.

[We were ridiculously happy about that.]

The next morning found us back in the subway, on our way here:

Ever seen this before?  It's the gate that separates the Forbidden City from Tiananmen Square.

We walked through it [with a gazillion other people] and found that waiting for us on the other side was a whole other world.

 [A Forbidden City, if you will....]

There were a gazillion buildings [for those gazillion people to see],

 and you could gauge the building's importance by the number of creatures on the roof "guarding" it.

There were ornately carved walkways,

enormous doors

[I learned that Yi-Ting loves to take pictures of people standing next to doors...],

and symbolic statues.

[This ostrich stands for something.  If only I could remember what...]

At the end of all of the buildings, we found ourselves in a fantastical garden with many beautiful sights

[but far too many people].

After a long morning of exploring palatial buildings large and small, we exited, and were spit out into the waiting arms of an eager rick-shaw driver.  As he led us to his contraption, I turned around and took one last look.  [It was a pretty good looking look....]

Our friendly guide then bicycled us through a nearby Hutong--a neighborhood of many little alleyways

where we witnessed a lot of local flavor.

[I think he may have regretted taking me on....after we'd been going for a while, he suddenly became very interested in how tall I am....Notice that I barely fit in the cart...]

You might be wondering why I haven't mentioned any food yet, but don't worry because here it comes:   Our driver let us out and pointed us in the direction of a place that served delicious homemade noodles.  

The food was ridiculously cheap--we paid roughly $5.88 for all of this.

The kicker, however, is that you have to pay to use your dishes, which come to your table wrapped in cellophane.  [We thought this was a bit odd, but encountered it numerous times throughout our trip...] 

After lunch, we meandered over to the Lotus Market we had spotted on our walk toward the restaurant.  It is an area of shops and stands, all bordering on a lake of lotus flowers.

It was extraordinarily peaceful here.

Calm.

Refreshing.

[Other than this shocking window display, that is...Duck, anyone?]

We browsed the many sights [including a display of roasted cicada shish kabobs] and stores, and began to collect the variety of gifts and memorabilia that we felt were imperative before we traveled home.

We finished the evening in a more modern shopping area, browsing a bookstore that thought that the only kind of English books worth selling were ones that teach how to read English, and eating dumplings in a food court at a table with a family that took my wave of the hand to mean "please sit" instead of "this spot is taken" while Yi-Ting was getting the food.  [That was kind of interesting.]

After resting our weary feet, we dragged ourselves back to our hotel for a good night's sleep before continuing our friendship with Beijing the next morning.  After all this reading [I think you are a champion!]  I hope you are taking away the message--

I think Beijing is pretty neat.