Beijing: Heaven, Drums, Bells and Lamas...

  Beijing, China
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

This being a holiday, we rise late since that is what holidays are for.
OK, I tell a lie...

Laura gets up at 5:45am, showers and sorts herself out. I follow suit half an hour later, stumbling blindly around like the great oaf that I am until I am ready.
We step out into the fresh morning air and head for the metro, bound for the Temple of Heaven.

Temple of Heaven

Temple of Heaven - ribbon twirling

Temple of Heaven - Musicians

This is a fascinating place, and not just for the temple and its constituent elements. The main reason for our early start is to beat the tourist rush and witness the local populace going about their morning rituals relatively undisturbed by hoards of gawking Yanks.
These rituals vary from Tai Chi (with or without swords) to working out on the communal gym equipment (think children's play area in a park, but for adults and not vandalised!).

Some folk gather to play Mah Jong, or just sit and chat. Part way along a covered promenade, a group of musicians play to a growing and appreciative crowd. Elsewhere, gentlemen practice their calligraphy using large sponge-brushes and water, painting Chinese characters onto the square paving stones. All in all, it's a great sight to see and something that I only wish could be observed closer to home. (I suspect there would be fewer social problems if this sort of thing happened in our own parks)

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests

Temple of Heaven - view

With the number of tourists growing rapidly, we make a break for the temple itself. Despite resembling other temples (in terms of décor), the Temple of Heaven is a grand affair indeed (although not a patch on the Forbidden City - despite covering a larger area). At one doorway, while trying to photograph the doors themselves, Laura is accosted by a group of Chinese students keen to have their photo taken with her - something of a theme on this leg of our journey. I am even roped in to take a photo or two of the group.
From this point, we are left to explore the temple in relative peace, investigating the various areas that were used for several rituals held within the temple in a previous era.

Walking along the Vermillion Steps Bridge, we hear a choir belting out a rousing tune. A number of other visitors have heard this too and we spy a small group of people gathering along the edge of the bridge trying to get a glimpse of the choir through the cypress trees.

Having traversed the temple from north to south, it is time to move on to another area of the city and more sightseeing...

Drum and Bell Towers

Temple of Heaven - Caligraphy

Drum Tower - careful!

The towers stand tall and proud in the Dongcheng district, surrounded by hutongs. Between them, a sea of rickshaw drivers touting for business from tourists. They offer to take us on a whirlwind tour of the local hutong and it is clear that many tourists (seemingly from larger coach parties) are taking them up on their offer. But we don't. We fully plan to explore this area of hutong on foot, taking lots of time about it. It's a pleasant day and we're in no hurry, so why not?

After buying our tickets for the Drum Tower, we follow signs for the entrance and gaze in awe (or perhaps fear) and the steepest stairway we have ever seen. Fortunately, there is a handrail and we drag ourselves up to the top and emerge into the drum room.

On display are drums of various sizes (well, what were you expecting?) and in various states of repair. All around the room is a balcony offering views over this part of the city. Sadly, the bright sun bounces off the dust (or pollution) in the air, thus reducing visibility but it is still possible to get a sense of the vastness of Beijing as a city, and of how flat it is. Sadly, we time our visit badly and are not treated to a demonstration of the drums being used for announcing the time to the local population.

Bell Tower - view

Drum Tower - well beaten drum

We descend the stairs, cross the yard (observing unoccupied rickshaw drivers engaged in a game of badminton to pass the time) and stare at a second steep flight of steps standing between us and the upper levels of the Bell Tower.

Bell Tower - the bell

The main attraction here is the large bell hung in the centre of the tower (also used to announce time) and a truly magnificent beast it is too. Sadly, my camera chooses this moment to act up so I am bereft of a good photograph to place here to illustrate. :(
Again, there is a balcony offering slightly different views but not much else besides. Still, both flights of stairs have provided some good exercise for the day!

Dongcheng Hutong

Rickshaw drivers' break time

Whether for the benefit of residents or the expected tourism generated by the Olympics next year, this area of hutong is receiving a facelift. Whilst it is obvious that new amenities are being installed, I can't help but feel the facelift is mainly for the benfit of the tourists. The shabby exteriors of the alleyways are making way for clean, grey brick frontages, all very uniform and tidy. I can see why the local authorities might be doing this, but for me it feels a little sad to see this diverse community 'masked' in such a way.

Hutong rooftops

Still, a walk through this area is still very pleasant and it is fun observing the many different characters that make up this community. And the upgrades and improvement do provide a source of amusement, with the work being carried out with all the finesse of Nick Knowles and his DIY SOS team (it's a BBC TV show, if you missed the reference). On every other corner, men can be found tinkering with engines and other bit of machinery. Some folk gather to drink tea, smoke and chat. Young children play and storekeepers ply their wares. It is all very safe and that is the wonderful thing about being here.

Our meanderings lead us to a busy road opposite the hutong in which we are staying, so we take the opportunity to sort ourselves out before heading on to our next visit...

Yonghegong Lama Temple

The Yonghegong Lama Temple is one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world - situated in Beijing, a long way from the Tibet in the Himalayas. (For those of you who don't keep up with world politics, the Tibetans and Chinese don't exactly see eye to eye, so a flourishing temple devoting itself to Tibetan Buddhism could be seen as something of an anomaly in the Chinese capital)

Lama Temple - Lion

The temple is beautifully decorated in a mixture of Chinese and Tibetan styles (with some Mongolian ideas thrown in for good measure). Much like many other temples, the layout consists of a precession of buildings, each devoted to different gods. At one end of the temple, in the Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses, stand the Maitreya Buddha. Standing at 18m tall (with a further 8m buried in ground), it is the largest statue carve from a single piece of sandalwood and has been certified in the Guinness Book of Records as such (2003). Looking up to the heavens trying to observe this giant, I feel a little dizzy and so take a look around the rest of the pavilion, taking in the various artefacts to be seen here.

Some conservation work is taking place here, thus hindering an attempt to claim another geocache (a secondary reason for our visit), but this disappointment pales in comparison to the pleasure that our visit here has brought.

Lama Temple - Bell

Shopping and tea

At 7pm, we have a shopping date with Zhang Han and Tony. Zhang Han has offered to take us to the local shops so that we may buy lots of cheap clothing, presents, souvenirs, etc. We arrive back to the hutong at 5pm, so decide to explore this area further before meeting up at our lodgings.

Along the main street, there are several shops selling guitars (seemingly the preferred musical instrument in this part of town) as well as a few restaurants and local stores.
Turning into the lane, the musical theme continues briefly with a few shops selling CDs produced by unsigned, underground artists (Chinese, of course) and western pop-culture influenced nick-knacks.
Further down, bars, restaurants and trendy coffee bars (fortunately not Starbucks) do their best to attract passing trade. Amid them, small shops selling clothes, books and other items - all aimed more at the traveller than the local inhabitant. I guess it is a sign of the changes taking place here, a transformation from local community to up and coming nightspot.

We stop for a bite to eat in a Korean restaurant. The two course meal sets us back a whopping sixty yuan (approx £4) and I struggle to eat any of it with the metal chopsticks provided (I soldier on though - no fork for me!).

Lama Temple - view

After our meal, we head back to meet up with Zhang Han and Tony and embark on our shopping trip. Laura is looking for some shoes (Chinese people have smaller feet than westerners, so she should be able to find some in her size!), while Tony needs a thicker coat to cope with the cooler weather in Beijing. I'm not looking for anything in particular - this is a browsing trip for me!

Our first port of call is a shoe shop. Typically, the men in the group (both of us!) stand aside and let the girls go crazy looking at all the pretty shoes. It doesn't take long for Laura to spy some that she likes and before we know where we are, a sale has been made. With the first part of the mission a success, we head on to look at other shops, this time concentrating on Tony's quest.

In the UK, haggling has all but died out. Sure, it is possible to try your luck in a local market, but it rarely pays off. But in Beijing it appears to be encouraged - even in department stores! Having hunted around for a jacket, Tony finally finds one he likes so Zhang Han asks an assistant how much is costs. It is a little on the steep side so negotiations begin and a price is eventually agreed.
Having visited Hong Kong before, I know how haggling works in the markets (although I'm not very good at it), but I would never have dreamt of trying it on in a shop!

With both quests successfully completed, attention turns to me. I haven't seen anything that I really want to buy (I am also conscious that there is little room in my bag for my own stuff, let alone more) so we all head back to the hutong with a view to a nice pot of tea and a natter.

Back in the lane, Laura asks Zhang Han about a little shop she had seen previously. It turns out that Zhang Han knows the owner of the shop, which also happened to be a little tea shop. So this is where we take tea.

Inside, we discuss the various options on offer, from the modestly priced 'puer' tea (not a spelling mistake) to the more extravagant specimens that cost as much as a coffee in a western Starbucks (£2+ per pot). We plump for our favourite puer (pronounced 'pu-ar') and proceed to learn about tea making ceremonies, including the correct methods for men and women to hold the cup and why some folk have a collection of animals in their tea sets as well as the tea pot and cups. All in all, a very interesting evening although I'm damned if I can find anything online that explains it all better than I ever could here.

Whilst in the tea shop, I purchase a tea brick (block of tea dried and shaped - a tourist souvenir really and a source of tea if my Tetley ever runs out!) and so it comes to pass that, with hands full of shopping bags and bellies full of tea, we all head back to our hotel and off to bed.