Chickety China Part 5: Wednesday

OK, back on track with telling you my adventures (now a month old) in China.

Wednesday (the day after the 10k hike and bee attack) Janetta and I woke up before nine so we could trek to the Summer Palace, then the Lama Temple before heading back to the hostel for the Fall Festival party. The Summer Palace is an hour bus ride away, but only 40 min by subway. Janetta feels more comfortable on the bus, and I feel more comfortable on the subway but I didn't mind the idea of the bus since it meant we would be getting a free driving tour of Beijing out of it. So, we got onto the bus and sat down, taking in the changes between neighborhoods as we passed through the different rings of the city. We passed through some more Western looking areas, with streets that reminded us both of our hometowns (well, it reminded me of L.A. more than Tucson). It was a beautiful clear, blue-skied, sunny day and we were loving that we could see the sky so easily--unlike in Korea where the buildings block it out.

The Summer Palace tickets (much like those for the Temple of Heaven and different tourist places in China) were divided into five different sections--One for the main entrance and four smaller perforated tickets for the areas of the grounds with their own gates. I recommend buying just the main entry ticket and the ticket to see the Buddha Tower, it will save you 30 yuan and you won't be disappointed with missing the "Garden of Harmony and Virtue" that isn't a garden at all, but a museum to the (I'm not kidding) heating and cooling systems of the palace. We skipped the street at the north end of the palace that had a separate entry ticket and the gallery, but I don't feel like I missed anything--the lake (in the main area) and the Tower are the main things people seemed interested in.

Anyway, onto the beautiful Summer Palace!

This palace was built so the king would have a place to go that had greenery, since the Forbidden City had hardly any plant-life. As soon as I saw the human-cultivated lake in the middle of the grounds, with the iconic willow tree branches sweeping down to brush the water, I knew this was my favorite site thus far into our trip. I felt this huge weight leaving my chest. I had been starved for the beauty of greenspaces and water since moving into Bupyeong. Not only that, but even though you could hear the traffic of the city if you got close to the outside wall of the Palace, it was very muffled and the further into the grounds you got, the less you could tell you were in one of the most populated areas in the world. I had also missed silence--even with the windows closed, I hear the traffic seven stories below me as if I were on the first floor. With the window open, I might as well be sleeping on the street.

The more we walked in this beautiful place, the more I felt revived--sleepy as I was. As we got to the Tower of Buddha (or the Fragrance of Buddha... I can't remember), I was just amazed that so many older folks, with their hunched backs and tight hamstrings, were able to make the walk up the massive hill. The tower and temple next to the tower were beautiful, we weren't allowed to take photos of the interior but it's what you would expect--golden Buddha statues and statues of others following the teachings of Buddha, fruit offerings and incense.

The more we walked around the lake, the more dreamy I felt-I was ready to take a nap and the calm feeling I was getting from my surroundings compounded with my need for sleep and made walking difficult, but as we climbed up the steps for one of the bridges with a pagoda at the top I was able to wake up and get back into the groove of things--I was hungry. At this point, Janetta and I were just wanting to find our way back to the exit so we could find some thing to eat and our way to the Lama Temple before we went to the hostel.

We decided to take the subway back, since it would be faster and about only 1 yuan more than the bus. It was an experience, I thought I had seen crowded public transit before, but no. China has smaller subways than Korea and the States, and it seems there are more people trying to ride on it. You are standing up close and personal with so many different people (keeping in mind the pickpocket warnings are real here) and trying to make sure you can get out the door (or even to the door) for your stop. We made it to the Lama Temple without any hiccups, but we did have to ask for directions a couple of times, just to make sure we had turned the right way when coming out of the metro.

Walking down the street toward the Lama Temple, we passed shop after shop selling incense and prayer beads along with other religious items.
We bought our entry tickets (which came with a mini CD I have yet to play...if I can find it I'll let you know what was on it) and walked through the gates. Marveling at the giant bell, endless incense and praying people and the multiple Buddha statues. Janetta kept asking questions I thought I should know the answers to, but it's been so long since I studied the practices of Buddhism that I had to tell her not to trust what I was saying and that there was much I needed to look up.

The Lama Temple was built by a king so he could hold impressive religious ceremonies. In the final temple, there is a huge statue of Buddha made out of a single piece of wood that's over 1,000 years old. We weren't allowed to take photos inside, it was impressive, but it didn't feel holy to me. Most of these places were starting to feel gaudy. I loved the courtyard and the sound of the bell, but you could pay to ring it and it cheapened the experience of a supposedly religious place. I enjoyed the temple, but both Janetta and I were ready to head back fairly soon after going through it all. I really want to read up on some of the different sects of Buddhism, there was an exhibition of different statues of Buddha and bodhisatvas that included things like demons and sex--things I didn't ever associate with Buddhism.

I'm glad I went to the Lama Temple, but disappointed it didn't have that certain feeling of awe I was looking for.

We pushed back onto the subway and headed hostel-ward. We got there and collapsed into the cushy red, velvet chairs around one of the big tables in the common area and watched as the employees set up the dinning tables for the "festival." I noticed dishes were coming out and that I couldn't tell if some of them were veggie friendly or not, so I asked them and it turned out that half the food was vegan and the other couple of plates were obviously meat (whole fish and chunks of meat), and that the whole meal was free for those who got a spot at the tables before it was all gone! I claimed the perfect spot between two veggie dishes and in front of some moon cakes (delicious!). We chowed down after the chef and our MC for the crazy games after the food made a speech about how wonderful it was to share this meal with people from all over the world, on a night when most Chinese were dining with family. Then we got down to drinking. We got free Tsingtao as long as we batted our eyelashes and giggled, and until the hostel filled up with more people.

Then the games began. There was a small talent portion of the night, the owner of the hostel (Leo himself) was dancing to Lady Gaga (my goodness, the amount of times I heard "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi" made me a little nutty), one of the front desk women did a traditional Chinese harvest festival dance and there was a conga line of drunkness out the door of the hostel and onto the street. They had cheesy prizes for those who won the games (how many peanuts can you get into this bowl using chopsticks--Janetta won some stickers; a balloon pop--Janetta won something else; drinking competition--I joined so I could lose and slowly enjoy the huge bottle of Tsingtao at my own pace afterward; and other fun silliness). After the party (and the Gaga) got less amusing, a group of us headed over to the other hostel (365) to drink some more and talk without Gaga interrupting our attempts at changing the music (pretty much everyone in the hostel other than the folks who ran it were trying to change the music at some point and it would always get put back on "Poker Face."

We closed that bar down, and walked back to the hostel, chatted until Leo came out and told us he had to close the common area for quiet hours, then we walked across the street for dumplings. The shop only closes for about an hour between 2-3ish in the morning, then they open up in time for the people coming back from the bars to sober up a bit on the food. We sat with am American guy who has been living in China for a few years now and speaks a fair bit of Mandarin. He was a bit awkward, but all was explained in that he carries his Bible everywhere and wants to be a missionary--he must have been uncomfortable with some of our conversational topics, but we all got along pretty well. At this point (4am) I was crashing and ready to go to bed.

I had been chatting with an American who was traveling around before moving to the UK to be with his girlfriend. He's my age, had majored in Computer Science, made enough money from a job he didn't care for to travel for a few months and relocate to the UK before he took up that same job again. Talk about awesome! He was telling me about how wonderful the Kindle was and I was set on buying one (when I came home, I found out Darcey Spears--my former YRUU adviser and permanent life mentor--was going to send me her old Kindle, perfect!) Yes, I'm now Facebook friends with Lawerence, he's doing a "Communist Leader Tomb Tour" totally unintentionally--he hit up Lenin's tomb and was trying to see Mao, but had the same problems Janetta and I had due to the holiday.

I went to bed after a really awesome day.