Friday was a national holiday for tending the graves of the
dead, so we went to sightsee as a group instead of going to the hospital. First, Henry walked us down
the street aways from our dorm to see a tiny museum. Inside was the
carefully preserved remains of an ancient water passage under a very
old city wall. Then, we walked back and had our first experiences in
Beijing taxis getting to Temple of Heaven. So long as you go in an
"official" taxi, the rate is reasonable, they use a meter, and there is
no smoking.
For RMB 45 or so, you can enter the Temple of Heaven
Park on a "through ticket", which means you can enter the Temple. We
paid up after waiting on a Chinese couple who cut in front of our whole
line, and entered the gate. I took pictures of the ancient cypresses
inside. The Temple of Heaven was built by Ming Emperor Yong Le in the
1400's as the place where the emperor would offer sacrifices to Heaven
for China. He also built the original Forbidden City, so the
architecture is very similar.
As you walk through the Zhaoheng
Gate, you see many other gates beyond. First, we went up and over the
Circular Mound Altar. Then through a gate through the Echo Wall, which
surrounds the Imperial Vault of Heaven. This is a miniature copy of the
Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, or the actual Temple of Heaven. It
was used for storage. We passed some ancient Wentian Cypresses outside
the Echo Wall, and the 9-Dragon Juniper, then through the Chengzhen
Gate onto the Danbi Bridge. Danbi Bridge is a massive elevated walkway
which leads from Chengzhen to the gates leading to the Hall of Prayer
for Good Harvest. In the middle of the bridge is a sloping, slightly
elevated marble footpath over which the emperor was carried toward the
temple. Finally, we made it to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests,
and took a zillion pictures. (In many of the presentations we've seen
at the various hospitals, they use this image to open or close their
slide show. It's a very famous Beijing landmark.) We exited through the
Long Corridor, past the Seven-Star Stones, and out the East Gate, where
we attempted to catch a cab.
Back to the dorm and ate at the
Tourist Restaurant yet again, and then we were off to the Hongqiao
Pearl Market. This is a 5 story building with many small stalls to buy
pashminas, ties, makeup, electronics, North Face jackets, jeans,
purses, and of course, pearls. It's a bewildering place of shouting
vendors: "Hey lady, nice lady, you need a jacket?" You're expected to
barter for your goods, and the asking price is usually steep. I paid an
enormous sum for my "genuine" North Face jacket, but did better on some
pearls, jeans (which were even hemmed for me while we were there),
voltage adaptor, pashminas, and ties. After heading back to the dorm, I
went with a group to Houhai, but we got lost and ended up meeting a
different group. Houhai is a region around a lake north of Forbidden
City with bustling nightlife. We found a restaurant to eat at where we
could have ordered chicken with bull penis or goose intestine. We
ordered some less exotic foods and ate well for RMB 25 or so each.
Back
after our late dinner for some sleep, because tomorrow we're getting up
early to go to Tianenmen and Forbidden City. About 9 pm, we heard a
loud knock on our door. I went to investigate, and saw two of the
international students through the peephole. As I was both shocked, and
only clad in pajamas, I did not answer it. A few minutes later, our
phone rang, and it was them calling. They wanted to know where we all
were, because they were supposed to take us out to see Beijing. My
roommate politely dissented, as we were already in bed, but they were
very persistent, asking "what about tomorrow?" Finally, she agreed to
take their names and phone numbers and leave the information on the
common room door. We were a little disconcerted by their uninvited
appearance, but we thought they might have been encouraged to do that
by their teachers. Oh well, they meant no harm.
