Beijing Day 3

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Monday in Beijing turned out to be the day that we truly came to grasp the immense scale of the city. After breakfast at our hotel we walked through the hutong to the main street to catch a taxi, checking out this barber along the way. From looking at the map it didn't seem like it would be too far to get to our first destination, the Temple of Heaven, but we were wrong- it was far. Luckily taxis in Beijing aren't too expensive, and the driver dropped us off at the entrance to the monument, saving alot of walking. We entered the park around the monument where we saw lots of people getting their morning exercise, everything from hip-hop and ballroom dancing to tai-chi, to the people in the photograph doing some sort of tai-chi with fans.
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We entered the monument from the north, so we first saw the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.
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The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest. The building was built in the 1400s, and amazingly was constructed without nails.
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Joe and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest.
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The building is loaded with symbolism, such as the number of pillars which represent the four seasons, twelve months and twelve hours and combine to represent the solar cycle. The complex was used for the Emperor to perform ritual sacrifices to Heaven, as the Emperor was considered the Son of Heaven, so each part of the strucure carries meaning.
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We continued to walk south through the complex and next arrived at the Imperial Vault of Heaven. The best part about this area of the complex was the Echo Wall surrounding the Vault. The yellow wall on either side of the Vault formed a circle that allowed one of us to stand behind the building at the right, and the other to stand behind the building at the left and have a conversation in a normal voice, despite being about 50 yards apart and having two buildings separating us.
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The interior ceiling of the Vault.
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The Altar of Heaven was the last part of the complex that we came to.
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Looking back to the north. For a different perspective on the scale of Tiantan click here for a google satellite image.
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Our next stop was for a quick lunch near the south gate of Tiantan.
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I'm not usually a fan of soda, but for some reason both times I visited China I found myself drinking Coke. Perhaps it is made with a different type of sugar?
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A tomato and egg dish that we really liked. Hopefully the large quantities of veggies that we ate balanced out the unhealthy soda. We also enjoyed a tofu dish, some soup, green beans and rice.
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Our next stop of the day was Tiananmen Square, so we walked to the nearest subway station. This photo of the road gives an idea of the scale of Beijing- huge.
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We came out of the subway at the south end of Tiananmen Square, near Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall. The hall isn't open on Mondays, so we headed north to the Forbidden City. Below is the Chairman's Hall.
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Who doesn't love some good socialist realism? Are we uplifted? Yes! Will the workers prevail? Yes!
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Decoration on the rail that surrounds Mao's masoleum.

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Looking north towards the Forbidden City with the Monument to the People's Heroes in the foreground. Click here for the google satellite image of Tiananmen Square.
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The Gate of Heavenly Peace!
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Passing through The Gate of Heavenly Peace, headed toward The Forbidden City. Again the scale is difficult to fathom, so here's another satellite image, the Gate is at the south end, and the Forbidden City is surrounded by the moat. The Forbidden City, which acted as the Imperial Palace during the Ming and Qing Dynasties (500 years from 1416 to 1911) has nearly 10,000 rooms in hundreds of buildings. In the nearly four hours we spent walking around the complex we saw a tiny fraction of it.
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I think this was the third gate that we came to, and is the proper entrance to the Forbidden City.
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The relief carvings on the Imperial Way, only the Emperor was allowed to walk on the path that forms the central axis of the Forbidden City.
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The Hall of Supreme Harmony.
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Walking and walking and walking..... Luckily there were vendors along the way, so we could re-stock our water supply and snack on some ice cream. This is maybe the half-way point from the south gate of the Forbidden City. The small structure in the far distance at the center of the photo sits atop Coal Hill, which is at the far north end of the Forbidden City, so from this point we had a good distance to go.
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The details on each building were quite amazing, it's hard to imagine such detailed workmanship on such a large scale.
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I think this is the Hall of Preserving Harmony. By this point we had seen the Hall of Central Harmony and Hall of Supreme Harmony, and a good deal of thrones and other buildings, so it became difficult to keep them all straight.
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Decoration on one of the buildings.
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Woof.
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One of the rock gardens near the north end of the Forbidden City.
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One of the side structures. We tried to make our way back south to see the Nine Dragon Screen and some of the other collections, but they began to close off some areas around 4 p.m., so we missed it.
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With tired feet we made our way back to the hotel to rest for a bit. This hot potato vendor was walking the main street near the hotel.
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Some of the cool modern architecture along the ring roads.
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We opted for dinner at Hard Rock Cafe. I have written before about my guilty love of their overpriced corporatized veggieburgers and nachos, but once again, the pull of collecting another pin lured me like a moth to a flame....
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Nachos......
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Beijing Day 2

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On Sunday we had a quick breakfast at our hotel before meeting up with Erin and Ben again for a day of sightseeing. We decided to hit up the Summer Palace in the morning; the garden was originally built in the mid-1700s, but was destroyed about 100 years later, and subsequently rebuilt. The scale of the garden was overwhelming, it seemed like we only saw a fraction of it in the few hours we were there, and the crowds were thick.
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Buildings at the Summer Palace.
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Ceiling decoration...
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One of the many enormous doors.
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Joe and I with the Pagoda of Buddhist Incense atop Longevity Hill in the background.
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Erin and Ben as we prepare to climb to the top of the hill.
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Atop the hill! I think this photo gives one an idea of the scale of the Summer Palace, the entirity of Kunming Lake is within the Palace grounds.
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Looking down at all the paddle boats on the lake.
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Still atop the hill, this building is made entirely of bronze.
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Walking back down from the top of the hill. We lingered at the top for a while, enjoying the breeze, chatting, and people watching.
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The infamous Marble Boat. During the late 19th century the Empress Dowager Cixi diverted a huge amount of funding from the military to expand the Summer Palace and to build this boat. Honestly, I was really excited to see the boat, but it wasn't as cool as I had hoped.
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Ben with the portrait plate he bought. This guy was painting people on plates and would then approach them to see if they wanted it. If they bought the plate, he would use a spray fixant, if not, he would wipe the plate clean. I love the thumbs up, it's a pretty cool souvenir.
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We hopped a boat back to the front of the Palace grounds.
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Erin and I near the gate, our photo op for the KU East Asian Languages and Cultures Department brochure (where we both taught Eastern Civ.).
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We had a super tasty lunch at a restaurant near the Summer Palace. Why no photos of lunch? Well, while the food was fantastic, we were seated in this kinda shady back room with awful blue-tinted lighting, so the few photos I took make the food look pretty unappealing.
After our busy morning, we grabbed a taxi and headed over to 798, the contemporary art district of Beijing.
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The area around 798 was originally built in the 1950s and includes factory buildings designed by East Germans in the Bauhaus style, reflecting the era's movment of unified socalism. The area had a very human scale to it, in stark contrast with so much of Beijing. Many of the galleries were small operations off of tree lined streets and intermixed with cafes and bookshops. The area was also covered in graffiti- I particularly like the way this piece includes the tree.
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Gallery interior....
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One of the 798 streets.
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Ben and Erin led us to the UCCA space where we saw the fantastic Qiu Zihjie installation Breaking Through the Ice, a huge multi-room multi-media work.
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More gallery hopping.
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The original 798 Space.
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After more art, and a quick stop at a bookshop, we stopped for a brief and lovely coffee break at the cafe attached to 798 Space.
Art Scene Beijing, the gallery across from 798 Space, housed my favorite show of the day, Peng Wei.
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More graffiti....
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Art, art, art, art, art, art, art.
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Our last stop of the day, Tex-Mex food! Erin and Ben knew of a Tex-Mex restaurant in the northeastern part of the city, not too far from 798. Before you question why four open minded people are eating Tex-Mex in Beijing at a restaurant that had decor reminiscent of a Cracker Barrel, I will remind you that we are also four Americans living in Asia, an area of the world not exactly known for a bounty of Mexican style food..... I will also say that my enchiladas were awesome, and that they had real tortilla chips, not the Pringles-style "corn" chips that we can get in Japan. Simply heavenly.
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Sadly, Erin and Ben had to head back to Tianjin on Sunday night. The two days we spent with them was super fun for a bunch of reasons. First off, because they are awesome, second because they are friends from Lawrence and KU and that was just a little bit comforting, and third, because they know alot about China and Beijing, and Erin's Chinese is really good. So yeah, super funsies.

Beijing- Day 1

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The first week of May is Golden Week in Japan, a series of consecutive public holidays. We have heard that domestic travel during the holiday week is pretty hectic, so we decided to use some frequent flier miles and high tail it to Beijing for a few days. Our trip started out well when Joe's mileage status got us free passes to the ANA lounge at Kansai airport- free snacks and drinks! After a short 3 hour flight we arrived at the beautiful new Beijing airport, passed through immigration and quarantine and continued out to the subway linking the airport to the city center. On our way to the subway terminal I was interviewed by a Chinese tv news station about my reaction to the pig flu, so maybe I'm famous in Beijing.
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We emerged from the subway a few kilometers from our hotel and thought it easiest to catch a taxi to our hotel, as it was located deep in one of the hutong. Above is one of the hutong residences, below is the street itself.
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After dropping off our stuff and grabbing a quick lunch, we headed out to meet up with our friends Erin and Ben, who came up from Tianjin to meet us for the weekend. Yay! Below is a typical Beijing street.
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We attempted to visit the Lama Temple and the Drum Tower, but both were closed a few minutes before we arrived. Alas, it was a beautiful afternoon, so we headed over to the area around Qian Hai and Hou Hai Lakes. Below is the Drum Tower.
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Ben, Erin, and Joe near the lake area. There were lots of interesting bars, restaurants and shops in the area, and tons of people out paddle boating on the lakes.
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This narrow passage between the two lakes was the site of many boat jams. The two guys in red motor boats had the job of pushing the pleasure boaters back to alleviate the problem, but about 30 minutes later, another boat jam would happen. We selected a rooftop cafe nearby so we could watch the boat fiasco and hang out for a while.
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After a nice afternoon of people watching, we set out to find some dinner. We ended up at a lake side outdoor cafe where we had lots of veggies. Mmmm..... From the left, eggplant, brocoli, and this amazing spicy dish of greenbeans with chilis and these little bits of fried garlic. It may look healthy, but not to worry, it was all cooked in enough oil to make it super tasty.
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After dinner, walking around on Lotus Lane, a dessert cart.
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Dessert! As I am a picky eater and very Western-centric in my dessert tastes, I abstained, so I can't vouch for the taste, but I bet it was good.
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Looking back at the lakes with the Drum Tower lit up in the distance. This open area was filled with people playing hacky sack!
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