Day 3 - More Beijing

Today was a great day in Beijing! As usual, we were up at 4:00 AM (jet lag is a bitch) and so we got up around 5:00 to do our morning yoga, get ready, and eat breakfast. We had about an hour before Susie arrived, so we spent some time cleaning up our room and relaxing.

Today was an extremely pleasant day in Beijing! It's been really hot the last few days, but today we had a few rain storms which cooled the temperature significantly and also cleared out the smog, so we saw some really incredible views of Beijing! Our first stop was the Lama Temple. This temple was built by an Emperor in the 18th century. When Princes turn 18 years old they had to move out of the Forbidden City. One particular prince moved out and built the Lama Temple as his residence until he became the Emperor at the age of 45. When he moved back into the Forbidden City he made his former residence a Buddhist Temple to try to unify Mongolia and Tibet.

A bridal shop on our way to the Lama temple

One of the things that surprised us about China - KFC is all over the place

This temple was extremely beautiful. When we arrived they gave each of us incense to burn. We went to the first courtyard and it began to rain! We pulled out umbrellas and then went to light the incense. Susie told us that you only light 3 sticks at a time. These sticks symbolize good luck, longevity, and wealth. Eric and I burned our incense and then entered the first building of the temple. The first Buddha we saw was a smiling Buddha. Susie told us that the first Buddha in Buddhist temples is always the smiling one to welcome guests and wish them good luck. There were also four other Buddhas. In true Chinese fashion, there were a series of buildings and courtyards we went through. In the buildings on the edge of the main buildings, there were additional Buddha statues that we didn't see. Susie said there were over 1,000 Buddha statues in the entire temple.

The walk into the Lama temple reminded us of Central Park

devotion

We lit 3 more sticks of incense in the second courtyard before entering the next building. This building had 3 Buddhas representing the past, present, and future. They were really beautiful. There were also statutes of 18 of Buddha's students. We lit candles again in the third courtyard and then entered another building with 3 female Buddhas also representing the past, present, and future. The fourth courtyard led us to a really beautiful building. Inside was a Buddha that is 26 meters and made out of 1 piece of sandalwood. It was so huge and so beautiful. It was also fun to see people's devotion to Buddha. I'm always amazed when we travel and see people worship how devoted everyone is, and really, if you think about it, most religions are very similar. The world has more in common than we sometimes think. It really is a small world.

This is a female lion. You can tell because there is a lion cub under her paw.

Our next stop was the Confucian Temple. This temple was not as ornate and just had one building that had offerings to Confucius. We went to a museum to learn about Confucius's life. He seems like a pretty solid guy with really good ideas. One of his main ideas was that education should be available to all. In his lifetime, it was only available to the aristocrats. He opened several schools that welcomed everyone. It also stressed that he was a lifelong learner and was never afraid of being laughed at for asking questions. He also taught about virtue and he felt that the rule of government was to "Rule with Virtue." I really liked learning about his teachings and philosophies. I can definitely get behind several of his ideas. It was easy to see how his thinking shaped Chinese culture as well.

"Confucianism is a profound philosophy. The idea of harmony in political theory, benevolence, filial piety, rites, righteousness, and honesty in his ethics; his emphasis on virtue and intelligence in education, and his unique way of thinking all had a great influence on later generations."

Our next stop was lunch where we had Beijing Pork, Spicy Beef, and Green Beans. It was all delicious! Chinese food in China is the best.

Our final stop for today was the Summer Palace. It was so beautiful. This was built by the "Dragon Lady." She was originally a concubine for the Emperor, but had a son and became the Empress. She was a very smart and powerful woman. Women were not allowed to rule the country, but she unofficially ran things behind her son and her nephew, who were the emperors after her husband died.

The Summer Palace had been a residence for the Imperial Family since the 12th century. However, it was destroyed and rebuilt several times. The most recent iteration was built in the 19th century by the Dragon Lady who used the Naval Fund to rebuild it for herself. It was a really beautiful place! Surrounding the palace is a lake, which was originally just a pond. One of the Emperors wanted it bigger, so the Chinese people dug it out and moved the land to the mountain until the Emperor had a lake. There are also beautiful paintings in all of the walkways - there are over 14,000 paintings in the Summer Palace.

A Qilin (mythical creature)

Traditionally, the Phoenix should be placed on the outside, but the dragon lady broke with tradition and had it placed on the inside of this courtyard

This is called the bankruptcy rock because there was a noble official who collected rocks and spent so much to obtain this rock that it drove his family to financial ruin

One of the places we wanted to see was the Tower of Buddhist Incense, which was the Buddhist Temple the Dragon Lady would have worshipped. From the top, we had amazing views of Beijing! We were so glad it had rained, so we could enjoy the views. We took a boat across the lake and met back up with our driver and headed back to the hotel. We got here around 3:00, so Susie recommended we go see Jingshan Park. It was about 1.5 miles from our hotel, so we just decided to walk there. We had a nice stroll through Beijing before we arrived at the park.

A photo on the boat with our guide, Susie

This might be one of my favorite places in Beijing. When the Forbidden City was built, they wanted to have both yin and yang, so at the front of the Forbidden City there are 5 bridges representing a river, and behind the Forbidden City is a giant Pagoda representing a mountain. Jingshan Park has the Pagoda representing the Mountain. We got to the park and climbed a bunch of stairs to get to the Pagoda. We also had beautiful views of Beijing from here. Beijing is built on a Central Axis with the Forbidden City at the center. In a straight line on the axis, there is Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Jingshan Park, the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower, and the Olympic Park. We were able to see all of these landmarks, except the Olympic Park, from the view on top of the Park.

We walked back down the stairs and wandered around the park. It was a really beautiful park with a lot of roses, peonies, and other flowers. The landscaping was truly exquisite. One thing that I've noticed about Beijing that is unique from other major cities is that they work really hard to make it beautiful and clean. The city itself is very safe and clean and there are literally miles of rosebushes on major roads. The city parks that we've visited are also beautifully maintained and also have lots of flowers. The parks do cost 10 Yuan to enter (approximately $1.50), and it's well worth it. We spent quite a bit of time wandering and relaxing in the park before heading back to Wangfujing Street and then dinner at the Dim Sum place we went to last night.

On our way to Din Tai Fung at the mall, we saw an advertisement for another place called Ice Monster that said that it was voted one of the top 10 desserts in the world by CNN. We decided we would try it for dessert. Dinner was delicious again. We had pork dumplings, pork and veggie wontons, and fried rice, followed by chocolate dumplings for dessert. We then had a second dessert at Ice Monster. It was shaved ice that had air blown into it, so it had the texture of cotton candy. It was delicious, but the top 10 in the world seemed generous. #fakenews

After dinner and dessert, we headed back to the hotel to call it a night!

We stayed at the Novotel Peace Hotel