swarms, shopping, serenity, shopping squard
September 19th, 2004 stevel
ugh. the forbidden city is not nearly forbidden enough. on Saturday, poorna, evan, kevin, and i headed to the forbidden city to see how the emperors lived it up in the old days. this is the second time i’ve gone to see the palace, though it was interesting this time for one main reason:
- i’ve gone to the Taiwan National Palace Museum since my first trip to the Forbidden City, so now I’ve actually seen the treasures and things that used to be in the palace. the same part of me that wondered “goddamn. how many tea pots do they have in this place?!?!?!?” at the National Palace Museum now said “holy shit. this place is huge. they really do have enough room for 5 million tea pots” at the Forbidden City.
however, going back to the Forbidden City was uninteresting for one main point:
- the huge throngs of people. there were just swarms and swarms of tour groups, and tourists everywhere. it was suffocating… definitely better to go there on a weekday than on a weekend.
it was still neat nonetheless, with the photo of the day being Poorna most decidedly taking a warning sign to heart.
after the Forbidden City, we had lunch, where Poorna and I proceeded to make amazing modern watermelon art. 
i hope the waiters/waitresses appreciated it before throwing it in the trash 
after lunch, we headed to Xiu Shui (Silk Road) Market, the famous market by the Embassy District. we had fun shopping, haggling, and bargaining for stuff. we were pretty beat after that, and retired home for a lazy evening of watching Cantonese pop stars proclaim their love for Poorna on the TV, and eating horrible local impressions of pizza and garlic bread.
on Sunday, we went to the Lamas Temple. The Lonely Planet Beijing guide gives a pretty interesting description when they say it’s the place where Chinese Communism controls Tibetan Buddhism. i’d be interested to hear what the Dalai Lama thinks about it. anyway, it’s the temple where they choose the Panchen Lama (i believe this is the second highest lama after the Dalai Lama). it’s amazing…grand architecture, all clean and beautiful, and nary a scaffold in sight. what’s even more amazing is the lack of tourists there. it was such a relief to be able to walk around uninhibited, and see the shrines and temples there. the most awe-inspiring sight was of course the 18 metre high statue of the Maitreya Buddha in the last hall. 18m doesn’t sound that high until you’re there staring up at it, trying to figure out how to surreptitiously take a photo without the Tibetan monk/security guard standing about 10 feet away noticing. in fact, you weren’t allowed to take any photos from inside any of the shrines/temples. this was discouraging until i started practicing shooting my camera from the hip without the flash, and with a slower shutter speed. it’s tricky to be holding it there steady enough for a shot to take, it’s even harder when you need to hold it super steady to ensure enough light enters to allow for a bright enough picture. anyway….yes, i’m evil, i took photos from the inside of a Tibetan shrine. i’m sure i’m somehow going to be damned to a resurrection cycle of roadkill and toilet paper or something. oh well…y’all better appreciate the photos. 
after that, we walked down the hutong (chinese alley-way) to the Confucious Temple. it’s amazing, it’s huge, it’s the second biggest temple in China dedicated to Confucious, they have everything on Confucious, except for some reason they don’t mention ANYTHING about his fortune cookie contributions to mankind. actually, it was an amazing temple. they had these “steles” (big giant stone tablets) with the names of all the candidates who passed Confucious’ rigorous governance exams (imagine being locked in a 1.5 square-meter closet for 3 days taking an exam), as well the requisite shrines, etc. one of the most amazing exhibits was the 13 Classics, a collection of 190 stone tablets with these 13 Classic Chinese legends/stories written on them. the calligraphy was exquisite. i totally appreciate the flowing grace Chinese calligraphy has on paper scrolls, but to see it etched and carved into stone was just stunning. it’s hard to explain how flowing and graceful it looked on stone, knowing it was carved in.
after the Confucious temple, we headed to Hong Qiao market, for another shopping bonanza. Poorna is now convinced he can make a business bringing back cheap LED headlamps and reselling them on eBay.
[tags: ChinaBlog]
3 Comments Add your own
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1.
Sendur | September 20th, 2004 at 14:29
Steve…what happened to all the drinking???
Based on the first few blog entries from China, it seemed like you were going to drink the country dry (note, this is indeed a surprise. your tolerance has gone up significantly since the days of UCSD. impressive).
I except the drinking to continue and more stories about you and Poorna being accosted by random Chinese hookers=)
-Sendur
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2.
steve | September 21st, 2004 at 00:46
Yeah..my tolerance has definitely improved since getting back to the Bay Area. Guess my friends in NorCal are more alcoholic than my friends in SoCal.
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3.
Pharmacy | January 29th, 2007 at 10:33
Whether the truth, what garlic is useful to heart and whether the garlick extract in capsules as well as fresh garlic is so effective? WBR LeoP
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