Beijing sites and pictures

I have been taking in the sites of Beijing the last few days and there are many of them! It was weird being back in a modern city. It took a bit to get use to again. I have been riding the subway and getting familiar with its many stops. Riding the subway is always a novelty for me.

I went to Yonghegong (Lama) Temple and saw the Big Buddha. The Buddha is 18m above ground and 8m below and it is carved from a single sandalwood tree trunk. It is huge and at least 5 m wide. They have all kinds of Buddha’s at that temple. I also went to the Confucious Temple. It was under construction and everything had scaffolding around it. Both of these are in Kirsty’s neighborhood. I ran into people I knew at the Temple from the Great Wall trip. So we hung out for the afternoon and evening and ate scorpion together. Yes that is right, I ate scorpion, tastes just like chicken.

I went to the Temple of Heaven. It is pretty spectacular. The grounds are beautiful with many tall trees and beautiful flowers. Not to mention the architecture of the temples and the echo wall. Got some good photos for math lessons there. The temples are wood and not a single nail was used in their construction. The symmetry and circumferences are spectacular. It is amazing to think they were constructed in the 15th century with such basic tools. The Chinese are talented people. There is amazing history just in architecture in Beijing.

At the Temple of Heaven older people were doing exercises, tai chi and playing hacky sac (Jian Zi). I played with them for awhile, they loved it. A lot of people go to the temples to hang out. The grounds are beautiful so why not.

It was Kirsty and Yuan Yuan’s neighbors last night together so we went out for dinner to a western restaurant in the neighborhood and took a walk through the park. In the park they have exercise equipment for people to use and there are numerous adults there working on their reflexology.

Today I had a huge day of walking. I took the subway to Tiananmen Square and walked from there back to Kirsty’s. I visited many attractions along the way. I left at 9 am and returned at 6pm. I went to the Forbidden City and saw the Emperor’s many buildings and collections. Again beautiful buildings. There was one building containing hundreds of cool clocks.

I went to Houhai a quant part of town with many pubs along the river. I also went to the Drum and Bell Towers.

Once off the main drag the streets are like alley ways and only a single lane if that. Everything from regular sized vehicles to donkeys go down them. It is spectacular to walk through the neighborhoods, weaving through the streets trying not to get lost.

Tomorrow I am going to Kirsty and Yuan Yuan’s school. A single male teacher, no kids won a bouncy castle for the day. He donated it to the school and they are having a fundraiser to raise money for an orphanage. Kids can buy tickets for 15 minutes of bouncing and I am going to man the bouncing castle for the day. The school is very, very close to the National Olympic Sports Centre and Olympic Park so we are going to check those places out also.

Check out my pictures of Beijing at the following link

http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/Beijing