7/20/07: Lama Temple & Temple of Heaven - Beijing





Judy & I got up and pretty nearly cleaned out our checking account to ensure enough cash for the next week. The biggest bill you can get from an ATM is 100 yuan – about $13 – so you end up with some pretty big wads of bills. China also has a big counterfeiting problem with 100 and 50 yuan notes, so you really need to check these. While almost nobody has a credit card machine, everyone has a counting machine that counts bills and checks them. And if they don’t have one, they eyeball them for counterfeits.

We didn’t get everyone up and out until 11:30. Thence we took the subway to the Lama Temple. It’s a massive complex to the northwest of the city center. At one time, it was home of Count Yin Zhan, but in 1723 he became emperor Yong Zhen and moved to the Forbidden City. His former residence was renamed Yonghe Palace. In 1744, it was converted into a lamasery, and housed many monks from Mongolia and Tibet: in fact, it’s the largest Lama temple outside of Tibet. The complex houses many intricate carvings of Buddha and supernatural deities. The centerpiece is a 55 foot tall Buddha carved from a single piece of sandalwood. A sign outside proudly proclaims that it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records, which sounds pretty materialistic… but you still can’t take any pictures of it. I was impressed by the number of worshippers offering incense and prayers, despite decades of religious suppression.

From the Lama Temple, we took the subway to a point just south of Tiananmen Square, where we stopped for some KFC (Adam and Dan were starving). We then walked… and walked… and walked… to the Temple of Heaven Park (for pictures of this and the Lama temple, visit http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=172067861/a=102868539_102868539/fromupload=true/t_=102868539).

Temple of Heaven park is 267 hectares of Ming architecture: it’s where the emperor appeased the gods, including an annual sacrifice for a fruitful harvest. Most temple buildings are round (the shape of heaven) and are surrounded by square walls (symbolizing earth). The original Round Altar was built in 1530 and was rebuilt in 1740. It’s a 3-tiered white marble platform.

Another interesting spot is the Echo Wall, a round wall surrounding the octagonal Imperial Vault of Heaven, which once housed tablets of the emperor’s ancestors that were used during Winter Solstice ceremonies. Stand next to the wall and talk in a conversational tone: a friend on the other side of the 60m diameter wall can hear you clearly. We tried it. It works.

By this point, we and our legs were spent. We caught cabs back to Wangjujing Daijie subway station, a short walk from our hotel. Then a quick visit to a cyber café, dinner, and collapse in our rooms. Mostly – Judy and Chris went shopping for souvenirs before our flight to Kunming in the morning. I hope that trip works out: the TV showed torrential rain and flooding, and again, we have no hotel plans.