War and Peace
Beijing, China
June 09, 2009
We started off the day with a walk, run, walk, run, walk (4-8-5-8-4) as Bill was not feeling very energetic today.
I had smoked salmon and eggs on whole wheat toast, melon and watermelon and tea. Bill had croissant, walnut bread, watermelon, juice and tea.
We used the internet for 15 minutes, showered and left the room after 10:00.
We took subway line 5 to Yong He Gong and went to the Lama Buddha Temple. Tibetan Buddhism is practiced here, they called it Lamaism. It was previously the home of the Prince Yong and the building began during the Qing Dynasty (1694)
. When he became the Emperor Yong Zheng in 1725, the palace became a monastery to promote National unity.
You cross under the Zhao Fai Gate that says "All Nationalities should respect each other" in Manchurian, Han, Tibetan and Mongolian.
The Bell and Drum Towers were under construction. The bell is rung 108 times to get rid of trouble and get a good feeling.
The Octagonal Pavilion has evil eyes around the eaves (many of the buildings do) and contains steles with lions that have recorded the history of the temple.
Most of the buildings are red with yellow glazed roof tiles. The wood beams are painted in blue, red, gold and green.
A large pot, Porridge Holloware, was 1.5 m high and 2.5 m wide was made in 1744
. It was used for making gruel. Prayers were said here for a good harvest.
The 2 m high bronze lions are beautiful; two of my favourites. Altogether they had 4 bells which represent nationality and 6 tassels which represent unity and prosperity.
Yonghe Hall had a laughing Buddha and 4 guardian warriors. At the back there was a Shakyamuni looking like a soldier.
There was a stele written in 4 languages under a Pavilion.
Xumeru Mountain (a mythical hill) was made of bronze. It looked like a lotus with a Pavilion on top. The top represents good things and heaven. The middle represented the human ward. The water beneath the lotus represents bad things and hell. I lit some incense that we bought outside the temple here for my Dad. It would have been his 85th Birthday today
. I lit one here for him because I know he is already in heaven.
Yonghe Gong Hall has 5 bronze statues with gold plating. There is a past, present (with 2 students standing beside him) and future Buddha. On each side there are 9 statues of monks (?).
Yongyou Hall "god blesses the country and the people forever". Inside there are three statues of the longevity Buddhas with embroidery on either side - very much the Tibetan style.
Falun Hall is where Lamas recite scriptures. There was a statue of the founder of the Yellow Hats and scriptures on the East and West walls (again, very Tibetan). The room was a meeting hall with murals on the East and West walls. At the back of the room there was a 500 Arhat Mountain, a cabinet filled with a mountain and statues. There was a Fish and Dragon Evolving Basin to wash out dirty and get a good life, good inside
. Babies were bathed in the basin (like baptism?).
Wan Fun Hall is 24 m high and has 3 eaves. To the right and left there are 2 halls - Yongcong and Yengshi. Inside there is a large standing Buddha, 18 m high. He is gold plated and has a gold crown. He has a quiet and kind face. He was sent as a gift by the 7th Dalai Lama in 1748. I got into trouble here because I was filming the Buddha, whoops, sorry!
Guonyin Cave has the present Buddha.
Zhaoto Building has Shakyamuni and 2 disciples.
East Side Hall (near Falun) is for Esoteric Buddha worship. It had two large black cat statues and 5 blue Buddhas.
There was another Esoteric Hall near Yonghe Gong Hall with scriptures, a multi-armed and headed Buddha (Avalokiteshvara?), cat-faced statues and statues with colourful faces
.
After dropping off our audio guides and getting our 100 yuan and my ID back we went to find an ATM. We were also looking for the restaurant that Renee had recommended.
We found an ATM and started walking back toward the subway. The restaurant was on the opposite side of the road from the temple, near the subway, on the other side of the highway, near what looked like a park. The restaurant is called, Golden Tripod Attic.
I ordered a bunch of dim sum and Bill promised me he would help me eat them (he lied like a rug). I ordered shrimp dumplings (they had minced shrimp with some breading inside the steamed clear wrapper dumpling), sesame with taro root (it was aubergine colour paste inside a tube like an Italian dessert, it was sweet and good), crispy beef pancakes (very spicy fried phylo rolls), wonton noodles in soup with shrimp (had veggies and egg noodles, the shrimp in clear wrappers were good), beef rice flour roll (minced beef in a clear roll, it was good) and grenadine juice (very sweet with soda water, had frozen strawberries, plums and cherries in it). Bill ordered 2 Yanjing Beers and baked fillet of beef on a stone. It was cooked table side in butter, garlic and onion with black pepper. It was really good.
We took the number two line to the number one line and got off the subway at the Military Museum exit.
In the lobby of the museum there was a large statue of Mao. We started in the Hall of the Agrarian War which began in 1927. There was a large statue of a gun and a big bronze statue of soldiers and a horse. There was army flags of the Peasant Self Defense Army. There were photos, weapons, uniforms, paintings, maps and statues.
In the rest of the main level and outside there was a Merit tank, MIG 17 (Soviet), Howitzers, anti-aircraft, captured tanks, armored vehicles, artillery from Canada, US, Russia, Germany and Japan. The Mengshi FAV was made in China, but looks exactly like a Hummer. There were F5, F6, F7, F8 Fighters and missiles. There was an Exploit Torpedo boat, a US U-2 scout plane, a P51, a F86 Sabre, a Canadian U-6A and a MIG15.
On the second floor there were swords, sabres, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, grenades, rifles, pistols, machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. The was a large model store too.
The Hall to Resist Japanese Aggression was also on the second floor. It had pictures, paintings, uniforms and weapons.
The third floor had displays of Conflict of Primitive Tribes. It had darts, axes, shovels, arrow heads, a chariot, soldiers and model ships. It had some Terra Cotta Warriors and two horses and a reproduction of the bronze chariots from Qing's tomb.
There were several mini terra cotta warriors, so Qing was obviously not the first, just the most impressive. Some mini warriors were from the Han tomb at Shizishan of Xuzhou and Eastern Wei tomb at Ci County in Hebei province. There were many paintings or warriors, leaders and battles. There were observation towers and a giant cross bow.
The fourth floor was about modern war and had a room of gifts from other Nations.
After the military museum we took the subway to the Tian'an Men East stop. We went to a shop near the Forbidden City and purchased two lions for ourselves. They were asking 280 yuan ($45) and we paid 250 yuan ($40). We probably could have done better, but I was too tired to do some hardcore negotiating.
We walked back to the hotel and quickly grabbed some food from Happy Hour. We had sesame beef, pork cakes, spicy chicken, seafood pasta, pulled pork salad (VG), peanuts and raisins, fruit, soda, scotch and coke.
We took the subway to the Temple of Heaven stop. We walked ALL the way around the temple and went to the acrobat theater. We did really well navigating especially since we did not have a map with us.
We found the theater, but there are no shows tonight. UGH!
We took a cab back as we are tired and I am wearing sandals. The driver took us an extra 1.7 kms out of the way. He headed back toward the temple before he made a left. What a goof!
He dropped us at the shopping area near our hotel. We picked up lots of water, a muffin, a multi-grain bagel, cashews, 2 Snickers, bananas and an apple for 92 yuan ($30+) for our Great Wall trek tomorrow at the mall grocery store. I also picked up a variety (4) of breads/buns from a stand in the Hutong on the way back to the hotel for 10 yuan ($3+).
We watched the end of the Simpson's movie, showered and packed for our trek.
I threw out my Water Festival stained skort, a pair of undies and one of Bill's shirts. A few less things for the plane ride home!