Mr Wu's DVD Land of China - Part 28 – Day 21 - Beijing / Temple of Heaven
I seem to suffer from the whole dehydration thing whilst staying in China – and Beijing is no exception. I wake up pretty dehydrated – but not as bad as that night in the Sheraton. Ant wants to leave early today because he is feeling better and missed out on sightseeing on the previous day. However – I sort of mess around for about an hour attempting to blog (damn that Taiwainese earthquake!). Whilst I was mucking around – Ant was having a “Super Fun Happy Time!” doing the dishes in Kip and Dan’s kitchen…! We don’t leave the apartment until 10:30am (so much for an early start…).
We take a train to the Chongwenmen stop – which happens to be right next door to our old hotel – the Novatel in Beijing. Ant and I stayed here for a couple of nights back in 2003 (I think??) and found it a pretty cool hotel… Although the hotel hadn’t changed from when we were last here – pretty much everything in this area was either brand new, or being developed. Everything was a lot more commercial (heaps of new malls) and it was a bit of a shock to the system to see all of the change in only a couple of years.
We made a brief pit stop at the local Mc Donalds to use the toilet. Ant and I must have waited 5 minutes for the guy to get off the toilet (there was only one toilet and the urinals were broken or something)… When he got off the toilet – it was revealed that it was a squat toilet – and Ant wanted to do a number 2.
After a 20 minute walk – we finally reached the Temple of Heaven. If you’ve watched any CNN – you would probably recognise the Temple of Heaven from some of those “This is CNN…” adverts. It is a massively beautiful temple with several circular roof layers – complete with a golden “finial” making it “prone to lighting strikes” (thanks DK). Not surprisingly – it was destroyed by lightning in the early 20th century and the then emperor had the administrators all executed because of this. Choice!
It was only 30 RMB to get a “mecha pass” to the Park (attention Prince’s Hill in Guilin – you need to lower your entrance fee – you suck in comparison to these tourist sites in Beijing and you need to lower your rates dammit!).
The temple wasn’t really a Buddhist temple – rather it was a temple when the then Ming and Qing emperors came to pray for a good harvest and sacrifice some animals (or something). Animal sacrificing rocks!... or something.
Suddenly – the park began to spit out this annoying muzak – which some of it sounded strangely familiar. Ant had picked up that the “New South Wales – There’s No Place Like It” tourist ads – you know – the ones that it makes NSW sound like Africa…?!
We also checked out a “mini-me” version of the Temple of Heaven (aka “Imperial Vault of Heaven”) which was impressive – but no where near as restored or sexy as the Temple of Heaven. There was also a round circular stone structure called the “Round Altar” which was the site of more animal sacrifice rituals – sweet… There were all these wacky chinese getting their photo taken – posing on the sacrifice stone.
On our way out of the park – we made a quick pitstop at a “4 Star Toilet” – well it was 4 stars according to the big sign out front. There were some Chinese metrosexuals – holding up four fingers and getting their picture taken in front of the sign… They obviously have the same sense of humour we do…! It was so posh – they were selling two kinds of toilet paper.
We exited the “Temple of Heaven Park” via the western gate and proceeded to make our way to Tien’An Men Square. The road between the Temple of Heaven and the Square used to be restricted to the Emperor – who would travel to the temple to pray. Now – it is just a boarded up suburb being totally flattened in time for the Olympics. Ant and I during our first visit to Beijing spent half a day exploring this area and it felt a bit weird to discover that this place now looked like Baghdad. There is such a s##t load of development in China at the moment. It was very noticeable in Shanghai – and I’m sure all the development in Beijing is “cleaning up the city” in time for the Olympics… I can’t help but feel a bit sad that they were demolishing a whole suburb (or two) just to beautify the city and build some soulless malls with Gap stores instead…
When we finally got to Tien’An Men Square – we discovered that the Mao Mausoleum was closed yet again. I got Ant to check out the sign in Chinese near the bag drop off – and we came to the same conclusion that it was closed until the 4th of Jan (eg: day after today). Dammit! We so want to see Unkie Maooo!!
Disappointed – we made tracks for the Wangfujing Street area for some lunch (as I was complaining to Ant about how hungry I was…). We walked past a peddler peddling maps and stuff – my eyes popped open as she was selling the same maps that we had – only without Louie’s urine on it. 50 metres down the road – Ant made a decision to buy the map. We then proceeded to stalk the peddler – stalking the stalker… (cue Friday 13th – “Ki Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma” sound effect). Although we knew the value of the map (8 yuan) – and that we were trying to point out the price to the woman – she still charged us 10 for the pleasure.
On Wangfujing Street (sort of a tacky Beijing “Nanjing Lu in Shanghai”-esque shopping street – complete with a weird street food market selling Tiger testicles, fried scorpions and goat penises. Not quite my idea of good meal. Anyhow – I quickly discovered a Yoshinoya outlet in a food court – so we both had Yoshinoya Beef Bowls for lunchies… Ant and I both agree that any Yoshinoya’s out of Japan – aren’t as good as in Japan. It tastes a bit different – and they attempt to do the whole “McDonalds” meal thing which doesn’t quite work… Plus – where is the raw egg I can mix in my Beef Bowls dammit!!?!
Because the day was drawing quickly to an end – we made fast tracks to the Nepalese Buddhist “Lama Temple” – as it was the only tourist site we could find in the “Insider’s Guide to Beijing” that was open after 4pm. The book claimed it closed at 4:30pm – but alas – the “Insider’s Guide to Beijing” wasn’t as inside as it should have been – it closed at 4… Somewhat disappointed (and a bit pi$$y) – we headed back to Kip and Dan’s apartment via foot. We were only two metro stops away from their place which was about an hour by foot.
After a bit of a chill out at Kip and Dan’s place (where Kip and Dan were both coming down with the flu – which we probably gave to them…) – I attempted to do some blogging only to find that the internet didn’t work at all…
Dan took me and Ant out via taxi to the “Jenny Lu’s” supermarket – situated near the “Bar Street” where we did NYE. Not only did we go to Jenny Lu’s for some food supplies – but also for some DVD shopping. They had a really interesting range of new films – mostly alternative and art house. Ant and I went a little crazy together and bought the entire collection of “Sex in the City”, three seasons of “Six Feet Under”, the “third” season of “Desperate Housewives” (yet to be shown in Australia), the complete “That’s My Bush!” series (shout out to Ant for finding this – the aborted “Anti-Abortion” baby thing episode is hilarious!) and a crap load of moofies… Dan said that the quality of this place is pretty good – and is where mostly him and Kip get their DVDs from.
After our 400 yuan shopping spree – we headed across the road to the “Peter Pan” Italian Restaurant. Yes – when you think of Italian fairy stories – you think of Pino.. ehh I mean Peter Pan~! We got a couple of pizzas which were surprisingly good (and garlicky! Fresssh!).
I seem to suffer from the whole dehydration thing whilst staying in China – and Beijing is no exception. I wake up pretty dehydrated – but not as bad as that night in the Sheraton. Ant wants to leave early today because he is feeling better and missed out on sightseeing on the previous day. However – I sort of mess around for about an hour attempting to blog (damn that Taiwainese earthquake!). Whilst I was mucking around – Ant was having a “Super Fun Happy Time!” doing the dishes in Kip and Dan’s kitchen…! We don’t leave the apartment until 10:30am (so much for an early start…).
We take a train to the Chongwenmen stop – which happens to be right next door to our old hotel – the Novatel in Beijing. Ant and I stayed here for a couple of nights back in 2003 (I think??) and found it a pretty cool hotel… Although the hotel hadn’t changed from when we were last here – pretty much everything in this area was either brand new, or being developed. Everything was a lot more commercial (heaps of new malls) and it was a bit of a shock to the system to see all of the change in only a couple of years.
We made a brief pit stop at the local Mc Donalds to use the toilet. Ant and I must have waited 5 minutes for the guy to get off the toilet (there was only one toilet and the urinals were broken or something)… When he got off the toilet – it was revealed that it was a squat toilet – and Ant wanted to do a number 2.
After a 20 minute walk – we finally reached the Temple of Heaven. If you’ve watched any CNN – you would probably recognise the Temple of Heaven from some of those “This is CNN…” adverts. It is a massively beautiful temple with several circular roof layers – complete with a golden “finial” making it “prone to lighting strikes” (thanks DK). Not surprisingly – it was destroyed by lightning in the early 20th century and the then emperor had the administrators all executed because of this. Choice!
It was only 30 RMB to get a “mecha pass” to the Park (attention Prince’s Hill in Guilin – you need to lower your entrance fee – you suck in comparison to these tourist sites in Beijing and you need to lower your rates dammit!).
The temple wasn’t really a Buddhist temple – rather it was a temple when the then Ming and Qing emperors came to pray for a good harvest and sacrifice some animals (or something). Animal sacrificing rocks!... or something.
Suddenly – the park began to spit out this annoying muzak – which some of it sounded strangely familiar. Ant had picked up that the “New South Wales – There’s No Place Like It” tourist ads – you know – the ones that it makes NSW sound like Africa…?!
We also checked out a “mini-me” version of the Temple of Heaven (aka “Imperial Vault of Heaven”) which was impressive – but no where near as restored or sexy as the Temple of Heaven. There was also a round circular stone structure called the “Round Altar” which was the site of more animal sacrifice rituals – sweet… There were all these wacky chinese getting their photo taken – posing on the sacrifice stone.
On our way out of the park – we made a quick pitstop at a “4 Star Toilet” – well it was 4 stars according to the big sign out front. There were some Chinese metrosexuals – holding up four fingers and getting their picture taken in front of the sign… They obviously have the same sense of humour we do…! It was so posh – they were selling two kinds of toilet paper.
We exited the “Temple of Heaven Park” via the western gate and proceeded to make our way to Tien’An Men Square. The road between the Temple of Heaven and the Square used to be restricted to the Emperor – who would travel to the temple to pray. Now – it is just a boarded up suburb being totally flattened in time for the Olympics. Ant and I during our first visit to Beijing spent half a day exploring this area and it felt a bit weird to discover that this place now looked like Baghdad. There is such a s##t load of development in China at the moment. It was very noticeable in Shanghai – and I’m sure all the development in Beijing is “cleaning up the city” in time for the Olympics… I can’t help but feel a bit sad that they were demolishing a whole suburb (or two) just to beautify the city and build some soulless malls with Gap stores instead…
When we finally got to Tien’An Men Square – we discovered that the Mao Mausoleum was closed yet again. I got Ant to check out the sign in Chinese near the bag drop off – and we came to the same conclusion that it was closed until the 4th of Jan (eg: day after today). Dammit! We so want to see Unkie Maooo!!
Disappointed – we made tracks for the Wangfujing Street area for some lunch (as I was complaining to Ant about how hungry I was…). We walked past a peddler peddling maps and stuff – my eyes popped open as she was selling the same maps that we had – only without Louie’s urine on it. 50 metres down the road – Ant made a decision to buy the map. We then proceeded to stalk the peddler – stalking the stalker… (cue Friday 13th – “Ki Ki Ki Ma Ma Ma” sound effect). Although we knew the value of the map (8 yuan) – and that we were trying to point out the price to the woman – she still charged us 10 for the pleasure.
On Wangfujing Street (sort of a tacky Beijing “Nanjing Lu in Shanghai”-esque shopping street – complete with a weird street food market selling Tiger testicles, fried scorpions and goat penises. Not quite my idea of good meal. Anyhow – I quickly discovered a Yoshinoya outlet in a food court – so we both had Yoshinoya Beef Bowls for lunchies… Ant and I both agree that any Yoshinoya’s out of Japan – aren’t as good as in Japan. It tastes a bit different – and they attempt to do the whole “McDonalds” meal thing which doesn’t quite work… Plus – where is the raw egg I can mix in my Beef Bowls dammit!!?!
Because the day was drawing quickly to an end – we made fast tracks to the Nepalese Buddhist “Lama Temple” – as it was the only tourist site we could find in the “Insider’s Guide to Beijing” that was open after 4pm. The book claimed it closed at 4:30pm – but alas – the “Insider’s Guide to Beijing” wasn’t as inside as it should have been – it closed at 4… Somewhat disappointed (and a bit pi$$y) – we headed back to Kip and Dan’s apartment via foot. We were only two metro stops away from their place which was about an hour by foot.
After a bit of a chill out at Kip and Dan’s place (where Kip and Dan were both coming down with the flu – which we probably gave to them…) – I attempted to do some blogging only to find that the internet didn’t work at all…
Dan took me and Ant out via taxi to the “Jenny Lu’s” supermarket – situated near the “Bar Street” where we did NYE. Not only did we go to Jenny Lu’s for some food supplies – but also for some DVD shopping. They had a really interesting range of new films – mostly alternative and art house. Ant and I went a little crazy together and bought the entire collection of “Sex in the City”, three seasons of “Six Feet Under”, the “third” season of “Desperate Housewives” (yet to be shown in Australia), the complete “That’s My Bush!” series (shout out to Ant for finding this – the aborted “Anti-Abortion” baby thing episode is hilarious!) and a crap load of moofies… Dan said that the quality of this place is pretty good – and is where mostly him and Kip get their DVDs from.
After our 400 yuan shopping spree – we headed across the road to the “Peter Pan” Italian Restaurant. Yes – when you think of Italian fairy stories – you think of Pino.. ehh I mean Peter Pan~! We got a couple of pizzas which were surprisingly good (and garlicky! Fresssh!).
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