Day 161: Beijing – Day 4
Igor had originally planned for us to take a day-trip out of Beijing to visit the red sea beach in Panjin today, but when we looked into the logistics, it proved to be more of an overnight trip. We decided to stay in the city and wander around some of the temples before finishing up our outstanding errands and calling it an early night, as we had a 6:40AM flight the next day.
Sucking down some local flavor for breakfast: Beijing Yogurt! For the last few days we have seen these little white jars sold in all the corner stores. Lindsay’s curiosity got the better of her and she just had to try one to find out what it is. While she prefers her yogurt with muesli, drinking it with a straw is not bad.
Wandering around the Lama Temple – the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet
The Lama Temple is an active place of worship, with many people lighting incense, praying and even prostarting themselves in front of the various altars and statues of Buddha. There was one statue in particular that was magnificent – at 60ft in height, each of the Buddha’s toes was the size of a pillow! We would have *loved* to take a picture, but there were “No Camera” signs at the entrance to all of the halls, so out of respect we resisted. Of course, all the Chinese tourists were snapping photos without a qualm.
Each of the halls had at least one incense burner outside, and the temple provided a free box of sticks with admission
Lindsay tried lighting three of her sticks, but she dumped them into the burner before watching everyone else – looks like there are a bunch of rituals that go along with the incense burning. She gave up burning more, since she was clearly missing something
Wandering around the Lama Temple in Beijing
Gnarly old cypress trees at the rear of the Lama Temple
Just down the street from the Lama Temple is the quiet and studious Confucius Temple
A beautiful glazed archway at the entrance the temple, a stone dragon, and a colorful altar (with a few fruit & flower offering!) at the Confucius Temple
There is a museum recounting the life and teachings of Confucius which was pretty interesting. Of course the museum felt the need to brag that Confucianism is even practiced in the States. We would have loved to get our hands on the gold book.
190 stone tablets recording the 13 Confucian classics and the names of everyone who passed the Confucian government examination tests (or at least, that’s what Lonely Planet says they are – there were no plaques in English)
On our way back to the hotel, we wandered into a mall, looking for an air-conditioned place to eat. Pineapple-fried rice and pork pancakes – not bad for the mall!
Oh darn, we just ate! Otherwise we would *totally* try the LIVE scorpions on a stick. Seriously, WTF China?!?
When we returned to the hotel, we asked our receptionist, Andy, to call SF Express and see if we could ship back all of our excess gear, minus the zoom lens (which was too valuable to risk sending with a non-American company). Andy found us a box and got an agent to come over to the hotel to pick up the package. Well, the agent arrived all right, but when he started inspecting the contents of the box he started freaking out. One by one he removed innocuous items (like our water purifier, the jar of menthol shavings, the GoPro User Manual) insisting that the Chinese customs agent would find EVERYTHING suspicious and would potentially confiscate about 85% of what we wanted to ship! Apparently, most people go to an authorized customs agent *prior* to packing their boxes to have the contents verified and certified before shipping! As it was 5PM by this time, we certainly didn’t have time to go through that process, so we’ll just have to lug around the extra weight for another two months. Nice of the SF Express agent to be honest with us, though.