Lama Temple, 雍和宫

The Lama Temple, 雍和宫, Yōnghé Gōng, is one of the biggest Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries in the world, and use to be considered as one of the big attractions in Beijing. If you are Buddhist, or have a special interest of it, then this is extremely interesting, or else it is a nice two hours outing.

The temple is pretty big, and have five bigger halls, with different constellations of Buddha sculptures. I think the last hall, The Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses, 万福阁, Wànfúgé, is the most interesting one that hold a 18 meters high wood sculpture of Maitreya Buddha that is cut out from one single piece of wood.

The temple is located just south of the north 2:nd ring road and have a subway station that is named after it (YONGHEGONG LAMA TEMPLE) on line 2/5, so it is very easy to find the place. When you already is in the area, you can also visit the mellow and quiet Temple of Confucius, 孔庙, that is located just west of the Lama Temple, and you can also pass the ring road and have a walk in the Temple of Earth, 地坛.

The Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses, 万福阁. The last one in the row of five halls at the Lama Temple.

The 18 meters high Buddha sculpture that is cut from a solid part of wood. It is forbidden to take photo of it, so you have to watch out for the monks if you like to try.

人 太多- TOO much people

Temple of Earth, 地坛, is one of the four temple for Earth, 地, Moon, 月, Sun, 日, and Heaven, 天. These four temple is placed in the four point of the compass from the center of Beijing. (Temple of Heaven is the most famous). Temple of Earth is mainly a park, but have also some buildings and a big "altar", that is square because of the classic Chinese believe that the earth was square. The park is located just outside the 2:nd north ring road and is really big - about 700 x 700 meter, so it take some time to go around the whole. Temple of Earth is not a "heavy" tourist attraction, but can be a pleasant place for a walk after a visit the Lama Temple or the Confucius Temple that both are very close just on the other side of the ring road.

In these New Year days it is every year hold a festival at Temple of Earth. Could be interesting, I thought, so I went there. The festival was in my eyes 90% market selling of "crap". The rest 10% was local fast food and red lanterns in the trees. These rad lanterns is one of the characteristics for this festival. So - not so very funny, but a little interesting.

The thing that I really will remember from this festival was that it was so EXTREMELY LOTS OF PEOLPE!. Every little spot on the ground was covered by humans. After two second of thinking I realize that this is obvious since all are free from work these days. It was just only one person in the complete park that was not Chinese! Sometimes it was actually hard to decide by your self which direction to go, and it was a fight to se what was to be sold at the small shops. After one hour I got some kind of panic and wanted to get out, but that was not so easy.

Tigers shows up on many places a day like this.

It was so much people that it was not one single free spot on the ground, and you have to follow the river of people. The red lanterns in the tree is characteristic for this festival.

Dingling

It use to be poplar to combine a visit at the Great Wall, with a visit some of the Ming Tombs, because they are located "on the way". I have previous written that the only tomb that is a bit special to see is Dingling, 定陵, because this is the only one where the underground tomp is open. The rest 12 is not so interesting since the only thing you can se of the tomb is a big pyramid of stone or soil, even if they are surrounded by a nice park with soma classic building that of course can be a little interesting.

When they during the 50:th dig up the Dingling, they did not know how they should handle the body of the emperor, (Wànlì, 万历), so he more or less directly become rotten together with his cloth when he come in contact with the fresh air. Because of this scandal, no more tombs have been opened.

Even if there is no emperor to see, it is still a very powerful feeling to go down in the tomb. The tomb include several halls, and have suppressing less of decorations. Not as much of all this typical Chinese details that we are used to see. The grave is also located pretty deep below the ground level.

Close to the tomb there is also a museum that very detailed describe the very complex process to open the tomb. The tomb had an advanced looking system that was closed from the inside(!). It was also a risk that the tomb was graded by "Indiana Jones-type" of traps, so the first thing that was done was to let some chicken enter that tomb to see what happened.

Down inside one of the halls in the Dingling tomb. The only Ming Tomb that is oppen.

Longxing Gorge, 龙庆峡

Longxing Gorge, 龙庆峡, (Lóngqìngxiá) is a very nice nature area with mountains, ravines and water some tens of kilometer north of Badaling, that is told to be Beijing's no 16:s best tourist attraction according to some judger. The real nature park is closed during the winter, and open in the middle of april.

On the winter the Longxing Gorge is something totally different. Now it is hold a "Ice-lantern-Festival", 冰灯节, (bīngdēngjié). The main attraction is a "village" that is build only by using ice and in classic Chinese style. Complemented by a lot of ice sculptures of famous objects. Beside the ice attractions there are also some music and smaller amusement attractions. This year it is bigger then ever according to the Chinese media.

This place shall definitely be visited at evenings when all lights are on. In true Chinese standardm it is very much lamps in a total mix of colors. The place is surrounded by mountains, and on the mountain-sides they have with help from lamps reproduced an image of the Great Wall, which become very nice according to me.

I can not really recommend the short time tourist to spend one of the days here now during the winter. Maybe at the summer. For us that lives in Beijing, I judge this as a nice weekend outing.

Later this year I am planning to return to also discover "Summer Longxing Gorge", that in all important aspects will be something different. Then you can go by boat in the ravin, or take cable car op to the mountain peeks.

The very lighted ice-village at Longxing Gorge. It is obvious bigger then this picture shows and you can enter the most of the houses.

Me - in front of one of the classic Chinese ice palace.

The park with its total mix of colored lights. In the background you can see the visualization of the Great wall towards the mountain side.

The Silk Street

The Silk Street, 秀水街, Xiùshuǐjiē, is Beijing's and Chinas biggest and most famous shopping center with focus on tourists. There are a line of competitor, but The Silk Street is the one with the biggest range of products, and is most clean. The other ones are a bit smaller and sometimes have a little more narrow product range. If you only have time to go to one market, then I propose to select The Silk Street because it is a tourist attraction in it self, and it have "everything".

The market is located on the east side between 2:nd and 3:rd ring road along the main street in Beijing, Changanjie, 长安街, that cut through the complete city from east to wets. You easy reach the place by subway Line 1, and jump of at station Yonganli, 永安里.

During the spring 2005 the market moved in to todays location. Before that it was an outdoor market in the hutong's. Today the market has about 200 000 visitors every week, and during the olympics it was close to 2 000 000 customers! The selling is separated into 1 500 small shops with totally 3 000(!) employees.

The building has selling on 7 floors, and the 2 highest have a bit more luxury shops, that I dont really think fit into the concept. The product range is more or less everything that a tourist want, and a big part is copies of famous brands. Today is the Chinese government a bit harder towards the selling of copies, so all brands are not shown open - but there are there to be find if you just mention the name.

On first and second floor sells cloth in all types. Jackets, trousers, skirts....

Third floor fit best into the name The Silk Street since it is here you can by the fabric, but also ties, scarfs and underwear.

Fourth floor has mainly piece of jewelry, watches, sunglasses and electronics.

In the basement you can find shoes, bags, belt and wallets.

Besides the main categories there are also a lot of other stuff like toys, the, decorations, pens etc.

The selling environment is very tiring because the sellers always shouting at you and sometimes try to grab you. It can be funny in the beginning but not in the long terms. The sellers has pretty strict regulations how they are allowed to act so for example they are not allowed to be rude.

Every previous published text about The Silk Street has a "school" about how to bargain and lists of what things shall cost, so I shall be the first without. You will learn pretty fast anyway. In general is the prices (after long bargain) considered pretty low by us from the west, so many comes out with much more thingt then initially planed.

How about the quality? Can be both very good and very bad. The thing is to look very careful on the thing that you will by, and then also try to be a bit lucky.

The south entrance of The Silk Street. Outside here it is always a full row of tourist busses that are waiting for there shopping passages.

My friends on floor F2. I have done pretty much shopping at there shop, so during the years we have become friends, and I dont have to bargain with them any more.

One of all seller of watches on floor F4. She is not so happy as it seams since I did not by her "Rolex" even if she told me "A-Quality, No Problem"