May 17, 2008: Lama Temple, Confucius Temple, Drum & Bell Towers, and real hutongs

Most recent album has a fair amount of pics. Mostly from the visit to the locations mentioned in the title of the post. Album is here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdorrian2334

Picture of me in the Drum Tower

Today was quite a long Saturday, but a day well spent. Up early to be on campus by 830am for the first class session of Decision Making. Thankfully Professor Ma is engaging and funny enough that the 830am-1230pm class went by relatively quickly. The class should be interesting as it is really just a strategy class. The format is open discussion and debate following 2 peer presentations as well as a lesson from the professor. My presentation is a week from today and it is on some 30 page article on the Cuban Missile crisis. I'll be happy to get that out of the way because besides the individual presentation there is not a ton of outside of classroom work. Maybe that is Prof. Ma's way of sympathizing that we have class @ 830am on both weekend mornings!

We were considering a trip to the Summer Palace today, but the weather was supposed to be overcast the entire day w/ a few scattered showers and the guidebooks mention that the Summer Palace is exponentially better to visit in nice weather, so we went w/ plan B. Saving the Summer Palace for another day we hopped on the subway and headed to an area a little northeast of the Forbidden City, still in central Beijing though.

The Lama Temple was the favorite destination of the day. It was great to witness laypeople who are practicing Buddhists have religious experiences there and formally go through the motions of prayer, burning incense, and other formal gestures. Also, we got to view some prayer chant by approximately 40-50 monks. The monks sat with their prayer books in a large U-shape around a huge Buddhist statue and ceremoniously chanted for I don't know how long. They were already chanting when we entered the room, we probably stayed and watched for 20 or so minutes, and they were still going strong when we left. I am not sure if that was just their standard prayer session of the day or if we were seeing them participate in recognizing a special day, occassion, or event with these prayers. The only drawback of the Lama Temple was that you were not allowed to take any pictures inside any of the buildings. There were some amazing statues, carvings, and idols that would have made great photos. In addition, it would have been great to get some shots of the monks chanting. Alas, those images will have to simply remain in my memory instead of my computer.

Wandering around the hutongs in the Hou Hai area was great too. There is a large section of hutongs adjacent to the Drum and Bell Towers, so we spent over an hour poking around there. It is a shame that so many of the hutongs are getting destroyed due to modernization. I believe unless certain hutongs are protected by the government that whomever owns them is allowed to sell them on the open market. Once a hutong is sold it is immediately knocked down and new, modern edifice is constructed.

I can't get over what a dirty city this is. My hutong wandering experience really magnified that notion. There is just junk and crap everywhere. Literal dirt & dust like the city is one huge construction site, food scraps, wood scraps, metal scraps, cardboard boxes, et al. I have not been anywhere yet where I have been totally appalled or grossed out, but the only way to accurately describe the level of filth is "omnipresent". It's part of the charm of the city I guess. This country is ancient, this city is ancient, so I guess it makes sense for the level of sanitary conditions to be much lower. Wandering the hutongs though was a lot like stepping into a time machine, because it was so real. You got to watch people living their everyday life. Different than, for example, the Colosseum in Rome because though that building is thousands of years old, it is there simply as an attraction for the most part. In the hutongs you saw people living in their unique little mazed neighborhoods, children playing in the street, family pets lying by the front entrance of the home, laundry drying on clothing lines, etc... It was really cool.

Mahjong being played

JD & Confucius

Young hutong dweller tinkering with his bicycle

Random ending note: I was relegated to watching badminton yesterday while running on the treadmill. For any gamblers out there you heard it here first. Go big on Zakry Latif and Fairuzizuan Tazari from Malaysia... they're a lock for a medal. They dismantled some Chinese duo yesterday... simply toyed with them.