BEIJING ZOO and PEKING DUCK, Beijing, China (Day 5)

Red Panda, Beijing Zoo

The following is an excerpt from the diary of our trip to China July, 1995.  We were traveling with three friends, spending five days in Beijing and then three days in Xian.  China has changed greatly since our visit but many of the places we went to are still among the popular tourist spots.

Golden Monkey, Beijing Zoo

Beijing, Day 5:  Our last day in Beijing was a free day with no organized tours.  In the morning, Art and I took a taxi to the zoo.  The weather was hot but not unbearable.  The panda exhibit is the first inside the gate and required an extra fee.  The inside enclosures were filled with cut bamboo and one panda was eating.  The others were more active outside.  We also photographed a red panda, which circled around and round its enclosure before finally climbing a tree to sleep.  After leaving the pandas we searched for other Chinese animals and saw some cranes and golden monkeys.  The zoo is huge and we got somewhat lost because there weren’t many maps.  At the far end we found two polar bears play-fighting in the water.

Polar bears, Beijing Zoo

After the zoo we took a taxi to the Great Bell Temple to see the biggest bell in China.  You can read more about the bell in my post on 6/30/14.

Preparation of Peking Duck

That evening we went out for a Peking duck dinner at a restaurant recommended by the hotel.  The waitress convinced us that we needed two ducks (for five of us) but we would have been better off with just one because they were so greasy and rich that we ate too much and felt sick the next day.  The waiter brings the whole roast duck on a cart and then carves the pieces into piles on small plates.  You eat them with your hands, folding the duck pieces inside thin pancakes that have been swabbed in bean sauce. Afterwards we watched them prepare and cook the ducks and bought a few souvenirs, including a duck hat for Art.

Tiananmen Square at Night

We then walked back to our hotel via Tiananmen Square, where people were picnicking, talking, playing badminton and soccer, and flying kites.  (Badminton was obviously very popular in China. Every night on television we saw broadcasts of the international badminton championships which were being played that week.)  The moon, which had been a crescent earlier in the week, was growing fuller and small bats flew among the kites catching insects.  After a hot day, the relatively cool night air was refreshing.

My bird kite purchased in Beijing

MINORITIES PARK and LAMA TEMPLE, Beijing, China (Day 4)

Musicians, Minorities Park, Beijing

The following is an excerpt from the diary of our trip to China July, 1995.  We were traveling with three friends, spending five days in Beijing and then three days in Xian.  China has changed greatly since our visit but many of the places we went to are still among the popular tourist spots.

Beijing Day 4:  On the morning of our third full day in Beijing we were scheduled to tour the Temple of Heaven, but as we had already visited several temples, we asked to visit the Minorities Park instead.  The Minorities Park was a government enterprise and had only opened a year before.  It is a sort of Disneyland approach to bringing samples of China’s many ethnic minorities to the capital–saving tourists the trouble of traveling to the hinterlands.  It also seemed to have an educational purpose–almost the only other people there on the day we visited was a school class on a field trip.

Prayer Wheel, Minorities Park, Beijing

The park was divided into sections by ethnic group and showed houses, gardens, tools, etc.  We started at the Tibet exhibit, where for a fee you could actually go into a small temple and take photographs.  Outside was a giant prayer wheel and a row of smaller ones.  The wheels are inscribed with prayers and as you turn them the prayers are repeated.

Water Play, Minorities Park, Beijing

We then went to another area to watch a dance celebrating a water festival.  At the end of each dance the dancers and people in the audience scooped water out of tubs placed around the dance floor and threw it at one another. It was the perfect activity for a hot day and, by the end, everyone was soaked.  (Later we saw the dancers’ clothes hung on a line to dry.)

Pagoda and Water Wheels, Minorities Park

For lunch we went to a restaurant housed in what once had been an imperial room–inside it was blessedly dark and cool and the food was the best in three days.  Like each of the other restaurants we had been taken to, this apparently only catered to tourist groups.

Incense, Lama Temple

For the afternoon we went to the Lama Temple, which we thought was pretty, but not that different from other temples.  I kept sneezing when I got near incense, which was everywhere.
For an article about the Ethnic Minorities park in the NY Times, click HERE.

Lama Temple, Beijing

TIANANMEN SQUARE, FORBIDDEN CITY and SUMMER PALACE, Beijing, China (Day 3)

"Female" lion, Forbidden City, Beijing, China

The following is an excerpt from the diary of our trip to China July, 1995.  We were traveling with three friends, spending five days in Beijing and then three days in Xian.  China has changed greatly since our visit but many of the places we went to are still among the popular tourist spots.

Tiananmen Tower and Gate to Forbidden City

Day 3:  On the morning of our second full day in Beijing we met our guide, Amy, after breakfast at our hotel and proceeded to Tiananmen Square.  Amy told us that she had been in her first year of college in 1989.  She had been in the square during the day, but at night her mother made her stay home because she thought it was too dangerous. When we got to the square it was crowded with people, including thousands of Chinese in a huge line snaking its way toward the monument where Mao is entombed.  Apparently, all Chinese learn a saying from the time they are very young: “Once in my life I will visit Beijing to see Chairman Mao.”  So these people were making their once in a lifetime pilgrimage.

Hall of Preserving Harmony.  The carving along the stairs weighs 250 metric tons.

The Square was made of stone blocks about a foot and half square.  Amy said that if one person stood on each of these, the Square would hold a half million people.  We than walked across to the gate to the Forbidden City, where we received tapes for our tour.

Bronze turtle, Forbidden City

This large bronze turtle is a symbol of longevity and stability.  It is also an incense burner–the smoke comes out of its mouth.

Roof carvings, Forbidden City

These elaborate roof carvings inside the Forbidden City tell a story of a cruel tyrant who was hung from the eaves of a roof.

Large water pot, Forbidden City

Fire was a constant threat in the Forbidden City.  This is one of many water pots in place to use for dousing fires.






After lunch, we drove to the Summer Palace.  Among the more interesting things was an exhibit of photos of the Dowager–in one case with an American woman who apparently lived at the palace. We saw a picture of a traditional wedding dress–which includes an elaborate headpiece.  I asked Amy if she would be wearing such a dress for her wedding in the fall.  She said she might rent one for a photo, but that it would be too expensive to rent one for the whole day.  The actual date for her wedding is not yet set.  She will consult a soothsayer who will look at all the factors and determine the most propitious day.

Summer Palace

At the Summer Palace we saw another example of recreated hills as well as “borrowed scenery”-- where a distant landscape is incorporated into the whole panorama. The long corridor and walk beside the lake was quite refreshing because of the breeze off the water, but the stone boat at the end was a bit anticlimactic.  Although one could go for a ride across the lake on a brightly painted real boat, we didn’t do that.

Marble boat at the Summer Palace

That evening we were on our own for dinner.  We went out to a local noodle shop and ordered by pointing to dishes on other people’s tables.  We were the only Westerners in the restaurant.  The meal was inexpensive and quite tasty.

CLOISONNE, MING TOMBS and THE GREAT WALL, Beijing, China (Day 2)

Great Wall of China, Badaling

The following is an excerpt from the diary of our trip to China July, 1995.  We were traveling with three friends, spending five days in Beijing and then three days in Xian.  China has changed greatly since our visit but many of the places we went to are still among the popular tourist spots. 

Detail of Cloisonne Vase

Day 2: On our first full day in Beijing, after breakfast at our hotel, we climbed into our van for a trip outside the city.  We drove northwest along wide streets and onto an expressway.  Our first stop was a cloisonne factory where we watched people making each step of the process–forming the patterns by gluing bent strips of copper onto the posts, applying the color paste, firing the pots and grinding and polishing them at the end.

"Painting" the cloisonne designs

Our guide, Amy, revealed that the workers we saw were only representative and that the real factory was somewhere else.  Flying over the yard were hundreds of swallows, by far the most common bird we saw in China.  After buying souvenirs I went to the bathroom–my first experience with a half-door floor toilet.

Taking the cloisonne pots out of the kiln

Next stop was the Ming Tombs.  We climbed up to the top of a hill and then descended a long stairway into the tombs–a series of underground rooms empty except for a few huge stone chairs. The locks on the doors were large versions of the anti-burglar poles that you jam into your door from the floor.  After the tombs were built they were buried to create a large hill.  Apparently all the workers were killed and buried in them so that no one except the next in line to the throne knew the location of the tombs.  (The ancient Chinese seemed to have no compunction about rearranging the landscape to their liking–moving rocks hundreds of miles to create gardens, digging lakes, and using the earth to build small mountains.)

We left the Ming Tombs and drove through the countryside and a small town, and then began to wind our way up into the mountains past small houses made of brick or stone, each with a fenced in courtyard in front.  We passed several sections of the Great Wall–including a large section being restored with a stone bridge across the road.  All along the way we saw beehives and small tents pitched next to the road with signs offering honey for sale.  We finally arrived at Badaling, a point where the Wall crosses a pass.

We made our way from the huge parking lot past a dusty camel, dozens of tourist stalls selling T-shirts (“I climbed the Great Wall”, etc.) and went through the gate up onto the wall.  The choice was between right–less steep but more crowded, or left.  We went left.  The most steep part (reminiscent of the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan in Mexico because the steps were so short your whole foot didn’t fit) was toward the beginning.

Alongside the wall, below, was another camel and a clothes rack of costumes.  For a fee you could dress up as a Mongol warrior and be photographed. As we made our way along the top of the wall we saw three species of butterflies and a magpie.  The sunlight became more golden as we walked and the crowds fewer so that by the time we got to the end of the reconstructed part we were the only people there. 

BEHEI PARK, Beijing, China (Day 1)

Behei Park, Beijing

The following is an excerpt from the diary of our trip to China July, 1995.  We were traveling with three friends, spending five days in Beijing and then three days in Xian.  China has changed greatly since our visit but many of the places we went to are still among the popular tourist spots. 

Temple roof decoration, Behei Park

Day 1:  We arrived in Beijing in the morning and were met at the airport by our guide, Amy. She led us to a car where our driver was waiting and we drove into the city. After helping us check into our hotel (Xinqiao) near the city center, we drove to the entrance to Behei Park, one of the oldest and best preserved ancient imperial gardens in China. We walked through the park to a temple, where, after paying a fee, we climbed up through two or three temple buildings with Buddha figures and then up a steep flight of steps.  Finally, we reached the top of the hill where we had a sweeping vista over the city.

View of Forbidden City and Beijing skyline from Behei Park

We climbed down over rocks on the back side of the hill.  At the bottom we walked under a covered walkway at the edge of the lake and chose to continue around the lake on a sidewalk rather than taking a boat across.  The lake was dotted with people in pastel colored pedal boats.

Walkway along lake, Behei Park

At the other end of the lake we went to a small “People’s Park” where groups of men played cards, dominoes, and a form of checkers on a board marked with intersecting lines. We then walked along the edge of the lake where there was a sort of street fair with stalls of toys, books, clothing, pottery, antiques, fruit, etc.

After returning to the hotel, we walked to the Foreign Language bookstore to look for a book of birds of China, but were unable to find one.  The street was crowded with shoppers.  We walked through a crowded department store filled with people buying purses, perfume, appliances, and a whole array of consumer goods.  On our way back to our hotel we passed McDonalds–the biggest McDonalds in the world, with 200 plus seats.  We went to bed early, to be ready for a full day of touring in the morning.

THE BIGGEST BELL IN CHINA, Beijing, China

The Great Bell of Beijing is rung to welcome the New Year and to celebrate the full moon.

More than six centuries ago, in the year 1402, the great Ming emperor, Yongle, began his reign over the vast kingdom of China. Yongle ordered workmen to build temples and palaces and to construct towers on the walls around the new capital, Beijing.  He also decreed that a giant bell be made. It took more than twenty years and three castings to make the giant bell. Then Yongle died and the bell was forgotten. 

Great Bell Temple, Beijing

In 1577, Shen Dong, another Ming emperor, decreed that the giant bell be moved to the Temple of Longevity just outside the western gate of the city. After it was hung in the bell tower, a monk pulled back a wooden post and let it swing forward to strike the bell.  At that moment, deep golden tones soared over the city. The monk struck the bell eighteen times quickly, eighteen times slowly, and then with eighteen quick-and-slow strokes together. At last the wish of Emperor Yongle was fulfilled.  In 1743 the Temple of Longevity collapsed and the big bell was moved again, this time to the northwest part of Beijing to the Temple of Awakening, which was then renamed the Great Bell Temple.

Entrance to Bell Temple and Museum

On our first trip to China, in 1995, Art and I made a point to visit the Great Bell Temple.  I was intrigued because I had read in my guidebook that the heavy bell had been transported to the temple by sliding it along an icy path in winter. We were there on a  hot summer day and the garden surrounding the temple was green and well tended and the lack of visitors and absence of souvenir booths and hawkers made it peaceful and pleasant.  For an extra fee I climbed up the tower to view the bell from the top.  I also bought a tape recording of bell sounds.

People from all over China come to the Great Bell Temple to celebrate the New Year and pray for good luck by throwing coins into the hole at the top of the bell.

The Great Bell of Beijing weighs 46 tons.  It is 22 feet tall, ten feet across, and eight inches wide at the thickest part of its wall.  The 230,000 Chinese and Sanskrit characters on its surface form the words of more than one hundred Buddhist scriptures.  Because of its size, the Great Bell is also sometimes called the King of Bells.  The bell is noted for its fine workmanship and beautiful clear tone.  With each stroke the sound vibrates for more than a minute and can be heard more than twenty-five miles away. 

Bell Museum

Part of the Temple is a Bell Museum. People in China have been making bells for more than three thousand years.  The Great Bell of Beijing is a type of bell called a chung.  A chung has no clapper; instead, it sounds when it is struck on the outside with a wooden post or mallet. 

Beautifully decorated ancient bell

Note: The Great Bell of Beijing is no longer the "King of Bells" -- that honor now goes to the 50-ton bell housed in the Altar to the Century (Zhonghua Shiji Tan), constructed in 1999 to celebrate the Millenium.

For information about visiting the Great Bell Temple and Bell Museum, click HERE.