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

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.