Beijing, China
November 08, 2013
Morning all.
Today was another similar one to yesterday. A fairly easy one mooching around with just the one visit to yet another temple.
This time it was the Lama Temple, probably the best temple I’ve visited so far since I got here due to how quiet and relaxing it was. It houses the biggest Wooden Buddha in the world carved from a single piece of wood and has the little Guinness world record sign outside if you don’t believe them. It’s an impressive sight at a whopping 85 feet tall and was carved from a rare Sandal tree which had grown to epic proportions. The temple grounds are really nice and its very much a working temple.
Monks dotted about here and there and although plenty of locals come here, they come to pray and burn incense as opposed to taking photos and viewing it as a tourist attraction which was nice to see. It’s also probably the best preserved temple I’ve visited. It’s true name is the Yonghe Lamasery and was built in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty, which was the final Chinese Dynasty that eventually ended in 1911. It’s a lovely place to just sit and people watch for a few hours and to relax in some peace and quiet away from the hustle and bustle of Beijing.
Outside the temple and across the street is a maze of small Hulong’s that seems to be very much an up and coming young arts area. The Hulong’s are littered with small Jazz Cafe’s, individual boutiques selling anything from retro clothing to Vinyl, musical instruments to art works. The area has a great feel about it. Very vibrant and colourful, you can feel it from the people who hang out there, so I decided to park up in a lovely small cafe and watch the world go by again for a good few hours listening to the laid back Jazz beats they were serving up. It was all to easy to sit there and enjoy it and it was dusk when I finally headed back off to the hostel.
A quick shower and I ran into George and Vasso again who were off somewhere out-of-town to do some shopping so I tagged along to see what the craic was. We headed off to some massive sports Hypermarket which was interesting enough in itself. it’s easy to see how quickly and big China has grown as an economic super power. The place was huge but you didn’t find a lot of the usual brands you would expect to find in a sports shop this big. Yes they did have Adidas and Nike but very very small sections. The rest of the goods were all Chinese brands that the locals seemed familiar with, and let’s face it even the small range of Adidas and Nike will have been manufactured here anyway. It’s strange to see. The people don’t really seem aware of anything outside of their own country, and I guess they don’t need to in all honesty. They are capable of creating anything they want here by themselves and have no need to import anything at all other than luxury goods particular to other countries. I can’t access the Google Play store from here, why? Because they don’t need Google or it’s apps here when they have created thousands of their own app stores and apps. It’s strange yet interesting to see it all going on around you. I guess it takes away choice and freedom but then it’s not as if they do without and you can see the master plan behind it all for China to be the next super power. They are encouraged to do well and earn as much as they possibly can, with the Government being safe in the knowledge that the money spent is within their own economy which is growing and expanding at an ever-increasing rate.
So that said I obviously grabbed myself a new pair of Chinese brand trainers for £9 to replace my old Emerica’s that smelt like a hobbit had been living in them for several years.
An hour back on the Subway and we popped out for yet another cracking cheap meal. The food here really is so fresh and tasty, far better than any Chinese I’ve had anywhere else …and for obvious reasons! George and Vasso have a friend studying Chinese here for a year so we met up with Zoe and grabbed a few cans at the local shop to take back to the hostel and we shared a few beers laughs and chat. My train to X’ain is all sorted now and I have the ticket ready to leave tomorrow night.
