Monday was the last day of our trip. Before heading back to Weihai, we visited the Temple of Heaven. It consists of three main sanctuaries, which each have two annexes: The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, The Imperial Vault of Heaven, and the Circular Mound Altar. According to Wikipedia: The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven (simplified Chinese: 天坛; traditional Chinese: 天壇; pinyin: Tiāntán; Manchu: Abkai mukdehun) is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. It is regarded as a Taoist temple, although Chinese Heaven worship, especially by the reigning monarch of the day, pre-dates Taoism.
It was an incredible experience. I loved seeing the traditional architecture and the colorful paintings. However, it seems to me that China tries too hard to modernize its culture; in its attempt to keep up with the modern world and to become more Westerner or tourist friendly, it has lost the sweet savor of its own traditional culture. Temples that were once the holiest of places to the Chinese people are now tourists attractions, where they’re more concerned about making a few yuan and selling cheap fiber-optic lights and doohickeys than preserving ancient traditions. Even the Forbidden City is visited by thousands of people every year. It’s saddening, especially since I find the traditional Chinese culture so beautiful and unique.
Maren, Kelli and I discovered two attractive European men and asked them for a picture. One is German, the other Italian. They had lovely accents and smelled delicious. Every European we ran into in Beijing smelled amazing. They were big sweethearts and we girls left giggling.
Outside of the Temple, in the Temple gardens, groups of Chinese people played a game similar to hacky sack, except with what looks like a tennis birdie. It looked like so much fun that most of my group bought a birdie hacky sack and we plan on having an ILP tournament someday.
There were people doing tai chi and others playing a game…well they had what looked like tennis rackets—each person had two, one in each hand—and a ball that they passed between each other. They stood only feet from each other, and their movements reminded me of tai chi or a slow kung fu, or like they were dancing. The ball slid between them like it was floating—everything about the “dance” was fluid, smooth and graceful. It’s hard to describe, but it was super cool to watch.
Finally, it was time to go home. We loaded onto the bus and started the 10 hour bus ride back to Weihai. It was during the day, so I was finally able to see some of the Chinese countryside. China is very lush and beautiful; I saw innumerable fields of various kinds of vegetation and once I saw a farmer in a traditional Chinese straw hat. It was grand.
Unfortunately, the weather worsened and it rained most of the ride home—and Chinese rain is something with which to be reckoned. When it rains, it pours, so visibility was extremely limited and I was no longer able to see anything out of the windows.
Hours into the bus ride, our driver requested that we sing American songs. So we turned on someone’s iTunes and had a mini dance/karaoke party on the bus. Then Walle, our guide, sang in Chinese to us. He was not musically inclined, but we appreciated the gesture, anyway. Right before we reached Daguanhua, he asked, in broken English, that we remember that “we are friends.” Everyone adored Walle; we’re gonna miss our little Asian.
We arrived at Daguanhua at about 8PM, four hours earlier than we had expected. I had an unbelievably awesome time in Beijing, but it was nice to be “home.”
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