Since Darah had work on Tuesday and Marshall had school, I hired David, the driver that took us to the Great Wall, to be my driver for the day. He picked me up at 9am and off we went. It was perfect that Darah had found him a few weeks earlier and got his contact info. He is one of the few drivers in Beijing that speak English, and his is very very good! So in addition to the places I requested to see, he also had an itinerary of places he thought we should add to the list. He was also able to tell me some history behind the sites. That was nice. He was like my tour guide, driver, and friend for the day!
So off we went on our site-seeing adventure! First we visited the home of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I entered into the nest egg stadium, where the opening ceremony was and slowly walked around the stadium imagining what it must have felt like to have been an Olympic athlete walking the walk on that day last year representing their country. It must have been amazing knowing that you one of the best in the world and completing the title!Next, we went from celebrating superior athletes to celebrating Buddha! The Lama Temple is one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. The building and the artworks of the temple combine Han Chinese and Tibetan styles. The building work on the Lama Temple started in 1694 during the Qing Dynasty. It originally
served as an official residence for court eunuchs. In 1722, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism. The other half remained an imperial palace. Now it is open to the public and is populated by tourists, locals and monks alike. So, I definitely did a lot of people watching first, but finally felt comfortable performing the ritual that most others visitors were doing at the temple, praying to Buddha. I bought some incense, lit it in the flame and let it burn while I got on my knees in front of many different Buddhas and prayed. One of the ways to pray to the Buddha is, you place your palms together close to your face (with or without incense lit) and bring your hands toward the ground three times. The higher the hands and the lower the bow, the more respect is shown. It is a sign of respect and politeness. At first I was hesitant to try it, but finally got the courage to just do it. How often will I get this opportunity to be in an amazing Temple like this? I am so glad I overcame my fear and embarrassment and showed my respect to Buddha and the Temple. On my last prayer before exiting the Temple, I lit my last incense and got on my knees to pray. Immediately, the incense ash was falling on my hands and over my clothes and my knees were on fire! Of course, typical clumsy Stephanie has to do something like this! I walked out laughing at myself with a burnt palm and burnt holes in my white skirt. CLASSIC!
Next, I got to spend a few minutes at the Confucius Temple, which was also amazing. The Temple of Confucius at Beijing is the second largest Confucian Temple in China after the one in Confucius' hometown of Qufu. It was built in 1302, and imperial officials used it to pay their respects to Confucius until 1911.This temple wasn’t as populated as the Lama Temple. There were local student artists working on their paintings in the courtyard and few other tourists. It was peaceful inside and also beautiful!
served as an official residence for court eunuchs. In 1722, half of the building was converted into a lamasery, a monastery for monks of Tibetan Buddhism. The other half remained an imperial palace. Now it is open to the public and is populated by tourists, locals and monks alike. So, I definitely did a lot of people watching first, but finally felt comfortable performing the ritual that most others visitors were doing at the temple, praying to Buddha. I bought some incense, lit it in the flame and let it burn while I got on my knees in front of many different Buddhas and prayed. One of the ways to pray to the Buddha is, you place your palms together close to your face (with or without incense lit) and bring your hands toward the ground three times. The higher the hands and the lower the bow, the more respect is shown. It is a sign of respect and politeness. At first I was hesitant to try it, but finally got the courage to just do it. How often will I get this opportunity to be in an amazing Temple like this? I am so glad I overcame my fear and embarrassment and showed my respect to Buddha and the Temple. On my last prayer before exiting the Temple, I lit my last incense and got on my knees to pray. Immediately, the incense ash was falling on my hands and over my clothes and my knees were on fire! Of course, typical clumsy Stephanie has to do something like this! I walked out laughing at myself with a burnt palm and burnt holes in my white skirt. CLASSIC!
Next, I got to spend a few minutes at the Confucius Temple, which was also amazing. The Temple of Confucius at Beijing is the second largest Confucian Temple in China after the one in Confucius' hometown of Qufu. It was built in 1302, and imperial officials used it to pay their respects to Confucius until 1911.This temple wasn’t as populated as the Lama Temple. There were local student artists working on their paintings in the courtyard and few other tourists. It was peaceful inside and also beautiful!
Onto The Bell Tower we went. Bells and drums were musical instruments in ancient China. Later they were used to tell time and became watches for the officials and common people as well. The Bell and Drum towers were the center of time telling during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Now they are tourist attractions and offered some amazing views of the city. As you can see, The Bell tower is surrounded by Old Beijing. According to David, all of Beijing looked like this 35 years ago. This city has grown so fast in the past 35 years that only small portions of the city still model these smaller buildings. David took me to this traditional Chinese restaurant in Old Beijing for lunch. I ordered Egg Drop soup (something we order often at Overseas Chinese in Carlsbad) and David ordered the rest for us to feast! The parking in Old Beijing is a nightmare! We finally found a spot to parallel park in, and David accidentally hit the car in front of him! I got to watch the Chinese settle a car accident. There is no car insurance in China….. so you settle up with cash on the spot! It was very interesting!
On our full stomachs, we headed to the Temple of Heaven. This was my other favorite place for the day! I didn’t actually go inside the temple. I had too much fun wondering around the park surrounding it. This park is full of local Chinese and tourist visitors. The locals seem to each have their hangout spots throughout. At the entrance, the first group of locals were dancing around with a hand held kite (hard to describe) to 50 Cent! It was so awesome!!! I have video! Off to the right about 30 feet away was a group of 50-60 elderly locals ballroom dancing to Chinese Pop music. I wanted so badly to join them but was a little intimated. After watching and thinking and telling myself, Steph… just do it, you’ll never see these people again, I did it. One of the older ladies came up and pulled me into the dancing circle. As we were dancing, I couldn’t help but smile thinking about how amazing this is. I may not be able understand the
m but I have found the language of music and dance that we can equally express ourselves and communicate with. There were times that I was imitating their moves and vice versa. And all of the ladies and men were so nice. The spectators were equally entertained. I was the only foreigner out there immersing myself in the culture. It is times like these I wish Marco was with me to experience this too, and be able to catch it on video! It is a moment I will never forget and will cherish forever. As I walked further into the park, there was an area where all the locals were playing cards, and further in, they were all singing and playing instruments. Then further in, groups of men were playing Chinese checkers, and further…. A hacky-sac like object was kicked towards me. I played with an older man for awhile, trying to kick with my heels! I wanted to snap picture after picture but felt like I was intruding on their personal space. I kept my camera in my purse and hope to remember this park and its inhabitants just as I saw it! 
David then took me to the famous Tea House in Beijing for a tea break. You know how much I love Tea. I tried some Jasmine tea and David ordered us some tasty pastries to go along with them. We then headed to the Silk Market. After a long walk down the dirt roads of Beijing back alleys, we arrived at the Silk Market. 
I bought some tea from a local vendor and looked at the silk products being sold, but nothing caught my eye. I’d rather save my shopping for tomorrow. And the end of the Silk Market, we stopped at a refreshment stand and David treated me to the traditional Chinese yogurt in a ceramic container/cup. I was a little weary but it was tasty! It tasted just like plain yogurt, but you drank it out of a straw.
My day with David was finally coming to an end. I had him drop my off at 8pm at the Dahli Courtyard to meet Darah and her friend Vasusu for dinner and drinks. I was thankful that David was able to show me Beijing just the way I wanted to see it. And my adventure still isn’t over… there is still so much to be seen in this large city!
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