Temples Temples

April 7
Our first day in Beijing. We wanted to check out the subway and also figure out how far away we were from the nearest stop. Our hotel was "off the map" so we weren't really sure and the people at the front desk couldn't really tell us. So we set out at 10:30 and had fun learning to navigate the streets (note: pedestrians do NOT have the right-of-way, no matter what color the little walk man is). The streets are insane - it's a big tangle of cars, bikes (7 million, we've heard), buses, rick-shaws, pedestrians and tuk-tuks.

Two hours later we arrived at the Guo Mao subway stop (I think our first and last time walking there)! We had some trouble trying to buy a ticket as our map only had English translations of the subway stops on it and we weren't able to show the cashier what type of ticket we wanted. She probably just charged us the max and told us to move along :-)

We made our way to the Lama Temple and checked out all of the different temples. Each successive building had a bigger Buddha in it, with the last one standing 75 ft. tall. It was awesome but what was most amazing is that it is carved out of a single piece of sandalwood. The wood came from Tibet and took three years to get to Beijing!! After it was carved they built the temple around it.

By 3:30 that afternoon we were feeling the jetlag and headed home for a nap before our dinner with Matt's brother's friend's parents (is that complicated enough)? The taxi ride across the city cost about $3 so I don't think the two hour walk to the subway will be necessary anymore. The Metcalfs met us at our hotel and we ended up eating there. Matt and I were impressed by their ability to communicate in Chinese - it's no easy thing to learn to speak Chinese. We had a great time with them and they gave us several good tips on things to do and see in the city.

The hotel slightly redeemed itself as I asked about heat and they brought us an electric heater. That has helped immensely on the chilly nights here. So once again we curled up on the couch and watched some lame movie on TV before falling asleep.

April 8

We were up early and headed off to the Temple of Heaven. Chinese temples are huge. There are usually a lot of buildings involved and often lots of park space, moats, etc. So it took us a couple hours to make our way through. We were really impressed with the older Chinese folks out enjoying their Saturday morning - lots of people were doing tai chi, dancing, playing paddle ball, or just generally being active. We got suckered into looking at an "art exhibition" and ended up buying a painting on a scroll.

For lunch we made our way to a Sichuan restaurant in the Lake District. Even though the menu had English translations no one in the restaurant spoke any English so ordering was still a game of sherades. We had a really spicy chicken dish that was essentially a huge bowl full of whole red chiles with a few pieces of chicken, tofu and mushrooms in it. It burned my mouth just to look at it. We also had some beef and mushrooms and sweet and spicy eggplant (really good). We were pretty pleased with ourselves for managing to make it through a meal without any English.

After our late lunch we decided to have the beloved foot massage. We found a place in our guidebook in the general area of our hotel and attempted to get a taxi to take us there. Either he didn't know it or he didn't want to take us there because he said no. So we decided to go back to the hotel. The traffic going back was horrendous and it took for-ev-er. I guess that is what happens when there are over 15 million people living somewhere. The other thing that happens is the taxi drivers don't always know where our hotel is - and they ask us for help! Ha. We did get slightly lost and the driver had to stop and ask for directions. He kept talking to us and of course we were useless.

After some quick grocery shopping we headed out to the foot massage place. I had had massages in Xiamen but of course we didn't know what to expect and couldn't really talk to the people working there. Even though they call it a foot massage really it's as much of a full body massage as you can do while sitting. They start with your hands and arms while your feet are soaking in a big wooden bucket. Then they work on your feet and legs for about an hour. After that they do your back, neck and shoulders. My guy was great and Matt's girl was too but she seemed to be beating him up...there was a lot of punching and slapping going on. In the end, it was fab, and Matt says he'll go back with me.

After the massage we headed for the Beijing Hotel and dinner at....don't laugh....Outback Steakhouse. This was Matt's redo 25th Birthday dinner. We were in Beijing on his 25th and were celebreating his b-day at the Outback for dinner. Unfortunately I had a migraine and we had to rush so last night was a redo dinner. It was about as good as you can expect but, hey, there's no better way to say "happy birthday" than with a bloomin' onion.