After breakfast today, I finally got my Chinese wedding. :D It's 10/10/10, and another of those auspicious days for doing important things, such as getting married. In the same room as the Writers Bar here, there's a french restaurant, but today it was redecorated with white arches, flowers, ribbons and pretty tables. There was a non-stop commentary and plenty of cheesy pop music before the bridesmaid (I think) and best man walked up, and lots more before the bride finally flounced up in her big, fluffy white dress. We took a few photos and went back to the room to collect a few things, and when we came down again, it was all over. Short and sweet. Or else Raffles rents the room by the hour.
I also finally saw Yonghegong Lama Temple today
. It was always on the subway line I took from Ying's flat last year, but I never got round to visiting it. "Lama Temple" is just the Chinglish for Tibetan Buddhist Temple. You'll remember that no religions are free here, and the leader of every one must also be a loyal member of the CCP, which is why there's the whole deal with the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama in Tibet (China basically kidnapped the new Panchen Lama - the Vice Dalai Lama - when he was a child and put their own lad in instead and told the Buddhists to make do). The Temple is the only one of its kind in Beijing, and was only spared from the Cultural Revolution by Zhou Enlai, who is the one to thank for most things that didn't get destroyed back then. Humans included. It's a lovely temple though, and quite a large complex too. They also have a 26m tall Buddha statue carved from a single piece of sandalwood and recognised by Guinness World Records (ever see "Guinness" written in Chinese? I forgot to take a picture of that), which is too high to see the face of, especially in the gloom of the temple
.
Speaking of gloom, I didn't mind the incense at the temple - though I saw a girl breathing through her ponytail at one stage - but the smog was seriously atrocious today. SERIOUSLY. It was dark at 2:30pm. I have photos to prove it. It made it harder to see in the temples because they didn't have any electric lights on inside. I felt ready for bed at 4pm because I was sure it was about 8. It was terrible. It started raining then, to make it worse. Every time we've commented on the "fog" we've been told "Oh yeah, a little bit of wind would clear it away" or "It's just water vapour because Beijing is in a valley" or "The rain at the weekend will get rid of it" but it's been getting steadily worse. My nose is protesting and my throat is raw from breathing it in. I wish I brought my Tibetan face masks, though the pollution'd probably ruin them. My eyes are sore too. How do people live in this everyday? How do they blow their noses and still think that that's FOG? The hotel is right on Dongchang'an Road and the cars have practically disappeared tonight
. If they didn't have lights on, I wouldn't be able to see them from the window.
ANYway, we carried on up the subway from Yonghegong to my old stomping grounds of Huijinxijie Nankou, and walked out to Ying's old flat. Still the same place, full of old people (I was still thrown by how dark it was and the fact that the workers hadn't returned yet), still nice and quiet. There was a construction lot near the entrance door to the community last year, and that's gone now. The path doesn't look any better, so I have no idea what they achieved, but at least you can get around both sides of the barrier now! We got back on the subway and went down south to some other name that doesn't matter because I wanted to check out the CCTV building. It's shaped like two upside down "L"s joining at an angle, but unfortunately it was still boarded off (with really high boarding), so we only got some gloomy angled pictures of the top. And my new non-weatherproof camera got a bit wet
. :(
It was back to Pizza Hut afterwards, where they continued the efforts to make everyplace I actually enjoyed eating last year a much more unpleasant experience this year. They had plenty of tables but told us to wait, then took a family of four and another walk-in couple before us. I got fed up, so I grabbed my bag and pranced down to a seat of my choosing. Shook them up a little. We got two mugs of hot water which was either to help with being soaked from the rain, or the traditional Chinese belief that hot water prepares your stomach for food. We hadn't gotten any yesterday, so who's to know. After the food, we ordered dessert, which surprised everyone again - they don't do sweet stuff in this country. It took them half an hour to find the ice cream, then it was back out into the rain and home to the hotel again for a hot shower. Brr.
We were back here at about 7, but it's so dark and miserable that I just want to go to bed. :( At least the room is lovely and comfortable. And where we had run out of drinking water at midnight the other night, we now have about six litres lying around spare. :) Evian FTW.
Rain rain, go away
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Beijing, Beijing, China
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