Saturday, July 23, 2011

Confucius Say

I got to sleep in today for the first time in almost the whole trip, which was nice. I woke up around ten and bummed around the dorm for a while, doing some cross stitching and watching Aftershock. Around noon I showered and headed out.

I took the subway from Xitucheng to Huixianxe Nankou, then to Yongheghong. I set out to find a restaurant that my guidebook recommended, which took me about half an hour considering that it was in this weird commercial hutong that actually did not connect to the main street. ohhh well. I found it and had really good eggs benedict, pita, and hummus. I'm still full from lunch. yum

After lunch I headed to the Confucius Temple and Imperial College, where I managed to get them to sell me a half price ticket. I am a local now. I walked around there for a while, but the tour guides kept thinking I was a part of their group and instructed me to do/not do a bunch of stuff. It was obnoxious. However, I really did enjoy the Confucius Temple and wish I had left the dorms earlier so I had had more time there. I had to head out around 3:30 so I would have enough time at my next destination:

the Lama Temple. I think I'm going to convert to Buddhism now because this was the most beautiful thing that I have seen on my trip to Beijing so far. The monuments, history, and architecture of the Lama Temple along with the numerous revernt Buddhists (both monks and non-monks) left me in awe. I wish I could post a picture of the 9-meter high buddha that was carved out of one tree, or the extremely detailed and ornate buddhas that were scattered throughout the various temples-within-the-temple left me in complete awe. I wish I could post pictures, but alas I cannot. Monday, Monday.

Once I left the Lama Temple I took the subway from Yonghegong  to Huixianxe Nankou, transferred to Line 10 and traveled six stops to Tanjiehu, where I once again walked down to Yashow. I forgot a couple things last time I was there, and also wanted to kill some time. I've also begun to enjoy haggling with the girls there, who all call me "pretty" or "sexy" and ask where I'm from. They're all surprised when I say that I've been living in Beijing for a few months. It also causes them to lower their prices a bit when I expel that information. heh heh

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