Beijing day II

Trip Start Feb 11, 2009

Trip End Ongoing

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Where I stayed

Happy Dragon

(Ciampino hotels)

Flag of Italy Ciampino, Lazio, Italy
Thursday, February 12, 2009

       We tried waking up at 7 but got up around 9. We ate breakfast at the hostel. Shit cereal with warm milk is my favorite...We rented bikes for a few dollars and rode around the city. My bank card wouldn't work at the ATM I tried so I hope that improves soon. We tried to go to Tienanmen Square, but ended up going in the opposite direction. So we turned around and ended up in the middle of the Forbidden City, but thankfully it's not forbidden anymore, it's packed with 1000 Chinese people. Tienanmen Square we find out is like the first gate to the Forbidden City so we were able to find it no problem after that. Tienanmen Square is great. Mr. Mao looking down at you and red everywhere. Tons of people are everywhere. Pictures are taken. I ask if Deborah can have her picture with a solider who is standing guard and the solider replied with a very robust "NNNNNooooo".
            After that we rode around some more and tried to stay near our new bikes because we were kind of afraid someone was going to steal them because they were so new. We head towards the Lama Temple and get confused. We ask for directions and the whole town comes to help. Deborah asks a man where the Lama temple is and before you know it, his wife, another couple, a police officer, and a phone call are involved. 10 min. later the man just points down the road, the way that we were going and says straight. Chinese people are really nice and helpful when they aren't selling you something. When they are selling you something they always always always ripping you off and they're damn good at it too. You have to be really careful and never pay full price on the street (more like 10 or 20% at the most) and act like you don't give a shit. It's fun. Oh, we also ate at McDonalds.
            We get to the Lama Temple and it is really interesting and beautiful. The Lama Temple is the biggest Tibetan Buddhist temple in Beijing. We bought some incense to burn like most people do and bowed a few times to be respectful. We got to see a gigantic statue of Buddha, about 60ft by 25ft I would guess and it was carved out of one sandalwood tree! That must have been a huge tree. The temple was a little eerie though. You could feel the repression and got the sense that the monks were there mainly just to take care of the stuff for the tourist to see. It's the total opposite in Korean temples.
We came back and talked to the hostel manager for awhile about Tibet and the plans for the next day. It's really expensive but in order to get to Tibet you must go with a tour group. It's really lame, but that's what you MUST do and there is no other way to get in. Since last March this is what you must do. Tibet had a lot of riots last March and things were really bad for a while. Tibet was closed for a few months while I assume the Chinese threw a lot of monks in jail and shot the rest...oh China. I don't want go to Tibet with a Chinese tour guide. That is like visiting a Sioux reservation on a US army tour. We're not going to get the real Tibetan history, just the fucked up Chinese version, but maybe we'll have a Tibetan tour guide...no they wouldn't let that happen. The Chinese limit the number of monks per temple to 50 and severely limit the number of temples. Nuns are even worse and there are almost none of them left. The reason for this is because the nuns are the "trouble makers" which I find interesting.
Tamara arrived and now it's the three of us.