Beijing's Beauty

Hello everyone!

It's the first day of April! While this month should bring thoughts of sunshine and flowers, Beijing has been hit by a cold front this week, plunging us to near-freezing temperatures, and Beijing shuts off it's gas heating to the whole city, so our dorms and classrooms have become refrigerators. I can't complain though, we have midterms this week and then it's a week in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing for me!

So over the past three weeks I've done a lot of stuff! Firstly, our program took us all to the Summer Palace. It was beautiful, a definite must see if you're in Beijing. An enormous complex (like a mini city) situated around a lake, the summer palace was the summer retreat for China's royalty. Though it is daily jammed with tourists, it's so large and beautiful that I didn't mind. I didn't even see half of the place though, and didn't realize it! It's almost too much to cover in one day!

I have wanted to see this for some time, it's an old Chinese tradition where people write poems and sayings in Chinese characters on pavement with large brushes and water.

me in front of the lake and the palace's major temple

this is not the famous covered painted walkway, but it's beautiful nonetheless! these are the stairs up the hill to the temple.

me in front of the temple of Buddhist incense (where surprisingly, there was no incense)

Then last weekend, while nearly everyone went on a trip to Xi'an, my friend Qinglan and I explored Beijing's parks. First, the famous Temple of Heaven park, where the emperor used to go and pray.

fooling around in front of the temple...

I admit I was a little disappointed with the Temple of Heaven. It was even more crowded than the Summer Palace, you could barely move there were so many tourists! Also, there's not much to the Temple of Heaven, besides the large blue temple above (the temple for prayer for good harvest), a smaller temple, and then a large nine-tiered pedestal where you can stand that represents the center of the universe. You have to wait in line to get your picture taken on that

After the Temple of Heaven it was straight to Beihai Park, a park just northwest of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City that is famous for the white dagoba that can be seen from it. The white dagoba was built in 1651 to honor a visit from the Dalai Lama, but it's simply ornamental, it's not actually a building you can enter.

Beihai is astoundingly beautiful, entering the park you're faced with willow trees and a white bridge across a placid lake to the small hill where the dagoba sits.

you can wander through the lesser temples and slowly climb the steep hill to the dagoba to see a breathtaking view of the Forbidden City. around the dagoba were blossoming trees which were my favorite part!

looking down from the back of the dagoba is the enormous Beihai lake where you can rent a boat and peddle across to see the famous nine dragon screen on the other bank. Qinglan and I were pooped though, and so descended from the dagoba and called it a day.

The rest of our time has been simple studying, studying, studying. I think everyone's got a bit of cabin fever, so our vacation next week is very welcome. As always, there are a lot more pictures in my album on the right - go look! The next time I update it will be with pictures and stories from Shanghai!

Stay well, all of you!

<3 Marlene