Loitering in the Lama Temple

It seems I have entered my second period of 'honeymoon weeks' in Beijing. When I arrived here over five years ago, I was fascinated by China, and I was interested in everything Beijing had to offer. Now that I am leaving, my mind is opening up to again absorb the city's mighty sights with new enthusiasm, as I am hoping to commit it all to memory for a long time.

Two days ago, with the skies blue again and a cold (or rather, deep freeze) in the air, a friend and I ventured out the Yonghe Lamasery, better known as the Beijing Lama Temple. As an active Buddhist temple, it is an amazing place to visit. The inside courtyards, in spring and summer, have lots of green; monks always putter about, and non-stop people come in to pray.

 
Lots of red and good fortune signs in the shops around the temple.

One of many smaller buildings you step through as you go through the temple complex. Inside are always different statues of the Buddha or other presumably helpful entities.

 

On days like this, you honestly forget pollution ever exists. Blue skies and red buildings; it doesn't get much better than this.

 

Pass me that ball, lion!

Trying a new panorama setting ;)

 
The giant Buddha in the last building of the temple is apparently in the Guinness Book of Records. (So Europe, where are your giant Maria statues?)

 

This is the study hall. The red cloths are some kind of blanket/coat that must come in handy when you are studying and chanting for a couple of hours in the Beijing sub-zero temperatures.  

Even Beatrix was here! See if you spot her in the picture. 

In het Nederlands: Deze week ben ik even teruggegaan naar de lama tempel. Ik ben daar vaak geweest tijdens onze tijd in Beijing, en het is altijd een feest er te zijn. Je kan er een half uurtje zijn of twee uur ronddobberen. Heel groot is het niet, maar wel heel mooi. Omdat het nog een actieve tempel is met echte moniken is er altijd veel activiteit. Zelfs Beatrix heeft ooit de tempel met een bezoekje geeerd! 

Residential vs Commercial - On the Road with Thomas 😎

Thomas (9) knows more than his mom about communities and zoning. At school he's recently been learning about what services (for example electricity, water, and sanitation) communities need, and he's also been building massive constructions in good old SIMCITY (see Thomas' blog). Thomas may also already know more than the Chinese government (no offense, dear censor) about urban development as he knows what residential, commercial, and industrial areas are, what they are good for, and why some need to be close together (commercial and residential) and others (industrial) perhaps a bit apart.

Still, he is only nine, so I was allowed to come on his field trip to explore a little patch of Beijing called MaiZiDian.


The last preparations in the classroom. Every morning the kids get instructions like this that are actually posted on a blog, just like this.

 

  
Here we are, in MaiZiDian. Time to find out what tasks to complete.

  
Thomas on a mission to mark down the types of businesses on the street.
 

 
Marking down the teashop (shown on right).
 

 
We had a chat with the ladies. It was supposed to be an interview...but let's just say that they loved to chat! They also asked the kids to sing a song, which led to a lot of consternation within the team!
 

 
More individuals in the community! Notice the various transport services.

 
I bet you haven't seen one of those in a long time! The picture on the right shows a little Kodak (柯达 or keda) Express shop.
 

 
I guess this guy is taking "bringing your smoking to the cleaners" too literally.

 
Delivery services and a long-haired blond Dutch-American.

 

 

More peeps in the community.

 

This lady was so kind to fix her hair for the photo.

 

 

I think this guy can break out into a Gangnam style dance any second. The last picture shows Thomas' school again, upon return. Also a very nice community!

 

In het Nederlands: I was gisteren even op excursie met Thomas. We gingen naar een wijkje met de naam MaiZiDian. Daar hebben de kinderen de gebouwen in kaart gebracht en met de bewoners gesproken over de veranderingen in hun wijk. Die veranderingen waren er wel, maar de dames waren meer geinteresseerd in kletsen met de kinderen dan in het beantwoorden van hun vragen!  

Architectural 'Selfie' - A Visit to Beijing's Museum of Ancient Architecture

Recently, with a cold wind outside and our boys happily playing at a neighbor's house (thank you!), Paul and I went on a mini-adventure to the Beijing Ancient Architecture Museum. The museum is located on the grounds of a renovated Ming Dynasty temple and--as we discovered after paying a hefty 15 Yuan entry fee (about US$2.50 or Euro 1.80)--includes lots of interesting information about the construction of the many temples, palaces, and pagoda's in China.

Museum entrance: 15 Yuan. Temple value: Millions. Taking your first selfie?  Priceless!


This might have been our first selfie...


Old (though re-painted) grain storage sheds on the grounds of the museum.

 
This particular exhibit showed how the temples can be constructed without the use of nails. Everything just neatly comes together to create the corner-structures for the building.


A typical building corner using the pieces shown in the pictures above. (I suppose there is a more technical term for 'building corner'?)

I can't even think of putting this together.


China's temples also usually have the most beautiful colors. Much more than I have seen in Europe, older buildings here are typically restored and repainted with original (?) colors.



After leaving the museum, we walk through the other ancient architecture: Beijing's nice hutongs and small streets.

In het Nederlands: Nog net voor kerst waren Paul en ik een middagje in het museum. Na drie jaar tempels bezoeken was het leuk meer te leren over hoe ze gebouwd zijn. 

Not the Usual Kind of Shopping

Last Saturday night, Paul and I went to the one-year anniversary gala of the (despite the name of the gala) recently opened Parkview Green Fangcaodi, an office and retail space in the center of town. Basically, yes, you could say that we went to a giant Mall Party. :-) We were invited by some friends of the China Greentech Initiative, which had recently opened up their new office space inside Parkview. (Thank you Greentech!)

I am not a huge shopper and I have now discovered that--really--the best use for these spaces is to just turn them into a gigantic party platform. Those mall spaces are the perfect dance arena. It's probably very environmentally sound as well: using the retail space at night and pouring all that shopping anxiety into one crazy party!

The event even included performances by Cirque du Soleil performers, followed by two DJ's getting the crowd on its feet.

Crazy space.

Cirque du Soleil performers hanging from the ceiling.

Paul checks out a brand-new Tesla electric car -- about to be released on the China market. (Yes, there were actual shops in the building too.)

 

Snazzy shoe shop.

 
The Mall was designed to look like an outside space, kind of a city square with buildings around it.

 
The show and the DJ's were in the city square...

(I'll let the art speak for itself.)

[...]

Even great parties are followed by a 9:00am game on Sundays....

In het Nederlands: Afgelopen zaterdag waren we bij een openingsfeestje van een groot winkelcentrum in downtown Beijing. Het complex was al een aantal maanden open, maar dit was toch een beetje het openings feest. Ik kom niet zo vaak in de shopping malls hier--als je het mij vraagt zijn ze allemaal super groot, te luxe, ongezellig en onhandig--maar dit vond ik toch wel een heel leuke manier om in zo'n mall te zijn. :-) . We waren uitgenodigd door vrienden die in deze ruimte hun kantoor hebben. Het was een superleuk dansfeest...maar de volgende ochtend stond ik wel al weer vroeg langs de lijn!