touring around beijing...

there is so much history in a city that is home to nearly 6000 years of chinese culture it is impossible to see nearly any of it in the matter days. none-the-less, over the course of the last week, alina and i tried to visit what we deemed to be the most significant sites around beijing. we took in a few strolles through tianamen square, toured the forbidden city, scaled the great wall of china at badaling, and visited the temple of heaven and the lama temple.

it was emotionally leveling the first time we walked through tianamen square. after settling into our hostel on the first night, we walked through the square on the way to get dinner. we made it there after most of the hawkers and vendors had left and tourists were making their way out for the evening - so we kind of had the place to ourselves. much as our parent's generation associate so much to red square in Russia, our generation can easily recall the events of july 4, 1989 at tianamen square. those images we watched on the news almost 20 years ago we vivid in our minds as we made our way through the square. to say the least, it was a memorable experience.

the following day, we visited the lama temple, the first and most significant tibetian buddist temple outside of Tibet. the lama temple houses a number of pieces of buddhist artwork, including the centerpiece maitreya buddha. standing at 18 meters tall. the buddha is carved out of one single piece of sandalwood. after the lama temple, we headed south through the city to the temple of heaven park. the park is home to the several temples all used by the emperor, when praying for good harvests and bumper crops. the temple of heaven was an impressive sight, especially after learning about the astrology and numerology that was employed in the architecture of the buildings and alters.

as i am sure countless people have written before me, the great wall of china was an uncomprehendable mass of architecture and labor. it was amazing to walk the short span that we did.

on our last afternoon, we made our way through the gates of the forbidden city. the cold winter day and heavy fog that covered the city made the forbidden city seem almost otherworldly.

tonight, we are jumping on our first overnight train of our trip. we will be heading to luoyang, china for a few days to see the longmen grottoes and then onto xian, china to see the terracotta warriors. - david