Day Seven - Zen Day: Taoism, Confucianism, & Tibetan Buddhism

Today was the epitome of what I wanted to experience while in China. Eric and I joined temple-obsessed forces to map out our top-choice temples to see. We left around 10am and set out for the Taoist White Cloud Temple - our first and favorite site of the day.

At first we experienced extreme difficulty trying to get a cab driver to understand where we wanted to go. A bunch kept saying that the temple was closed or didn't exist, but we wouldn't have that. Finally a man on the street helped us communicate with a cab driver, and we were on our way. Once there, we were dropped at a street corner and impulse-bought a back of purple incense sticks (which were larger than typical ones I have seen) and wandered around. We located the temple, which we expected to be a small site that we might look at for a few minutes, but found much more...



We bought our tickets and stepped inside the temple grounds, and were taken aback. The place was so much larger than expected, with dozens of rooms dedicated to worship of different deities. The first thing we did was buy a ticket redeemable for bronze "tokens," which were used as part of a ritual to be tossed at a bell than was hanging beneath the footbridge. By the end, our aim was pretty solid, and we both hit the bell at least once. I saved a bunch of the tokens as souveneirs - I think I'll make them into necklaces.



We continued to walk through the temple area and saw before us a crowd of people lining up to burn their large sticks of incense in front of a big open fire. We used our incense to partake in the ritual as we stood together and closed our eyes in front of the flames. It was so cool to stand beside the locals and participate.







We then entered into almost all of the small pagodas, housing different deities. All of the descriptions outside each pagoda was written in both Chinese and English, so we were able to get a really good sense of what we were looking at. We then came upon a table of informational books - many which explained Taosim in both English and Chinese, so I'm excited to read more about it. The whole experience at the Taoist temple was really beautiful.









From there, we took another cab to the area in which the Confucious Temple and the Lama Temple were located, and decided to eat lunch when we got there. The area was gorgeous and very traditional in the layout and street appearance, although the streets were lined with small shops selling incense and statues. We decided to eat at an authentic-looking vegetarian restaurant. There was actually a 20 minute wait! Definitely something we had not yet come accross in China...



We chose to partake in the Chinese buffet section of the restaurant, and were pretty happy that we did. The dishes all contained tofu in unique forms, and the dessert layout was amazing. I have developed a new appreciation for Taro flavored things (other than my usual bubble tea choice, some taro ice cream is delicious). The tables in the buffet area were long and structured in a way that we were seated with other couples at the same table. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

From lunch we went accross the street to the Confucious Temple. Eric had his Tsinghua tote bag with him, so we actaully were able to get a college student discount on admission! At that point we could already tell that the day was flowing perfectly.



We loved the Confucious Temple. It was filled with stone tablets, conveying the Confucious teachings. There were also statues scattered throughout of Confucious and Confucious scholerly look-alikes. The architecture was stunning. We also stumbled into the Imperial College in which the Emperor would hold lectures for students, delivering the lectures from a fancy pagoda as the students would sit outside and listen. The area was surrounded by stone which used to be a moat. There were small, red, wooden plaques hanging all around the grounds, which we wanted to research...so we each took a few and hoped that it wouldnt inflict bad karma.









We then crossed the street again to look into a few shops, and wound up entering an alleyway that led us into a residential area, where the shop owners lived! I took a few photos, and upon exiting, we found ourselves on the street directly in front of the Lama Temple! Again, things were falling into place.





We got reduced admission again, thanks to the Tsinghua tote bag, and ventured into the Tibetan Lama Temple grounds. It was pretty excited to see people dressed as the Dalai Lama, and despite the tourists that flooded in (the other temples we visited had few to no white people, the Taoist Temple having none), I was able to reflect upon what I knew about Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama's teachings. It all came together mentally, spiritually, and visually.





I enjoyed seeing people burning incense again, this time able to recognize and understand the tradition of their offerings. We spun the prayer wheels and admired the larger-than-life buddhas inside some of the pagodas. There were many representing the Buddhas of the past, present, and future.



My absolute favorite part of the day happened to be something else that we stumbled upon - an actual prayer/chanting ceremony within part of the Lama Temple. I stood there, in awe, for a while, wishing that we could join in - but instead we were kept behind ropes as observers. It was an amazing sight to see all the people dressed in traditional Tibetan garments and chanting from their prayer books. Eric and I both snuck a picture...we couldn't stand leaving without one.



At that point, we thought we couldn't be any more at peace, but then we decided to check out a tea house that had a sign in front that read "Tea Ceremony," and felt completely compelled to go inside. We were able to pick our table, so we picked a secluded one that was boxed-in by cubbies of small tea pots. We each picked a tea (I chose Yunnan red tea) and a woman held a private tea ceremony; for the ceremony she prepared each loose tea one by one and showed us how to drink it traditionally.





The whole ritual and repetition of that method of drinking the tea was so relaxing. I paid attention to a Confucious quote written on the menu that read: "Though many people drink tea, they have no idea on the true taste of tea," which I think emphasizes the true purpose of the tea ceremony - paying close attention to the flavor and having mindfulness in each sip.



It already being 5pm, we took a cab back to the hotel to drop off our various souveneirs/accidental relics that we managed to gather throughout the day and head out to get massages (or so we thought). We had a difficult time getting the Concierge to write down the address of the massage place in Chinese so that we could hand it to the cab driver. Finally, we got it and went...but once we got their they refused to give us the "happy hour discount" that we were depending on since it was after 5pm, although no such time limit was listed on the brochure. Frustrated, we left and headed in the direction of Sunlitun Street, as we knew it was close by and had an interesting line-up of restaurants and shops.

We managed to locate the street (with our coincidental mapping abilities that we managed to have during that hour) and wound up at a French restaurant called "Le Petite Paris." It was probably the most culturally confused restaurant I have ever been to - some sort of combination of French, American, and Chinese. I was excited to order a cheeseburger...but the meat and its consistancy was beyond questionable. The fries were good. We gave them credit for trying to be European, it was pretty cute.

We continued walking along the trendy street and found ourselves surrounded by flashy lights and buildings - one of which was a mall filled with non-name brand stores, but instead filled with fashionable boutiques with the strangest combination of hip clothing. Eric and I both found something that fit our taste, and under 15 dollars. But we quickly learned that it was not a place to bargain with the store owners...not in the least bit.

We decided that we had to come back to that street after class sometime with a bunch of people from our group. There is definitely something there for everyone. And that was the extent of our fabulous Zen Day, which quickly exceeded my expectations and made me fall in love with China all over again.

再见
Karen