Beijing


April 23 Monday



We were once again in Hong Kong International Airport. We joined a packaged tour of Beijing offered by Wing On Travel.



Unfortunately, for me something I ate on the Air China 777 flight didn't agree with my stomach. Of course, my stomach didn't let me know for several hours but it did as our bus was tooling along to get to the Lugou Bridge. When the bus got there, I sprinted for the bathroom. To read more about that experience see the travel tip below!

The Lugou Bridge is southwest of Beijing, 15 km from Tiananmen Square. It was built in 1192. It is the oldest multi-arched stone bridge in the Beijing area. Marco Polo saw the bridge and introduced the concepts to Europe. The bridge is 266.5 m long and 7.3 m wide, with 11 arches and 501 carved lions.



The next stop was Tiantan, the Temple of Heaven. The first part of the grounds is the Heavenly Center Stone set in the Circular Mound. The number 9 and multiples of 9 figures prominently in the structure in terms of number of stairs and stone blocks. The number 9 sounds similar to long which is desired as in long life. Supposedly, a person standing on the stone speaking would hear their voice resonant. I would have taken a photo of me standing on the stone but a lot of tourists had the same idea!

The structure below is Huangqiong Yu, the Imperial Vault of Heaven. Around it is the Echo Wall. It is designd so that somebody on one side could speak to the wall and the voice could be heard at the opposite end. Unfortunately, there is now a railing to keep people away from getting too close to the wall due to people carving things on the wall.



The final structure at the Temple of Heaven is the Qiniandian, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.



TRAVEL TIP:

I hate to talk dirty! But if I'm going to be a helpful travel writer and you are going to travel to Beijing and China, I'll have no choice but to do a little bit of TOLIET TALK.

I was told about the crouching toilets and I got my first experience just as we arrived at the Lugou Bridge. As we bounded off the bus, I sprinted for the bathroom. Be ready with small bills and loose change because you will more often then not have to pay for the opportunity to use the toilet. Also keep a couple of packages of kleenex in your pocket because most don't have toilet paper! And lastly, be prepared because the toilets are basically toilet bowls in the ground and not the luxurous things we westerners sit on!

An MD friend of mine used to say, see a doughnut eat a doughnut. The traveler's version of this proverb is, see a bathroom use a bathroom even if it is less than luxurous and clean. In Beijing, they were often few and far between. You have been warned!

P.S. Hope you didn't have a doughnut on your desk as you are read this! Aww, you shouldn't be eating those things anyway. 8-)

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