Temple of Heaven, Beijing, May 13, 2010

Decided to do something a bit low key today, going to the Temple of Heaven and stopping by the Pearl Market on the way. Took the Beijing subway for the first time, and it was great. We didn’t really travel all that far, but what a difference from the area where we were. Much more of a modern feel, with lots of high rise apartments and shopping malls, but still with traces of the old tucked away in corners.

Well, the Pearl Market was anything but low key. What seemed liked hundreds of individual stalls selling everything from electronics to silk to knock off designer bags. We spent about 30 minutes there—it was painful for me (Robin) to walk away from all of the bags. I’m not a girly girl, but I do have a weakness for shoes and bags. If you stopped to give more than a glance to something, the vendors were literally grabbing you to look at what they had to offer and pulling you to their displays. More than a bit overwhelming.

But, right across the street, the Temple of Heaven - what may have been our favorite place in Beijing. Dancing, singing, playing instruments or just cards– seems like everyone not working is here in the park on this beautiful day. We fit right in and gained their approval, and attention, when we joined the crowd with our own card game. Everyone is having a good time.

Until, that is, we start getting “muscled” out of our seats by some old folks playing on our kindness as we make way for them to clamber over the bench railings. Now Robin and I are crunched onto a small section next to a few septuagenarians, who have cleverly taken over most of the space. Hey, we’re not asking them to move – considering all they must have seen over the last few decades.

And again with the pictures – we really should start charging. But this time they were trying to be a bit more subtle, just casually sitting down next to us on the benches while a guy across the way pointed the camera in our direction. But we caught them and turned the tables, making them gather round while we took pictures of them, too. They were very friendly though, and everyone was laughing. Good fun, but we do get the feeling that they think we’re somehow humorous (even when Tom’s not wearing his funny hat!).
Next stop: Peking duck. We’ve been looking forward to this for ages. We debated between two places, one recommended by Lonely Planet, the other recommendation from these fantastic little cards that Tom picked up (which we are keeping for anyone else heading to Beijing). We decided to go with the Lonely Planet recommendation just because we thought it would be easier to find than the one in the hutong—which we’ve come to learn can be tricky to navigate. Turns out the food was great, but the atmosphere left something to the imagination. Or not, as it was so bright and we were shuttled in and out so fast there wasn’t much imagination to it. But again, the duck was yummy. Should have been a bit suspect because of the giant duck dressed in a Chinese robe in the front.

The best thing about the location of the restaurant was that it was located just off this very large, very cosmopolitan plaza. Also just off this same plaza was this crazy Beijing market—teaming with people (wait a minute, everything here is teaming with people). The food vendors were the highlight—check out the photos. You can’t tell from the still shots, but those little scorpions—still moving.

The Scorpions

Temple of Heaven

The Singers

Market