The Cube

Sis took a night flight on Saturday, departing Beijing and I traveled to Wuxi a day after sis, so that left me with about half a day by myself in Beijing. There are a couple of places I could go, given that we have not covered that. The three main ones - Mansion of Prince Gong (恭王府; Gōng Wáng Fǔ), Yuyuantan Park (玉渊潭公园) and Beijing Zoo.

Mansion of Prince Gong was said to be Beijing's best preserved and most complete example of historic mansion. However, I gave that a miss and went for Yuyuantan Park. I argued that since I was in China at a supposedly cherry blossom season, and news were going on with the starting of Cherry Blossom Festival, I might as well give it a go.

25th Yuyuantan Cherry Blossom Festival

The 25th Yuyuantan Cherry Blossom Festival kicked off on 23rd March 2013. I was there on the last day of March, so I was hopeful. I got to Yuyuantan Park by Subway Line 1, and exited at Military Museum Station, and walked towards China Millennium Monument. Technically, I just followed the crowd, there were no shortage of people visiting the park. It was at this park that I realised they sell annual tickets, but of course, I paid for my single entry ticket, RMB 10 due to the festival.

Festival in full blast

There were many stalls selling food, toys and little things, and families came in full throng to support the flower festival. This part of the festival did not disappoint, but the flowers were picking dates to make a grand entrance. That, translated to - me seeing many bare trees.

Trees without flowers

That being said, there were some blossoming flowers and the park itself is rather scenic, though not as good as the gardens in Summer Palace.  

Flowers against greyish sky - not very exciting

 

Some of the early arrival flowers

 


Other trees

Mirror image

And I just have to put this one up. When we first saw this (I think in Yuanmingyuan), sis queried if the candy is to be eaten... after all, the peddlar blowed and sculptured the candy.

Candy blowing

When I saw it again in Yuyuantan Park, I overheard the mother (who paid for this candy) told her son not to eat it.

Considering that I had some time left, I decided to check out those cute pandas in Beijing Zoo. I only had enough time to see the pandas, or I would missed my flights, so I was disciplined this round and did not end up poking my nose into other things.


Getting to the zoo was easy - Subway Line 4, getting off at Dong Wu Yuan Station. Combo ticket (entrance including Panda House) at RMB 15 due to off peak season.

Young panda

Older panda

Side note: Short week!

Hutongs are alleys, and the ones in Beijing are formed by lines of siheyuan (traditional courtyard residences). Many neighbourhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong.

Guozijian Hutong or Guozijian Street is famous for housing two historical cultural heritages - Confucian Temple and the imperial learning institute of the same name, Guozijian. We strolled back to Andingmen where our hostel was located via Guozijian Street after visiting the two historical heritages.


One of the oldest and trendy hutong in Beijing was a hutong translated in English as Skewed Tobacco Pouch Street. LOL. In mandarin, it was read as Yandai Xiejie (烟袋斜街). It was said that the origin of the name came from the many smoking pipe stores on the street in the Qing Dynasty. Among the stores, there was one where the store owner put a huge wooden pipe in front of his store as a sign. As time passes, the street was known for its giant smoking pipe, hence the name. There were also talks that the street shaped like a smoking pipe.

Yandai Xiejie now house cool looking cafes, shops selling trinkets and snacks.

Cosy cafe

Postcard shop

Tiny ocarina (小陶笛 Xiǎo Táo dí)

Awesome paper cutting (剪纸 Jianzhi)

The making of another of those delish grilled lamb skewers!

At the end of the hutong (we started from the Di'anmen Dajie side), this leads to Silver Ingot Bridge (银锭桥 Yinding Qiao). Yinding Qiao divides Hou Hai from Qian Hai. It was so named due to it's upside down silver ingot shape.

The ingot bridge

One can find bars and restaurants in this area.


We had dinner here on our first 'real' night in Beijing, a superb lamb hotpot as recommended in Paul's awesome blog. (Technically we landed at night and just crashed to bed.)

Smiley face secret sesame sauce

Night photos cos this was taken on night number 1

Side note: Where can I buy good bak chang in Melbourne? :(

Just because...

We found ourselves in Wangfujing twice, once after visiting Forbidden City and another time after Yonghegong. This street, however was really long and we were at the Dong'anmen Street (东安门大街) junction end but at the opposite end of the street on our second visit.

Our initial intention as to check out the Wangfujing Snack Street (王府井小吃街) but accidentally ended up in Donghuamen Night Market (东华门夜市; Dōnghuāmén Yèshì). What even more silly was, we didn't quite realised that till our second visit when we stumbled on the real Wangfujing Snack Street. In actual fact, we didn't really know the exact name of this snack street, so we blindly asked for direction to a street that sells snacks (小吃) and was directed to here. LOL

Donghuamen Night Market (东华门夜市; Dōnghuāmén Yèshì)

Sis was not feeling well, so I was assigned to do takeaway food for both of us and had an early night. I find food sold here are on the more expensive side, despite this being a night market. Despite the higher price tag, it wasn't any tastier.


Anyway, sis felt better after my little food shopping 'trip' so we ended up having our dinner on a bench, right in front of an Apple shop.

"Picnic" dinner place

We decided to head back to Wangfujing to get some souvenirs as we remembered seeing some souvenir shops while we were savouring our hot food the other night. Lo and behold, after a short stroll from Wangfujing subway station, we saw this....

Wangfujing Snack Street (王府井小吃街)

Here are some of the food on sale, and yes there were some scorpions, coccons or some sort in the list.


Aside from food and snacks, one can also find trinkets and souvenirs on sale (on the later part of the street). You will need to engage in a price negotiation if you make any purchase here, and the better party wins.




Wangfujing is also home to branded goods and department stores, hence the reason for the first photo. I promised it was taken along Wangfujing and wasn't just some random photo that I snapped elsewhere. Grin.


Initially we were reluctant to shopping at Wangfujing Snack Street as haggling were not our strong point. We tried to locate the Apple shop and sis sent me off to ask for direction. We knew we were at Wangfujing, just not quite sure of the name of street we were on.

I asked an uncle, "May I know where is Wangfujing Street?"
The uncle replied me, "You are at Wangfujing Street!"
Palm face. = ="

Oh well, in the end we gave up, put on our best haggling hat and made our purchases.


Side note: Still no sign of Japanese Strawberry Shortcake :(

This is not Water Cube, as it is not cubic

Beijing National Stadium and Beijing National  Aquatics Center or more affectionately known as the Bird's Nest (鸟巢 Niǎocháo) and Water Cube (水立方 Shuǐ Lì Fāng).

This is not cubic either but this is the Water Cube

Both buildings were impressive in its on way, and given is outstanding structural outlook, I would say that if you have seen a picture of them before, you won't mistook them as some other building.

Water Cube and Bird's Nest were built in Olympic Green for the 2008 Summer Olympics. They are easily accessible via subway, get off at either Olympic Sports Center Station or Olympic Green. I personally think the walking distance from Olympic Sports Centre Station to the two centres are nearer. Oh ya, there's a security check on both entrance gate prior to entering to the park.

It's green, it's blue

I heard that Water Cube changes colour but I was not as lucky. I happened to have photos of two different colours, because.... I went on two separate days. Initially I went by myself after dinner on the day we went to Tiantan as sis was not feeling well. She went back to hostel to have an early rest after a scrumptious Peking duck dinner. As she was feeling much better following a good walk in Mutianyu Great Wall the next day, so I went with her, a second time for me ^ ^

This place is really spreadout, so it makes a good walk after a hearty meal though I'm not too sure my legs agree with that especially when we walked so much during the day as well. LOL


The other building in the same park is Linglong Tower (玲珑塔). It is regarded as a special information centre, where broadcast company can reports updates of competitons in both the Bird's Nest and Water Cube. Ok, this one changes colour ok. I didn't go for four days consecutively. :P


Side note: Long weekend coming up!

If I'm taller... I imagine this is would be nicer with straight angle

"What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."

Confucius' family and personal name was Kong Qiu (孔丘 Kǒng Qiū). He was known as Kongzi (孔子) or literally meaning Master Kong, honorific wise as Kong Fuzi (孔夫子), literally also Master Kong. Confucius is his Latinized name, derived from "Kong Fuzi".

Dismount stone

We made a separate trip to Temple of Confucius and the next door Guo Zi Jian, despite it was just a hop and a skip away from Yonghegong. Oh well, can't do much when we reached after the opening hours.

About ten metres away from the gate, one can find a dismount stone, on both east and west side. These stones mark the point where all were to dismount and walk to worship in the temple as to show respect. Entrance fee for both places was RMB 30 per person.

Temple of Confucius at Beijing is the second largest Confucian Temple in China, after the one in Confucius' hometown, Qufu.

Stone tablets with high flyers name

This temple contains stone tablets recording the names of many generations of scholars who passed the Imperial Examination.

Super tree

This is an old, old cypress tree of more than 700 years old. It was said to be planted in the Yuan Dynasty. The reason why this tree is famous compared to many other old cypress trees because it was said to have the ability to distinguish wicked courtiers from loyal ones. The story behind this goes like this. Once, Yan Song, a wicked minister in the Ming Dynasty came to offer sacrifices to Confucius on behalf of the emperor. When he passed the cypress, a high wind sprang up and a branch, driven by the wind, blew off his black gauze hat. Thus, the tree was named as Chu Jian Bai 触奸柏 (Wicked-Courtier-Distinguishing Cypress)

Ink Lake

As there is a super tree (that's my reference to the cypress tree), there's also a magic well. Oh well, it was translated as Ink Lake acording to the information signage. If you wish to be an excellent writers and calligraphers, have a sip of water from this well.

One of the main hall in this temple is this Dacheng Hall (Hall of Great Accomplishment, 大成殿).

Tablet in the hand writing of emperor Kangxi

Tablet handwriting by Lí Yuánhóng (黎元洪)

According to a very nice gentleman who worked in this Temple of Confucius, the tablet at the centre of the room is in the handwriting of Li Yuanhong. This is said to be different as compared to other Confucius temples where the middle tablet are usually one written by emperor Kangxi. The two tablets next to it was by emperor Yongzheng and emperor Qianlong respectively. This Confucius temple in Beijing displayed the tablet by emperor Kangxi outside of the hall.

After that, we stepped next door and visit an imperial university just adjacent to this Confucius temple.

Taixue Gate

Beijing Guozijian was the imperial college during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. Most of the building were built during the Ming Dynasty.

The Guozijian, often translated into English as the Imperial Academy or Imperial College was the national central institute of learning in ancient Chinese dynasties. It was the highest institute of learning in ancient China. Emperors in imperial China would also frequently visit the Guozijian to read Confucian classics to students.

Glazed archway

This is the second gate, after Taixue Gate.


The main hall in Guozijian is a Biyong Hall.



A throne, armchair, screen and imperial furniture which were used by Emperor Qianlong were on exhibit. The emperor himself gave lectures from this hall. I recall reading that the students listened to the lectures from outside the hall though, am not too sure how it works. Maybe the emperor had some very powerful voice.


As Guo Zi Jian was the highest institute of learning in ancient China, one can find students express their wish to enter top universities in Confucius' temple.


I have realised that after my much long winded story, I have not include any statue or image of Confucius himself. So, here's one!

The Statue of Confucius

Side note: I wonder if I can find Japanese Strawberry Shortcake in Melbourne!