Beijing 2024 - Confucius Temple (北京孔庙) Garden

 

Yongle Temple was kinda disappointing for me. Luckily there was another nearby attraction that we could visit. Initially I wasn't planning to visit this place, since I've visited a similar temple in Taiwan Tainan before, but I'm glad we went anyway. The place was the Confucius Temple, which was just a short walk away from Yongle Temple. I usually grouped places of interest based on their location to save on travel time and transport cost. So off we went to see Confucius instead. 

For this temple, I wasn't expecting much, but wow! Did it blew me away. Totally different from the one in Tainan. I mean certain elements were the same, but this one was definitely more interesting and worth the visit. Here is an advance key point: You have got to visit the library here! Totally blew me away! Oh, and above is the map of the place.

Again, a nice wet walkway with trees lined the entry into the palace.

And once inside the temple ground, a status of Confucius greeted you. I think anyone who has to study Chinese Classics will know Confucius by heart. The needless hours of memorising what Confucius says kinda stuck to you, even if you don't even speak Mandarin as a first language.

The grounds outside the temple. At first I thought it was surrounded by memorial tablets of scholars....

But after going a bit closer to take a look, these are actually text carved in stone. A tablet list, maybe of people who once studied here? Or who are famous? You can zoom in to read in the photo above.

And there were so many of them! Rows and rows of it. Seriously looked like those ancestor tablet from Mulan movie! I wonder if they light up at night, lol.

Then there are tablets that are housed inside a house by themselves. What are these? Dangerous text that needs to be chained down like those books in the Unseen University Library? Hahahaha. I regress. But there is one common point here. All the tablet looks like they were being carried by a turtle or tortoise!

Here is a zoom in phone of the tablet holder. Ok, maybe this one looks more like a dragon .....

Anyway, back to Confucius and Me! Let us explore more of the temple. It was so much bigger than what I expected it to be!

Beijing 2024 - YongLe Temple (雍和宫)

There is always an exhibition hall at the famous temple with proper information about the place and it's history. So really, there isn't much point in paying for audio guide or such when visiting any place. For places without such info, you could just google it before or after the visit, or watch a documentary on it on YouTube.  

Venturing into the temple hall, I was happy to find that the deities here were different from those I was used to. They were indeed Tibetian style Buddhist Deities. I was happy to see these, and happily took photos until I saw a sign saying photography was not allowed inside. Darn. Luckily this was after I've visited two or three halls! Lol. Sorry!

So here are some of my forbidden photos. The deities looked kinda Indian, right? I like the colours, and how scary they looked! Oh ya, kinda Indonesian looking too! I guess their sources all originated from India, hence the similarity.

Some of the Tibetian deities always reminded me of Tantra Buddhism, a more cult like mystical arm of Buddhism. 

The altar area. So much colours!

The omni Buddha and Goddess of Mercy can also be found among the deities here.

A nice photo of a monk reading next to the window. It was among some of the first few forbidden photos I took inside. And I was pretty sure they saw me but didn't stop me, that's why I thought it was ok to take photos inside as I normally would. But eventually I saw the signs and stopped, slightly disappointed cause I really live the deities inside the temple.

Outside the temple, prayer wheels can be found. Surprisingly not many people use them for prayers. I wonder why..... I prayed on every single one that I came across, which is two at the front of each temple hall :)  I mean, they were there for a reason, right?

Another recruit I got to help with praying using the praying wheel! Lol. This may be the closest we get to Tibet! Got to make it memorable!

Beijing 2024 - Breakfast and YongLe Temple (雍和宫)

 

Another morning, another awesome breakfast! Repeat customer at the local shop now, got my youtiao and soya milk which tasted a lot nicer on this day. The husband ordered some noodles and wantan soup which was yummy too. Simple and delicious breakfast! Today we were off to another temple!

Getting there is always part of the fun, getting lost and wondering where there are Costa Coffee in olden buildings! lol. Were we in the right place? I was going to one of the oldest Tibetian Temple here, so the modern look of the area took me by surprised.

We eventually found the entrance and followed everyone walking in. It was drizzling and the whole place was kinda wet. But what lovely trees surrounding the walkway into the temple. 

Lovely wet day photos of reflection everywhere on the ground.

I wanted to visit this Yongle Temple because it was one of the oldest and biggest Tibetian style temple. Wasn't exactly predicting that it would be so crowded though, even on a rainy morning! I was caught off guard by how crowded it was here!

And the size the temple wasn't as big as I thought it would be. The style too was rather Chinese temple like.... Was getting slightly disappointed that we came here.....

We did explore a bit at the back of the temple, and the architecture was no doubt beautiful, but still familiar. I was expecting something totally different......

Some of the rooms at the back of the temple.

Love the buildings here of red with the stone flooring.

Now let me show you the crowds of people here. 

Maybe this was a very wish granting temple? After learning more about Tibetian religion, there are elements of wish granting and appreciation culture here. Perhaps that's why so many people come here to pray? The gift shop too was perpetually crowded with customer snapping up lucky charms blessed by the temple.

Another view point. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy the visit to this temple as much as I thought I would. But since we were already here, we did spend around an hour just looking around.....

Beijing 2024 - Hutong (胡同) and Dashilan (大栅栏) Area Night Walk

 

After our early dinner, the next task of the day was to see where our next hotel location was. I knew it was just further in from where we were staying. But I also knew that it was inside the hutong area, and it's like a maze once you venture inside. So we decided to explore before our actual check in day! Above are some of the alleys inside the hutong area. I love wandering around here. If you've come to China and have only stayed in a proper hotel, you haven't really experience China!

Once outside the tourist area and deep into the hutong area, you will start to see communities living here going about their daily life. Here a cat sleeping on a electrical bike on the road side. We realised after walking by a few times that it was outside a fire station, and the fire station would take in cats wandering around the neighbourhood. And the cats were pretty well taken care of judging by the look of them too.

After some wandering around seeing neighbours eating their dinner together in the middle of the streets, we found our next hutong style hotel tucked into some small corner. We couldn't go in, so we only saw the front door of it which is in the photo above. What lies ahead? Hopefully something nice! Cause it was more expensive then our current hotel, and we decided to splurge a few nights here cause it's also on my wish list :)

Saw some cute signs while wandering around the small alley. It's a very neighbourhood feel of the whole place. But since it was pretty dark, and mostly residential area, we cross the road back into the vibrant Dashilan Shopping street to experience the night vibe there. 

Walking along the shopping street at leisure, it was the first time I get to experience this slowly. Seeing those grand building at night was majestic. Each was actually a shop! And they have existing for a very long time as the officers and royals used to shop here in ancient time. Granted that the shops have been renovated and upgraded to-date! Still, they looked so fancy that I felt intimidated to walk in.

There are food courts here as well, and it is dazzling walking in and looking at all the food here. But the prices are on the high side for me at least. As a rule, I usually don't dine at main roads or ground floor areas :P I much prefer alley ways and hidden shops. 

So many merchants setting up dedicated shops here. I didn't go into many of them. I guess I should as part of my travel experience. As we get more and more familiar, and bored with just walking outside on the road, we did eventually started venturing into shops that we were interested in.

Some of the small walk way goes all the way in, into more smaller shops and food area.

This was one of them. We went in here a few times, but I didn't buy anything. It was rather touristy for me.

At the corner of the main road, there was this sauce shop that I was really interested in cause it smells so nice. But I didn't go in. I just didn't know how to buy any of the items inside. There wasn't any sampling as well. Or even if there was, I wasn't sure if I would buy anything, so I felt bad about going in.

I did walked into this pretty shop which was crowded with ladies. I wanted to see what a Chinese cosmetic shop looked like and what did they sell. So glad I went in. It was so eye opening!

I love the deco that was simple yet elegant. Not over the top like those expensive western shops.

They have their products on display case with their history. I instantly felt like I wanted something from here as a keep sake!

Traditional cosmetics like perfume and lipsticks etc. So dainty!

Here is a close up look. If you look up on YouTube how these are made, you'll be pleasantly delighted at the process. But made sure you looked up the traditional method! My husband saw some of those traditional cream powder and bought some for his family, and I sneakily managed to get a box for myself too! Will show it to you in later post!. And that was how we ended our day, with a lovely night walk at Dashilan.

Beijing 2024 - Dashilan (大栅栏) Area Tea and Dinner

 

After lunch at NiuJie, we decided to go back and rest at the hotel as it was quite a hot and humid day. We grabbed some cold drinks from Mixue on the same road as our hotel. But the ice served here is never enough. I provided this feedback to my China friend, she she said I could ask them for more ice. She told me that if the shop gave too much ice, people would actually complaint that the shop was trying to cheat them. They would be more than happy to give me more ice if I request. Ok! Noted!

Tea time inside the hotel. Munching on mysterious cakes we got from NiuJie. Most tasted like those Chinese rice cakes, or those Nyonya cakes from Malaysia. They weren't very sweet, but a lot was red bean based. There were some made from hawthorn which I surprisingly like! They tasted very appetising!

For dinner, we went to the opposite small restaurant again cause we were too lazy to think what to eat for dinner. Since they have such a large menu, it was easy to just order a few dish and eat there. It wasn't too expensive, and the taste was usually ok. Of course we had to have ice cool beer.

This round we ordered mala tofu for me, braised beef for the husband, and a classic tomato scramble eggs. After walking so much daily, having rice is such a comforting feeling. I think I am healthiest when I am traveling cause I am always walking everywhere and so much.

 

Finish all our dishes like good Chinese people that don't waste food!