Three days in Beijing

Hello,

Hope you have read our students' blog about their first three-day experience in Beijing. Except of our regular language and culture classes, we have visited several amazing spots in Beijing including Lama Tempel, the Temple of Heaven and Quan Ju De restaurant. I want to add some materials to help you know more about the wonderful places we have visited.

Lama Tempel
Lama Temple is one of the key historic sites under national protection. It lies in the southeast corner of north 2nd Ring Road. It is the largest one of the lamaseries of Tibetan Buddhism that remain in Beijing. At first it was the residence of Emperor Yongzheng before he was crowned. In the years of Qianlong it was changed into a lamasery, and began to serve as the headquarters of the Qing government’s administration of Tibetan Buddhism affairs. In 1981 it was officially opened to the public. In 1997 it was designated by the municipal government of Beijing as a museum for Tibetan Buddhist art.
Key attractions:
1.Falun (Wheel of Law) Hall
This hall is for lamas to conduct large-scale religious activities. It houses the gilded bronze statue of Master Zongkeba, the founder of the Gelu cult of Tibetan Buddhism. The statue is flanked by the thrones of Panchen and Dalai Lama, his two disciples. Here the 10th Panchen and the 11th Panchen had delivered sermons to lamas and blessed them by rubbing the tops of their heads.
2.The great figure of Maitreya
This 18-meter-tall wooden figure is housed in the Wanfu Pavilion, a triple-eave, complicatedly structured imposing building. It was made during 1748 to 1750, or the 13th to 15th year of Qianlong. It is said that it was carved out of a huge white sandalwood lumber offered by the seventh Dalai Lama.
3. The On Lama tablet
A pavilion in Yong He Gong houses a 6.2-meter-high cuboid stone tablet. Each of its four sides, measuring 1.45 meters wide, is inscribed with On Lama in Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan respectively, which decrees the system of appointing the Living Buddha. The inscription is an important embodiment of the Qing government’s policy on Tibet.
Address: No. 12, Yonghegong Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing

Here is the website, however, it is in Chinese. Please go ahead to check out the pictures.
http://www.yonghegong.cn/

Beijing University
http://english.pku.edu.cn/

The Tempel of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven is located in southern Beijing. It is included in the UNESCO world heritage list in 1998. With an area of 2.7 million square meters, it is the largest of its kind in the country. Built in 1420, the 18th year of the reign of Ming Emperor Yongle, the temple was where emperors went to worship heaven for good harvests.
The temple consists of two parts--the inner altar and outer altar. The main buildings are in the inner altar, on the north-south axis. At the southern end are the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Circular Mound Altar. On the northern end are the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests and the Hall of Imperial Zenith. The structures at both ends are connected by a 360-meter-long walk. There is also the Hall of Abstinence inside the West Heavenly Gate in which the emperor fasted for three days and bathed before prayer. The Imperial Vault of Heaven, the place to lay the memorial tablets to the heaven is to the north of the Circular Mound Altar. It is surrounded by a circular wall of polished brick with an opening to the south. This is known as the Echo Wall and is 3.72 meters high, 61.5 meters in diameter and 193 meters in circumference. If a person whispers close to the wall at any point, his voice can be heard distinctly at any other point along the wall.
Around the Hall of Abstinence are two imperial ditches and they are circled by a 163-bay walkway. The Abstinence Bronze Man Pavilion and Time and Memorial Tablets Pavilion are at he Celestial Terrace of the main hall. To add the solemnity of the occasion, the bells in the two bell towers at the northeast end were struck when the emperor prayed for good harvests.

Here is the website in English. :)
http://en.tiantanpark.com/newEbiz1/EbizPortalFG/portal/html/index.html

Quan Ju De Restaurant
http://www.quanjude.com.cn/e_dishes.html

In the rest of this week, we are going to visit the summer palace on Friday. During the weekend, we will go to visit a local high school. We will keep updating our blog.

Hope all of you in Portland enjoy your cool summer! (It is really hot recently in Beijing.)