I forgot to post this before I left for Yunnan, but this was what I was up to the week before I left:
During
my first weekend in China, I visited the Beijing opera as part of a
school-run event. The Chinese opera is a really ancient tradition in
China, and it was much different from a traditional western opera.The
main instrument that was used was this very loud gong, which was played
really quickly whenever a character was portrayed as being in a
dangerous situation. One of my friends joked that we should get a gong
and play dramatically it whenever someone is crossing the street here!
The
next day, we went to the Temple of Heaven and saw some ancient Ming
dynasty architecture up close and personal. The Temple was built as a
worship place for emperors following ancient Chinese and Taoist
tradition, where they would go twice a year and pray for good harvests.
The architecture is really interesting because it's built in a series of
five groups separated by gates, so you just keep walking farther and
farther in. Each section has specific symbolism associated with it; the
northern part of the temple is circular, representing Heaven according
to Chinese belief, and the southern part is square, representing Earth.
The shapes repeat in a lot of the building features.
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| The multiple gates leading to the Temple |
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| The 'Circular Mound Altar' |
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| The Bridge to Heaven |
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| Chinese gargoyles |
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| Just hanging out at the Temple of Heaven |
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| Chinese calligraphy with water |
I managed to take a lot of pictures while also having a lot of pictures taken of me! The Chinese tourists seem to think foreigners are just as fascinating as ancient architecture. At one point, a large group of us (TBC students) were gathered to take a picture and all of a sudden a bunch of Chinese tourists ran over to take pictures of us as well. Some even asked to get in the picture with us, and one girl was absolutely thrilled to stand by me (I seem to get more attention because of my hair). I'm definitely enjoying a bit of celebrity status while in China.
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| Look at those strange foreigners. |
After that adventure, we decided to check out the nearby Pearl Market,
which is basically a giant mall-like building where you can go to find
and bargain for just about everything. I didn't buy anything, but I
watched a few friends try out their bargaining skills and tried to
discover the strategy to it. Turns out the Chinese are really tough
bargainers!
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| The massive Pearl Market |
The pollution has dissipated for now, so we'll see what new things China reveals to me in the next coming weeks.
