China 2008: Day 5: Chairman Mao's Mausoleum, Temple of Heaven
Stuff we expected to see on our tour, but we didn't: Chairman Mao's Mausoleum and the Temple of Heaven chief among them.
Security for Chairman Mao's Mausoleum was very tight. Cameras and bags had to be checked, then what little you could carry in went through x-ray screening and metal detectors. The moment itself is very sombering, and the efficiency with which they shuttle you in and out of the tomb adds to the effect.
We headed over to the Temple of Heaven next. Aside from the main temple areas, the grounds are set as a huge park with trees and walkways. Unlike Century Lake park in Shanghai, this is clearly ancient grounds with the Temple of Heaven and its supporting palaces and facilities, and it's actually crowded with people despite just-above-freezing weather. The Temple of Heaven is smaller than the Forbidden City by a huge amount, but it's still immense. The real pity was that there's an admission fee to get in, and there's another admission fee to actually get inside the main Temple of Heaven buildings. It was freezing cold, so we skipped that and just kept walking around, aside from a quick stop at a coffee shop on the grounds themselves.
Over to Din Tai Fung for a huge lunch. It wasn't cheap, but we had good directions from the hotel, and we didn't care. We wanted our xiaolongbao... and it was GOOD.
Yashow Market was next. It was advertised on our hotel's "local sights" guide, and we were getting bored (probably should have gone to the zoo, but oh well). Walked in and it turns out they're very used to foreign tourists. Deals weren't as good as we were hoping. It was rush hour when we left, so we walked around instead, ended up near the Worker's Gymnasium and some more modern/western places. Found dinner at an awesome local shop for greasy noodles and some thing like a pancake.
Went clubbing that night at Rock and Roll, which was pretty close to where we had dinner. Clubs in Beijing are absolutely crazy. It was HUGE-- reminded me of Spundae in Los Angeles-- people were packed in despite the size-- and there wasn't a quiet area to be found. Pretty awesome, if overwhelming.
Diana's broken Mandarin got a taxi driver to take us to an all-night restaurant complex afterwards. That was pretty cool. *grins* My non-existent Mandarin combined with the fact that it was dark meant that I had no idea where we were... but it was good, and clearly popular, given by the number of peopel and zillions of cabs outside.
