Sadly 7am seemed too early to drag ourselves out of bed and we finally managed to get up for half ten. I'd planned to wash a few items of clothes and have a shower but there was no hot water, though there had been the night before, so getting out of the room didn't take long at all. We decided to go to the tomb of Wang Zhaojun, and then find some traditional food. We went to the tomb by taxi, which cost us 60 yuan as we had to pay for the taxi to pass the tolls and then return. Still an unfair price, but we had already lost our willpower to argue with the flippin rip-off merchants.
Wang Zhaojun was a candidate Imperial Concubine, meaning she lived in the harem but was never picked out by the emperor. The reason that she never was picked out despite her stunning beauty was because she was too upstanding and proud to pay off the court painter to paint her well, as was the traditional way. The emperor needed a concubine to offer the khan (king) of the Huns, Khukhenye, to unite the kingdoms in peace after years and years of unrest, and he offered Wang Zhaojun. At the wedding, he finally came to see how beautiful she was, but it was too late and she was married to the khan. The emperor took his anger out on the painter by having him executed for his corruption. Wang Zhaojun very quickly adapted to life with the Hun people in Mongolia and ever since has been honoured and remembered by both the Mongolians and the Chinese as an excellent peacekeeper and general all-round Good Woman. The tomb was set on a hill which is often called the Green Tomb because it is said that even when the rest of the land has become sparse through the barren winter, vegetation continues to grow on the hillside. It's true that it did have plants on it, but nothing spectacular really. After exploring the grounds for a while, and avoiding being attacked by a rather large goose which was viciously protecting its trophy bin, we thought it best to go back as we weren't sure how much time we'd need for the rest of the day's tourism. There was a bus back apparently but we weren't sure where, so we ended up in a private hire taxi (illegal, illegal!) A mini-bus had turned up, but according to the driver was waiting for a group of tourists to finish up and we just couldn't be wasting time. The car cost 50 kuai and took us straight to the door of our requested restaurant, which also happened to be conveniently near the three temples we wanted to see. At the restaurant we had some delicious shaomai dumplings, a Mongolian speciality of very juicy lamb filling with paper thin dumpling skin. Because the skin was so thin they kept exploding in our chopsticks which was embarrassing seeing as, as per usual, we were being closely inspected by the waitresses to see if we knew how to use chopsticks. We ate them dipped in vinegar spiced with chilli, and also had some naibaicai (like cabbage but much yummier).
After finishing 24 dumplings between us we staggered with full stomachs down the road to the Xilitu Temple and looked around. It was a pretty Buddhist temple with obvious classic Tibetan influence. Before seeing the temple I wondered how I would possibly notice Tibetan influence, not being an expert or anything... but actually it's really obvious. I have been to so many Buddhist temples now that I am starting to be able to spot Thai, Tibetan, Indian etc influences and so on, particularly in their statues of the Buddha, and the absence or existence of Tibetan style prayer flags and stupas, as well as hada (Mongolian and Tibetan sacred scarves. I have been made an honorary Mongolian by the blessing with a hada around my neck! The Mongolian hada come in two colours, white or blue. White represents peace and prosperity, and blue is representative of the freedom of the endless blue Mongolian sky. So they tell me...) The next temple was the Dazhao Temple. The guidebook claimed that the Xilitu was the largest and prettiest, but the Dazhao was clearly much bigger, and is apparently even more noteworthy for its mix of Han and Tibetan architecture, though in terms of architecture I am unable to tell where the influencing factors come from. In the Dazhao Temple we saw their famous 2.5m high silver Buddha which was blessed by the 3rd Dalai Lama in the 16th century. This was also the most busy temple of the day, with lots of monks wandering around and other worshippers praying and burning incense. This was also the temple where I spotted a monk texting on his mobile, which I pointed out to Liam as being a bit incongruous somehow!
Next stop was the Five Pagoda Temple. The temple originally had 5 pagodas, each with five pagodas on them in turn, but now only one was surviving. This temple was supposed to be near the others but was not immediately visible, so we walked in the direction it should be in. The buildings we were walking past were really pretty; even just for grocers and corner shops the architects and builders had put a lot of effort into maintaining an ethnic Mongolian appearance for the city. I was also pleased to see so much Mongolian script on practically every building. I love any sign of the multi-culturalness of Chinese society being proudly displayed instead of ashamedly hushed up. We finally reached Five Pagoda Temple Street, which sounded like a good place to look! At the end of the road we found the entrance to the temple but it was padlocked and the ticket office closed. We were very disappointed but walked along the walls to take a photo of the one remaining pagoda. Liam was all for going home in disappointment but for some reason I felt that it was somehow necessary to continue walking around the walls, thinking perhaps we'd get a better view of the pagoda from the north wall. And good job I did, because we suddenly found ourselves next to a ticket office with people in! It was pretty clear we were too late for normal visiting hours but they let us in anyway. Every single building but one was padlocked up but I peeked through the gaps to catch teasing glimpses of gold Buddhas and offerings. We saw the famous pagoda up close at last and also the Mongolian astrological chart, the only one of its kind in the world, which is what Liam and I had respectively specifically come to see.
We got a taxi back to the hotel, and just in time too because there was a fairly good chance my fingers would have dropped off from frostbite had I stayed outside any longer. We lay down a bit so I could write some diary and so Liam could warm his feet up - they'd gone completely numb with cold as our fingers and toes are wont to do in the freezing northern winter. At half eight we left the room once again in search of a recommended restaurant in the guidebook that was on the road perpendicular to our hotel's road. However the road, Hulan Beier proved to be frickin looooong. We randomly chose a direction and began to walk. We looked at the timetable for a bus stop, but the timetable aggravatingly didn't say where on the route we were. Suddenly Liam was like "found it!" and marched off up the road. He seemed so assured that I didn't bother to hang around and look for myself but after a while it became very apparent that we'd gone the wrong way. We got in a taxi instead and went 1.4km in the opposite direction and found ourselves the most intriguing restaurant ever. Each table of customers had their own private Mongolian yurt. The restaurant was at a horse-racing track (being Mongolian n all) but we didn't see the track because it was so dark. The menu had photos of celebrations on horseback as well. We ordered milk tea, milk cakes, and roasted sheep ribs, all of which are Mongolian specialities, and then some baicai. The milk tea was vile and tasted like salted butter. Neither of us could stomach it. The milk cakes were equally bizarre though a bit more edible. They had a texture similar to those big flumpy banana sweets, but far chewier, and tasted like non-sweet Golden Monkey milk chews, with a very sour yoghurt aftertaste. The ribs and the baicai were incredible though. So delicious! We finished everything! Finally we went back home, where we were delighted to find we had hot water once more. I had a lovely shower at long last, during which Liam recieved a phone call from a very husky-voiced prostitute offering a 'massage' (in China they ring round the hotels for clients) which he politely declined! I then set my alarm for 5.55am and got into bed around ten past eleven to sleep.
Lots of photos (back when I was still interested in temples. I thought I'd post up a lot of photos of the beautiful Buddhist temples so you can see what the best ones look like. After a while I stopped taking photos of them, because I'd seen so many!)
Wang Zhaojun's Green Tomb, plus the tomb grounds. The statue through the archway is Wang Zhaojun and her husband Khukhenye on horseback.
Dharmapalas (wrathful guardians) in the Xilitu Temple.
Tibetan Buddhist stupa in the Xilitu Temple - note the Tiebtan multi-coloured prayer flags.
This Buddha carving has 10,000 eyes and 10,000 hands (the eyes are on the hands). Amazing. Having said that, it may have been just 1000. Can't find out anywhere : (
This is just a simple prayer hall, but look how effortlessly beautiful and colourful it is!
The noteworthy 2.5m high Silver Buddha, blessed by the 3rd Dalai Lama. As this statue is the most important part of the temple, the temple itself is often called Yinfo Si (Silver Buddha Temple) by locals.
How Mongolian! A horse statue in a temple, seeing as they revere their horses, all draped in Tibetan prayer flags.
The sole remaining Five Pagoda Pagoda.
The entire surface of the pagoda was carved like this. The script running horizontal is Tibetan, and the downwards script is Mongolian.
No comments:
Post a Comment