Whilst in that area though, I got to visit the Tibetan temples of Yonghegong. Though the temples etc are very beautiful, I just love the propaganda behind it all. As you will know, China is not particularly friendly with Tibet. Yet, they use Yonghegong to show the world that this isn't the case anymore. The signs everywhere declaring China's love of Tibetan culture are pretty amusing, as are the fake Tibetan monks wandering around (at best they're sanctioned by the government).
One of the many beautiful temple buildings at Yonghegong.
There were people burning incense and praying everywhere.
One of the sights at Yonghegong is an amazing 18 metre high Buddha carved out of a single piece of sandalwood that took 3 years to transport from Tibet. Unfortunately photos are not allowed to be taken inside the temple buildings but the size of the building should give you an idea of scale...
Aarh!
From Yonghegong I made my way to class via the market of Ya Show as my mum is coming to visit in May so I need to scout out this stuff.
Last night was Alex's last in Beijing before he too heads off to Tibet, and we had a couple of beers at dinner to send him off. At some point we realised that the South Africa versus England World Cup game was on and we decided to head to expat country to find a bar that was showing it. A fellow Safa I met a while back recommended a place to me and we were very pleasantly surprised to find the bar had a big screen showing Supersport 2, one of the South African sports channels. We only got to watch the England innings before the bar closed, but I'll definitely have to head back there for some rugby this weekend.
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