The Lama temple was once a small palace but it became a Buddhist Monastery during the reign of Emperor Yongzheng in 1722.
Its beautiful but strangely not as great an opportunity for photography. Its grounds are quite small and cloistered in comparison to the Forbidden City.
Like the Forbidden City you walk from south to north to pass through.Many people come here to pray, like Seven and Christine who are Buddhists themselves. They showed me how to pray in Buddhism and we burned some incense together in the temple.
Prayer Wheels in the temple
The Temple has a large number of halls all connected by narrow passages and courtyards.
This is the Hall of Ten Thousand Happinesses, the main building of the complex, which contains this 18m (60ft) high statue of the Maitreya Buddha ( the temple contains thousands of Buddhas)
Inside some of the halls there is fruit and bottles of water. Seven explained that the fruit is symbolic of hopeful things and the water of clarity and purity, also of tranquility as signified by the stillness if the water when it is not disturbed. These are important values to them which I can see seems to make them happy and content people. I can learn a lot from them. Here are some trees in the courtyard.
This bronze lion guards the gate of the temple. It comes from the time when it was a palace.
I spin the prayer wheel: you are meant to wish for something: a small prayer for someone you love or for a way to find happiness.
My friends then show me the gate of the Confucius temple nearby but it's closed today, I might visit another time (as it happens my hotel for the next visit is close by) and a small restaurant in the hutong where we have spicy vegetables and dumplings: it's actually so hot I find it hard to handle and it's only the medium spice!) Seven has some spicy noodles which are too hot for him!
Following this we walk around the hutong, which is full of small shops, cafes and bars, some of which are closed but open later in the evening. The hutong are part of Beijing's attraction for visitors as they are so charming and sadly endangered by development!
Here you can see part of the Temple from the hutong.
After we part at the subway station I walk around the hutong near my hotel and find whole streets full of shops and bars.
This is a nice one where I stop and have a beer.
Later I go back to the hotel, change and go out for something to eat, but not a big meal as I had a lot to eat at lunch. At night the hutong are lively, atmospheric and look magical with all the bright lights: you can easily get lost (which later I manage to do!)
This shop window has a lively display of fans!
I find a small and basic restaurant as I'm looking for cheap food: actually its too salty for me but it does the job of filling my belly.
I then start moving back toward my hotel and get talking to a friendly bunch of local guys despite the fact only one of them speaks any English!
Lantern outside one of the restaurants.
Local residents
I then try looking for this place, which is described in Lonely Planet as "hard to find." Its a microbrewery run by a young American called Carl and is expanding fast. I never photographed it so here's the web link:
I actually manage to get lost, but by virtue of this just as I decide to give up I stumble on it by accident! I have a great time talking to a couple of expat guys from Canada and the USA, debating all sorts of stuff. Very lively. They ask me to another bar but by then I want to stay local so respectfully (I hope) decline. By this time I'm pretty drunk, so I have one in my favourite local bar then go back to the hotel and crash out at some hour of the early morning. I've had a bit of insomnia over the last couple of days so this cures it!
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