After hiking about the Great Wall for a few hours, Nick and I wanted to see a local site that was relatively compact. We ended up going to the Yonghegong, or Beijing Lama Temple. When Nick described it, and given China’s current issues w/ Tibet and the Dalai Lama, I assumed this was more of a museum than a, well, temple. The busses and ticket gate at the front also gave that impression. However, once you walk in, you realize you’re in the middle of a large, practicing Bhuddist temple. It’s kinda like Notre Dame in Paris… it’s a major religious center, and hey, lots of tourists gawking at people praying and taking pictures. Another nexus of holiness and tactlessness. But hey, nobody forced them to have a gift shop.

The temple is hard to describe, so I’ll link to some pictures when I get an opportunity. It was a really beautiful and peaceful place though, and a good visit after hiking about.

Nick and I then headed home afterwards… we had a very early dinner (about 5 PM), and were debating going to see Star Wars, but then we realized we were very, very, very tired. So Nick headed back to his hotel and I went to bed.

Hang Li, one of the senior folks at MSRA, took Nick and I along with John, another researcher at MSRA, to Chinese Opera at the Lao She Tea House. Now, when someone says opera, you’re probably thinking traditional German or Italian operas, or perhaps even something akin to modern British and Amerian musicals. Or at least you’re singing, “Kill the wabbit!” You may be thinking Chinese Opera is those people dressed up in costumes and whiteface recounting historical stories… and you’d be wrong as well. That’s kibuke, and it’s Japanese. No, there’s only one way to describe Chinese Opera.

Chinese Vaudeville.

I’m not trying to slam it in any way… at the Lao She Tea House, you get a table and are treated to a number of acts. We saw a Mongolian bowl dance, where a young woman danced and shook herself while keeping three bowls and a candle perched atop her head. We also saw someone apparently very famous sing a song while holding this three-rose / candle thing clenched in her teeth. Another memorable act was these two 50-something guys who did animal impressions, and quite good ones. They asked the audience to name any animal, and they promptly did the animal. They were just a hoot. Finally, the best IMHO was this guy who spun this huge ceramic pot on his head… in one bit the pot would be facing towards the audience and he’d rotate under it, and another bit would have him toss the pot on his head such that the lip (and a wide lip it was) would be right on his head, so the pot was balanced perfectly at an angle! This was impressive. We also saw a guy do magic, using two Americans as part of the act and a woman do the Dance of the Mask where different masks would keep popping down — this was also impressive!

So, if you’re looking for a good evening — check out the Lao She Tea House, near Tian’an Men Square. It’s a lot of fun!

After the wall, the driver dumped us out at a nice restaurant somewhere between Mutianyu and Beijing. Naturally, nobody there spoke Chinese, and I found out the hard way that “Kung Pao” isn’t pronounced like that in China, as the waitress had no idea what I was trying to say.

Sparing us from picking randomly, as the menu was all in Chinese and we didn’t bring a guidebook (foolish), the waitress picked two dishes, the second being a large dish. We babbled enough to get two beers — 750ml YanJing if I recall. Or TsingTao (which is pronounced chin-dao). The food arrived…. beef with breen and red peppers! Yum! This was just what I wanted. And then we were served a fish dish… large meant two full fishes (including the heads!) cooked in a soy-base sauce. Also yummy! — you just had to watch out for bones.

Time came to leave, and the waitress gave us the check… we then tried to ask how much it was, as I didn’t see a total. They brought out 48 RMB… and yes, 48 RMB was at the bottom of the receipt in Arabic numbers, so we could read it. So 48 RMB it was… totally shocked me! That’s just cheap… like about $7 for two beers and two big plates. Wow!

Sadly, I have no idea where this place is, nor its name, as I asked the driver when we arrived back at the hotel and he didn’t know. D’oh! I’ll post some pics that Nick took, perhaps we can deduce the name from them. Doubtful, but ya never know.