Mao’s Mausoleum, Temple of Heaven, the Beijing Acrobats, and the Silk Market: A Jammed Packed Weekend!

Since we only have about a week and a half left in Beijing, we are certainly taking advantage of every spare moment we have, starting this weekend!

This weekend was my good friend, Cara’s, 21st birthday. On Friday night, we went out to one of our favorite bars/dance clubs in Sanlitun called Tun. Tun is really cool because it is actually a really old firehouse converted into a bar, dance club, and lounge. They also play really fun music and a lot of our “China Jams,” our inside joke songs that we have made into a playlist.

When we got back from Tun on Friday night, Molly and I made a collage of pictures from this semester on Cara’s door and hung up balloons. Looking at the collage when it was finished, we noticed how young everyone looked at the beginning of the semester. The even better realization though, was how close we have all become and how many unforgettable memories we have from just three short months in China so far!

We got up really early on Satuday morning, and Jay, Aaron, Jon, Molly, and I left Shaoyuan for Tiananmen Square around 9:30 AM headed for Mao’s Mausoleum. We made remarkable time on the subway, especially since it was early in the morning on a weekend. Usually, commuting anywhere in Beijing on the subway will take at least an hour, but often longer.

When we arrived at Mao’s Mausoleum, we checked our bags and got on line. The line was incredibly long and wrapped all around the Mausoleum and through Tiananmen Square. We were some of the only foreigners on line.

We waited on line for about an hour before we made it to the front steps of the mausoleum. Just being on line was an experience. The strangest thing to me was how when you speak to most people in China individually, they have come to understand that Mao and his policies were essentially evil and not the best choices for China. However, all of the people on the line to see Chairman Mao seemed incredibly reverent, excited, and respectful. At every checkpoint on the line, all of the Chinese people would run to the next checkpoint, which was just funny and bizarre to me. I am wondering if seeing Chairman Mao now is more of a spectacle than a humbling experience for Chinese people.

When we entered the mausoleum, we went through a giant memorial hall, with fresh flowers and a giant statue of Mao. It was so quiet inside the memorial hall. Once we made it through the entrance hall, we were directed into a much smaller, glass room, where Chairman Mao was at rest. The room was very strange. It was dimly lit and there were armed guards everywhere. Chairman Mao laid in the center of the room in an elevated bed covered by a Chinese flag. The strangest thing was that the armed guards basically rushed you through the room, so you didn’t really get a good look at Chairman Mao.

I think the Chairman looked pretty good for a man who has been dead for about thirty years, especially since he was not a very healthy man in life and there were a lot of complications with his preservation. When Mao was first preserved, his body was infused with the wrong chemicals, causing his body to blow up. A Vietnamese doctor was then summoned to fix the body. I think Mao still looked a little bloated, but overall pretty good. However, rumor has it that about 70% of the time the mausoleum is open, that there is actually a wax dummy in Mao’s place, but you would never know it. Also, the mausoleum is open at random times and often Mao is not there. I am really glad I got to see him.

After seeing Mao, Molly, Jay, and I jumped on the subway and went to the Temple of Heaven to meet up with Gill and Sarah. When we arrived, we had a picnic lunch and watched all of the Chinese people who were dancing, listening to music, and playing jianzi, or Chinese hacky sack in the park.

We then walked to the Temple of Heaven. This temple, and the other sites within the Temple of Heaven complex, was often visited by the Ming and Qing emperors for annual ceremonies of prayer to heaven for good harvests.

After climbing the Temple of Heaven we went and visited another smaller temple called the Temple of Heavenly Fault. The coolest thing about the Temple of Heavenly Fault was the echo wall surrounding it. The echo wall worked exactly like the whisper in statuary hall on Capital Hill, where you can whisper and someone else standing in front of the wall can hear you loudly and clearly. We tried it and it worked. The last thing we saw on the grounds of the Temple of Heaven was called the mound and, a prayer platform also used by the emperors as early as the 1400’s.

After seeing everything at the Temple of Heaven, we took a cab back to Beida to get ready for the evening. For Cara’s birthday, we all had tickets to see the Beijing acrobats and we all got dressed up in suits and dresses for the performance and nicknamed the evening China Prom! Of course the four of us from Spring Break insisted that we were “dates!” Molly and I were actually able to buy cheese at a store called Carrefour (which is literally hell because it’s so crowded) and hosted a cocktail hour with cheese and crackers before leaving Beida for the performance.

The Beijing acrobats were amazing. I could not believe my eyes and was on the edge of my seat for most of the performance. The funniest thing about the show was that it was all about birds, which is ironic because it was Cara’s birthday and Cara is petrified of birds. Overall, I’m really glad we got to see the show!

After the show, we went out to a really fancy restaurant, all dressed up for dinner. By fancy, I mean dinner cost $8 or $9 as opposed to the usual $2 or $3 that I spend on dinner. We ate traditional Shanghainese style food, including noodles. According to Chinese legend, everyone should eat noodles on their birthday to guarantee their lives longevity.

After dinner, we took the subway back to Wudaokou and went to Pyro’s, one of our favorite western-style Wudaokou hangouts. We were able to dance and the owner bought us all a round of drinks for Cara’s birthday. After a long day, it was time to go home, sleep, and rest up for Sunday’s Silk Market adventure.

On Sunday, we made our final trip of the semester to the Silk Market. I was on a mission to buy all of the gifts for my friends and family at home, which I did successfully, but a new set of pearls did happen to fall into the bag for me. Our pearl ladies, who Molly and I bought pearls from all semester, were so sad that we were going back to the United States that they gave both Molly and I pearls for free! I am definitely going to miss the haggling and bargaining that the Silk Market offers!

Now, we are in the final stretch leading to the last week of class, which will be next week. My Chinese final is also next week and I have three major papers due. I have already finished a 50-page paper for my communications independent study and the other two are started and a work in progress. The goal is to get all of my work done by the end of the weekend, so I can truly enjoy my last full week in Beijing!