We started the day with a visit to the Temple of Heaven – another worship site, but this one was much more museum-like than church-like. The main altar was designed with special acoustics that would reflect the prayers off the guardrail (it’s supposed to help the prayer communicate with heaven). We tried testing this ourselves, but it was too noisy to tell if it really worked. The architecture and symbolism of this temple was interesting. The inside beams form a square (they represent the Earth), while the outside walls form a circle (they represent Heaven). Since it was Sunday, lots of locals were out recreating in the surrounding park. We saw Hacky Sack groups, Tai Chi, knitting, mahjong, a Chinese version of square dancing, and calligraphy (they paint with water on the concrete).
Next we went to a Tea House. Like one of our group said, this was more of an infomercial than an actual tea ceremony, but the tea was delicious and the presentation was very entertaining. We got to sample 5 different kinds of tea – oolong, black, jasmine, puer, and fruit. I bought some of the oolong, which came packaged with a mug and a PePe boy – a small ceramic statue that literally pees across the room when you pour hot water over it (the hotter the water, the farther the stream).
The highlight of the day was a rickshaw ride to a local family’s home for lunch. I think these were truly antique rickshaws. The rickshaws were attached to old, old bicycles with no gears like our modern 10-speed bikes. Young men who looked smaller than any of us were the “drivers.” The brakes on the bikes were so bad that every time the rickshaw in front of us had to stop, we bumped into it.
The family we visited lived in a Hutong – a Chinese neighborhood of 40-50 homes tightly packed together and connected by narrow alleyways. This particular Hutong was built around a lake, only it’s not like our lake houses. These are more like studio apartments – basically one room (about 150 square feet) and a little patio with an outside kitchen and bath. All 16 of us squeezed in and shared a traditional Chinese meal. I don’t know the names of all the dishes, but they kept coming and coming. One dish, called Sticky Rice, was considered a delicacy. They added white sugar and dates to rice to make finger-length cakes – very delicious, but very sticky (as the name implies). The family shared lots of stories about their life. The dad was a retired engineer, and the mom was a retired factory worker. Their son was an avid soccer fan (there were posters all over the walls), but he is getting married and moving out to a larger, more modern place.
We headed to the airport for a short plane ride to Xian. Everyone is starting to drag a little, because it is getting much hotter and more humid, plus our sightseeing days are long. Unfortunately, our “4-star hotel” turned out to be a total dump. We made it through one night, but through unanimous consent, switched a different hotel for the rest of our Xian stay.
