Today, we would visit the Temple of Heaven, which used to be a place where the Emperor would come several times a year to pray for good harvests and a prosperous year. Nowadays, it is a leisure park where one can find many retired invidiuals spending their free time playing cards or dancing. We were lucky to have visited on a Friday because there were many elderly individuals there. Our tour guide tells us that this is because in China, many admissions to parks are free for people above the age of 65 (I belive it was 65, if not, around there).
The Temple of Heaven!
There were definitely plenty of trees in the park, and this is one of the things I appreciate about Beijing is that, like New York, even though it is a large, large, large city, it still manages to keep maintain its parks and historical landmarks. Sadly, the smog was still there and the weather was hot and humid like the past couple of days, so the park was not at its utmost enjoyable. However, the group dances and the chatter of the elderly in the park was an enjoyable sight.
We then had lunch near the Great Wall. This restauraunt was quite interesting in that we were eating INSIDE a greenhouse. The decorations in the restauraunt were also very jungle like, so I found it to be a rather “green” way for the Green Ambassadors to dine.
The section of the Great Wall that we visited is called Mutianyu, which is a less popular area than the most well known Badaling section of the Great Wall. On the way up, we rode the cable cars; on the way down, we decided to walk down. The steps on the Great Wall are huge and uneven, an example of how it was created by a group of people so long ago. Since we were pretty high up, we weren’t able to see much around us. Whether this was because it was just a cloudy day, or the smog, or the height, or a combination of those factors, it almost seemed like we were climbing a stretch of paved road, heading to nowhere in particular.
You can see Sara (left) and Nina (right) climbing the Great Wall. : )
It was nice to see all the different types of plants that still resided high up in the mountains – it’s always nice to see growing vegetation. The climb down was arduous and Nina even fell (but, luckily we were able to recover the memory card she had dropped from her camera), but the experience was that of a lifetime. I think being able to say “I climbed the Great Wall” is an accomplishment for anyone.
Another interesting fact about popular sections of the Great Wall is, on the way to the actual “wall,” there are many shopkeepers along the way who are very, very persistent about you purchasing their products. They often make the prices much higher than the should be, but I’ve observed that foreigners are often very good at haggling. : )
I’ve attached a picture below of the typical shop you would see heading up to the Great Wall. The only thing missing is the variety of shirts that many shopkeepers had with the Great Wall on them.
Ruoxi
Filed under: Day 5 (7/30): Beijing - Miyun, Eco Tour of China, Green Ambassadors of Houston, Project GLOBE
Smog seems to be a problem you noticed often. Did you ask ‘why’?
It was almost impossible to not notice the smog. I didn’t get a chance to ask explicitly why, but I am quite certain that it is in part due to China’s prominent role in manufacturing.
The massive development of China as a manufacturing conglomerate no doubt started off with little regard to the environment or regulations to factory production. China has also been producing items and using the factory more intensively than the US. The increased use of factories create more pollution, which can also attribute to the smog.
Additionally, on major roads in cities in China, there is almost always traffic jams. Even though not as large a percentage of the population own cars as in the US, the percentage of people owning cars in China attributes to such a large number of people that cars are always stalled on the road. This allows the automobiles to pollute the air for a longer amount of time with its exhaust gases. Also, a larger number of cars in China are being driven without passing regulations, which can also attribute to a large amount of pollution from automobiles.
I hope this can adequately answer the question until I can get an email reply from one of the students we met in Beijing.