Post Number 2--Beijing Photos II

Monday through Friday was packed with instructing the 82 participants in our seminar and interacting with our hosts from the China Banking Regulatory Commission. It seemed like every meal brought a new dignitary who wanted to have a conversation with us. It was flattering, but as much as I like Chinese food, 10 straight meals made me wish for a cheeseburger. We finished up with the seminar about 3:00pm on Friday and renewed our sightseeing at the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is another large site in the middle of Beijing where the emperor went to pray for good harvests and other desirable events. It was a beautiful, relatively peaceful place (maybe because we got there about closing time). Here are some pictures.

This is the front gate


















This is a view of the inner courtyard













This is one of the main prayer sites. It may look familiar because it is often used as an international symbol for China.











This is some detail from the ceiling of one of the buildings












This is a picture of me with Mr. Pan Guangwei. Mr. Pan is the deputy director of the HR department at the CBRC. It turns out that in the Chinese bureaucracy titles can be misleading. The most important person in the organization is the Director of HR--he has the dossiers on everyone. The second most important person is the International Director because he speaks for the government. I figured this made Mr. Pan the third most important person at the CBRC-- everyone certainly deferred to him. All the people were exceedingly nice to us, but an edgier side sometimes came out when they were dealing with people on the outside.

This is the way the emperor and his court dressed when they came to pray at the Temple of Heaven

















After we went to the Temple of Heaven, we intended to have dinner at a famous Beijing seafood restaurant and then go to the Beijing Opera. We had received mixed reviews of the opera, but we figured that a little culture would do us good. Alas, Beijing traffic struck again and it took over an hour to get from the Temple of Heaven to the restaurant (which didn't live up to its billing in my opinion). As a result, we were too late to go to the opera. It turned out that Mr. Pan was relieved--he told us that he had lived in Beijing all his life and had never been to the opera--he also had no plans ever to go.

We ended up walking "Bar Street", which is a chain of bars and restaurants circling a lake. With all the lights and people, it was very pretty and probably more entertaining than the opera. There was every kind of bar, with every kind of music--from traditional Chinese to Simon and Garfunkel (not them actually, but some Chinese musicians playing their music). There were also many different kinds of restaurants. We passed one that said "Genuine American Food". They had to grab me as I made a break for the door. After we circled the lake--probably about a mile all the way around--we headed back to the hotel.

In my next post, I'll load some pictures from our visit to the Summer Palace--my favorite of all the places we visited in Beijing.