An English Teacher in China: Dumplings, Beijing, and Buddhist Temples

The Forbidden City

Things have been getting underway and the autumn semester is full-swing. The freshmen have arrived this weekend and the welcome “parties” have begun. They call them parties but in reality it is just one-hour lectures by the school officials on the greatness of the school. Freshmen are just supposed to stand in the sports field under the hot sun and listen. I wouldn’t call this a “party.” American colleges call it “orientation.” I call it “torture.” Regardless, orientation is now over and military training has begun. The bright young freshmen have gotten their blue military uniforms and are now marching from sunrise to sunset. I can hear them from my apartment window shouting their marching chants. My deepest sympathies go out to them.

The Lama Temple

September 8^th, was the mid-autumn festival and my weekend was packed full of activities. The weekend started out on Saturday with a trip to Beijing. The new foreign teachers, Janakie and Tracy, wanted to spend the weekend sightseeing. They asked me to go with them to serve as a guide. I gladly accepted, although, everyone in Langfang was telling us Beijing would be completely crowded on the holiday weekend and we wouldn’t have a good time because of the crowds. It ended up not being too crowded and we had a rather good time. We started off our tour by going to the Lama Temple. The Yonghe Temple (Chinese 雍和宮, pinyin Yōng hé gōng, Palace of Peace and Harmony), also known as the “Yonghe Lamasery,” or the “Lama Temple,” is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism located in the Dongcheng District of Beijing. The temple has five main halls separated by courtyards. The temple is open to the public and the curators even offer complimentary incense that can be burned at the various alters as an offering to Buddha. The main pavilion, what is called the “Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses,” contains an 85-foot-tall statue of the Maitreya Buddha carved from a single piece of White Sandalwood. The paintings on the walls and ceilings are quite detailed and ornate. They are colored with vivid reds, blues, greens, and gold paints. It was quite a sight to see and I recommend a visit.

Houhai Lake

Our second stop on the tour was back to Houhai Lake. Houhai Lake (Chinese: 后海; pinyin: hòuhǎi) is located in the Xicheng District of central Beijing. We went there in the evening and had a pleasant dinner and walk around the lake. Houhai is where Beijing’s night scene takes place and the waterfront bars and coffee shops are packed full of musicians. Most of the bars have open windows so you can stand outside along the water’s edge and listen to your favorite groves. They have about every style imaginable from reggae to the blues. It’s a place full of good food, good music, and lots of colorful lights. Although, the prices are a little expensive. We wanted to get away somewhere quiet for dinner so I took Janakie and Tracy to the Houhai Pizzeria. It’s a little pizza place that’s buried in the twisting turns of the back alleyways of Xicheng, but it’s a really great place to eat and one of my favorite places in Beijing. You walk into the restaurant and you are instanly greeted by a glass bridge over a fountain and a fish pond. You can grab a seat in the cozy loft and order up some delicious American style food. It’s one of the few places I know that serves real sour cream. Tracy got a loaded backed potato, I got a creaser salad, and Janakie got a piece of pie. It was delicious. The night ended with me leading Tracy to her hotel. Thankfully I purchased a smartphone before returning to China as the GPS helped us find our way around. I led the group down the streets to the hotel and we said goodbye to Tracy for the night. Janakie was going to stay with some friends that lived in the northern part of Beijing. When Janakie told me the name of where her friends lived, I instantly knew it was not going to be a quick journey. Janakie needed to get to the last subway stop on line 15. It would take three transfers and about 2 hours of subway riding to get there. Janakie was very nervous about finding her own way so she asked me for help. I agree and then helped Janakie make all of the transfers. Finally we reached the line 15 transfer I made sure Janakie got on the right train before sending her on her way. On the way, I met a very nice older Chinese man whom had taught himself English. His English was quite good and we had a rather pleasant talk. He agreed to help Janakie make it the rest of the way on line 15 as he was going that way anyway. It was very kind of him. I then made my own way back to the hotel and turned in for the night. It was only 10:00 pm by the time I returned to the hotel but I was too beat to do anything more. I showered and went straight to bed.

The Forbidden City

Originally I had planned to stay just one night do some shopping in the morning before heading back to Langfang. However, Tracy invited me to join her the next morning on her journey to the Forbidden City. I agreed and changed my reservations to the hotel where Tracy was staying so we could go together. Janakie was planning on staying with her friends for the day so it was just the two of us. So we stated out the morning by headed around the subway to the city center. We walked passed the tomb of Mao Zedong and passed the China History Museum to get to the gates of the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty. For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government. The wooden structures are all finely preserved and there are thousands of antiques on display. The massive palace covers two city blocks and it takes quite a while to walk from one side to the other. It wasn’t the best day to visit as the sky was very smoggy. However, it was still rather amazing to see and to be able to walk on historical steps that were older than my own country! Unfortunately, I ran out of time and I had to cut the visit short. I had a train to catch. So I said goodbye to Tracy and jogged back to the station. You can only enter the Forbidden City through the South Gate and exit through the North Gate so I had to walk two blocks to get out and then I had to walk two more blocks just to get back to the nearest subway stop. Thankfully I made it back on time to catch my train.

Dumplings in Langfang

I had made plans for the evening to have dinner with my students. My good buddy, Guitar playing Jay, was coming over with his girlfriend and some classmates to cook dumplings. They brought all the ingredients and we all got to work. We mixed the meat and vegetables together, kneaded the dough, rolled out the wrappers, and stuffed the dumplings. We probably made about a hundred. The girls boiled them and I added my own broccoli stir-fry to the list of dishes. We had pork and green bean dumplings for dinner that night and they were delicious! I got a second round of dumplings the next morning when the girls from English Club came over to make another batch of dumplings for lunch. We started out cooking at 9:00 am and by 12:00 we had enough dumplings to fill our bullies full. This time we had two types of dumplings: 1) egg and leak dumplings & 2) pork and leak dumplings. It was good. Janakie and Tracy both made it back to Langfang safely that evening and I served them the leftover dumplings for dinner. It’s a good thing I like dumplings because I ate them three times in a row!

It’s good to be back and it’s good for life to get back in order. I just found out that I’ll be teaching a special training class to some company workers. That will start soon and I might even get another freshmen level class. That has yet to be determined.

I wish you all well!