Beijing view

After yesterday's cloud, today has been a beautiful clear, sunny day. No sign of the famous Beijing smog. Yet.

I've walked a long way today. I started by going to Jingshan Park and walking up to the pagoda to get a view across the Forbidden City. I might try to go back towards sunset as this was taken looking straight into the sun. I then wandered through the Hutongs - old style residential areas in central Beijing. I'm staying at a hostel in one of them. The extra was taken in one of the Hutong alleyways.

This afternoon I went to the Yonghehong Lama Temple, a Tibetan Buddhist temple. It's huge, and beautifully decorated. I was wondering about its relationship with Tibetan temples in Tibet. Then I went to the hall with an exhibition on the history of the temple and, interpreting some of the phrasing used, it became clear that this temple is the state-sanctioned version of Tibetan Buddhism. 

The part about the period from 1949-1966 talked about the temple contributing to the 'peaceful liberation of TIbet' and the government's policy of 'freedom of religious beliefs'. There was nothing at all mentioned about what happened to the temple and the monks and nuns during the cultural revolution. And in the description of the temple since 1976, it included this: 'They have made a gratifying step on the road to promote Tibetan Buddhism to adapt itself to the socialist society'. Hmmm.

The Forbidden City is open tomorrow so that's where I'm going.