Episode 5
David Alvarez & Aubrey Gower
"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it" - Confucius
As the quote from the most famous Chinese philosopher suggests, beauty exists, but it takes an effort and awareness to seek and find it. As a group we had the opportunity today to witness beauty in a both a cultural and spiritual way with a trip to the Lama Buddhist Temple and Old Beijing.
We began the morning at the Buddhist Temple where we were able to engage with Buddhist tradition and culture through incense burning and prayer to multiple Buddha statues throughout the temple. As some students within the group reflected on the temple:
"The temple was powerful, even though I don't consider myself Buddhist."
"It was something I'll never forget."
"I got to engage in something so spiritual and meaningful I can't express how it expanded my outlook of a great practice with deep roots in Chinese history."
Our trip continued later in the day with a walk through the historic hutongs near Beihai Park. The hutongs being narrow alleys and living quarters, a stark contrast to the high rises and busy streets of Beijing city life. As students we got to see first hand the true living conditions and housing Chinese families in this area experience. It put everything into perspective when we began to discuss the square meters of actual living space and the number of families that can occupy a single courtyard area. That area of living being sometimes smaller than some apartments here in Seattle. Our lunch was graciously prepared by a local family within the hutongs and provided us the opportunity to experience a typical meal among the housing and lifestyle of those in Old Beijing. The food of course was delicious and was a good reminder to the close knit family structure that exists in these neighborhoods with both the wife and husband having worked together to prepare the large meal for us.
As a student from the group reflected:
"Walking through the hutong I immediately realized that life here in Beijing is vastly different from back home in Seattle. Hutongs manage to maintain the feel of a much older China, while simultaneously reminding me that we are in modern times with motorcycles and cars speeding through the very crowded and narrow streets. A hutong, although an uncommon tourist site, is an interesting way to get a sense of the daily living habits and conditions of Beijing's ever expanding population."
This day was a different side of Beijing from what most people get to see, but a beautiful and cultural insight that instilled in our minds the deep heritage and culture of this city.
