to the south!

two weeks of vacation have gone by in a flash. i've been to the lama temple, 798 art district, temple of heaven and a folk concert. the lama temple, according to lonely planet is beijing's most magnificent buddhist temple. it was once home to legions of monks from mongolia and tibet, but now it is mostly a tourist attraction where all chinese ("non-religious" so they say) buy loads and loads of incense to burn for the buddhist gods. the various halls with buddha statues are very pretty though, and there is one huge (18 metre high) tibetan style maitreya statue, cut from one piece of sandalwood.

we went to 798 to see a dior show, but it had ended the day before, which was a shame. but we strolled around a bit and had very exspensive hot chocolate. 

i had been to temple of heaven before, but tong hadn't, so we went a few days ago. it was nice and quiet. not too many people around this time of year. and of course the park was really impressive (except for the giant lcd screen with booming suround sound to show us what "really happend" there in the old days). yes, we're still in the kingdom of kitch :p

also we went to see a folk singer in a small bar near the drum tower. i had never heard of him before, but he was quite good.

all in all it has been a nice winter break uptill now, and tomorrow i'm off to the south! first to wenzhou, then to shenzhen and hongkong, maybe macao. i'm really looking forward to it, 'cause it's freezing cold in beijing right now. i'll be back februari 6, so you won't hear from me for, ghehe, another two weeks. i wish you a happy ox year!

first song of the day: "cayman islands" by kings of convenience