Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013 - (Page 34)

Fa l l i n g i n l o v e w i t h … the dozens of über-shopping malls. Down came far too many of the mazelike, inner-city warrens. But Old Beijing is still there if you know where to look for her. Much of the city is jaw-droppingly spectacular, but it’s also on the epic scale and involves a great deal of walking. Hours and hours of it. If you try to do too much at once, you’ll feel a kind of delirium set in. The roadscape comprises highways that move like rivulets in concentric circles — First Ring, Second Ring, Third Ring and Fourth and Fifth and now Sixth. But when I go to Beijing, I like to start slowly on foot in the hutongs — the gray-brick, centuries-old tributaries that wind their way through the city’s heart. Begin on Guozijian Jie, in the Dongcheng Hutong — an ancient lane that crosses through a dense brick neighborhood full of gorgeous old courtyard homes. You can hear the cry of the meat vendor as he bikes his cart through the alley’s narrow turns, and you can watch the young Chinese boys and girls balance yo-yos on strings. The Confucius Temple sits just off this alleyway. The temple’s manicured grounds have a peaceful, timeless feel. Carved stone tablets sit under a green canopy of trees. The excellent teachings inside the museum help explain Confucius the man and his enormous imprint — all that Chinese hierarchy and order you’ve heard about — on the whole society. Now cross the crowded street at the end of Guozijian. Traffic here is a melee of motorized rickshaws and Nissan Sentras and the ubiquitous bicycle, plus a few horse and wagon contraptions. You can follow your nose past Buddhist shops that burn sticks and coils of incense in their open windows, until you home in on the Lama Temple, a fully functioning Tibetan temple and monastery that miraculously survived the upheaval of the Cultural Revolution. This is where a 54-foot-high Tibetan sandalwood Buddha still lives. Thousands of worshippers come here daily to make offerings in the painted pavilions. Who said there was no religion in China? Or that Beijing wasn’t a spiritual place? The worshippers light fistfuls of pastel-colored incense sticks and kneel in prayer. Don’t be surprised if you get swept up in the emotion and find yourself also down on your knees. FOLLOW YOuR NOSe paST BuDDHIST SHOpS THaT BuRN STICkS aND COILS OF INCeNSe IN THeIR OpeN WINDOWS. 34 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m From Top: Andrew rowAT; philip GosTelow/AnzenberGer/redux; JAsper JAmes. previous: JAsper JAmes E A ST ERN PROMISES From top: The Tibetan Buddhist Lama Temple in northeast Beijing; Hou Hai Lake and rickshaws in Dongcheng Hutong; a local girl in the Dongcheng Hutong. http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President's Letter
Falling in Love With ... Beijing
Design
Technology
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Family
Local Knowledge
Outdoors
Puerto Rico
Montreal
Culinary
Let Us Stay With You
Heritage

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013