The Gray That I Don't Like

My beloved iPhone 5 kept on alarming and alarming at 9:00 AM, “Hey, wake up. You’re late.” It was snoozing for at least 2.5 hours. Around 1:00 earlier that morning I set the alarm for a short travel.

“Hmm. Maaraw pero mukhang magiging smoggy,” (Hmm. Looks sunny but it seems it will get smoggy later) I thought as I looked for the weather forecast the night before. It was 9:15 AM when I got up. 

Exploring the ‘Jing

It’s been 15 days since I arrived to Beijing from my long holiday in Moscow and the UK. A quite hectic period, I should say because things were not the same when I returned. During my great Trans-Siberian Railway and UK journey, which had been a trip of a lifetime I must say, there were things that taken me aback. So going back to the Chinese capital was somewhat — difficult  — with several fluid situations that even I have a hard time controlling.

Despite what I should call as setbacks, I kinda thought of extending that long holiday by exploring the ‘Jing. I have been here for almost 12 months but only visited touristy locations — the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tian’anmen Square. Well, I also met the pandas at Beijing Zoo and saw some telescopes at Beijing Planetarium. But 12 months with only a few tourists spots in the city ticked off my list? I need to catch up.

So while working last night (December 1), I multitasked and searched on Yahoo for “tourist attractions in Beijing.” As expected, most of the websites showed the Forbidden City, Tian’anmen Square, and the Great Wall as the must-see places. But Tour-Beijing gives more options —  the Temple of Heaven which it called a “real highlight of Beijing.” Setting my sights on this place, I decided hastily, “I’ll go.”

Soon after I finished my 9:00 PM work, I finalized my budget and itinerary, intending to begin my short December 3 travel at the Temple at around 7:00 AM. Accuweather told me it would be a good Friday morning but the US’ Mission China website showed a gradually increasing AQI (unhealthy at 11 PM) on the eve of my trip.

When I got home, I set my phone alarm at 6:30 AM to buy me time to have breakfast and bathe. But yeah, I snoozed it off and instead rose more than three hours later.

The golden hour

“Sayang, sana maaga ako gumising.” (I should have gotten up earlier.) It was the golden light hour — around 10 AM — when I left my house. Tour-Beijing says visiting the Temple of Heaven early in the morning can give travelers a sight of elderly people doing tai chi. But that was not my purpose; what I intended to do was to catch the sunrise in the park, well to get some Instagram-worthy photos. But I didn’t. I was lazy and loved my bed more.

Though it was the golden light hour, I could still see the streak of gray haze that looked as if it was slowly swallowing the majestic but cloudless sky. The travel from my house to the Temple took about 40 minutes, which should have been less than that had I taken the nearest park entrance to the subway exit.

The entrance “through” ticket — that included the major attractions inside the park — only cost RMB 28 / USD 3.96 / PHP 196. Such a cheap price for a touristy temple, I thought, but as I entered the area, I found out that the “temple” is not a temple but a big complex of open space with two great halls and a big circular altar.

The long road that I took, the way to the north gate, was, I thought, facing the back side of the Hall of the Prayer of Good Harvest. The sun was directly facing my face and so the main side of the hall. So I rushed towards the entrance and got amazed of the massive hall and its architecture.

The gray that I don’t like

The Hall of the Prayer of Good Harvest is such a massive structure and may be yet the grandest of such “temples” I’ve seen in Beijing. What’s more impressive in the area is that it’s high that the hall overlooks a big chunk of Beijing. I saw our office and the World Trade Center on the northeastern side of the hall grounds. I think the Forbidden City is also visible at some point. But there’s this haze that started to envelop the sky. Good thing I arrived before it got gray.

Gray is one of my favorite colors; I feel its dullness gives it character. Its coldness tells a story that not everyone is interested to hear. It’s halfway between black and white; a neutral color I believe, which in a way reflects my tendencies. I love looking at gray that some of my personal effects are in that color. But—so much of being poetic nonsense. That gray haze that obscures the view of the city… that gray that pollutes the air I breathe for the past 12 months… that gray building with a lot of, gaah… those are the gray that I don’t like.

Again, so much of that nonsense.

The way to “Heaven”

Entering the Hall of the Prayer of Good Harvest was prohibited but many tourists, including me, managed to take some pictures of its interior. Its fresco paintings and architecture in general are very much similar to other Beijing temples I visited before. In front of it was a 360-meter-long “bridge,” called the Red Step Bridge. I remember a site map saying the bridge has different levels, with the uppermost one reserved for the king to give a “feel” of walking towards heaven, while the other sections for ministers and dignitaries. The tourists seemed not to care, but I tried walking on the uppermost level towards the other hall, the Imperial Vault of Heaven.

While improvising some shots to take a candid selfie, one family of foreign tourists entered the marble gate, with the mother telling her tot, “Oh it’s a baby-sized version,” referring to the Vault. It was indeed small compared to the Hall. The size of the Vault grounds was just a fourth of that of the Hall’s, making it seem intimate. Tour-Beijing says the Vault has an echo wall which lets one hear a whisper from one end to the other. The site map did not mention anything about it as far as I remember.

The next part of the complex is the Circular Mound Altar. I suppose in bird’s eye view the altar looks like a big marble cake platter with four layers, the top of which is just a small, four-foot diameter convex plate. The layer beneath it, seems to be 10 meters in diameter, has nine arcs toward the convex. The third layer must be around 15 to 20 meters in diameter, while the bottom and biggest layer must be 25 to 30 meters. Tour-Beijing says the whole terrace is used to worship the heaven during winter solstice, while the site map tells when one stands on the convex plate and speak, his voice will echo and be resonant. Local tourists, one by one and mostly those gray-haired elderly, stood on the plate and spoke — some whispering “ni hao,” others shouting nonsense — to try the resonance the site map bragged us about. If that’s their way to heaven, then others going to that place must bring earplugs. In fairness to these elders, they sounded joyous while doing their consonance. A harmony, perhaps.

If the chorus of elders “whispering” in the heavens waiting to hear a reply was quite a cacophony then the Cypress Grove was certainly a relief. The site map said many of the trees are over 600 years old. Indeed the sight of these trees is relaxing, especially their canopy filters the blue-gray gradient of the sky and provides a dramatic view of the sunlight. I spent a good 20 minutes just taking photos in the fantastic forest.

There are other attractions in the park, like the Hall of Abstinence (closed when I arrived) and Seven Meteorites which I thought are legit, only to find out that they are monoliths with carved mountain patterns. The botanical gardens, like the Hundred Flowers park, are by the way covered in green nets for some reason I don’t know.

“Very unhealthy”

It was 1:00 PM when I almost finished touring the Temple of Heaven. By that time while walking on Red Step Bridge, only my zenith was blue while the whole 360 degrees of my sight started to get gray, akin to the movie, These Final Hours, just without lightning and firestorm. Locals have been used to the gray skies and I thought many of them just did not care, or may be they’ve been immune to it. Well, we’re in “Heaven” and as we enjoyed the sight of it, the impending gray skies just didn’t matter.

The poisonous mist encroached the whole city a few hours after I left the “Heaven.” It was “very unhealthy,” the US Mission China said. Leaving “Heaven” and that blue zenith or living with the gray that I don’t like?