Today was another busy day filled with some pretty eye-opening experiences. After a much needed restful morning, we headed out to the Temple of Heaven where Chinese Emperors used to give offerings to the Heavens. The temples were really beautiful and it was fun to stand on the marble alter stone. But maybe the most interesting part of the Temple was the people-watching. In the large temple grounds, we were bombarded with people trying to sell us ‘super cheap’ rolex watches, temple replicas and crocheted purses and we were serenaded by lots of people singing karaoke, including one guy wearing a Spiderman suit. Then we went to the Pearl Market where there were hundreds of vendors selling everything from pearls to cameras to fake purses. It was pretty fun haggling prices down to about 20% of the original asking price.
The most enlightening part of the day, though, was definitely our trip to a migrant community living in a shantytown on the outskirts of Beijing. We got a tour from a local NGO that has set up opportunities for women living in the migrant settlements to have jobs, set up schools for the small migrant children living in the area and has begun a secondhand clothing business within the shantytown. This was our first real glimpse of poverty in China. The people living in the migrant community work for super low pay and really are the people actually assembling China’s massive growth. But, unfortunately these migrant workers, coming from poor rural areas all around China, get to Beijing and have nowhere to live. They are forced to pay high rent and must live in extremely horrible conditions. Since they are paid such low wages its really difficult for them to break free from their cycle of poverty. Even worse, the government basically pretends like they don’t exist, gives them no social support and literally tears down their neighborhoods frequently and with little to no notice. It was inspiring to see the women of the local NGO working to make these communities at least a little more accommodating to the migrant residents, and the experience was also a good counterpoint to our guest lecture and tour of the ultra-modern building developments of SOHO China.
We finished the day with some北京烤鸭—Peking Duck! And a walk back through a touristy hutong and a final stroll through Tiananmen Square. Now off to the night train and Nanjing!
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