2nd Full Day in Beijing...

This day would begin with a visit to the Temple of Heaven. 

On the drive there we past the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in China. It now appears to house a Pizza Hut as well. The building is 3-stories tall and they use all 3-stories. It is a hot spot for weddings, yep, that is right, people love to get married in this space. Go figure. KFC opened its first restaurant in China before McDonald's opened a restaurant in China. I saw more KFC restaurants than McDonald's. 

The Emperor would go to the Temple of Heaven twice each year to pray and offer sacrifice for a good harvest and to give thanks for a good harvest. It is surrounded by a lovely park. 

They happened to be out inoculating the trees in the park. I don't believe I have ever seen this before.

A biggy in China is exercise. Even the simplest, easy exercise is very important. I do believe it relates in exact proportion to living in tiny closed spaces and needing a place to move and be free. That is only my theory though. But I grew to really appreciate the importance they placed on getting all kinds of exercise and making places for that to happen. From dancing in city plazas to other forms of exercise. It cost us $7 per person to visit the Temple of Heaven and its grounds. China lets the senior citizens purchase a pass for $5 for a year. They may come and go as often as they like with that pass. Most come three times a day. They visit with friends and exercise and play games. Even when the temperature is very cold, they are still out there doing these things. I have to admire that.

Before we got to the Temple of Heaven we passed many people exercising. The first is senior citizens dancing. They just set up a CD player, crank up the volume and everyone dances. 

There were several varieties of games with paddles or nets and balls. We talked with the little lady on the left in the second picture. She was into her 70's and great at keeping those three balls in the air between her and her partner. 

These people were doing Tai Chi and meditating. Anyone was welcome to join them. See the lady behind following what the master is doing. 

Then Alan came across a very old friend. Alan was actually friends with this man's father first. The man's mother was diagnosed with arthritis in her neck and told there was nothing they could do for her. Her husband decided he would help her. He took garden hose and cut it into lengths. These he made into a circle out of the hose and covered the circles with cloth to form a sturdy loop. The game the man created was to have him stand a little distance opposite his wife and toss a ring at her. She would then move her neck and stretch to catch the ring around her neck. After doing this for some time, she was cured of her arthritis. The next picture is a man tossing four rings at a time and the last picture is four men from our group trying to catch them with their necks. 

Now we would enter the actual grounds and view the Temple of Heaven. Claude and I  are standing in the second picture in front of the Temple of Heaven. There are additional buildings on two sides of the square on which the Temple of Heaven sits. In the third picture you can see the City of Beijing between two of these buildings.The last picture is a waterspout so water can drain from one level to another.

When we exited the actual square where the Temple of Heaven stood, we would go down a long covered walkway. All along this walkway were people playing Mahjongg, checkers and card games. No gambling on the Temple of Heaven grounds. Just friendly games. When the Temple of Heaven was used for the Emperor to thank the gods, he would also offer food sacrifices. In the bottom picture, along the right side of the long walkway would have been rooms for holding and preparing these sacrifices.

Now we were walked to and then encouraged to enjoy the adult playground on the grounds. This was a phenomenal place. Full of people using all this great equipment to exercise and stretch their bodies. Everyone was welcome to participate. So, we did. There are rock paths through this exercise park. These are for massaging your feet. I tried and found it a might uncomfortable. But, my feet are not hardened and used to walking on rocks like that. I tried the walking thing. Claude is massaging his back on rollers that are mounted to this piece of equipment. Where the man is hanging from the bars, there was another man who would raise his leg and put his foot on one of posts. Then he would stretch his leg out so he was, in effect, doing the splits from a standing position. He was also in his 70's. Amazing. Would so enjoy having one of these adult exercise parks in Sadieville.

Next we were going to a Pearl Farm to learn about pearls. If the pearls are too tiny when harvested, they are crushed and used in facial products. Can you see all those little pearls in the oyster shell? And the boat is made of pearls. My goal was to find a pearl ring if possible. If I didn't get one, no problem. But I have a beautiful pearl necklace from Hawaii and wanted a ring to compliment it. The lady was all over me getting a yellow pearl. They are more rare and more expensive. I wanted a white pearl. Once I got her to understand I wanted white to match my necklace from Hawaii, she found a honking big pearl she thought was perfect. Then I had to educate her on my likes and dislikes. A honking big pearl is not me, I wanted something smaller and white in a simple setting. She could have made that sale a lot quicker had she focused on what I really wanted instead of trying to up sale me on things. We ended up with a simple setting and the right size pearl and they put the two together for us while we browsed through the store. 

Lunchtime was interesting. Several in the group wanted to try Peking Duck while in Beijing. Alan and Henry the 9th made that happen at lunch this day. I am not a fan of duck. Had it once when invited to someone's home for Thanksgiving dinner. It was way to greasy for me. But I did try this. It is served sliced. You put it on what amounts to a Chinese tortilla. There is a special sauce you spread on this bread and then sprinkle sugar on it (I sprinkled lots of sugar). Then you add sprouts and greens and things as you choose followed by slices of Peking Duck. The duck is sliced so you get all meat or all skin or skin with meat. Then you roll up your little Chinese tortilla and eat it like a taco. If you put enough sugar on anything, it will make it palatable. I did and it was.

An extra stop was thrown into our schedule. We were off to the Zoo to visit the Giant Pandas. They had an absolutely beautiful habitat. They were actually up and moving for the most part. It was very nice to see Giant Pandas in China.

Our next tourist stop was the Summer Palace. In reading one of my books, I pictured this as being way far from Beijing. It is really not at all. But if you had to do it walking, it would probably feel a lot farther away. The Emperor had a canal dug from the Forbidden City to the Summer Palace so they could float there. Then he had a lake dug in front of the palace. It is beautiful.

There is a dock and tourists can board a dragon boat that takes you across the lake to the Summer Palace. We would do this and then walk back around the lake. There is a bridge that takes you to an island. The bridge is between the canal and the lake. 

Once at the Summer Palace proper, we visited the marble boat. The boat is made of marble and was not made to float. It is strictly decoration. While standing looking at this boat, there was an artist below us. He noticed Claude and began to paint a picture on a white glass paint of Claude. We had not noticed this happening until Renee, in our group, pointed it out to us and commented it was a really good likeness. Mind you, this was done in just a few minutes. The man showed us the plate and asked if we wanted it. We asked how much. On the back of the plate he wrote a price, then drew a line through it and reduced the price by 1/3. We took the plate. Whereupon, he sprayed the painting with something to set the paint and told us not to touch it for 24 hours. Had we not wanted the plate, he had a rag he would have cleaned the plate off with and then found another potential buyer for his next painting. I think Claude stood out with his beard and he stands with his chin up and no smile on his face. So I'm sure that stood out in a crowd. He is also blond and that stands out over there. Claude was all grins the rest of the day because of this plate and the fact the man told him he was 'Dragon Man'. So Claude has that going for him!!

The plate says 'Beijing' down the side with the date we were there at the bottom. It is signed by the artist on the back.

We now all strolled through the Summer Palace grounds.

As we drove to our final activity for the day, we saw two neat things. The first was a clear sky with the moon. Air pollution is awful in Beijing. Sometimes citizens are asked to not go outside. So we were very pleased that we had such a beautiful, clear evening and could see the moon. In fact, we were blessed with no rain during this entire trip. Sometimes, it was hazy but that usually cleared and we had very good weather for the entire trip. The second thing we saw was the tallest building in Beijing. It is the one on the right with what appears to be consecutive W's around the top. However, the building under construction will surpass that one when it is finished. When you have 20,000,000 people in one city to house and work, you build up!

This evening we were treated to another cultural show. No pictures were allowed. It was a show of Chinese acrobatics in an old theater. It was phenomenal. This is the theater.

When we got back to our hotel, the tailors showed up with three completed suits for my Big Guy. They fit perfectly and he was one very happy camper. They are brown, blue and gray and are just lovely.

Time to rest before our last full day in Beijing.