After the Great Wall, we went to the Ming Tombs via a jade factory. I won't bore you with pictures of the tombs, it wasn't that exciting. Briefly, the jade factory was pretty obviously a tourist trap. Maybe we should have told them that we weren't actually rich. Jade is incredibly expensive. It's like carving things out of diamonds. We were baffled.
On the way back to Beijing, our guide took us by a place that might be familiar to you.
The Bird's Nest and the Water Cube from the Olympics. They were really neat structures, although we only got to see them for a moment.
We parked at our lovely hotel and then headed out for some Peking duck. Really yummy, but it was kind of lonely eating a meal just the two of us after so many with wonderful meals with friends. We also had to go to a touristy place with pictures and English on the menu, but it was still really good.
The next morning, we tried to cram as much of Beijing as we could before our 4:00 flight. First stop, the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City is the former Emperor's Palace filled with all the luxuries of a feudal society. Kind of sad actually. It's called Forbidden because only royalty and their court were allowed to enter.
We took a audio tour, and it was well worth it.
Then we went across the street to Tienanmen Square.
On the way back to Beijing, our guide took us by a place that might be familiar to you.
The Bird's Nest and the Water Cube from the Olympics. They were really neat structures, although we only got to see them for a moment.
We parked at our lovely hotel and then headed out for some Peking duck. Really yummy, but it was kind of lonely eating a meal just the two of us after so many with wonderful meals with friends. We also had to go to a touristy place with pictures and English on the menu, but it was still really good.
The next morning, we tried to cram as much of Beijing as we could before our 4:00 flight. First stop, the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City is the former Emperor's Palace filled with all the luxuries of a feudal society. Kind of sad actually. It's called Forbidden because only royalty and their court were allowed to enter.
We took a audio tour, and it was well worth it.
Then we went across the street to Tienanmen Square.
This line is for the Mao Museum. We passed.
Military procession
We hopped on a motorized rickshaw type thing with the hopes of making it to the Temple of Heaven. It was really fun! We made it and took a lovely walk through the gardens, but only got to glimpse at it before we ran out of time. Luckily, our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we can look at those anytime.
2 comments:
Actually Peking duck over there is called DC duck.
LL,
It was great to read about your China adventures and see the photos. Joe and I spent Thanksgiving in China the last year we were stationed in Japan and it was a fascinating trip. It surely makes you thankful for the country we live in. In spite of all of our economic problems, we are still the most blessed of nations. We saw so many destitute people that we felt guilty for all the money we were spending on our trip. Susan Reeves (Allan's cousin)
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