Day 5- Temple of Heaven

After our duck dinner,  we crashed at the hotel for the last time. In the morning, we found the hotel invaded by high school students with instruments. Next week is the country's 70th anniversary and preparations are in full swing. This also meant that the Forbodden City, Tiananmen Square and other large tourist places are closed to the public. We got pretty lucky! We headed to the Temple of Heaven. Outside the temple complex is a beautiful park. It was full of older Chinese doing the equivalent of Zumba classes, Tai Chi, calisthetics, chess, cards, etc. It was pretty cool to watch.

Then we entered the Temple Complex and saw the giant Hall for Prayer for a Good Harvest.

After, we got to ride in a rickshaw for a quick ride through some city streets. Scott enjoyed the disparity of vehicles we passed. From broken down brands that we didn't realise to Mercedes SL550AMG, Aston Martin Rapide, Mercedes G63AMG and so forth. Scott says an Audi A8 was too run of the mill to comment about. When we asked our guide, he didn't realize the cost of the various cars, so it didn't really help us.

We actually ended up going to the same neighborhood Scott and I had visited the first day. However, I really enjoyed it more on a weekday evening than a weekend morning. We watched people and ate candied strawberries and fried potatoes while the others in the group shopped at the stores in the 200yr old alley. The tour arranged for a local couple to make lunch for us in their home. The home was a series of rooms off a central courtyard. Basically,  they converted older  one room residences into a house. After, the woman of the house played the zither for us.

That's it for Beijing! We're off to Suzhou!