One our second morning, our guide met us at the hotel and we headed off to the Temple of Heaven. Most of the older people in China hang out at parks during the day, doing activities like dancing, calligraphy or playing cards. It was interesting to see this part of normal life. The temple was originally meant as the place where the Emperor would go twice a year to talk to God. The structures were beautiful and symbolic.
My husband and I got so many looks today and two groups even stopped us and asked to take pictures with us. Apparently many of the Chinese tourists here have never seen westerners before.
After the Temple of Heaven, we went to the Pearl Market. We got some souvenir gifts for our family at home and also looked at some jade jewelry I was eyeing. After debating dropping some money on a super nice piece, I ended up just getting a simple bracelet.
We ate lunch at a local place called Da Wan Ju. Our guide ordered noodles, pineapple chicken, spicy beef and a peanut cabbage appetizer. Everything was really good, but even better was not having to worry about ordering!
After lunch we went to the Summer Palace. It is a huge complex with a large lake, temples and former living quarters of the emperor, empress, and concubines. We walked the length of the Long Corridor, which had beautiful paintings all along it.
We ate dinner at our hotel's Italian restaurant tonight and had excellent pastas. We figured we would be having plenty of Chinese food over the next few days.
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