First day in Beijing

Today was our first full day in Beijing. We took a cab this morning to go to the Temple of Heaven. A cab ride in Beijing is extremely exciting!!! The drivers have the right of way and they use it extensively to ward off pedestrians and bicycles and other trucks, cars, etc..

The park at the Temple of Heaven was beautiful. The first thing we saw was a group of folks dancing and behind them were others doing some exercises with a paddle and ball. We walked through this long covered area and every seat on the outside was taken by older folks playing some type of card game or Chinese chess. We saw folks playing hackeysack with a feather on a metal disk, they even let me try (I couldn't do it though) :) When we got up to the gate for the Temple, we found out that it is being renovated and won't be open for months. Oh well, we could still see it through the gates. It is pretty impressive.

Then we decided to go to the market... Donna wanted to buy some pearls and I went to the electronics area. The prices are amazing!!!

In the evening we had a personal guide who took us to a Hutong (older homes in Beijing), a Chinese acrobat show, and dinner for Peking Duck. The guide was excellent and the tour, show
and food were all great too!!!

I posted some photos and will post more tomorrow.

more tomorrow... :)