Today on our agenda the Temple of Heaven, Cloisonne factory, lunch, the Great Wall, and a Peking Duck dinner.
The Temple of Heaven was where the emperor went to pray for good crops and weather. We had good weather and all of our meals have been great! The park around the Temple of Heaven was magical. It was full of people doing Tai Chi, dancing, playing board games and card games, sitting, and strolling, and singing. It seemed very relaxing and filled with happy people. The Temple of Heaven was pretty but the people in the park were where it is at.
The Cloisonne factory tour and store were fun. This took us out of Bejing and into the country and the feel of the area is much different. We drove past fruit tree farms and fields of vegetables, past people fishing, down lanes of trees along the river, and to the factory. This is a State owned and operated facility, interesting. Our guide, Jay (hos western not his Chinese name) showed us the process step by step except the gold plating which is a secret! Then we went into the store. Sharon and I both eyed, were drawn to, and eventually purchased a beautiful cloisonne vase. We also picked out some little goodies for each of us plus items for Anika and Avery. The rest of the crew also picked beautiful cloisonne pieces and everyone was happy and with lighter pockets.
To lunch! We really enjoyed this lunch in a "tourist" restaurant between the factory and the Great Wall. Each of us found favorites and no one was disappointed. Vegetable dishes, beef dishes, pork dishes and plenty of them.
And on to the Great Wall! Up and up we drove and then parked close to the chair lift/toboggan run. We road up on the chair lift and planned on coming down on the toboggan. That did not quite work as planned because rain started just as we were to get on the toboggans. Darn. Chair lift back down in the rain. But, it was cool hearing the rain hit the canopy of leaves below us, just not thrilling like the toboggan would have been.
The Great Wall. How in the world did they get this built? how many thousands of people carried, bricks, mortar, food, and water up to these heights? As I walked it and looked at tower after tower over the hills i was awed, not only for the construction of this bit the number of people it took to maintain it and man it. I do want to learn more of this wonder. We only walked the distance of a few towers but the up and down was intense and took a toll on our legs. We were done after about an hour and headed back to were we came up to the wall.
I'm typing this while on an airplane and the guy in front of me just flully reclined his seat. A westerner, damned rude I would say.
From theGreat Wall we headed back to Beijing for a Peking Duck dinner. It took us about two hours through heavy rain. Our driver is very good. He gets us where we need to go and seems to know where hei going all the time. I would not like to drive in Beijing.
The Peking duck dinner was an interesting experience and the dishes were all duck based. They were good, but I think we enjoyed lunch more. One of the jighlights was what our guide described at Chinese wine. It was a 112 proof clear distilled spirit. Dave and I got imto it toasting each other. I found it bearable with a beer chaser. Pretty rough stuff.
After dinner it was back to the hotel in what seemed like even heavier rain. We ran into the hotel, well I walked because of my running vs. walking rain theory, and found a water fall running down the stairs to our room. Luckily there was an alternate route! A little bit after getting back to our rooms were joined by a team of foot massagers. Each of us got a foot massage in our rooms. What fun! After the massages sleep.
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