Heavenly, Forbidden Summer Stuff

I last posted about our first full day in Beijing. That was Saturday, March 5, our Really Great Wall day. The next day, Sunday, we again did a huge, full day tour, this time to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace.

We had beautiful weather every day in Beijing, but that doesn't mean it wasn't cold at least part of the day. Sunday began quite cold and windy. I thought this photo of the Forbidden City moat captured the mood quite well.

Yes, that's ice on the water.

I'm going to do what I usually do and just show you several photos. I honestly don't remember the details and you, almost certainly, don't care. Here we go.

By the time we left it had gotten a bit warmer. No ice here.

Our next stop was a silk factory/outlet. This was the inevitable learn something/buy something part of the tour. It was interesting, however. Perhaps you remember the silk factory photos from Cambodia. This tour wasn't nearly as interesting, but the techniques were certainly more advanced and the outlet more vast.

Next, we were off to the Temple of Heaven. The day was getting warmer, but the temple was close enough to heaven to be exposed to the wind and so still pretty chilly.

On the way in we passed a man practicing writing characters in water on the pavement,

some people doing outdoor, Chinese karaoke,

and some kids playing hacky sack with something that looked like an exuberantly colored, weighted badminton birdie.

As was the case with the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven was vast and impressive. Some photos.

You can see the buildings of Beijing in the distance.

Finally, we went to the Summer Palace. For me, this was the most beautiful place of all. It's also the place where I fell, bruised various parts of me, scraped my hand, and put a dent in my lens shield. Fortunately, nothing was broken, either on the camera or myself. Memo to self, watch where you walk. Some photos.

This passageway is fully a kilometer long. There are also pictures on the outside. There are, I believe, over a thousand pictures and each one is unique.

Finally, it was time to head back. This time it only took us an hour and a half or so. Thank goodness we did these trips during the weekend. I can't imaging what it must be like during weekday rush hour traffic. We went past the olympic site.

and decided to try to come back to see it at night. But not this night. We did go out and walk around, however, after the sun had set. This is a scene from the hutong (alleyway) where our hotel was located. Fruits and vegetable for sale.

You emerge from the hutong onto a really big street.

I never quite got used to that sudden, dramatic transition from little hutong to massive street.

The reason we went out was to get some supper. We went to this mall, about three blocks from our hotel.

This is definitely not Pearl Buck's China.

Finally, a photo of the Catholic church on the corner of our hutong. It was always the last thing we saw on the big street as we turned into our little alleyway. That's a hotel next to it.

It was a lovely way to end the evening.