Checking out Jingshan Park

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The day after our failed visit to the Forbidden City we decided it should be safe enough to visit one of the cities parks, so we decided on Jingshan Park which was the park behind the Forbidden city where the taxi driver dropped us the day before.

The parks in Beijing are quite beautiful and often bustling with people on the weekend meeting to dance in traditional costumes, sing traditional songs, play cards, kick the feathered ball thing around or just play tourist. We trudged up the big hill in the middle of the park which was formed by the digging of the moat around the forbidden city to the temple on top. Once there (after catching our breaths) we took in the spectacular views of the Forbidden city, and the views over Beijing. In the temple itself there is a large Golden Buddha - quite spectacular. The boys got Seals with their Zodiac animals on top and their names in Chinese as the seal (stamp). We then checked out some of the other temples and had a wander around the park before heading out for a walk back towards the hotel. After several kilometers we gave up and took the subway to try and save our legs.

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