We went to visit the Lamas and then it snowed.

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On one of Stephen's rare days off work, well his alloted day off - we decided to visit the Lama Temple. So we proceeded to show off our new found skills of riding the subway all of one stop ! Fortunately the Lama Temple was located directly above the subway station which kind of made it easy to find - finding the entry wasn't so easy though. So we followed the row apon row of stores selling incense and other offerings for burning at the temple. Finally found the entrance and WOW this is one huge temple. It is an active temple ie amongst the tour groups and stray tourists were plenty of locals and pilgrims visiting the temple to pray. There were lots of different halls with a variety of Buddhas offering a variety of reasons for praying. Lachie was facinated with the incense sticks and Josh was intrieged by the variety of Buddhas (yes there is more than one). The halls, Buddhas and grounds were in wonderful condition. The wonderful surprise to all of us in the final hall we entered was the 18metre Buddha reportadly carved out of a single piece of sandlewood - it was jaw dropping to see. Unfortunately for us they were REALLY strict about taking photos inside the temples.

On the weekend the boys recieved an exciting (for them) surprise - IT Snowed and it even hung around long enough for Josh to have a sleep in before going out to play in it. Yep, mum got to go out in the cold and supervise to play sessions - Lachie went out while Josh was sleeping and threw snow balls and made snow angels on the lawn beside the hotel and then when we finally got Josh out of bed we went across the road to the park, where I convinced them to make snowmen instead of throwing snowballs that were almost hitting the locals. It's actually a very nice park filled with paths to stroll or jog on and excersise equipment for the grownups in amongst the playground equipment, there are some interesting sculptures and it looks like it'll be lovely when everything blossoms.

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Photos

Temple Roof Art
I love these little guys on the edges of every temple roof

Guardian Lions
These lions are in front of many of the temples in Beijing. This is the male Lion.

The Halls at the Lama Temple
This place was a maze of temple halls in amazing condition

Lets make Snowmen
Yes, I bought Lachie a Panda Hat

Is this where you want us to stand
Art in the Park with our Hotel in the background