Taoranting and other delights

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Precruise Day Two Day Friday 6 September-Beijing Xuanwu district.
Tried to have a big sleep in but by 7-30am China time I was awake and making use of the free wifi, but alas not facebook.

We are staying at The Holiday Inn Express Temple of Heaven, Nanwei Lu, which is a short walk away from TheTemple of Heaven in the Xuanwu district of Beijing. It's a typical western style hotel with western toilet and bathroom facilities and a free buffet breakfast each morning in theGreat Room which has lovely views of the surrounding gardens.
The buffet is a mix of western (or an attempt at this style) plus Chinese food, juices, fresh fruit,yoghurt, cereals etc.
No fridge in room but tea making facilities, free bottled water, fresh white towels and hard Chinese beds!

A short walk west along Nanwei Lu gets you to many little restaurants, shops and Wu mart which is like a combined BigW & Woolies. But think pickled veges, unidentifiable things, live fish and crabs and lots of smells and the sights of a chinese supermarket.

Walk south a block from the Wumart corner and you come to the delightful Taoranting Park area.

This park was built in 1952 with 59 acres of land 17 of which are water. It's leafy and cool with magnificent willows lining the lake, a stunning rose garden, areas for dancing, fishing, sitting, a children's play area, exercise equipment, and lots of locals going about their lives. One young man was playing his tenor sax by the lake, another family played with spades in a little muddy area, couples exercised, lots of walking people of all ages.

You can hire paddle boats, small shops provide snacks, toilets are everywhere and it's all immaculate and welcoming.

We enjoyed a leisurely morning strolling amongst the locals with a polite hello now and then, had a cooling ice-cream and walked back along the road to find lunch.

On the block just west of the hotel we chose a great place with a picture menu with poetic descriptions of the food in Chinglish, sort of cold beer and had a magnificent meal of pork, potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms and a desert for later for the princely sum of ¥164-.

Did a stock at up Wu Mart for our trip to Tianjin and the port of Tanggu which is on tomorrow’s itinerary. Supposedly a bus is arriving at the hotel tomorrow morning to take us to the port, organized by Cruise1st which is the organization we used to book our 12 day cruise. This is a surprise; we had thought we would have to do this on our own via subway, train and taxi, so we'll see what happens, still skeptical!

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Photos

Taoranting Park
South Beijing

The street
We stayed at The Holdiay Inn Express Temple of Heaven

Specialisation
Near The Temple of Heaven

Public holiday
Crowds of people

Comments

[sharon07]

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