Beijing

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We just returned from a full day touring Beijing. We started at the Temple of Heaven. The grounds were full of people, mostly elderly, doing Thai Chi, fan dancing hackey sacking, line dancing, card playing, chess....David said many of the elderly come everyday to exercise and enjoy the company of their friends. The temple itself was beautiful. We carried on to Tian'anmen Square which was teeming with people, all of them Chinese. We were definitely in the minority! First we viewed Mao's Mausoleum..lots of rules, security checks and guards. Then on to the Forbidden City. David our guide is full of knowledge and was able to give us lots of history as well as stories and information on China today. Lunch at the Tiandiyijia Restaurant was fabulous with David ordering samples of many dishes for us. Our tour should have been over but David agreed to take us to a hutong or restored Chinese area. Very few of these neighbourhoods still exist as they have been destroyed and replaced with modern buildings. Here we visited the home of Mr. Hou. The home has been in the family for five generations and has the traditional courtyard and surrounding rooms. He showed us his home and told us about his family. Part of the home is his studio where he teaches art and does calligraphy, fan and silk art. We walked through the old streets to the Bell and Drum towers used in ancient times to open (bell) and close (drum) the city gates and businesses. Here we enjoyed the traditional tea service and sampled five different types of Chinese tea. Back to the hotel to pack for our 5am pickup and flight back to Hong Kong! Not sure how we will be able to thank Jim and his staff for the wonderful experiences we are having..command more to come!

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Photos

Male Lion Guard
Female plays with cub, male plays with ball to represent power