Last day in Beijing

Wednesday morning we slept in a little. Jenny decided today should be a day where we go to see some things in Beijing that we'd wanted to see but didn't get a chance to see. Jenny went to see White Cloud Temple, while Liz and I went back to Tian'anmen Square (via McDonald's breakfast of course). We thought about trying to see the Mao Memorial where Mao's body (or a wax figure it's suspected) lays. We hopped on to the Tian'anmen metro stop and got off at the square only to find ALL of CHINA in the line to see preserved Mao. We got some great pics of the never ending line...it really helps to remind you that you are in China. We decided to ditch the idea and just explored the square a bit more. We went through the old gate into inner Beijing, only to find a cute street called "Walking Street." The street had traditional Chinese decoration, but it was a little distracted to see a Starbucks at the entrance. We walked down the street a bit, found some souvenirs and enjoyed the sights. A little later we met up with Jenny at Starbucks and went over to the Temple of Heaven. 

Line at Mao Memorial

The Temple of Heaven was huge. We picked up a map and an audio guide and began exploring. The sites in the Temple of Heaven reminded me a lot of the Forbidden City. The colors were similar to the buildings in the Forbidden City. There were a lot of huge green fields in the Temple of Heaven. We explored the various sites and after a couple hours headed back on the bus back to the Starbucks and then back to the hotel that was storing our stuff. I'm sorry there is not a more detailed explanation of the Temple of Heaven, our audio guide wasn't very good and it was so crowded it was hard to read the descriptions so we just walked around and enjoyed the sites. We did see a thousand or so year old tree called the nine dragon tree. I think it is amazing to see stuff that has been around for a millennium. 

Liz and I at Temple of Heaven

For dinner we went to a Xinjiang Restaurant. Xinjiang people live in the northwest part of China. Interestingly, they do not look Chinese. They look very middle eastern and in fact their dialect is more similar to Turkish than Chinese. They are generally Muslim. Their food is DELICIOUS!!! I can finally say that I love (some) Chinese food in China. There was not as much meat in their food as there is in a lot of Chinese cuisine. The spices were delicious, we had an awesome meal and were all really full when we finished. After dinner we got our luggage and got on the bus to go to the Beijing Train Station. 

Beijing Inner City Gate

Our train left from Beijing at 9p and was scheduled to arrive in Wuhan around 6 the next morning. We were amongst locals, and found that there is not very much heating in Beijing. The train station and the train were freezing cold, so I'm not sure any of us slept very well on the train. Jenny sat next to an old man and his granddaughter who immediately upon seeing us called us the Chinese word for "foreigner." We were really amused that a three year old girl even KNOWS the Chinese word for "foreigner." We were zombies in Wuhan until we got on the fast train to Guangzhou. It was the first time we were warm and the train was a bit ritzy even. The trip from Wuhan to Guangzhou cut a 10 hour drive into a train ride just over 3 hours! We were able to see exactly how fast the train was traveling and took pictures as the speed approached and surpassed 350 kilometers per hour.

Entrance to
the walking street

 :

When we arrived to Guangzhou we were still zombies and went back to Jenny and Steve's. Steve ordered us some Pizza Hut and we spent the night relaxing and even went to another blind-man massage. It was much better than last time. Steve explained in Chinese that we didn't like it too hard. Jenny didn't want us to say anything for fear they would change her massage too...which they did...oops! They also said in Chinese (Steve translated) that Liz "grew up very pretty." It was sweet...but I'm not sure I will buy that they're blind anymore!