We decided to have a rest day on the 8th as we had been on the go for so long. We spent the day trying to work out how to get a blog working in China and then uploading the backlog to this new blog site.
9th We woke at 7am to try to beat the crowds lining up to see Mao. It didn't work! We had to line up with the thousands of others already in line. Once it opened up the line shuffled slowly but steadily and we made it to the front of the line in an hour. It was a quick walk (around 20 seconds) past a serene looking Mao. We headed back to the hotel for breakfast and on the way bumped into Nick who had been on the GAP trip we shared the train with on our way to Ulaanbaatar. It is funny that in a city of so many people you can see someone you know. After breakfast we set off to Beihai Park.
First stop was a look around the round city where we saw a Jade Earthen and a white jade Buddha. We crossed the Wong'an bridge to the Jade Islet and scaled the hill to the white pagoda.
We had great views of the lake and surrounding city buildings. We walked through pretty gardens along winding paths, past beautifully painted pagodas.
We crossed another bridge back to the mainland and continued around the lake. There was a group of elderly people singing in a pagoda along the way. After our lunch stop we saw a guy painting on the path with water. As the pictures dried out he went back over them again.
We continued on visiting the Hall of Heavenly Kings, the Jingxin room with it's huge fish in the surrounding moat,
the nine dragon screen
Next we walked to Jingshan Park and climbed the hill to Wanchun Pavillion for great views over the forbidden city.
At the bottom of the hill we sat for a while to rest watching a few groups play cards.
No comments:
Post a Comment