Chinese Lanterns at Jingshan Park.
Since we had some time to kill in the morning before the boys arrived, Mandy and I decided to make the short 20 minute walk to Jingshan Park to experience the “unmatched view” of the Forbidden City grounds.
It was a small park (more of a mound) with the most interesting sight being the tree that one of the late emperors hung himself off of. Morbid, I know. The view was fantastic though. I forget how many acres the Forbidden City covers, but I believe it is somewhere around 180. Here’s a view from above with Mandy in the shot:
Back at the hostel we met up with Cam (my cousin and current English teacher in China) and his friends Liam (a responsible funny man who is going into a business partnership with the current owner of the school they teach at), Will (an outgoing people person who love silk, shopping and cigarettes), and Kevin (actually Liam’s friend - a new graduate from Ottawa who has gone into consulting).
It was great to finally see Cam again after about a year. We had lots to get caught up on and I was impressed at how well he seemed to be doing in his town down south teaching English and how much Chinese he has picked up there (maybe more than me??).
Once the boys got settled and had some time to grab a bite (they spotted subway around the corner and it was impossible to convince them to try the place that Mandy and I discovered on our first night) it was around 3:00pm so we decided to save the Forbidden City for another day. Instead we all made the hour walk to the Temple of Heaven which we heard was a must see sight in Beijing.
Entrance walkway.
Cam and I against the temple pillar.
It was sort of silly because when we arrived we realized that none of us actually know what the Temple of Heaven was. A lovely lady walking by passed no judgment when asked her to explain what we were looking at (basically a big concrete area with a gazebo-looking temple in the center). Apparently it was a temple that only the Emperor could pray at. O.K.
After that we all wandered aimlessly around the grounds. The place was starting to close around this time but the boys found a fun activity to keep themselves entertained.
That's Will kicking it around. It works like a hacky sack but instead you kick around a feather that is attached to a spring – they were selling them everywhere.
The rest of the night was spent relaxing with some food and beer at the hostel. We all tried to get revved up to go out in the city but ended up calling it a night around 11:00pm. Mandy and I had been walking so much the break was nice, and the boys had spent the last few nights partying hard before the trip, so they were in recovery mode as well. My head hit the pillow that night and I was…..zzz.
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