Sunday morning, our last day in Beijing we walked to Temple Street and viewed the Temple of Heaven! First we walked through a park and botanical garden to get to the temple. It was really neat to see all the hundreds of people out in the park, just enjoying the morning; doing tai chi, stretching, walking…it was a very cultural experience. The Temple of Heaven itself was absolutely striking. Nearly everything we saw, we would all ask “wonder how they did this?” Everything from the bright greens, reds, yellows, and blues, the intricate hand carvings of dragons and flowers, the architecture of the temples…it was incredible!
After the Temple of Heaven we headed to the Pearl Market! Which of course, was marvelous! Put four girls in a building full of pearls and you are sure to be in trouble. Rings, necklaces, and earrings later, we all did our fair share of damage. Laura kept saying “It’s totally fine, It’s totally fine” trying to justify our purchases, even through real pearls in China are way cheaper than even fake pearls in America!
Our next destination planned was the Summer Palace, so we attempted to get closer to the Summer Palace by subway. A little confusion and a little bit of unexpected circumstances later, the subway stopped ended in the most random of malls.
The mall looked nice, and we didn’t really know where we were anyway, so we decided to go in. Little did we know that the mall was “American food heaven”. There was Dairy Queen, which looked great until we saw…COLDSTONE! There were also Auntie Anne’s pretzels and a Subway. Melyssa and I ate Subway for lunch and then we all enjoyed Coldstone Ice cream for dessert. Cake Batter ice cream has never tasted so good!
From the “American food heaven” mall we took a taxi to The Summer Palace. We all decided, that out of all the temples and ancient palaces we had seen, that if we were emperors, we would live at The Summer Palace. The same amazingly detailed Chinese pavilions, buildings, and temples, but placed and intertwined among the most gorgeous of lakes and trees. The lake was expansive, I couldn’t see from one side of it to another! We decided to take a boat ride across the lake and see the Summer Palace view from the water. We were able to catch all of the Summer Palace at sunset, so from day to night we watched as the sunset over the water surrounding the gardens and temples that composed the Summer Palace.
After the Summer Palace we decided to venture back to the city and view the Olympic Sights at night.
The Olympic Sites were even better at night time! The Birds Nest radiated red in the night of Beijing. The red lights shown through the bended steel, complimenting the already amazing architectural design. There was a man made pond on one side of the stadium that when standing on a bridge connecting one side of the road to the other, you could take a picture of the lighted stadium and see the glowing reflection bounce back in the water!
The Water Cube was equally as spectacular as the Birds Nest at night time. The lights only enhanced the already blue color of the Water Cube and made the “giant square bubbles” glow an even brighter florescent blue! We joked that we just wanted to bounce on the walls of the Water Cube, because the walls looked so bubble-like in the dark.
Ending our American food night, we had dinner at a TGIFriday’s right beside the Olympic sites…one last “hoorah” until Melyssa and I head off to Xian the next day!
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