Beijing, part two

Friday I headed out with different directions as to how to get to the subway on the 404 bus. I followed the directions and got on the bus and hoped that it was right! I soon spied a subway stop, but not the one that I thought I wanted. I took my chance and got off and went to the subway. It was actually a closer stop then the one that I had originally been trying to get to. I got on the subway and headed off to the other side of the city to the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace is a huge area with many old buildings and a huge lake in the middle. The emperors would spend time there floating on the lake, looking at the stars and other things of that nature. The Summer Palace also has the worlds longest Corridor, it was pretty cool! It took me over 4 hours to get through it all! I got hungry and today I chose to have more than a bag of peanuts! So I got one of those instant noodle soup bowls. They are really popular here in China. It was good! I actually liked it for what it was! I finished up and headed home. All the girls at the workshop were going to have dinner together and I wanted to make sure that I arrived back in time to join them. I took the subway back to the station that I started at and instead of paying for a taxi I was going to see if I could take the 404 back to where I started. I found the bus stop and waited for the 404. Some of the busses that stopped at the same stop as the 404 were packed! There was standing room only on some and they were packed in like sardines! I finally got on the 404 and headed off. It did not go the same way back but it stopped where I got on it the wrong way the day before! I got off and walked back to the Hotel, glad to be off my feet! They were pretty tired and sore by now! Three days of being on them all the time gets them really tired! I rested for a while and then we went to dinner. We went to Peter’ Tex Mex. It was the same chain as the one that Wade, Leah and I went to in Shanghai. The food was really good and we girls had a great time chatting and laughing! We went shopping at a foreign goods place. There were things that that I’m not sure you can get at one store in the US! It was almost like a health food store/grocery store type place. It was interesting seeing what the ladies that have been in China for anywhere from 2 years to 5 months wanted to get. It really made me be thankful for what we have in the states! Some of the same things that we get and eat every day that get once or twice a year here IF they can afford it and IF they can find it. We headed back and I again chatted with new friends till late and then went to bed.

Saturday was my last day in Beijing. I went out early again and went to the Temple of Heaven. This was probably my favorite place. The Temple of Heaven is where the Emperors would come and worship/offer sacrifices to Heaven. Shang Di (means above the Emperor) was the name that they gave to the god of heaven who is in fact the One God. The Emperor would offer sacrifices in a similar manner as the time of Moses. The Emperor would have to wear different clothing and go through a cleansing process. Only he could offer sacrifices to Shang Di. The sacrifice was early in the morning (4:00am) on December 21, the winter solstice. He would go to the alter and bow three times, three times (total of 9). He would then offer a bull and burn him beside the alter. It was all very interesting and I will be doing some more study on it when I get home. It’s amazing to see how the Chinese worshipped the same God as the Israelites and at about the same time as well. I highly recommend further research on this as I’m not able to give all the information in it’s full here. After a lunch of a tuna sandwich and a banana, I headed off to the Pearl Market. The Pearl Market is a huge shopping mall type place with at least 4 floors. There were vendors selling all kings of things! There were electronics, clothing, jewelry, purses, and of course pearls. I wandered around and told lots of people no, I don’t need an iPod or a whatever they were trying to sell me! I did get a couple of things and then I headed off to Silk Street, another shopping area. This one had much of the same things but more clothing than the Pearl Market. I also got a thing or two at Silk Street. I did not linger long for I was again tired and had sore feet. I headed off by subway and then bus back to the hotel. I rested again for a while and had some leftover Pizza for a late afternoon snack and waited till time to head off to the Acrobatics show. Leah and I were joined by Andy another teacher here in China. (Wade had seen the show twice before and decided to not go.) We arrived at the theater and found our seats. Andy, Leah and I had a great time visiting while we waited for the show to start. The show was amazing! The things that they did were amazing! I can’t imagine the things that they do to their bodies to be able to get into some of the shapes that they do! After the show we met Wade and went to a small mall and got a bit of dinner. I was not very hungry so I just ate some of Wade’s! We then got ice cream for dessert (surprisingly, I was ‘hungry’ for that!) and talked and joked as we walked back to the hostel. We needed to get packed and ready to head off the next morning to get to Changde but alas, we ended up talking till late again and then packed! I had another PBJ as I packed and we were off to get a few hours of sleep before we began our trip home to Changde.