They let us out to play. Isn't that nice?

Remember that little conference? Well, it involved sitting & listening.  All day, every day.  Except for,

"Half-day Excursion" day!

[They should really think about coming up with a new name for that...]












After lunch on Wednesday, we were loaded into a bus and taken directly into the middle of the traffic that defines Beijing.

Our first stop:  The Temple of Heaven.

Built in the 1400s, the purpose of this place was for the Emperors to visit once a year to pray for the harvest.










[In fact, this picture is of the building called--ironically--"The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests".  Speaking of names that could be more original....]

There's a lot of symbolism wrapped into this place.  Anything round is a symbol for heaven.

The roof tiles are blue, symbolizing?  Heaven.

Anything rectangular symbolizes the Earth, and the number three is evident everywhere.

This altar--whose specific purpose was to be used for prayers for the weather--has three levels.  The floor is laid in a pattern that draws on multiples of nine, because nine symbolized the Emperor.

To get to the main temple, you have to walk through of a series of structures that contain three side-by-side gates.

[Walking through a series of structures is pretty typical of Chinese architecture,

as are carvings such as these, I was gradually about to realize...]

Next on our agenda was the Pearl Market.  I didn't take any pictures here--I was too busy wringing my arm away from the sales girls pulling on me, saying "hey lady! hey! Want to buy [insert name of merchandise here]?"  It's called the Pearl Market, because the top floors are dedicated to selling (can you guess?) pearls, but there's also a variety of other products.  Most of them are fake, but apparently there are varying levels of fake: "real-fake" and "genuine-fake".  Real-fake is basically worthless.  Genuine-fake is acceptable, as long as you know what you're bargaining for.

Speaking of bargaining--the pricing system here takes some getting used to, as does the pushiness of the vendors.  The moment you stop to look at anything, these girls are in your face saying "how many you want? how much you pay?"  If you walk away, they yell after you.  Sometimes they run after you.  Most of the time they pull on you.

[It's a little disconcerting, but when I went to a similar market a few days later I had learned how to bargain with coldness, offering them a counter-offer, walking away--with a wave of my hand and a look of disdain--at the price they came back with, going back when they came after me, walking away at the second price they offered, eventually getting my genuine-fake item for the (practically nothing) price I'd offered in the first place.]

If you'd like to see what this place is like, check out this link:  http://www.thebeijingguide.com/shopping/hongqiao-market.html  My favorite line is "There are a variety of name brand electronics.  Whether they are real or not may not matter as the price is low."  

[It matters--my new friend Jessica bought an "ipod" for $15.  It was definitely in the category of real-fake.]

Next we were shuttled to a nearby silk factory.  They showed us the silkworms in their cocoons,

how the cocoons are soaked and the threads spun out,

how the threads are then stretched into a sheet,

and stretched further--layer after layer--to form a quilt.

[There is a silk quilt in my future, I am pretty sure of it.

If I'd had more room in my suitcase or my own private jet, I would have bought one then and there...]

By this time we were starving, so our tour guide [Tony, who was a pistol] took us to dinner.

It was SO much better than the conference food we'd been given all week, and we oohed and aahed our way through the meal.

[My favorite part was the Peking duck that they cart in and carve right in front of you. You curl your duck slices into a little tortilla-ish thing, with cucumber, scallion, and a thick sauce, and then devour it.  So tasty!!!]

We finished off our evening with the Beijing opera, an extremely unique experience.  The "singing" sounds like glass shattering, and is accompanied by instruments that we couldn't see but must be relatives of pots and pans, plus some daring acrobatics that included kung-fu moves.

I, for one [and I think I was the only one, based on the rumblings I heard through the group], thought it was pretty cool.

We tumbled back into the bus when the show was over and shuffled back into our 5-star hotel, welcoming rest and grateful for a really interesting, diverse, and worthwhile day.  The next morning we went back to our sitting & listening [although I got to stand and talk for a bit, so that was new and exciting....], until Friday afternoon.

I celebrated the end of the conference by packing up my bag, hopping in a taxi, and finding my next [not nearly 5-star] hotel.  I settled in and waited for Yi-Ting to arrive from the airport with barely contained excitement, because next up?
Lauren and Yi-Ting take over Beijing for the weekend.