Wednesday, February 18, 2015

more Beijing

Our time in Beijing was almost over and I had very mixed feelings about it. But all those feelings had to be put on the back burner as we had the Temple of Heaven to see. This was our last full day in Beijing, tomorrow lunchtime we would head to Guangzhou and the Pickle herself.

By now the temperatures were way below freezing and we Floridians were chilly....that just might be the understatement of the century. One thing that was so disappointing is that it was slated to snow the day after we left. It snowed in Paris, the day after we left too.

I am sure the Temple of heaven was incredible but honestly I was so damned cold I couldn't have cared less plus the sound of my chatting teeth blocked out the voice of Jade, our guide. I was also concerned about Lily freezing to death. At one point the only visible part of her was her eyeballs.


It truly couldn't be anywhere else in the world. That little building was filled by a massive gold Buddha
Lily and Jack, Jack was also waiting to get his baby sister. These 2 became fast friends.
Lily with Jade, our guide.
Man of Chicken. When you look up at the top of the buildings there was always a man on a chicken. Legend has it that there was one to many people to do a job and one man wasn't very sparky and to keep him out of trouble he was always given the job of watching the chicken. Such nonsense but it made me laugh.
Clearly the smog is not something that is more than just a rumor. The smog in Beijing swallows entire city blocks.
The architecture is amazing.
I have no idea what this was because I was only half joking about the chattering teeth. But I think it should be called the Cupcake!
That evening we headed out and about and decided, at least I believe the others in the group did, that we really cannot be in Beijing and not visit the night market. The smell was like nothing I have ever encountered before and what with this being my second trip to China I think I have some authority on smell. LOL, especially weird, freaky, tummy turning ones. Our trip was cut short when the extremely gentle stomach of the only make in our group couldn't take the sights and smells anymore and got rather ill. For once I was quite thankful for his wimpy-ness.

top left: snake
Bottom left: grub
bottom right: some freaky sea creature
Oh yummy, said no one ever!!
Bugs and critters.
Starfish, centipedes and other delicacies. I apparently lost or deleted the photos of all the penises
The whole place reeked.
And so ended another cold day in Beijing. We headed back to the hotel which although in the thick of things was fabulous and once again ordered room serive. I packed and we got ready to leave the next day.

2 comments:

  1. At least none of that was alive....every restaurant we went to, you had to walk past the "live" menu to get to your table!

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