China- Day 4

The Temple of Heaven Park was one of my favorite places to visit.
The park surrounding the temple is used by mostly retired people who are involved in different activities of exercise and relaxation. We saw lots of different people learning to ballroom dance, line dance, or traditional chinese fan dancing.





The park served as a HUGE outdoor gym. Take a minute to look at this first picture and see all of these fun things to do.

This active old guy was challenging Kent to a dual of events.

Active Old Guy- nice and easy.
Young American- not so graceful.
Angie (sister-in-law) did her best to stretch with this guy. She did a great job, but I think that gentlemen was in that same position from the time we arrived at the park, until long after we left.

Some groups were doing Thai Chi. Notice the stretching guy in the background- he's awesome!

Kent got in on the action when this man started a ring toss game.
Kent caught all of them around his neck. Way to go!
There were different groups around playing dominoes, cards, singing or playing musical instruments. We were especially impressed by the man playing the- what looked like a crochet mallot. It sounded just like a violin.

After a serene morning, we went over to the silk factory. This tour was very interesting. We learned the lifespan and duties of the silkworm.

These are the worm cocoons.

We had the great opportunity to do some silk stretching. We weren't as good as the professionals, but you get the idea.

We were lucky enough to go on a royal ride in a rickshaw. It was hilarious. We had to laugh when our bike drivers would get frustrated and try passing each other. I felt like we were in some chariot race that we had no control over.


On our ride we saw these alleys that led to people's homes. These homes do not have their own bathroom so they share a public restroom to be used by the entire block. We finished up the day with a stop at the Olympic Venue- "The Bird's Nest." It was so neat to be able to stand where gold-winning althletes have competed. Underneath the protective flooring, we could see the track.





That ends our time in Beijing. We caught a train that would take us through the night to our next stop- X'ian. The rooms were tiny and our neighbor was smoking, but we had lots of fun seeing the country and having that experience of riding a passenger train (my first time).