I met with my tour guide, Jack first thing this morning. We headed straight to the subway right outside the hotel. I wanted to see some of the old buildings, so the first stop was the Lama Temple. It's a functioning Buddist temple.

I felt a little bad at times walking around gwauking...the air was thick with incense that is apparently part of their prayer ritual. There was also an entire street made up of incense dealers.

There were a few monks milling around. I thought it was cute that one of the monk's cell phone rang while I was nearby. So much for that "no worldly goods" mantra...

The buildings were ornate and beautiful in a garish kind of way. The painting on the cellings was spectacular.

As was the tile work and figurines on the rooftops.


This was just a pretty walkway near the temple.

This is a government sponsored tea room. Apparently, there are lots of disreputable people running "tea rooms". They are hawkers on the street inviting you in to "sample" the tea. As a result, the government stepped in and is trying to regulate it. According to Jack, there are still lots of non-government tea rooms. Go figure. This was our lovely assistant. She spoke very good english and told us lots about the 4 teas we sampled.

Here is a ball that I think is jasmine tea. It looked just like a twisted ball of grass when she put it in the pot.
Then, a few minutes later, the ball opens up - it's really quite pretty...
Here it is from the top
And the tea was scrumptous too!
Next was a tour of a park in the middle of downtown Beijing.
Here are photos from the highest point overlooking the city.
This was a shrine at the top - most of these buildings house a budda....
This one had a monument with strange writing - mongolian, I think. Stuffs OLD!!
Pretty trails thru the park. The flowers were just blooming. There winter lasts a little longer than ours.
This was an area of Chinese Herbaceous Peonies, according to Jack's handheld dictionary. He didn't know what they were either, so he translated the sign for me.
Next it was off to lunch. This was definitely not a tourist area...only Chinese on the menu, so Jack had to order.
He did a good job though - chicken with a nice spicey sauce for me. He had some sort of fried pork. Really looked and tasted alot like the Chinese you get at home.
Next it was off to a food market - I love this - I think Jack thought I was NUTS wasting my time walking thru a market like this. This was a variety of pickeled vegetables. The weird thing that looks like a spiral is a root of some nature. He couldn't come up with an English term for it. No wonder.....
More pickeled stuff.
Variety of tofu - some with mushrooms mixed in. T would love this.
Veggies - mostly recognizable.
More tofu - even the stuff that looks like noodles is tofu....
OK, T wouldn't approve...
I was really tired by the end of the day. Lots of walking, subway and taxis. Here is the display at the center of the hotel lobby. I don't the photo really does it justice. I looked very closely at the flowers to be sure they were real - and they are!

I think that's it for the night. Duane should be back soon - we're going to grab a bite to eat and it will probably be a short evening. I'm not jet-lagged really, but I'm feeling a little more tired than I normally would at 6 oclock in the eveing! See ya!