A Rainy Day in Beijing - Sunday, September 7

Well, our luck finally ran out. This is our third trip to Beijing and today was the first day we had ever had to deal with rain. But, at least it was warm, so we grabbed some hotel umbrellas and headed out into the city because there were still a few sights we wanted to see.

First stop was the Temple of Heaven. This is a beautiful park with several temples that the emperors of China used for ceremonies to give thanks for bountiful harvests and other ceremonies to pray that this year's harvest would be a good one. At the end of the park is an area where Beijing residents come to perform (sing, play instruments, play games) for others to watch. Because of the rain, this area was much less crowded than when we visited five years ago, but it's still a fun place to visit.

Next we stopped at a "hot pot" restaurant for lunch. This place had large heated pots of water in the middle of each table where we cooked thin strips of beef and lamb and vegetables. It was one form of Chinese cuisine that we had not experienced in the past and it was great!!

After lunch, we walked to a new park that showcases the many ethnic minorities of China. It has areas that show what the houses of that group look like and at several of the areas we got to see shows of singing and dancing of songs unique to that minority. Marissa even got to join in on several of the dances.

Finally, we walked to the Olympic area and got as close as we could to the well-known venues. The Paralympics had just started that day and only people with tickets could get near them. But we DID get these pictures (according to Natalie, the Bird's Nest is for Mrs. Rippee and the Water Cube is for Mrs. Gillespie :).

We got back to the hotel as early as we could because we leave tomorrow morning for Tianjin and our meeting with little JinXin.