Day Seventeen - Jun 12, 2013
Beijing, China
Daily Didactic
It was a significant touristing day. We started the morning with a quick breakfast and then headed down Metro Line 5 to the Temple of Heaven. Similar to (but different than) the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven is a compound of temples and contains the iconic Hall of Prayers for Good Harvest, a fascinating mortise and tenon (no nails) structure. Judging by the grounds, it was good to be emperor. After absorbing the crowd and beauty, we made our way to the Lama Temple, our second tourist target for the day. We stopped at a really great vegetarian restaurant (another Cindy and Nick recommendation) for lunch and then realized we were not only short on cash, but were without our ATM card. Nothing seems to work with our VISA card here. We caught the metro back to our hutong and rather than reversing course, decided to catch a cab instead to the 798 Art Zone. 798 is an old factory complex that has been reinvented into an arts district. The area houses galleries, shops, public art, and a healthy dose of hipster trendyism. We liked it. The 45 minute cab ride cost around $5, but Brian unintentionally tipped the return cab driver his sunglasses to keep the costs more American. Fortunately the sun does not shine brightly in Beijing. We got home and again took Cindy's direction to a great meal at a nearby Chinese Muslim restaurant. They were even good enough to loan Brian a bicycle to run home to get money after we realized for the second time today that we were living beyond our means. It was an awesome ride.
Today's Photos
