day 4 -- temple of heaven

today the clouds lifted and the sun cyphered through as we strolled through the courtyards of the Temple of Heaven... the temple itself was beautiful, but more enamoring to my eye were the people ...



mothers with their babies,
old folk playing cards, instruments and hackey-sack, and an elderly gent charging people to hold his bird (which sacha and i gladly paid for :)). Nate was tracked down by a flock of admiring Asian girls believing him to be Tom Cruise; they insisted on getting a picture with him.

From the temple we took a rickishaw ride through the old part of the city and paid a visit to Mrs. Woo -- a woman who invited us into her home and shared her life story with us (as translated by our guide). She had a beautiful smile. Following this we re-visited Tiananum Square and captured some pictures, due to the lift in fog.

After crashing for a couple of hours at the hotel, we were then picked up and escorted to a Peking Duck dinner and a Chinese Opera (which ended up being delightful, after the characters stopped singing and started acting :)). We then drove 'home' and celebrated Nate's birthday by drinking beer, eating cake (the two DON'T go together) and playing cards.

Tomorrow we'll visit the zoo and snap some shots of fuzzy panda bears! G'night.