Primus Family "Taste of Asia" Tour: June 30: Tienanmen Square, Temple of Heaven shopping, Beijing

Another long day, which started at 7:00 a.m. Lucy has decided that Baxter needs "fattening up", and cooked him three eggs this morning. Thankfully, Chris came down and helped him finish them off. The rest of us had cereal and cold leftovers.
We all hopped into the van for a trip to downtown Beijing. It is so crazy that we took the van! There is an express train that would take 20 minutes. But, the car culture has hit China, and if you have a car here, you use it! So, we spent about 90 minutes getting downtown. Crazy!

We first visited the Temple of Heaven. This is where emperors came to be close to heaven. It is surrounded by gardens and park areas. Just like last night, there were hundreds of people dancing, playing badminton, and even a large group singing. All of this is spontaneous - just amazing. Also, there was a man using a large mop dipped in water to practice writing Chinese characters on the sidewalk.

There were a few westerners here, but we still got a lot of attention. At the center of the temple is a spot where the emperor would stand to be close to God. An older Chinese man just had to take a picture with Lily. We also saw Tienanmen Square. The security to get into the area was incredible. Several metal detectors just to gain access to the area.

We spent the rest of the day doing a little shopping and eating dinner. The day was finished off with a Tea House show. There were many traditional Chinese acts, including acrobats, jugglers, Kung Fu, and Mask Changers. Here's a link to face mask changing .