Temple of Heaven and Beijing Stroll

We spent our last full day, Sunday at the Temple of Heaven and walking many miles.

The weather today was just brisk. It was nothing compared to the last few days. The sun was out all day, clear skies and minimal wind.

We took a cab to the Temple of Heaven, but decided to take the long walk back to our hotel, soaking up the local sights. We stopped at a few shops along the way and walked through a local food shopping market. The fruit and vegetables looked great, but the meat hanging in the sun did not look like it had a very long shelf life. This place seemed to be where the locals stopped and bought their supplies for the day.

Temple Gardens Entrance

Temple Gardens

Local food market

Crossing near our hotel

We returned to the hotel mid afternoon and had a light lunch. Then we ended our long walking day with a Chinese massage at the hotel. A great bargain and very therapeutic.

Dinner tonight was at Aria, located in the China World Hotel. (This was Jim's other choice if not the Hyatt, where we are staying.)

The hotel is part of the Shangri-la chain of hotels, and is very elegant. The lobby was decorated and furnished in Chinese style. Great dinner, Jim had filet, I had snapper.

Tomorrow morning we pack for our journey home, do some last minute shopping and head to the airport tomorrow at @ 2 p.

I will do one last blog entry with some thoughts and a few pictures before we depart.