Tiananmen Square & Temple to Heaven

Today was even better than yesterday. We think that was large in part to the MUCH quieter and better running bus :) Yesterday's bus was dong maybe 40 mph tops down the highway, of course it reduced in speed greatly when going "up" an incline! We were scheduled to go to the Summer Palace in the afternoon, but Angela (our guide) suggested Temple to Heaven and we are so grateful that she did!

The Forbidden City was much less crowded today than it was when James and I were here before. It was a nice opportunity to get photos and take our time. Angela offered a different perspective on the history and told us storied that I had not heard before. I learned things that made me even more anxious to bring all our children here again in the future to experience it.

At the Temple to Heaven there was an echo wall. Half of our group went to one side and us to the other. Then we started to talk to the wall, we could hear our group on the other side. It was really fun. One little girl that was with us got a huge kick out of it! As we got towards the north side of the garden there were crowds of people playing games, singing, dancing or playing musical instruments. It was so wonderful to see. One gentleman offered to lat Tacia play a game he was playing but she and I had gotten separated from the others and we were afraid that we had better catch up! It really was the highlight of Beijing!

We leave in the morning for Anhui. We will not receive Cade until Monday. At first I was so bummed that a whole day was being taken up with one two hour flight, but I am a little grateful now. It will give us a chance to settle in before we meet him.

I also wanted to you to know how exciting it is to see that we have comments. I cannot read them, but I do look forward to doing so in the future, so please do leave them!!! If you are asking questions in your comments I cannot answer them, so email me at xocll27@msn.com and I will respond to you from there.