23rd September - ‘The quick and the Dead’

Out to the Temple of Heaven this morning where we stood on the Heavenly stone – apparently so that people will listen to you.

On our way to the temple walking through the gardens with the crowds I offered to take a photo of a Chinese couple and they wanted a photo with us after I had taken their photo!

As we were walking through the grounds of the temple our guide pointed out to us the significance of coloured tags on the trees. This one with a red tag is over 300 years old. Ones with green tags are only 100 years old.

 

Next stop Tiananmen Square – vast but not very interesting – just loads of people as has been the case everywhere. We made our way to The Forbidden City with Eric our tour guide.

Walking around ornate building after ornate building of the outer palace until we made it to the inner palace and the Imperial Garden with gorgeous trees.

In the evening it was our last dinner in Beijing with Ruth and John so we took them to the restaurant we ate in for our first lunch. It was a fantastic atmosphere eating in the Hutong with the locals.