Today was our last day in Beijing. This afternoon we head off to Xian to see the terracotta warriors.

Our first stop was a Chinese herbal medicine clinic. I expected to be bored, but when they offered us a half hour foot massage for $4AUD, I suddenly changed my tune.

Omg, it was fabulous!

We also had a doctor come and feel our pulses, look at our tongues, ask a few questions about aches and pains, and then give a diagnosis. 

Mine? “Lose more weight, fatty!”

Ok, I made up that last word in the sentence. But hey, I’ve lost 9 kilos since Christmas, so I’m on the right track.

After this, we were given two hours to walk around. The Temple of Heaven was right across the road, so Blogless Sandy and I chose to walk across and look around.

Seniors get in for free. We flashed our passports and we were through. There are advantages to getting older.

It turns out that the temple of heaven is set in the middle of a huge park. The day was warm and smoggy, but it was wonderful when there were long pathways underneath huge trees. We made a beeline for the shady path and we strolled along.

It was Sunday, so the locals were taking full advantage. There were lots of family groups, with the children dressed up to the nines. Young girls were dressed in traditional clothes, ready for photographs. Aside from the occasional crying baby, everyone was smiling, in a good mood. 

It turns out that there was a boring side and an interesting side here. 

We chose the boring side to walk to first. It was pretty enough, but it was a round building with no entrance. We wandered around, but there was nothing really inspiring there.

We headed back to the other building.

Now here’s the stuff!

People everywhere. Even before we saw the temple, I was reminded of the temple we went to in Tokyo, with the crowds of people. 

We walked past the roses to climb the stairs and the smell of the roses was amazing. I don’t have a good sense of smell, so it must have been incredibly strong. There were two rose gardens in the grounds. One was full of normal roses, while the other had peonies. We didn’t see them, but there woman I was sitting next to on the bullet train showed me her photos.

I elbowed my way delicately to the front of the heaving scrum trying to see inside the temple.

From way behind me, I heard Blogless Sandy saying, “ Did you get any photos, Frogdancer?” It’s nice to travel with another iPhone user. It makes it so easy to share photos and avoid risking life and limb to both get the perfect shot. 

I enjoyed taking this shot. A family was posing for a photograph with a professional photographer, while behind them a young girl was posing for her boyfriend.

The shot of the day!

It was almost a shock to emerge from the beautiful shady greenery to the hustle and bustle of the city streets again. We had a Quick Look through a shopping mall before Tina was shouting, “Tina’s family! Bus is coming! Sticky rice!”

We said goodbye to Tina, and we’ll meet Maggie for Xi’an.

We were off to the train station to take a 5 hour bullet train ride to Xian. Tomorrow we’ll see the terracotta warriors. The weather forecast is for the high thirties, but hey. We can’t expect perfect weather all the time.

Interestingly, my friend Scott is leading a tour group through China at the moment. His group is one day ahead of us, so I’ll message him later and see how it was.

As I type this, I’m on the train. Fortunate Frogdancer has a window seat and so does Blogless Sandy. Maybe my good luck is rubbing off?

Though maybe not. Joanne, the woman sitting next to me, has just bought a package of EIGHT bananas to eat for dinner. How disgusting. They’re the worst food on earth. I hope they don’t smell too much. 

Dad Joke of the Day: