a little more beijing

after our two amazing days touring around beijing with glenn, we had one more day in that amazing city on our own. we had a great time exploring some cool places, but we really missed glenn! not only is he a fantastic person to be around and had lots of historical and cultural info to give us, but just navigating very foreign logistics and food was soooo much easier with a local :) we also realized on day three how lucky we were to experience the weather we did on days one and two. those blue skies aren’t super normal! but still – it was an awesome day in a super awesome city that we had totally fallen in love with!

^^ at chairman mao’s mausoleum in tiananmen square. we went through all the security and lines to see his body permanently laid in state. glenn told us that 90% of beijing locals believe the body on display is fake, and we tend to agree having seen it, but the experience of going to the mausoleum with many chinese was a pretty amazing cultural experience. ^^

^^ we spent an hour or so in the national museum. very cool ancient artifacts and traditional chinese art. ^^
 
^^ for lunch we decided we had to try peking duck. we were in beijing after all! i think it’s the most expensive meal we had our entire trip, and we both hated it – haha! good thing we had some amazing green beans and chicken to make up for it (we went back to the same restaurant glenn had taken us on our first day).
 
^^ we visited beihei park, also known as the winter palace. it was beautiful! we rode a boat across the lake to the fun hutong discrict. ^^
 
^^ every little plaque is a prayer. pretty neat. ^^

^^ the boy could not resist getting one of these huge cotton candies in the alleys along the river. it was fun to watch it get made and ian devoured it! ^^

^^ i also got a treat. isn’t it pretty? this was probably the tastiest thing i ate in china. ^^

^^ such a great spot with winding alleys full of fun shops. ^^

^^ aaaaaand, one more shot from our hostel. ^^

the next morning we said goodbye to beijing and got on a bullet train to shanghai, which is such a different city!