China Day 4: August 25

This was our last day in Beijing. We had breakfast, checked out of our rooms, and then went to Tiantan Park and the Temple of Heaven.

Tiantan park is very large. It was the exclusive park of the Ming emperor's. Now people from all walks of life enjoy it. As a student of it myself, I was especially fascinated by people I saw practicing Tai Chi.

Ladies practicing with dragon sticks in Chun Dan Park

I also saw men writing chinese characters on the walkway. They used large calligraphy brushes dipped in water. My friend told me that they do this as a form of exercise. I suppose it could be compared to Tai Chi which is often described as moving meditation. Same idea.

Temple of Heaven

Imperial door. The 9 rows of decorative rivets are symbolic of the emperor.

The gang

The last thing we did in Beijing before heading to the airport was to go for lunch at a North Korean restaurant. The food was good. I finished eating well before most of my travel mates, so I went outside to wait for them, and just took in the scene one last time.

Beijing was truly wonderful! The city was beautiful and much cleaner than I expected. I was also surprised by how many service people speak English. Even more surprising to me was the number of people I encountered who spoke Korean as well as English. What was the best thing about the trip? The city was great, but my new friends, the Korean people who were my traveling companions, and our guide really made it an enjoyable experience.

After returning from China I had planned to spend 5 days at Heinsa temple, however, I unfortunately lost my ATM card somewhere between here and Beijing and so had no access to funds. I returned from the trip with just enough money to pay the bus fare home. But, once I arrived in Masan after 10pm I really had my heart set on taking a cab to Chilwon. It would cost about $20, but it was worth it...I was hot and very tired. Since I didn't have enough money on me I had the cabbie take me to the nearest ATM machine, and that's when I found out that I had lost my card. Back to plan 'A' - the bus.

Since it was late Friday night and the bank wouldn't be open till Monday, going to Heinsa was not possible, so I'm using my last few days of vacation to rest, write to my blog and to prepare for when classes resume on Friday.

I will definitely go to Heinsa and spend some time there, but it'll have to wait for a long weekend in September or October.