Temple of Heaven & summer palace

As usual Jessie turned up at 9am to take us to the Temple of Heaven. We spent closed to 20 minutes looking for a taxi until we finally got one (taxis were on demand on Monday morning). The journey cost us 20 Yuan.

We entered by the southern gate and passed by lots of people practicing Tai Chi and dances or in general just exercising. the first place to visit was the Round Altar and then the Vault of Heaven. A long corridor took us to the Qinian Dian, which is one of the most photographed buildings in Beiing (it is portrayed in DK tourist guide). In general the complex wasn't as crowded as the forbidden city.

We left using the Eastern gate and walked to the Metro station, the ticket for the 45 minutes ride to the summer palace cost 9 Yuan for the tree of us, something around 1.5 Aussie dollars !!!.

The summer palace is a huge complex with plenty of opportunities for photos and cafes along the way. First we arrived to the Marble boat, and extravagance from the dragon empress Cixi, then we followed the 700m long corridor that was colourfully painted. Jessie advised us not to climb to the actual temple, apparently there is no much to see there. we continued along the corridor until we arrived to the hall of jade and the Eastern gate.

It was close to 2pm and instead of having lunch we grabbed a taxi for the Silk street market.........

With the traffic it took us close to an hour to get to the market, the trip cost me 75 Yuan (12 aussie dollars) however we passed by modern Beijing and skyscrapers like the 330m tall China World trade center and the bizarre CCTV tower.

The Silk market is a paradise for shoppers (including my wife), haggling is compulsory as the initial prices are completely ridiculous. It was interesting to see how the vendors managed several languages, we intentionally shifted to Spanish during our bargaining but so did they.......

After the market we went to the acrobatic show, a highly recommended thing to do while in Beijing, the performers left us speechless and the final show with the motorbikes nearly killed me of a heart attack, spectacular.

Back at the hotel it was time to say goodbye to Jessie, this was our last night in Beijing because tomorrow we are going to the Xian to visit the 8th wonder of the world..........the Terracota Warriors !!Read more