Day 3

So, today we went to the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. I really enjoyed the Forbidden City. It is absolutely massive. Like beyond all belief, huge. I can not imagine what it would be like for that to be your house. Thank God they had people to carry them around!!

I took a ton of pictures there. When we first got there, some Chinese lady asked to take her picture with me. Being an American is a novelty to them. We went to the Hall of Clocks & Watches and I took like 60 pictures there alone! They had the most amazing pieces. There were clocks that were at least 12 feet tall! I will put up the pictures soon. My internet is a little wonky, so I can't load pictures very well. Sorry!

We made friends in the Forbidden City & some lady tried to grab Danielle. It was interesting just from the people aspect. One of my favorite things to do here is look at all of the crazy clothing. I am blown away by what they think is appropriate to wear. I think that I am going to work on posting pictures of the crazy clothes. That way everyone else can see what craziness I am experiencing.

I got fainty at the Forbidden City because I slept through dinner the night before. We had baozi for breakfast, but they were small. However, they were delicious!! So, after we finished in the museum we came back to the hostel. We grabbed some lunch (dumplings) and lounged for a bit. We did a lot of walking at the Forbidden CIty.

Once we were rested, we headed out to the Temple of Heaven. We somehow completely missed the East Entrance directly to our right and ended up walking all the way around to the North Entrance. So, that kind of made it start out poorly. After that, we bought tickets & I bought water all by myself!! I was really proud of that. We walked through and it was pretty big. It wasn't as awesome as some people said. But it was still cool. Not as good as the Great Wall or Forbidden City.

After the Temple of Heaven we went to the Pearl Market. It's basically a huge flea market. There are 5 stories with all sorts of stuff. The first floor is watches, gadgets, and scarves. You can buy an "iPod" there! The second floor was purses and clothing. Danielle & I both bought purses. Hers is a Hermes knock off & mine is a Jimmy Choo knock off. We got pretty good deals on them, we are proud!

We came home and chilled and then went to dinner. The hostel had free barbecue tonight. It was pretty good, just a lot of food on a stick. But it filled me up, surprisingly.

I think tomorrow we are going the Summer Palace. So that will be exciting. Danielle said it is beautiful!