Ok.. I rushed that last post a little too soon without consulting my tour guide! Instead the game plan was go get breakfast, which here is a bit different than in the US. We ate at a place called Kung Food. It is a bit of a chain restaurant here. The menu items are not typically found in the US like duck, which I am told is not very good at this place. But don't worry we will eventually find a place for good duck!
I can honestly tell you that it is impossible to go hungry with Mengchen! There is always food around and she teases me that I eat like a girl, since I have been watching my weight since the start of the year I do not eat this much food! But I give it a good try. This breakfast is more like a lunch in the US. The only thing that is breakfast like is the scrambled and poached egg.
Later I was greeted by Jackie Chan and given the camera to the city, as we moved to the technology market.
Then we found our way down to the technology market.
Now this would be considered a flea market here in the US, however these people come out of there booths to really sell you on coming into their booths to buy there stuff. I kinda thought of it as the Chinese Billy Mays proving grounds! After looking around there was nothing that was incredibly a screaming deal that I could not live without. I guess the price of technology is the same around the world!
We quickly abandoned this place as it was a little crazy there and then decided to head to the zoo so I could see a Panda at the Beijing zoo. We got there and worked our way through the zoo. Most of the animals seemed to be sleeping or had lack of any movement. But I saw some animals that I never even heard of before. Like a raccoon dog! Anyway, here is the best picture of the panda that I could get.
After we went through the panda exhibit we found ourselves out in front of a panda statue and a bunch of fiberglass pandas that had all been painted in different ways. There was even one that was painted like spiderman!
I couldn't resist again but play where in beijing is Mengchen so I sent her into the maze of panda's and took the picture. Can you find her? I am still looking she is very sneaky!!
They had a lot of really nice statues in artwork at this zoo. The next couple were the Tiger statue that was actually quite large and the outside of the aquarium.
After we finished at the zoo we decided to head to the Temple of Heaven, which I think has been of the neatest places I have been to yet. Here I got one of the auto guides that would play a recording to you while you walked the grounds. It was actually very educational and pointed out a lot of interesting things that I think would have been missed just walking through the area.
Next I couldn't help but notice that I was becoming the size of godzilla or everything around me was getting smaller. But notice how they all seem to be running?
There are trees here that are over 300 years old. It got me thinking about Glenn and his smoker. This next picture is for you Glenn.. It is an eastern pride smoker and you can use 300 year old juniper! Think of that tasty pork that can make!
Well after we finished at the Temple of Heaven we thought we would hit a little bakery for a snack. I was ready to dig into both of them when I was told that I had to share!
Then it was time to meet her sister and her brother-in-law for dinner. They are two nice people, even though they would not let me buy the dinner, and I was the one to invite them originally!
Here we had duck, pork, and spicy beef. The duck you eat like taco's has I demonstrate here.
Now let me warn you about sneaky little chinese girls who tell you to try things, SO BEWARE OF THE SPICY BEEF! After trying a few pieces, it was cold meat but spiced up nice. I didn't think to ask what part of the beef this was. I later found out it was beef tongue, correction it was BEEF Lung! I guess something got lost in the translation! Anyway, after the dinner we called it a night and we were going to Chengdu tomorrow so that is why I am so late in writing this part of my blog!
Beef lung... can't wait to hear that story!
See, what did I tell you...? the vacation would be over before you knew it.
I'm sure you will be back.
Later!
Glenn.