Buddha's, Parks & More!

Journal #39 April 2, 2009

Well today was my last day in Beijing. We had our day packed with things to do. We were first heading to The Temple of Heaven. When we got there we had to walk through a park. This park was the coolest park I had even been to. The first thing I saw was a group of women all lined up twirling ribbon in the air. Right beside them were about 50 couple's ball room dancing to the music. Next to them were men doing Ti Chi. For about a mile we walked and got to see people enjoying their day. Most of these people were men and women who were around that age of 60. They were most likely retired and just enjoying their life. My favorite part was playing bad mitten with a Chinese man. Of course I did not do very well but it was still an experience.

When we got to the temple we only had about 10 min to walk around, which I did not really care about so I went back to the park and played around. I got a lot of good videos!!! After lunch we headed to another temple called The Lama Temple. I really enjoyed this temple because the biggest Buddha in the world was here. It was soooooooooooo big. I think our guide told us 28 meters high?? That was really fascinating.

After the temple we headed to a market and did some shopping. I again bought way too much, but got some really cute stuff. When we got to the air port I realized, 'how in the world am I going to get all this stuff home.' It took me about 20 min to stuff everything in my bags. The plane ride went well, it was the biggest air plane I had ever been on. I was row 74 and there was still a whole section behind me. When we arrived to the ship I saw the MV Explorer for the first time in Shanghai. The view was absolutely breath taking. The lights from the city were shining off the boat and our boat actually had lights on it too!!! I knew something was up because of this. And of course I was right, when we got the gang way we had to wait for an hour while over 100 high up Chinese people got off. They had a dinner for them on the ship trying to raise money. So we waited for an hour in the rain and cold with all of our luggage. Not very fun. I was so tired from the days events I crashed in my room. I had to get ready for my last day in China the next day.

Love
Michelle