Day 3 Beijing

For the definition of challenging see the next photo and remember that I was attempting Tai Chi (with this gorgeous Tai Chi master) in a public park on my post Great Wall climbing legs ... (& no. I am not posting a picture of me doing it).

Awkward Tai Chi attempts aside, a walk through the park was a lovely start to the day. This is a place where locals go to meet like-minded friends for sport, dancing, singing, juggling, games, art and match-making (not the light-the-fire kind of match-making, the my-child-should-marry-your-child kind).

That poor little guy is sweeping up all those leaves with a straw broom.

This park surrounds the Temple of Heaven built in the 15th century as a place for the Emperor to worship and secure good harvests for the people. Our guide didn't tell us this but I'm pretty sure the building we saw today though is a 19th century replica that replaced the original that burnt down. Symbolism abounds, square buildings for the earth - round building for heaven - this is also a ying yang thing that you see everywhere here.

We went to a silk factory. Did you ever have silk worms growing up? I did so this was nostalgia central for me. I was hoping to see the looms in action but like the jade factory the creative side was a poor second to the sales floor.

Lunch today was in the old part of town in a local's home, how cute is this guy who was our chef.

in the same area (Hutong) we went on a rickshaw ride around the old streets, how cute is this guy - rickshaw rider extraordinaire.

To follow the theme of cute guys, we visited this fella who told us an amazing story about crickets all in Chinese as though we understood him.

In another time warp day there was still shopping to be done (5 floors of it), dinner to be eaten, glasses to be sorted out. This last one deserves an explanation ...

Those 24 hour glasses we got yesterday worked well for me but were a bit wonky for Mike, literally - the world looked wonky when he had them on today. And I have to say everyone involved in getting that sorted out (our guide, the optometrists, the drivers) were just wonderful. They really make everything so easy here and in such a nice way. We did have a little waiting to do though - and we were really happy to return to our room where this was waiting ...

delightful confirmed.