China — Day 3: June 2019

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Our second full day in China was a hot one. We started off by being able to sleep in a bit, which was nice because it was a long day as well.

We went to the Temple of Heaven, which was magnificent but we spent most of the time trying to find shade. The grounds were beautiful but we didn’t see too much of it.

We then stopped at the Pearl market, where we got to see an oyster be opened up “live” with a bunch of pearls inside (we got to keep a few!). The kids made their own necklaces and also of course Han found a few “loose” pearls (really tiny ones) on the floor, which they let us keep. Leslie got a few gifts to bring home too.

We then went to the Summer Palace which was also magnificent, but the grounds are several times bigger than Tiananmen Square so there was no way to see it all. We did get to look around for a bit but by then everyone was a bit exhausted so we took it easy.

On the way out, the bus stopped at an overlook to where a bunch of the buildings for the 2008 Olympics still are, so we got some pictures, and then drove by some of the other Olympics sites. We then headed to the Beijing train station — the largest/busiest in Asia — and got on our overnight sleeper train to Xi’an.

You can always go to the SmugMug gallery to view or download all of the pictures and video or order prints directly from SmugMug.