Part of what made the Summer Palace so much better for us was that we had a chance to hang out with all the Chinese enjoying the park first thing in the morning. In fact, we were able to join in with some of their activities, specifically, ribbon-twirling, hacky-sacking, kite-flying, and group dance aerobics. They were all so friendly and happy to have us join in that it was a blast.
After the Summer Palace, we hopped a cab over to another "must see," the Lama Temple. This is the biggest and best Bhuddist temple in Beijing. It was actually several temples in one complex, with increasingly large Bhuddas in each of the separate buildings. The largest of these is over 80 feet tall, and apparently made out of a single tree! It's so tall that you can barely see the head when you crane your neck to peer up four stories.
After the Lama Temple, we went back to Tianenmen Square to really do it this time instead of a walk-by. Unfortunately, we arrived after the Mao Zedong Museum had closed for the day at noon, so we contented ourselves by strolling around the immense public square (largest in the world) and then having tea at a tea-house overlooking Tianenmen.
Then, in our search for the Beijing Underground Museum, which is apparently a bunch of tunnels built during the Soviet era, we ended up wandering around the Hutong for a couple hours (apparently the museum is no longer there). We made at least two friends, one of whom liked Jessica, and tried to get her to come home with him, and the other of whom took a liking to me and walked with us all the way back to Tianenmen, commenting incessantly about how tall I am.
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