As is our usual want, we woke up and got breakfast at the hotel. We then grabbed a cab and went to the Panjiayuan Market. This is an enormous flea market set up on a vacant courtyard in a residential neighborhood. We systematically wandered up and down the aisles. What we noticed was that virtually everyone in a section of about 5 rows sold the same things. I am assuming the prices were all about the same, although you are encouraged to bargain. There were rows and rows of Buddhist prayer beads made of various real and man made products. There were rows of beads for DIY necklace making, along with various things that could be a pendant on said necklaces. There was an area of metal artifacts, Buddha heads, mythological creatures, dragons, dogs, cats, pandas, etc. There were rows of pottery, rows of wooden or marble slabs to be turned into chops of your design.
After we wandered all through this area, we were going to leave when we noticed another entire section of books and paper and that connected to another section of more of what we had wandered through already. At this point, we were flea marketed out, I did bargain for a small trinket.
After this, we ended up looking for lunch and found the pickings quite slim. We went into a place not really knowing what it was and rejected hotpot and opted for McDonald's......now I know, you are thinking have we lost our minds, but Mickey D's in other countries is different and in many ways better. Bill ended up with a chicken sandwich and I had a fish fillet. Both equally evocative of an earlier time and place. Our madelaines? The main purpose for the luncheon break was for a bath room. The restroom in the McDonald's was absolutely disgusting....if I didn't need one, I would have passed by entirely! The market had public restrooms, which are everywhere in Beijing. The issue is that they are squat toilets. Now I had a question about which way to face when using that type of toilet and an experience at the market gave me the answer. I did go into one public restroom and looked for a stall that had a green light, meaning vacant, except it wasn't. There was a women in there and she was facing forward, rear end pointing to the back wall. This answered my question and also embarrassed me sufficiently that I just left. This is why I needed a bathroom and we chose McDonald's.
We headed to the Temple of Heaven which was a short cab ride away. It is in a beautiful park area south by southeast from the center of Beijing. We entered via the East Gate and proceeded to walk to the various pavilions. Many of these were in the same style as was seen in the Forbidden City. There was one spectacular pavilion, the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests. It is raised on a circular plinth on which the circular temple sits. It is a three-tiered pagoda type building. According to the plaques outside, it is where the Emperor would pray for a bountiful harvest.
These temples were ceremonial in nature and were used only at certain times of the year.
At this point, my feet were screaming at me. There is not enough support in the shoes that I brought. I will have to get new kicks. Leaving the park proved more difficult that we thought. You are dumped out the southern exit which faces a busy off and on ramp of one of the ring roads. To flag a cab, we needed to cross the street and stick our hand out pointing to the ground. It seems I have been hailing cabs all wrong....!
We had dinner at a Singaporese restaurant in the APM mall called City Garden. We ordered prickly ash pork dish, garlic bread, durian puffs, something called "volumes" on the menu, oysters and eggs
Above are the durian puffs
The dish above was an absolutely delicious stringbean dish.
Google photos has been a real nightmare. It takes forever to back up photos and then it doesn't back them all up. Soon only some of the meal photos are available right now.
I am updating this on Tuesday night, and a faster wifi may be a huge help. If only there was hot water!
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