Catching up

Back in the city after our wall trek, we walked through Temple of
Heaven Park and saw lots of locals gathered to sing, play instruments,
play card games or mahjong, or just socialize in the shade. That
evening we went to an acrobatics show. Really talented kids! (their
ages seemed to range from about 8 to 15)

The next morning we went to the Forbidden City.
J: "I guess there's not that much to say about the Forbidden City." K:
"Aside from how much we hated it?" J: "Yeah we were pretty
miserable." It was a humid 95 degree morning with thousands and
thousands and thousands of people crammed inside the symbolic center
of the Chinese universe. We found there was not all THAT much to see,
and most sightseeing consisted of squeezing into a courtyard, finding
the extremely smudged pane of plastic through which you could sort of
peer into some room or other, whilst being jostled and jabbed in the
ribs by chinese tourists who often insist on keeping their umbrellas up even
in dense crowds (to shield the sun, not the rain, mind you.) Were
krissy not wearing a brimmed hat and glasses, she would likely have
been blinded by an umbrella spoke - J was safe because of his height.

Dinner was lovely Peking Duck at Da Dong, a restaurant famous for this
dish (which they just call kao ya, roast duck). They carve the ducks
on a tray near your table, and alert you when your particular bird is
being sliced into bite size morsels. The duck is eaten burrito-style
in a pancake with condiments like plum sauce, cucumber, radish, garlic
paste, shallots, and some mystery things.

Yesterday morning we went to the White Cloud Temple, a Taoist complex
of shrines and temples. It was quite peaceful with just a few
visitors. Taoist monks were going about their business in their simple
monk outfits and cool topknot hairdos.

Next we went to the Summer Palace, built on a lake to the northwest of
the city center where it's cooler. This seemed like an excellent idea
on such a hot day. Unfortunately, the temperature was not noticably
different and there were throngs of tourists buying their chubby
children annoying bird whistles. Combined with the cicadas, the noise
was verging on maddening at times... but fortunately there were 1-yuan
popsicles to be bought, providing a nice distraction from the noise
and the heat. Everyone seemed to have the green kind, so we bought one
even though we were suspicious of the beans pictured on the wrapper.

Just to be safe, we also got one in a blue wrapper which turned out to
be coconut. The green actually was quite tasty once we got used to it
(definitely bean based). Many more popsicles were consumed in the
attempt to make the visit more bearable. Luckily we made it to the top
of the temple on the hill without passing out. The view really was
nice, the buildings were pretty, and there was even a bit of a breeze.
J sketched some wall decoration patterns.

For dinner we had Taiwanese food - couldn't really tell you any
characteristics to distinguish it from Chinese food, at least from
this one experience, but the drinks were worth mentioning: mango purée
and coconut milk with gooey tapioca balls, and an iced green tea latte.

A final goodbye this morning to the extraordinarily nice hotel ladies
(never caught their names), the talking bird, and the puppy (named
Xiao-hei), a quick breakfast at a place down the hutong, and we were
off to the airport.

That brings us to the present - here we are in Shanghai! Eclipse
tomorrow morning!