Sunday 30th July 2017

Today we decided we would just have a walk around the Temple of Heaven and come home for an afternoon Nanna nap as we stayed up talking to Benny until 1.30am China time which was 3.30am Sydney time. It was great to catch see him. I gave him hugs from everyone.

.So after a breakfast of boiled eggs, beans, cucumber, Bok choy, corn and rice we headed on our way. Armed with my technology tools courtesy of DB we started the walk towards the Temple of Heaven. This is a park of 267 hectares with many temples and gardens. On the way we walked past the Performing Arts Centre where Benny will be dancing tonight in the Beijing Dance Festival. There were a few statues of performers in the garden. We continued walking th 2km to the Temple of Heaven.

We bought our tickets using the translate app (34CNY each) for entrance to the park and all the temples. The first thing we encountered were a dance troupe practicing in the park. Thy were doing a type of line dancing. We then walked to the Hundred Flower Garden, the hundred Flower Pavilion, the Rose Garden, Temple of Prayers for the Harvest, the Echo Wall, the Circle Mound Altar. The Chinese are very superstitious and have everything in multiples of 9. Nine bolts in a horizontal line on the door, as well as 9 bolts vertical in each line. Making 81 bolts on each door. Nine steps to each level of the circle mound altar. Nine steps up to the temple, etc etc. It was a very warm day so we headed back home about 1pm for lunch and a rest. We were very weary. Our mornings adventures had us walking about 11km.

I went out after we got back to the hotel to try to get something for lunch. I managed some bananas, apples, peaches, sultanas and peanuts. Enough to keep us going until tea time and to give us a snack tomorrow. After our rest and we went out for our first Chinese meal. Benny suggested the restaurant he went to last night but suggested we ask for no chilli. Thank goodness for Google Translate. With the help of another patron we managed to order braised chicken and cashew nuts and rice with 2 cokes. A very expensive dinner 44CNY ($8.80). Yay, the last of the big spenders.

We then headed to the theatre to watch Benny dance which was amazing. Well we managed to survive our first day in China. Woohoo!!