Wednesday 27 March Beijing

These early morning are killing me, I don’t think I could manage a land tour any more and can’t wait to get on the ship tomorrow and hang everything up and put the suitcase under the bed for 18 nights! After breakfast we drove to the Temple of Heaven, this was a really lovely morning, still lots of people around but nothing like yesterday.  The first entry point took us into the gardens and it was really amazing to see so many locals there, mostly senior citizens, retired people.  Men retire at age 50 and women at 55 so there are lots of people exercising, playing cards and other games along a wall, some doing tai chi and others singing in a choir.  Another group, we were not allowed to go too close, were grandparents matchmaking!!!  Apparently they lay out sheets of paper with photos and details of their grandchild and try & make a deal!  The Temple was beautiful, we couldn’t go inside but could walk all around.

Description

 It is an imperial complex of religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing,  the complex was visited by the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to heaven for good harvest.  

From there we were driven to the airport - quite a fiasco to be honest, got charged for bags being overweight, (expected that), then another couple also needing a wheelchair had to wait before going through security separately.  That’s when the proverbial hit the fan and boy! there were lemons everywhere but no gin so I had to wait until arriving in Shanghai to get a well deserved glass of Chinese wine!!!!! Must be day 4.  The flight was without incident, a tour guide on the bus talked for over an hour non stop and so we arrived in the downtown area at our hotel at 6 pm in the dark and Shanghai looked amazing.  Once again all the designer shops are here, the hotel Ritz Carlton is very grand and people are lovely.  Had a nice Chinese meal at an adjacent restaurant.