The trip Day 7 Beijing

M 27 January Beijing day 7. We sleep in late this morning until almost 8:30 and enjoy a light breakfast of eggs, toast and tea at the Red Lantern. I am in somewhat of a tizzy about the state of my laundry (!?) which does not seem to be trying as per the laws of thermodynamics and poor Elizabeth has to deal with a fiesty and under- caffeined David until she can get me to the cafe and called down, while of course being picked up. We return to Tianammen Square and discover that Monday is closed museum day in Beijing. No worries. We walk south and then veer westward into a very up class shopping district of pedestrian mall. At first I am sceptical :the place may be too NYC for people to be having a good time, but my apprehension is in fact ground less. Duck restaurants abound, and I spend some time watching a baker rolling out a crepe dough that must be a metre wide and over that in length, yet subtlely thin. There are vendors selling the most delicate little toy birds with wings that flap when launched. Jewellers, clothing stores, art, bookstores, antiquities real and unreal, actors in opera costume and makeup, and people everywhere enjoying each others company. Elizabeth observes rightly that the sun is truly warming us for the first time since wnter came to Changchun in early November. To our minds this counts as the beginning of spring so we stroll along in a George Harrison state of mind. The area is very clean, bright and decorated in classical elite Chinese themes. We gawk like the tourists we are and then end up to the south where Elizabeth engages a rickshaw to take us to the Temple of Heaven. The driver weaves us through traffic, down some strange back roads and along a bumpy sidewalk before depositing us at the front of the Temple and charging twice what she has proposed. All well and good : the difference was truly minor and the trip was a blast. The Temple of Heaven is another beautifully crafted complex which, the signs tell us, is the largest area devoted to Heaven on the planet. I enjoy the swipe at the Vatican, especially since Matteo Rici may well have worked here on occasion, and try to take some film footage. We spend perhaps an hour and a half when a dress renew rehearsal for an enactment of the Lunar New Year Sacrifice for the Endurance of A Bountiful Harvest diverts what little attention we ever had There are perhaps 150 actors in elite feudal costumes of red, blue, green, purple and yellow variously carrying whips, swords, pilkes, banners, sunshades, peacock feathers and scrolls. Very colourful and there is some pretty powerful gonging coming from somewhere too. After a while we wander to the east gate where we catch the metro back to our neighbourhood. All of this on breakfast, a coffee and a few squares of chocolate! We are famished and therefore find a place to eat meat pie, spinach with nuts, a soup with chicken and mushrooms and rice. Then we do return to the Red Lantern where we plan for the transfer to Guanxi province tomorrow and also discover that my socks has finally more or less dried. Elizabeth retreats to the lobby for warmth and a little time to write while I update this trip diary in the room. Tomorrow we go south...