And another shot of the palace. In front of the palace on a high dias is where the actual ceremony took place. Rows and rows of courtesians, soldiers and officials would like the rings and participate in the ceremony each year. This entire complex was built for a ceremony that lasted only one day, and only happend once a year.
Mike and I take a break for a photo in the gardens. Just to our right was a group of people doing Tai Chi with chinese swords.
Later, we were taken to a very old Chinese Tea shop located on the grounds of this temple complex. We were entertained by a very cool Tea Ceremony....very very different that the Japanse one. It worked, and Mike and I bought a fair amount of tea...good stuff!
Here is a shot looking down into the hotel lobby from our the door of our room. I give the Crowne Plaza folks top marks! Good food, good location, great service!
We went for a drive later on our last night, and drove by Tianamen Square. On the right is the tomb of Chairman Mao.
This is the grand parliment type building of the ruling party in China.
Late at night, after going to a Kung Fu show, Xing Xing took us to a place she said has the best Peking Duke. We were late coming from the Kung Fu show, so they stayed open late just for us. We had about 4 waiters just for our table. It was so cool....just like being millionaires....heh.
Normally the driver and Xing Xing would not eat with us...protocol I guess. But we insisted for this night, and bought them all dinner...the same Peking Duck. It was a 9 course meal....we were stuffed...and the duck was great!
Here is a shot of our hotel. It was right next some great shopping, (see the next photo), just a few blocks from the Forbidden City, and there were lots of restruants nearby.
Here is me on one of the shoping streets near our hotel. It was pretty early in the morning...about 8am I think. Notice tho, how wide the sidealks are...there were tons of cool places to shop for cheap sourviners!