Terra's Journey Begins: China continued

After the day on the Great Wall, the tour took us back to the hostel and there was a little down time before the show I was going to see that night, booked through the hostel, The Last Kung Fu. I wondered around the area by my hostel for a while checking it all out.

Gotta love the feeling of home.

I was trying to find this street that had old paintings on the walls but I was not able to find the street, I tried to ask the military guards but they put their hand in my face before I uttered a word out.

The hostel drove me and 2 other people from the hostel to the show. They were great, one was from Spain and one was from Mexico. One spoke a little English but the other one didn't really speak any so in China I got to use my Spanish. It was great, and it really all started to come back to me, who would have guessed.

I thought he was a statue at first but he is the kid from the show. He sat so still it was creepy.

The show was the best show I have ever seen and I'm from Chicago and have seen some great shows but nothing like this one. The show was in English and had Chinese sub-titles. The acting and fighting was amazing. After the show you could take pictures with the cast for 20 yen which is about $2 so of course I did.

After the show we went out in the town to check things out. We found a great bar with a singer who sang English songs and informed me Whitney Huston had died. I was shocked but she sang a song in her memory.

It was a great night with new friends.

The next morning I headed out to the Temple of Heaven. The subway in China is so easy to use but crazy crowded. Everything is written in English and there are helpful maps everywhere. While in China I climbed so many stairs going up and down those subways... I counted 52 steps. The Temple of Heaven was easy to find, right off the subway stop. People use bikes in China to get everywhere, even in the brutal cold.

There were women and older people all over the park exercising but to me it just looked like a peaceful dance.

While the women danced, the men played games.

You had to buy special tickets to see some of the temples. I bought one for 20 yen and though it was only good for one temple, later after buying 2 tickets for temples, found out that one ticket for 20 yen was good for all the special temples, there went 20 yen wasted due to a language barrier.

The wood used to make this temple was a special kind of wood, that smelt so good, even though it was so old, it still had an amazing smell to it.

The Temple of Heaven was beautiful and quiet. I walked around for about 3 hours in the peaceful bliss.

After the Temple of Heaven, I made my way to Tiananmen Square for the Forbidden City. Using the subway it was fast and easy to get there.

This is outside Tiananmen Gate, the entrance into the Imperial Palace and onward to the Forbidden City.

Outside the Imperial Palace, this creepy guy was following me but one of the Military men noticed and took him away.

Inside the Imperial Palace

The details and colors were so beautiful.

From the Imperial Palace you continue to walk back and you finally come to the Forbidden City.

This is Qian Qing Gong, The Palace of Heavenly Purity. It was built during the Ming Dynasty in 1420 and rebuilt in 1798 during the Qing Dynasty. It was were they handled the political affairs.

In the gift stores, people would leave money in the items that were being sold and no one would take it.

This was a fountain that people put money in , in hopes their wishes would be granted, they believed the bigger the offering, your chances were better, so there were some large bills in this water fountain.