This morning was our first adventure with the subway. We went as a group to visit the Temple of Heaven. Unlike most subways I have been on in the United States, the subway turned out to be incredibly easy to use. All the stops were clearly marked in Chinese and English. This made us feel more confident in using the subway on our own.
The Temple of Heaven was slightly disappointing. Although it was beautiful, it looked a lot like the buildings we had already seen. The interesting part was the park surrounding the temple. Inside the east gate, there were many performers, singing songs, dancing, and telling stories. They even had a small band that played traditional Chinese folk songs, while a large group of people stood around joining in song. Inside the west gate there was a large green space. Most of it made up of rows and rows of trees which were blocked off to foot traffic; but there were also small gardens that people spent time in to relax. The park seemed like a place that locals came to take a break from their busy lives and maybe take part in some dancing and singing, or just have a snack in the small gardens, very much like parks I visit in the United States.
The second half of the day we went shopping. First we walked over to the pearl market. I was not really planning on buying pearls because I already have a pair that I really love, but it was neat to see how much freedom you have to create whatever necklace or bracelet you’d like. There were many other vendors, similar to the ones we saw in other places, selling purses, shoes, scarves, and electronics. For the most part, the vendors were not as aggressive as some that we had been around before, barring the vendors near the shoes and purses who often pulled or tugged at us. Since I don’t like to shop, even in the United States, this really turned me away from purchasing. For me, if the vendors just left me alone, I would be more likely to stop and look at the things they have to sell because I don’t feel pressure to purchase anything. I guess I can consider it a good money saver.
While the rest of the group went back to the hotel to relax, Jay and I decided to stay out and continue shopping in Beijing since we both had purchased very little. We decided to try taking the subway to Wangfujing Street, where we were on the second day. We went back to the small market we had visited on the first trip. We found one vendor, who was both incredibly aggressive but also seemed very desperate. It was easy to bargain with her, and both Jay and I got great deals on a few items.
We had to meet the group at the Chaoyan Theater at 7 for an acrobatics show at 7:15. With about an hour and a half before 7, we decided to eat dinner at Wangfujing Street. However, when it was 6:15 and our food had not yet come out, we started to get nervous, recognizing the fact that we were three blocks, 6 subway stops, 1 transfer, and heaven knows how far from the theater. The food finally came out and we ate an entire pizza in less than five minutes, saving the crust for the run to the subway station. We ran about two blocks to the subway station while attempting to finish the crusts of our pizza, and then continued our running through the subway station. Four subway stops, a transfer station, and two more stops later we got off the subway at 6:55. Vivienne had said the theater is directly next to the subway station, but we looked around and didn’t see anything that looked remotely like a subway station. I had a note that Ruby wrote the name of the theater on in English and Chinese, so we asked someone on the street to point us in the correct direction, however the first person we asked apparently had no idea where the theater was, because the next person we asked pointed us the direction we had just come from. At 7:02 we finally arrived at the theater cold from the rain and tired from the running. It was absolutely worth it though, because the show was excellent.