Today was our full day off. We got up, ate breakfast and followed Krysta to the Temple of heaven. In order to get there, we had to experience our first Beijing subway ride. The first impression I had was that the subway system is pretty safe. After purchasing a ticket, if you had a bag, you actually had to put it through an x-ray machine. They are also the nicest subways I have ever been to. It took about 45 minutes to get to the Temple of Heaven via subway. Once again, the amount of land set aside for this temple was huge. It took about an hour and a half to cover the entire grounds. There were people praying, dancing, and singing what I was assuming to be something that was a part of their religious ceremonies. There were quite a few fields with the greenest grass I have ever seen. The temple was neat too. It was raised off of the ground so we had to take a few steps to get up to it. It looked like all of the other temples that we have seen on this trip. There was also a circular mound that had nine rings layered on the top. I believe that nine is a holy number that represents the heavens. There was a huge garden on the property too. It was lined with trees and purple flowers. It was a really neat and peaceful place to walk through. We saw some people praying while we were there. After the Temple of Heaven, we headed over to the Pear Market. I did some bargain shopping there (although I didn’t get any pearls).
After the pearl market, we took the subway back to our hotel where we ate dinner in the area. After dinner, we hopped into a taxi and headed off to a Chinese acrobatic show. The show was amazing. I still can’t believe all of the things that they did. Some of the stuff was extremely dangerous and I thought I was going to witness somebody die. They were messing with us though. They were good at pretending they were off balance and were going to fall a good 20-30 feet but it was all a part of the show. It was one of the coolest shows I have seen. I am glad I went.