Another Great Wall video and yesterday's adventures

Here's another video from the Great Wall:



It's freezing cold in Beijing now. We've taken somewhat abbreviated tours because of it. We didn't end up going to the Forbidden City yesterday because Ki-Ki was under the weather and wasn't up for going out. So tomorrow we're planning to do the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, AND a Peking Duck dinner all in one day. I'm feeling lazy about posting, but here's the rundown:

Yesterday we tried to go to the Beijing Underground City (Beijing Di Xia Cheng), and I was proud of myself for navigating us to the somewhat obscure entrance with relative ease (well, we did have to stop in a bookstore, buy a new map, and spend ten minutes asking one of the workers there for directions...). Unfortunately, for some reason or other we couldn't quite understand, it was closed. So we walked to Tiananmen, took a few pictures of the Mao Tomb and the Gate to the City, then found a Tea House Grace had read about in her tour book: Lao She Cha Guan (Old Tea House?) to warm up. The second floor were quiet and beautiful private rooms, but we decided on the more laid back third floor where a tradional Chinese music ensemble was playing. We had some special blooming tea and small tea cakes. We ended up staying for a few hours and also were treated to a fun Shadow Puppet show.

Then we braved the cold again and headed for the shopping district, Wang Fu Jing.

Shopping, some eating of haw candy (bing tang hu lu), then back to Chi-Chu's on the subway. That night Chi-Chu, Jen, and I had Shichuan food--so spicy and good.

And now I'm off to play ping pong. Today's adventures will have to be told later...