Museums & Palaces

We got up this morning and went straight to the National Museum of China! We just love museums!

We didn't anticipate just how many people would have the same plan as us. Apparently it is kind of hard to get into the museum, because they only let a certain amount of people in per day, and half of those people must book online in advance. Luckily we were in line early enough, and were actually sent to a shorter line for foreign passport holders. We were in the museum soon enough!

There were some really good exhibits at the museum! Probably my favorite was one of the first we went to, which was a series of GIGANTIC paintings that mostly had to do with World War 2 or the cultural revolution. They were just so big, I can't imagine making such a painting! 

There were a lot of pottery exhibits. It is crazy how old some of the pottery was, even though it looked so new. We saw lots of cool Chinese artifacts as well, including two terra cotta warriors. I was glad to see the warriors at the museum, since we weren't able to take mom to Xian! Now she can still say that she saw the Terracotta Warriors, haha.

One super cool exhibit was a collection of gifts given to Chinese political leaders from other leaders around the world. It was interesting to see what kind of items people chose to represent their country. We liked to find the gifts from America, which were generally easy to spot out. For example, there was a bust of Abraham Lincoln and some Native American statues. There were also some random things from America, like mantelpieces of fish and flowers. 

One random exhibit was of ancient African art. It was random but fun to walk through! What a unique style they had. What we noticed the most in that exhibit is how much they exaggerated certain body parts... how couldn't you notice? We took this picture in a tamer section.

By that time we had only hit a portion of the museum but were feeling ready to move on to our next adventure. So after a quick stop at McDonald's (bless McDonald's for always being there when we need quick food!) we were on our way to The Summer Palace!

I've been to the Summer Palace before, but today we entered in a different gate than I had, so it was completely unfamiliar! The Summer Palace is huge, it is nearly impossible to see it all in one visit, so I was excited to explore a new section. What a beautiful place!

While exploring the Summer Palace grounds, mom bought a hat that she is very excited about.  It is kind of like a stretchy spandex material.  All the moms here have them, and now mine fits right in!

Eventually we reached the longest corridor in the world, which I had walked before. It was beautiful to see the lake beside it.

We walked along the water, eventually making it to the marble boat. We couldn't go on the marble boat, but it surely is a sight to see! Can you imagine being so rich that you could build such a splendid boat that could never actually move?!

After checking out that boat, we hopped on a dragon boat which would take us to the other side of the site.

Pulling away from the dock, we had the most magnificent view of where we had just left from. Chinese architecture is just so unique and cool! I forgot to take a picture though. 

By the time we got to the other side of the lake we decided we were ready for our next adventure. We hopped on a bus then the subway to get to the Temple of Heaven park. We got into the park, but we couldn't get into the actual temple site. We were about a half hour too late! We could see part of the temple over the gate, though, so we were okay.

We really enjoyed the park, and just sat and watched the normal life go on. Like a guy sitting alone, just singing to himself. And three baby birds falling out of a tall tree to their deaths... that was a little confusing and upsetting. We also found a section of the park where there were tons of people playing some variation of badminton, and other people playing the Chinese version of hackey sack! We had to buy a couple of the little feather things off of the people there, the game looked so fun!

We couldn't believe how many people were at the park just exercising after their work day. It was like a rec center, or an outdoor (and more fun) version of a gym! We sat and watched everyone and wished that people were more like that in the States. How fun would it be to get your exercise in during the evening, just socializing and playing games with your neighbors?

Our evening ended with dinner in a food court, where we each got what we wanted for dinner. I opted for Indian food which was delicious. We walked back to our apartment tonight, taking in the sights of Beijing, as we will be leaving early tomorrow morning!