Today was our first day of sightseeing. Everyone was up before 6 A.M., I feel it gets light really early here. I went with the boys to get breakfast today. We tried to go to the bread store, but it opened at 7 and there was a line waiting. We ended up getting made to order soup dumplings from a restaurant, then got the soy milk and yotel. This time they got fresh tofu with some brown sauce on it. I knew I wouldn’t like it, but I was a good sport and tried it anyway. Yuck. Apparently some kind of bean sauce, but it was brown and looked like it had mushrooms in it. An acquired taste I’m later told. I prefer my fresh warm tofu with jam on it. Now that is yummy!
My husband is not a fan of public transportation. We “ubered” it to Tiantan(The Temple of Heaven) and met his cousin there. On the way there we went past several places I went 5 years ago. This was a park my husband used to play a lot in as a child. It’s a lot walking to the various relics, everything is fenced in to keep you off the grass and out of the buildings, letting you just peek inside. Since people aren’t allowed in, 1 particular building was getting a lot of attention from the sparrows flying around it like bats.
I totally forgot most public bathrooms don’t provide toilet paper! Thank God I have boys. Some places will have 1 roll at the entry to the bathroom where you can grab some to take in with you. Lots of squatter toilets. You also are not to flush the Kleenex/toilet paper you use, but put it in the garbage can inside every stall.
The echo wall I think used to be the coolest part of The Temple of Heaven. But since you can’t get close enough to actually use it, nor is it quiet enough with all the tourists. This park doesn’t have any water or a lot of flowers. Mostly long grass you cannot walk on and lots of different pine/cedar trees. We did get my favorite tonghulu(haw on a stick). This time they were packaged and frozen. Maybe we can start to find them back home now?!??
We could here some massive thunder so I opted to go shopping right after since the Pearl Market is right outside the entrance. I also remember Toy City being close by. That place has since closed in the last few years, so the cousin led us to a mall close by, we did bus it 2 stops. The toy floor of this mall we went to was more geared to figurines from Pokémon to anime to
Transformers to wildlife. A whole floor of shop windows filled with shelves of figurines. It was like walking through a museum but not what kids think of as a toy store. This mall reminded me of bein in Japan, so many floors (9) and all rather small just around the elevators.
We went to the food court on the top floor. We got several small bowls of yummy side dishes with rice. Garlic scapes and pork, Beijing style spinach and peanuts, marinated cucumbers. After I went to the bathroom there and saw a worker washing their hands. Lovely a no soap bathroom! Thank goodness I was already done eating, sometimes you just can’t think about it or you’ll be sick.
We walked to a different mall a block away to watch Star Wars: Solo! Their regular popcorn was carmel corn. The boys were so happy to finally watch it. Han Solois the best! But I was hoping it would have Harrison Ford in it. They boys were like no mom he(Han) is dead. Well it could’ve been his life flashing before his eyes as he died. As soon as the credits started they shut it off and turned on the lights....leave now.
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