Beijing - Thursday - Temple of Heaven/Olympics

Thursday was a very low-key day in Beijing. First, we slept until 10am…the last time I slept until 10am was definitely pre-kids back in the College Station days!! It was amazing!! We basically did 3 things in Beijing on Thursday: the Temple of Heaven, Chinese body massages, and the Olympic Sports Complex. It was a great time seeing some of ancient Beijing, relaxing, and then seeing some of modern Beijing!

Another day on the subway...

First stop = Mickey D's and Starbucks!

Always interesting trying to place an order!

I really appreciated these toilet signs everywhere!

We got a little lost coming up out of one subway station and ended up here!

We found it! We spent a couple of hours walking around the Temple of Heaven. This is a huge area of land where the emperors in the Ming Dynasty used to go and worship the heavens - they would abstain from food, drink, and women and pray to the heavens to grant them good harvests.

Lots of people...and this isn't even tourist season!

A random pharaoh dance..(I think he forgot this was China, not Egypt!)

And this might have happened.... :)

This is known as the iconic emblem of Beijing

Throwing up peace signs...because that's what all the Chinese people do in pictures!

Original temple relics from the 1400s!

The park area was SO beautiful - so green and a whole orchard of ancient cypress trees!

The Chinese are pretty serious about their sun visors and medical face masks!

When we got tired of the Temple of Heaven, we hopped on the subway to another part of town to get a Chinese body massage! I think in the USA you would call it a pressure point massage - it was incredible! (and $22!)

After massages, we were searching for a place to eat and came upon this mall, so we had to take some pics for our kids!

Ok, so this meal was a little weird. It was called "baked rice," and it turned out to be this starfish looking thing...

Then the waiter came and mixed it all up together - it was...different!

We ended our evening by walking the plaza at the Olympics Sports Complex. This is the Birds Nest - housed the opening and closing ceremonies and all the track and field for the 2008 Olympics!

The Olympic towers were all lit up and gorgeous!

This is the Water Cube, where Michael Phelps won a ton of medals in 2008!

They are already getting ready for the Winter Olympics 2022 - the first country to host both a summer and winter Games!

And we might have ended our night with our third rickshaw ride.. :)

Friday is coming - last day in China!