Walking to Tiananmen Square
Forbidden City
Tiananmen Square
"Exotic Food Steet" - before the crowds in Wangfujing
Temple of Heaven
Very well manicured
Temple of Heaven
Great walking paths
Attention to details
Rose Garden - Temple of Heaven
Temple of Heaven
Our "waiting spot" at the airport
Final day in Beijing. I decided to get an early start and walked down to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City from our hotel. I just couldn't leave Beijing without seeing these sites another time. Busy as usual - I snapped several photos, stopped by the famous "exotic food street" on the way back to the hotel, and then met up with Randy/Wendy for breakfast.
After breakfast, we took a metro to the Temple of Heaven. Located only a few metro stops from our hotel, the Temple of Heaven is a spectacular garden/temple area. We had great views of the Echo Wall, the Rose Garden, and the picturesque walkways through the Cyprus forest. We spent about 2-3 hours on the grounds.
Back to the hotel to complete packing and then a taxi to the airport for our 5pm flight to Xi'an, China. Tomorrow we'll do the Terra Cotta Warrior Tour.
I write this blog aboard a Chinese Eastern Airlines plane. We've been sitting on the tarmac for the last 2 hours. It's storming outside and our flight is grounded for now. This comes after a 2-hr delay before we were even able to board. Bad storms in China today. Our plane was coming from Shanghai where the main weather front was located. We were lucky to be able to fly at all - as many flights had been cancelled earlier. It's challenging on days like today, especially in foreign countries because you never really know what's going on. Delays happen - but you always hope for the best. The biggest struggle was that we were not actually allowed to check in for the flight until about 1 hour before boarding. We continued to get the "Check back with us in 30 minutes" line.
After getting the go-ahead, we hurried through security check and made it to the terminal on time. All good stuff! Travel mishaps are all part of the adventure and make for more interesting stories in the future. Positives - we made are flight and were safe in the process. At the end of the day - that's what's important.
LATER ---- the flight finally got off the ground around 9:15pm (4-hr total delay). We arrived into Xi'an about 11:30pm. A 1-hr taxi to the Hilton Xi'an at 12:30am for a quick nights sleep. We were entertained when our cab driver played Katy Perry - "Roar". You just never know out there. As the Beatles once said: "Let it Be, Let it Be - Whisper Words of Wisdom -- Let it Be"
Tomorrow we get to see something that will be a highlight of the trip for sure!
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