One bad mama

Tom makes an offering to the gods.

Today we went to the Temple of Heaven, which is where the emperors would offer sacrifices. Tom, of course, got a photo at the very place where the emperor would prostrate himself before God. The Little Emperor, appropriately, chose the temple for his first diaper blowout. Not too messy, but it did make him quite cranky.

The temple is in a really cool, really huge park - about 600 acres right in the middle of the city. Our guide told us that Chinese people don't like to be alone, even with their families and extended families, so they look for places to gather. The park has a HUGE area with exercise equipment where people - most of them retired - stretch, twist, and do pullups and situps. In other large areas people do traditional Chinese dances and something that looks suspiciously like tai chi. In a very long corridor people gather to play cards, do needlework, crochet, sing and more.

I got bawled out by a very old woman playing cards who was upset that a bit of Quinn's skin was showing between his sock and his pants. I let her adjust his socks, which she did, then she grabbed my hand and put it against his hand to show he was cold. Then she started SCREAMING at me about how he needed more clothes. I finally just walked away, with her grabbing my shirt and trying to get me to stop so she could yell at me more. Our guide said her two-year-old daughter on a cool day like today wears long underwear, pants and sweat pants. (Mind you, the day we met Quinn he had a heat rash and was sweating profusely from all the layers of clothes he had on.) But she also said that houses in Beijing don't get the heat turned on until Nov. 15 - the government decides when everyone's heat will go on - so everyone has to bundle up.












This is a huge choir that was singing just outside the temple gates. They sounded amazing, and really added to the already wonderful atmosphere.

This afternoon we had a delicious meal at a Chinese fast food place our guide recommended as someplace workers in the neighborhood eat. We had huge bowls of delicious broth with tofu and vegetables, rice and drinks for $3. Interestingly, the bobo drinks (smoothies with big, black tapioca beads in the bottom) were served hot. Mine was blueberry and Tom's was orange. Our guide said Chinese people believe hot food aids digestion and they do not eat cold food during the winter. Very odd sensation, but we got used to it in the end. After that we walked through new and old neighborhoods of Beijing, with Quinn in his Baby Bjorn facing outwards. He loved looking around at everything and was beautifully behaved except for when we went into a bookstore. Guess he won't be much of a shopper...