Beijing (our two houses)

We are here! China! We are in our second house in Beijing (in China).  The first house we stayed at was full of stuffed bunnies.  It was in an apartment on the eighth floor and it was right next to a subway station, which was great!

While we were staying there, we went to the Temple of Heaven, which was very beautiful and colorful.  There were also lots of artists painting around the park surrounding the temple.  On that same day, we got this long dumpling thing that my parents LOVED (and I liked it fine).  We also went to a mall with a toy store in it.  I bought a little ball that hovers in my hand.

the long dumpling things

the temple

We went to Olympic Park another day.  We went to the Water Cube, a giant water park.  And literally nobody was there so we did not have to wait in any lines for the water slides.  My dad went on this one water slide where he stood in this little box and then the guy monitoring the slides pushes a button and the floor of the box disappears.  Then he went on a loopty-loop in the slide.  Dad said water sprayed in his face.  Mom also did the slide and she said when you are in the box it does a countdown before the ground disappears.  She said that part was scary.  Dad did the slide a second time, Mom thought he was crazy.

water cube

inside the water cube

We took a subway to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.  At the Square, there was a huge basket surrounded by flowers and lots of people were selling photos.  We went to the Forbidden City, but we did not end up going inside because we saw a cool park to go to instead.  The park was nice and we found a great place with a nice view so I could sit and do my writing.

the forbidden city

the flower basket

where I sat to write 

We took a bus to the Great Wall of China. Then we took a cable car up to the top of it and we walked along it for about an hour.  The view was THE BEST and it went on forever.  SOOOOO LOOOOOONG. We took a five minute long toboggan ride down it (sooo fun).  I wish I could do that again!

the wall

more of the wall

the toboggan

a frog we saw on the wall

In our next place in Beijing, we did not go to that many touristy places because it was the holiday and because we went to most of the touristy places when were staying at the bunny house.  In this place there was a piano (😀) so I could practice a bit.  This apartment was on the 23rd floor (which turned out to be the 20th floor because they have some unlucky numbers that they did not make floors for).

The places that we did go were:

1. Laitai flower market - this market was full of fountains, flowers, bonsai and some very cute sea creatures (fish and turtles) 
2. Jongshan park - this park had a big hill with a great view of the Forbidden Palace, which is way bigger than I thought it would be!
3. Beihai park - this park was huge and we went boating with our friends that we met when we stayed at the bunny house.  
4. 798 Art District - this art area has a lot of galleries with awesome art and you can see the old 798 factory.  This place also had a lot of cool statues where ever you walk.   

painting at 798

798 factory

beihai boats

jongshan park

jongshan park veiw