Day 3 in Beijing

Our 3rd day in Beijing was filled with more sight seeing inside the city.

Just passing a wedding on the way to the park!

 The park had a lake in the center and a walking path all the way around it.

 All along the path were different groups or individuals doing different activities.  All of them were older people.  Our guide was telling us that this park is were a lot of senior citizens socialize because it is free for them to enter.

 A Zumba type class....

Hacky sack

The Mandarin Duck

 Rickshaw tour through the Hutong

In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of siheyuan, traditional courtyard residences.  Many neighborhoods were formed by joining one siheyuan to another to form a hutong, and then joining one hutong to another. The word hutong is also used to refer to such neighborhoods.

Since the mid-20th century, the number of Beijing hutongs has dropped dramatically as they are demolished to make way for new roads and buildings. More recently, some hutongs have been designated as protected areas in an attempt to preserve this aspect of Chinese cultural history.

 Hanging courtyard garden

 The Lama Temple

Formerly an imperial palace, later converted into a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, the Lama Temple is one of Beijing's most famous monasteries.

 Male Lion at the entrance

 Prayer Wheel

 Then, we were off to the Chaoyang Theatre to see an acrobatic show.

We ended the night with another swim and I went on an adventure to the mall attached to our hotel to bring back Pizza Hut.

Life is Good with more Chinese sights!

A Day at the Great Wall

Before heading to the Great Wall we wanted to make a quick stop to see some of the 2008 Summer Olympic structures.  We literally just pulled off the highway and took a few pictures.  We had a great view of the Bird's Nest and the Olympic Rings.

 The Beijing National Aquatics Center(The Water Cube) where Michael Phelps won his 8 Gold medals.

 Once we got to the wall entrance we took a bus up and then did more walking up to the cable car.

 The view was amazing and the snow made it even nicer!

Thanks to Wikipedia for another explanation:

 The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century bce;^[2] these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall.^[3] Especially famous is the wall built 220–206 bce by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. Little of that wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty.

Other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.

The Great Wall stretches from Dandong in the east, to Lop Lake in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. A comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has concluded that the Ming walls measure 8,850 km (5,500 mi).^[4] This is made up of 6,259 km (3,889 mi) sections of actual wall, 359 km (223 mi) of trenches and 2,232 km (1,387 mi) of natural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers.^[4] Another archaeological survey found that the entire wall with all of its branches measure out to be 21,196 km (13,171 mi).^[5]

I think this plaque says it best............

 The now made it very pretty, but also very slippery.  There was once shoveled lane on the right side that people were trying to use when walking both directions.

 Another dip in the pool......

 The girls voted for room service for dinner.  

The TV was either in Chinese or English sports and news. 

 Good thing we could plug into our Slingbox in the US for Disney channel.

Life is Good when you get to see one of the 7 Wonders of the World!!!