Beijing Temples and Shopping

Our last two days were spent with temple and shopping. Saturday we headed to The Temple of Heaven. 

On our way in there was a cute little lady dancing and Taylor went and danced with her.

Before we knew it we were all dancing with her. She was so cute and so happy. 

Then onto the temple we went.

The temple was beautiful but you couldn't go inside. The outside was very ornate and colorful. We took pictures and walked the grounds. Nick is a videographer and is very, very good so we also shot some footage. I was filming the boys doing handstands. Picture this: Jerem is standing in the middle smiling while nick is hand walking around him in circles. Meanwhile Joe is trying to do handstands. At the exact moment while I am filming and yell "look at Joe's moves" he catapults his legs into Jerem sending Jerem flying into Nick and crash landing onto the floor. All of them now sprawled on the ground laughing hysterically while the Chinese stare wide eyed. It wAs an amazing display of human dominoes. 

Then off to the Pearl Market. The pearl market has a food court inside that is so delicious. It was hands down the BEST chinese food we have found since being here and if I could eat in that food court everyday for the rest of the trip I would! The food was delicious and full of flavor! 

After a full belly the bargaining started. The Pearl Mart is HUGE! There is SO Much to see and even more to buy. We spent 4 hours in there and easily could have spent way more. Also spent 1,000 yuan. But hey I got some great deals. The Chinese and incredibly pushy. They will literally grab you as they are screaming at you trying to get you to buy anything. It's intimidating but also a fun challenge. If you go to Beijing plan a full day of shopping. You won't regret it. 

After that we got some boba. I'm addicted to boba. I think it will be the death of me. It's the only thing I've ever wanted to drink besides water and I want it all the time. 

This is Jenny she strung all the pearls I bought. Necklaces, bracelets, earrings. Oh pearls, pearls, and more pearls. 

Oh! On one of these days we discovered the cookies. Those really good ones. Yeah we went back everyday. So good! 

That night we wanted to find the night market with all the crazy food. That was supposed to be an easy thing, but nothing is ever easy. First of all by this point my feet were in screaming pain. We had been on them nonstop for three days. We literally only stopped to eat and sleep. I had blisters and blood in addition to the bunions that have to be cut out of my feet when I get home. It hurt so bad. Not even after working weddings had I ever been in so much pain. The boys also seem to think a hey I'm running a marathon pace is acceptable. All day. Every day. It took all I had to try and keep up with them. So we head out in search of this market but we don't know where so we start asking people where you can eat scorpions. Good thing Jerem took some Chinese, he's been a saving grace.   Down dark alleys we go, around corners, up hugongs, all while racing the clock because the market closes at 9:00 and its 8:30. Finally after a really long time and a lot of pain we find this place. 

The smells. Oh the smells. Talk about disgusting. Almost as disgusting as all the food on sticks including: baby sharks,  crickets, grasshoppers, silk worms, starfish, seahorse, snake, scorpions, tarantulas, and other disgusting things. Some made me gag just looking at them.

I was brave and tried fruit on a a stick dipped in candy. 

That was good! Then I got real adventurous and got some corn. It was gross.

Then came the real fun. 

No, I did not eat it. BUT I faced a fear and put that thing on my tongue. I almost cried. 

Taylor then bought starfish that was filled with some disgusting black gunk. I don't even want to know. 

He eats anything. Too bad the tarantula was 80 yuan or he would have eaten that too. 

After the food we found the neatest high class outdoor mall that reminded me of London. However it was closing. Sad day. So began our walk back to the hostel. 

On our way out of the metro there is this little street stand that sells corn and roasted meats etc. They were blasting some chinese pop and so of course the boys start to dance and Taylor gets way into it, performing a show for all to see. Soon the Chinese and stopping to watch his dance moves that one day should be taken to Vegas. So there we are watching him in awe and then a Chinesean comes up and starts doing this robot move and soon we are all doing this robot moves. Except me who looks like a monkey scratching my arm pits but that's okay. It was a fun night nonetheless dancing in the streets. Oh and then every time we got on or off the metro the lady who runs the food cart would laugh and wave. Too fun. 

The next morning we got up and went to the Llama temple. The Llama temple was beautiful. They were having an Incense burning ceremony and we got to burn incense. 

There were a lot of people there and the clouds on incense smoke were intense. My mother would have died. As we walked to the back of the temple we saw the biggest buddah! It was in the Guiness. Book of world records because it was carved from one single tree and was 26 m high. 

It was so tall! After we explored and looked at the beauty of the temple and got to see inside the Chinese culture we headed to the Olympic park. 

It was neat to walk where hundreds of famous athletes from all over the world had once gathered. We made this a short stop because we were hungry and wanted to go back to the pearl mart to eat. Also to buy more things, obviously. Lol. Okay I wanted boba too. From there we high tailed it back to the hostel, grabbed our bags, and headed to the metro to board our bullet train back to nanjing. Took 12 hours to get here and only 4.5 to get home. Beijing was incredible experience and I'm so glad I got to have this adventure and get to hang with the guys all weekend. ✌️