

Us/tourists came to look at the Giant Panda while the locals looked at the peacocks!!!?? They seemed to love that bird with its feathers all showing off. Steven and I was strange since for us it is very normal to see a peacock, because it walks sometimes through our garden and on the road near our house in Hout Bay.

Temple of Heaven: is a big complex of religious buildings. It was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for ceremonies of praying to Heaven to get good crops. There are many temples with a large park around it. The temples are all made from wood with beautiful colours with many different patterns. The blue color stands for the sky and heaven, the red color is the color of the Emperor and the yellow color is sometimes gold paint and means sun.
Summer palace : When the Emperors were hot and tired in the Summer they often went from the Forbidden City to their Summer Palace in the north of Beijing city. Here they had a large garden with a lake. They also used it to invite kings or important people from other countries to impress them. It was a pity that many buildings were a little old and the paint was ugly and scratched. The website said it is painted every 12 years, but it looked much longer ago. Maybe because there are so many people every day. Also the entrance fee is a little strange. You pay to enter the Summer Palace, but then you must pay again and again every time you wanted to go into a temple or special part of the Palace.


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Bike Riding : On a partly sunny day we went with friend's Jean Pierre, Juune and Pieter to ride a bike. Not just normal bike riding no we went on a tandem. Around lake Hou Hai with old Chinese streets and colourful shops. We had a break at a beautiful old Chinese tea house, where we drank old tea (Pu-er) as a local in special pots and cups. You have to put the hot water from the kettle in a teapot whit the tea branches, then after 1 minute you put the tea in a glass teapot from where you put the tea in the little cups. We loved the traditional way of preparing and drinking the tea. The tea tasting and drinking of old tea is the same as the wine tasting in South Africa. Some tea is special and cost more than a bottle of special wine.
Ping Pong : Ping Pong is the national sport in China and everyone plays it. To me Ping Pong looked easy, just hitting the ball from left to right (BORING). My dad wanted us to try a lesson and after 3 times of asking I finally did take the Ping pong lesson with Steven...........WOW IT WAS DIFFICULT. It wasn't at all what I thought. You had to hold your racket in a specific degree, move your waist from left to right and I had to bend my knees, because I was to long and the Chinese are all shorter than I am. After 2 lessons I liked it because it was tricky. Steven is very good in Ping Pong and liked it from the beginning. We are both doing Ping Pong since 2 weeks now on Sunday and Wednesday for an hour and we get homework from our teacher.

Xie xie Loes