Day 5 Temple of Heaven

When you start at dawn, you can fit an awful lot into the rest of the day.

• breakfast
• sim card for Rick's tablet
• check out of Tian Rui
• check into Xiao Xiang
• Visit Temple of Heaven
• Meet our Tour Group for the next 12 days

 The Xiao Xiang Hotel is clearly a step up from the Tian Rui with the requisite pair of lions guarding the front door, a couple of restaurants and a bar..
It is also conveniently situated within a kilometer of the Temple of Heaven so we set off for the West Gate.

 This is the centre of China ( and therefore of the World) and despite the crowds and the pushing we have become accustomed to in queues here Rick actually managed to stand on the stone - in the very centre!

These two reminded me of Kane and Alyssa.

This park is the so big that although there are a lot of people here... still on holiday... it doesn't seem crowded.  People are sitting around the courtyards, on the grass and on steps everywhere, picnicking, singing, flying kites, swirling ribbons, eating icecreams, playing music.  It is lovely to have such a big green space in the middle of this noisy, dirty overpopulated built up city.  It also seems that as everyone has been on holiday for the past 5 days, there is a lot less pollution in the air.  The sky is really blue!

Back at the Hotel we meet Bob, our tour guide ( there goes any last desperate hope that I might meet the only person I know in China... Peter, our guide from my tour in 2008)  The others on our tour arrive, many straight off the plane from the UK, while others are joining us from their 'China Highlights' tour , when that concludes in another couple of days. It seems that several Explore groups are all in Beijing together.
A short walk through Beijings busy, smelly streets brings us to dinner at a Peking Duck restaurant.  Plates keep arriving at the table - duck, chicken, beans, aubergine, pork, mushrooms, bakchoy.. even rice...
It is the best duck I have ever eaten and the quantity and quality of the other dishes bodes well for the rest of the trip.  Maybe we won't be losing weight on this trip after all!
Back to the hotel and another short walk takes us to the Theatre for tonight's acrobat show.

Photos do not do their expertise justice... especially with lighting and the speed with which they were spinning!!!
The last act was a huge spherical bamboo cage into which drove a man on a motorbike... as he gained speed he circled higher and higher inside the ball until he was looping completely upside down.
Without pausing another motor bike entered the cage and the two of them circled and looped...
Oh but that is not all, oh no that is not all ... again and again the ramp/door lowered and another motorbike was added to the swirling, diesel smelling, noisy, smoky mele!! Every time we thought that was the last one, another would be added.   Finally when FIVE bikes were dipping, circling, passing, swirling and looping in what suddenly seemed to be a tiny bamboo cage, they opened the door and each one rode out, down the ramp onto the stage, to our incredulous applause.