We kept a watch for ladies organizing a choreographed dance, and walked around sucking on 2 ¥ popsicles. Kathryn's presentation was so thorough that even our tour guide, Liu (Leo?), was very impressed.
The Temple of Heaven itself is HUGE and it has to be. Since Heaven was above the Emperor there had to be more land for Heaven than for the Emperor. The site was beautiful and very historical, and unfortunately clogged with tourist such as ourselves.
The group later migrated to another juxtaposition shoppers Heaven: The Pearl Market. My own experience was an interesting one, when I was younger I liked bartering to get the lowest price for what I wanted. Now that I care about people more and stuff less I find the game of bartering to be more and more of an awkward one. Along with some very aggressive sales people, I didn't spend a lot of time actually shopping. I did of course leave with a couple postcards, two masks, and a Chinese flag patch for my backpack. This trip to the market felt for some as the last chance to buy what you want. For me I still had a long way to go and that money is better spent on food anyway.
Back at the Hu Tong we had a short dumpling making class. Throughout the rest of my China experience I silently judged the dumplings served to me. In Xi'an there was one plate where I knew I could've made dumplings ten times as better. Xi'an, not famous for dumplings.
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