i'm broke

but it was worth it. so china is supposed to be cheap but i still managed to buy so much stuff that it rendered me pennyless.. or wonless i suppose.. so here are a few pics from beijing.. i apologize for some of the haze.. errr pollution in the shots..

Temple of Heaven.. This was our first stop.. I don't know if it was my tiredness or my first encounter with Wally, who I've mentioned to some only spoke in the third person, but I could have done without this part and done something different.
Tienamen Square. There were a few soldiers, not tons. This place was packed. I also noticed that people tended to take more pictures of us more than anything else in the square.


The Forbidden Palace was massive. I think there are 9999 rooms. Something about 10 000 rooms in the afterlife so the emperor has one less.

Gardens in the Palace. I was happy for some shade.

Summer Palace. We took a little boat ride to get here, but unfortunately it was too hazy that day for us to see anything from the water.

Great Wall.


Some guy cutting up our duck. There was a special way to eat it too. It was good but the company was better. We were so lucky and had an amazing group of people with us.
Lama Temple. I actually was culturally insensitive and wanted to go shopping some more instead of coming here. Actually I eneded up thinking it was one of the nicest and coolest places we went to. We got to see some chanting and a beautiful temple.
when incense burning goes awry!


i have no pics of shopping because it was chaos, but so much fun! we also saw the acrobats and a kungfu show. i loved the kungfu show more because there were small children who were doing flips on their heads. that was cool. if i ever have a kid i'm totally training them to do that.