Day 2 or 3 in Beijing

Hi Folks, Here is a post from Ben to me -- his Mom -- saying that they are not able to log onto their blog site....so I am forwarding his letter, as requested. All references to "you" refer to "me." Enjoy the story...Lynne

me and jin had another fun day in beijing. we woke up early and went to this local antique market. the market was huge, and had so many cool old books, communist posters, tons of old jade, quartz and calcite carvings, snuff jars, and all kinds of cool chinese antiques, etc. it was really cool, and you would have loved it. after that, we went to the temple of heaven park. it is a temple built in the 15th Century for the emperor to offer prayers for a good harvest. the temple is amazing. it is over 100 feet tall and wide, and has 4 giant columns. the entire thing is built with no nails, screws or anything, just wood. the park is really nice too. there are a bunch of really old awesome looking juniper trees that are at least 500 years old there. the park is filled with people playing cards together, singing karaoke outside, hackeysack, dancing together to traditional music, and all kinds of other stuff. everyone just goes to the park, hundreds of people and hang out together. this country is amazing, it is very community oriented and everyone loves to go outside and do things together.... completely different from america. all the retired people go to the park early and hang out together, just talk, study, play games, dance, whatever they enjoy doing.... you would love it.... except for the plethora of pork, which is simply referred to as "meat." we have been eating streetfood and going to locals only restaurants, which would be impossible without jin. almost no one speaks english, and the menus are entirely in chinese, no english anywhere. if it wasnt for jin, i wouldnt have the slightest idea about anything, and would end up paying triple just for the luxury of having a menu in english. the other people in our hostel were excited at getting meals for 3 dollars. when we told them we had been eating fried rice, lo mein and whatever else we wanted for 75 cents a dish, they were super jealous! it is really, really cold here, about 35 degrees and windy.... not cool! Jin is taking great care of me, and we are having lots of fun together. everyone is really nice, our hostel is full of cool people from all over the world, and we have made some friends in our room. everyone really likes beijing, and it still feels basically just like the US. you would be surprised by how similar it is, the busses are nice, the subway is awesome, the streets are clean, nice apt buildings, luxury everywhere, and generally just not all that crazy, although i'm sure that will change once we leave beijing. we went to the bird's nest and water cube last night, home of the olympics. it was really, really cool, and really neat to see all the famous buildings from the olympics up close and in person, albeit freezing cold with the wind blowing really hard!!!!!

our blog is inaccessible anywhere, and perhaps anywhere outside of HK.... perhaps you could just cut and paste my emails to you and post them on our blog(from the next line up)... otherwise i'm afraid i wont have any friends by the time i get home!