Beijing: Day 3 -the last afternoon & evening

After lunch at McDonalds, Mike and I spent the afternoon wandering around the area close to our hotel. There was a big shopping department nearby so we wandered in. The shops were open-style, kind of like here in Japan, where it's hard to tell sometimes where one shop ends and the next begins. They had all the brand names you could think of from Esprit to Nike and although the prices were pretty good, I wouldn't say they were cheap. Mike decided to get his hair cut, so that gave me an opportunity to go shoe shopping -and for those who are wondering: I only bought one pair on this trip!! I had agreed to meet Mike at the starbucks on the main floor and wandered in and ordered a big latte of some sort, found a table and waited for Mike....and waited....and waited, finally he came into the shop, white as a sheet and shaking like he'd seen a ghost. "I passed out." he said. What!?!?! I guess his blood sugar was a little off, combined with McDonalds for lunch and an sweltering temperature in the shopping mall -it made for a disasterous combination. At least he was sitting in the chair when it happened. He assured me that the people at the salon were more than helpful and the one girl who could speak a little English escorted him down to the Starbucks!! Well, that ended the shopping trip! No big deal, we were both a bit tired and so we headed back to the hotel, and had a little nap.

Feeling much better after lying down for a while, we got up and got ready for our night at the Chinese opera. We had booked this part of the trip the night before after deciding that JTB (the travel agency) was doing a pretty good job entertaining us. Our tour guide had given us a pamphlet with optional things to do and both of us had been told not to miss the Chinese Opera. Our sources were correct! It was a great time. First we were given snacks and tea (served with flair -refer to the photo above), next we were given headsets with English interpretations and information about the opera to listen to as it was being performed. Though it was distracting at times, I was thankful for the explanations. The performance was visually stunning and the music/singing was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. It's similar to Kabuki (traditional Japanese theatre) in that many of the movements are symbolic and the story is told through singing. The first part of the performance was a story about war and love, the second focused on the mythical/religious side of China, dealing with warring gods. This part was much more physical, acrobatic almost. A fantastic evening out.

We ended the night with one last tour option: a foot massage. We were taken to a massage parlor and given 90minutes of pure relaxing bliss. We were given our own private room, and Mike's masseur was a friendly young man who tried his very hardest to speak English to us. I had a young girl, as cute as a button, who didn't look older than 13 rubbing my tiny feet. She didn't speak a word, but smiled and promted me to say good or bad if she wasn't sure how hard she could massage. We drank tea all the while and took advantage of the quiet time.

Back at our hotel, we packed up, ready to leave for the airport at 6:30 in the morning. Our flight back was pretty uneventful, save the huge line up at customs. We both had time for a little shopping in T-town before Mike hopped a boat back to his island and I jumped on the night bus for home.

A great trip, with a great travel partner. One of the best holidays I've ever had!
Thanks Mike!!!


OK, here it is, the last of the trip to Beijing, I have to get this written because I keep putting off every other thing I want to post on this blog...