10/25 Wednesday

I decided to go to Tian Tan, or the Temple of Heaven, by public bus. The bus was easy to use, and only cost 1 yuan. It was pretty slow though, so I think the subway is a much better option. Unfortunately, the subway doesn't go down to that area.

At Tian Tan I walked around the entire park, which is 273 hectares, and saw people practicing Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and various traditional Chinese instruments. At one point I thought I heard repeated gun shots, but no one seemed to be scared by the noise, and as i approached the the source, i eventually saw that it was a man with an enormous whip breaking the sound barrier with each snap. At one point he took up another whip and was doing them both at once, making twice the amount of loud reports. There were many poor people there collecting bottles from tourists so they could bring the plastic back to a recycling center and make some money. This seems to be the main collection system for plastics and other recyclables, and I haven't seen a formal recycling service yet. The man in the picture, a bottle collector, has a little bird with him, to which he was whistling earlier, and it can be seen hanging in the blue cloth-covered cage above him (well, no, you cannot really see it, but it's in there). Many people bring their caged birds to the park, and you can hear them all singing in areas where they're hanging.

On the bus ride back, I stepped on a woman's foot by accident, but ended up talked to her for a while after apologizing. I guess that's one way to meet people!

I went to a dumpling shop for dinner, across from the prestigious Peninsula Hotel in Wang Fu Jing, and had some shrimp wonton soup. The soup was terribly plain, but after adding a touch of soy sauce and some chili paste it was very good. I usually go to this restaurant at around 9:00, and by then they've sold out of most of the things on the menu.