For my final day, I visited the Temple of Heaven. It is this gorgeous park south of the city center. The weather was pretty overcast and drab. I was hoping for some sunshine to pick me up this morning. Still just feeling exhausted and beat. If there is one thing that I have learned about photography from this trip, is you never know when an opportunity will arise. As I was trying to cross an insanely busy intersection, I saw all of these people running across a bridge yelling. Yes, I did get a little freaked out at first. I didn't know what the hell was going on and if it was bad. Since no one else seemed startled, I timidly walked to the craziness. It turned out to be some sort of high school training program or something? It was like gym class, but without the ball. They were in groups on the sidewalk doing these basketball and marching drills. It was just crazy.

I walked through some alleyways to see what the other side of Beijing looked like. It was a pretty sad scene. Everything is in a constant state of destruction. Sidewalks that I have been walking since the beginning of the week are now gone. Nothing seems to last long here.

The Temple of Heaven turns out to be the most beautiful park that I have ever been in. It is also the most unique. There was activity EVERYWHERE!! And it was strictly adults! There was bad mitten, ballroom dancing, hackey sack, traditional fan dancing, singing, card games..... it was insane. There were almost no children at all. These were mostly people in their 50s and 60s! Old women doing tricks with a hackey sack that the most sober hippy at Bonnaroo could never do!! There was also this little area where old men were playing these strange guitars and drums. I have never heard such noise before, and I mean noise in a very beautiful way. It shouldn't have sounded good, but it did.

By the end of walking around the park, my feet were done. I called a taxi and got a ride back to my hotel. This will be the last entry from China. This last one was pretty hard to write. I feel like I have just finished a marathon. I am sad to leave tomorrow, but very ready. Jon and I catch a flight into Newark tomorrow and will be back to Cincinnati on Sunday. I hope that this thing didn't bore you to much. I hope to talk to all of you soon.

Peace and love