Beijing, the final day

We started our final day in Beijing with only three stops planned - The Lama Temple, Lunch and the Airport. No shopping, so Lyle went out to haggle with the "One Dolla" guy for some final souveniers.

We boarded our bus and were on our way to the Lama Temple. We had seen this sign a few times, but I was finally able to get it on camera:


The Lama Temple:

The Shisa Dogs of China are very similar to the Shisa Dogs on Okinawa with one difference. On Okinawa the male and female are different only in how they hold their mouth, open versus closed (no comment necessary). In China the Male Shisa always had a decorated ball under his paw, while the Female was always holding down a cub. I think I prefer the Chinese Shisas!

After Lama Temple we were on our way to lunch. No trip to China would be complete without a meal of Peking Duck. We stopped at this restaurant with a duck outside.

While we started in on the dishes at our table, a waiter brought in the cart with the duck. Our tour guide said" You will want to get your cameras out for the demonstration on how to carve the Peking Duck" All of the men (and Sharjuan) got out their video cameras, stood for a better view and readied themselves for what we thought would be a wonderful display. We were all VERY disappointed when he just carved it as we would a turkey. No talented knife show, just a man carving a duck..... We all tried it and agreed that it wasn't spectacular, but it was good.

After lunch we were off to the airport, where I was able to get one last Beijing sign:

See you all in Xi'an