With so much time in Beijing, we’re trying to take our time seeing all the sights. Additionally, with so much time, its inevitable that we’ll see more of Beijing too. And although Beijing has a lot of sights, we probably don’t need to see all of them. We learned that today, with our ill-fated trip to the Temple of Heaven Park. The highlight is the Ming-era Temple of Heaven. Having had our fill of Ming architecture (and everything else for that matter), we opted to just hang out in park. But even that was disappointing. Sure, it was a lovely looking park with lots of grass and plenty of trees, but the problem was that it was only for looking. All the flora was fenced off and we were relegated to paved paths and hard park benches. We walked around a bit and ate the lunch that we’d brought along, but it was kind of a lame park. Maybe seeing everything in Beijing isn’t as important as exploring and experiencing the parts of Beijing that we want to. With our time so short now, I really want to maximize it.

One of the reasons we’re staying in Beijing for so many days is so we can just rest and reflect before going home. I’m still kinda sorting things out mentally, but here’s some random thoughts for today:

-          It’s been a long journey. We’ve seen a ton and I’m thankful for all the places we’ve been able to go.

-          The past year has been a dream. On one hand, I have no regrets. On the other hand, some memories already seem like a dream. Did we really go there? Did we really do that? Its been a year packed with experiences.

-          While the first two points are true, I’m bummed that much is over. I would relive the past year if I could.

-          I’ve learned a ton, about the world, about people, about my wife, and about myself.

-          Our trips not over yet, so maybe I should hold off on all this reflection stuff.

On a tangent, I think that Beijing has the most sights to see of any city we’ve visited since Paris…coincidentally, that’s where we were exactly one year ago: