Tian'anmen and Temple of Heaven

Today we went back to Tian'anmen square in the hope to be able to visit the Mao mausoleum. Unfortunately, being late risers, we were a bit late to the party, not knowing the visiting hours end at noon. We still spend a bit of time looking around the parts that were closed last night.

I think those are part of the 60th celebration. There are huge screens replaying highlights of the parade and cultural programming
This is the monument to the heroes
This nice sculpture is beside the mausoleum
This is the mausoleum (I think)
We had some soup noodle for lunch at which point I decided to go back to the hotel for some R&R. The foggy Beijing air is not agreeing with me at all. Alex continued on to the Temple of Heaven where he brought back some really nice pictures
I joined Alex for dinner (thanks for cellphones to be able to find him!). I looked in the shops for the last few days for the trendy face masks that locals are wearing without finding them so I settled on a scarf for my weapon against the Beijing air. I look like a bank robber! We had a simple dinner with crab and shrimp ball soup
Chinese style chicken wings
And this dry bbq duck
I'm pretty excited about tomorrow since we get to see the great wall!!