Sightseeing and Free Time (newsletter part 2)

Although we spent a lot of time teaching and preparing our lessons, we did have a nice amount of free time each day. Our group was quite adventurous and had a big list of all the things we wanted to do during our stay. We came up with a master plan/schedule so that we wouldn’t miss a thing. This kept us pretty busy but it was worth it!

During the first weekend in Beijing we spent time at the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Summer Palace and The Temple of Heaven. We also had an orientation session that weekend. It was all great but we were SO tired!

We took the first two teaching afternoons off and then jumped into our own busy plans. We spent free afternoons and evenings doing a variety of activities like: bowling, shopping at the Pearl and the Silk Market, foot massages (OW!), the Beijing Zoo, Hou Hai Park, Full Body Massages, the Night Market, a Hutong rickshaw tour, and some more shopping.

On the weekend, between our two weeks of teaching, we took a train to Chengde which was a mountain resort for some Chinese emperors. The architecture there is beautiful and quite different from buildings in Beijing. It was fun to have a weekend adventure!