Beijing (Day 4)

So on day four we slept in a little but still woke up relatively early. We had a few more sights to see and we wanted the evening to relax. We first headed to the Tiananmen Square again to see if the mausoleum was open. At this point we did not know that it was closed for the festivities. After the disappointing discovery we headed to the Temple of Heaven. It was a good walk from our hotel, we did not mind. We were up for yet another adventure.
After about a 45 minute walk we arrived at the Temple of Heaven. We had to pay admission to enter the park that surrounded the temple. It was quite beautiful. There were many flower displays set up for the 60th anniversary. The grounds were well kept and the weather was perfect. We strolled through the massive park for some time. We made our way to the center of the park to see the temple. We knew we were going the right way because we were following the mass amount of people.
The temple was nice. It was quite impressive. It was yet another place for worship and sacrifice. We took many pictures as well as had many pictures taken of us. After the temple museum we made our way to the south gate (opposite of where we entered). We thought we knew where a subway station was according to our map and headed in that direction.
While walking we stumbled upon an interesting public display of anger. A man was standing in front of a bus refusing to move out of the way and was yelling obscenities at the driver. We found a place to sit and watched the drama play out. After twenty minutes of yelling and the passengers exiting the bus it was a stalemate. We continued our walk and could not find the station. Apparently the map we had was made before the station was built and we were a good twenty minute walk away for where the actual station is now.
After finally finding the station we made our way to the center of the city. We had some Outback for lunch. It was pretty good. We picked up yet another Outback pin to add to the collection. After that we went to the Silk Road building. This place was floor to floor of knockoffs. Latanya was in heaven. It made the Bangkok one look like a kiosk. They had so much more fakes than the other one had, as well as good one's. Unfortunately we were on a budget and could not go berserk, though we wanted to. We did buy a sweeter for Latanya, the lady started at $75 and I got her down to $20. I must say, I sure can haggle.
When we left the Silk Road we stumbled upon some interesting neighborhoods. We came to little Moscow, full of Russian writing and advertising as well as a fur coat mini mall. Then we walked through the area with all the embassies. It was fun playing the game, guess which embassy, by looking at the flag. I won. We found North Korea's embassy and threw a rock at the window of the main entrance...not really, just kidding. I did stick my foot under the fence and I can officially say that I stepped foot on North Korean soil. Latanya was angry with me. She thought I was going to be shot or something. Hehe.
Next we made our way to our hotel. Before we got back we got some coffee and relaxed for the evening. The next morning we needed to leave the hotel by 8am to head to the airport. We had such a fantastic trip. The weather was so clear and perfect. We think we did a lot in the time allotted. The Great Wall was by far the best moment of the whole trip, but going to North Korea was a close second.