Our last full day in Beijing we headed to the Temple of Heaven. By this point, all the temples were starting to look alike, probably because they all do; mostly red, with blue, green, and gold detailed painting, animals on the corners of the roofs. The Temple of Heaven has different architecture than the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, in that it is a circular building. This is where the emperors would go to pray for rain and a good harvest.

Ryan was done with walking and sites after the temple, so he headed back to the hotel to do some laundry, while I headed to the Drum and Bell Towers.
Ryan doing laundry:3, Nicole doing laundry:0
Do I have an awesome husband or what?

I exited the wrong subway exit (which I knew at the time) and promptly got lost in the winding hutongs, taking about a mile long detour. Luckily, I was able to pick up a baked sweet potato from a street vendor for sustenance.

The Drum and Bell Towers were both originally built for musical reasons and then used as timepieces. I arrived at the Drum Tower just about in time to climb the long staircase up, enjoy the views, and look at the time keeping pieces inside, before the hourly drum show started.
      

The climb up to the Bell Tower was similar to that of the Drum Tower, with not as much reward, as the only thing at the top is a big bell. Afterwards, I attended a fun tea tasting held in the bottom of the tower, where I learned that I really like Ginseng tea. The girl there was a bit pushy about me buying some tea, and didn’t quite understand when I kept telling her that I really do not have any room for tea in my bag.