Back to School Beijing Style

Feb. 26th. The Shenzhen and Chengdu folks left at 8:00 this morning for the airport while the Beijing group had a leisurely breakfast at 9:00 before heading off to see Mao resting in state in his memorial hall. After a quick look out over Tiananmen Square from the gate we braved the subway up to the Lama Temple-- one of the largest Buddhist temples outside of Tibet. The 80 foot wooden Budda, made from a single piece of sandalwood, had a Guiness book of World Records proclamation posted for the largest inside Buddha. The incense and prayers added much to the ambiance as we took it all in. I forgot to mention our lunch in the Confucius Tea Room prior to our wander through the temple. Tea tasting was superb-- not only the tea itself, but the ritual for drinking. Six cabs later (don't ask...we got there!) we were eating fast food noodles in order to get back to the hotel for our 6:00 pick-up by the Huijia School.
At this point we have all been properly greeted and introduced, and settled into rooms. Classes let out at 9:00pm and I suspect there will be many conversations into the night. Tomorrow we are off to the Summer Palace.