cold morning

The next morning we woke up early and cold. Very cold. It was barely 30 degrees out, but we weren't going to let the temperature deter us from our China adventure.So we bundled up, each wearing at least 4 layers and looking quite plump. But even though we didn't look as if we were in need of a breakfast, we were recommended to find a Chinese specialty street food:a jiang bing; so we went in search of it.


And we quickly found it. The steam called to us in the freezing air and soon found a a red cheeked vendor making the slightly-spicy-crepe-and-egg-with-a-chinese-twist.

It was just the thing to warm us up (did I mention it was cold?) and spurred us onward to go see the fairly nearby Lama Temple, the largest buddhist temple in Beijing. It was quite beautiful, the most obvious point of pride being that this building:holds the largest buddha ever to be cut from a single block of wood. It is 55 ft tall, spans all three stories and is really amazing. Since you are not allowed to take pictures and I am not one to break the rules, you will have to take my word for it.

Though I do admit to breaking the rules a little. An iconic statuary was very clearly marked with this particular decree:
which absolutely no one paid attention to:
including me:
But I had a really important thing to wish for. The cold had made me lose the feeling in my feet and I felt I needed some sort of spirtual assistance to make sure it came back.