Temple of Heaven

So we went to the Temple of Heaven yesterday on our day off. While I am very glad I went and saw it, I am also very glad that we didn't have to pay for it(olympic creds get you into every thing free during the games). It is a big huge temple and very beautiful. But there is very little signage to explain what you are looking at. You can't go inside any of the buildings, you can only walk around the outside. I guess if you had a guide with you to explain things it might have been more meaningful. It is set inside this huge park which was filled with dancers, singers, artists. I had more fun walking around the park honestly. I got a good look at Chinese sheet music...crazy, chinese characters and roman numbers written in lines. I have no idea how one reads it.

It turns out the pearl market is across the street from the temple so we went in. It is just like the dirt market, but inside and air conditioned so much better. It does sell a lot of "pearls" as well and I am told that if you know what you are looking for (i.e. how to tell if they are real) you can get some killer deals. I however have no idea how to tell if a pearl is real or not, so I didn't buy any.