We started out the morning with a tour of a Buddhist temple, the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees. Most of the population of China practices Buddhism, so our guide thought it would be good for us to experience the temple. The temple we visited has been been around for over 1500 years and includes a giant (leaning) pagoda. This was our sweet Hannah's first experience seeing another religion in practice and she was quite upset seeing people bowing down and worshiping Buddha.
After leaving the temple we visited the Old Chen House. This was the very elaborate home of the Chen family which has now been turned into a folk art museum. This place has been one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. The whole building itself was covered in elaborate carvings and then inside there was a bunch of art on display, ivory and bone carvings, porcelain art, carved furniture and much more. My favorite part was seeing the artisans creating the art there. There was a calligrapher that made a beautiful scroll for Eli with his Chinese name symbols, birthday and adoption date on it. There was also a very impressive artist making beautiful pictures with only his hands, fingers, nails, etc. No paint brushes at all and it was amazing!
Next we ventured out to a fancy souvenir shop, selling jade, tea sets and fancy silk China outfits. We didn't get anything here and are holding out for another day of souvenir shopping in hopes of finding some better deals.
We found a small little playground at our hotel and took Hannah and Eli there. Sadly, I am pretty sure this little kiddo has never been on a playground before and had no idea what to do with the swings or slide. We have a lot of fun kid stuff to catch up on when we get home. All this excitement was followed up with a Sunday afternoon nap with Daddy.
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