Day 33:

Busy day today! Another twelve hours of walking the streets of Beijing, essentially, but at least this time I actually visited more than one sight.

First stop was a Taoist temple a few kilometers from the hostel. Sort of neat, though I think that maybe now I've had my fill of places of worship. This temple was designed in a sort of courtyard style (just like in the movies... a square yard surrounded by living quarters on three sides). Around the sides of the temple are a series of rooms called "departments." The departments all have odd names - "department of animals," "department of three month meditations," "department of longevity," "department of inflicting 15 kinds of violent death" - along with manikins that serve to represent each department's theme.

After that I went to Beijing's main art gallery. It had some nice stuff by local art students (including lots and lots and lots of nudes) as well as a very nice exhibition of the works of Rene Magritte.

After leaving the art gallery, I went to a park just north of the Forbidden City, for a nice hilltop view of the area.

Listen, everyone around is rather loud right now, so I need to close for the night. I will visit the Great Wall tomorrow, and will leave town in two days time.