Confucius says...

September 18th--We headed out today to the Beijing Zoo specifically to see the Panda Bears. We thought there was a subway stop right next to the zoo, but after changing several lines and walking around a subway stop looking for Line 4, we quickly realized that Line 4 was still under construction. So, we hoped in a taxi that took us the final few kilometers to the front gate of the zoo. By the time, we arrived at the zoo it was close to lunch time. We saw several eating spots outside the zoo and thought it might be cheaper to eat outside of the zoo rather than inside. So, we sat down for a quick pizza. We then entered the zoo and were immediately greeted by a patch of painted Panda Bears. Apparently, there was a contest for the 60th anniversary and these Panda Bears were all painted differently. In fact, we were highly entertained seeing Panda Bears done up like Spider-man and Spongebob. Very cute! From here, we went straight to the Giant Panda House. It was here that we got to see about 10 pandas. Unfortunately, it was lunch time and nap time for all of them. So, all we got to see was them eating (mostly with their backs to us) or laying around sleeping, but they were cute and neat to see in person. Pandas are treated like royalty here in China, so with that said, the rest of the animals aren't treated as nicely. We still walked around and saw some other animals though. After we got done at the zoo, we took a taxi to the Confucius Temple. The main reason for going here is in honor of my Great Uncle Bob. Every time we ate Chinese food and got our fortune cookies at the end, it was inevitable...his fortune always said the same thing per him. Confucius says..."he who flies upside down has crack up". This will forever be in our heads. The Confucius Temple was much smaller than the other temples we had experience, but we enjoyed the many statues of Confucius and the hall of 190 stelae that records the 13 Confucian classics in 630,000 Chinese characters. Also inscribed on stelae are the names of successful candidates of the highest level of the official Confucian examination system. We basically closed down the temple at 5:00 and and walked through an old, traditional Hutong street towards the subway stop. Austin stopped to watch some old men playing some Chinese game that looked similar to chess. He really wanted to play, but they looked to serious. We took the subway back to the apartment and had dinner in the restaurant downstairs. We have really enjoyed the noddle dishes they serve and it is very convenient. We're actually starting to get pretty good at eating with chopsticks!