We disembarked from the gong gong qi che (public bus!) and ambled up the first interesting looking street we found.This amble turned into a long wander through a maze of market stalls selling everything you could possible desire and soon Adam had a new bag to show for the wandering. In the maze we indulged in some street food (savoury pancakes stuffed with fried batter, eggs, spring onion and chilli) and some egg (for Liv) / meat (for Adam) "McMuffins".
We eventually stumbled into the Ancient Culture Street, which was a brand new old street filled with expensive souvenirs (including many of the treats from the markets we had just left but at 10 times the price). In contrast to the markets, the streets here were clean and sign posted in English so we managed to find the Jade Emperor's Pavilion and the Tianhou Temple with ease.
After strolling around the temple and enjoying the incense-filled aromas and tranquil halls we walked out half an hour later to see other walking in with tickets clutched in their hands. Around the corner we saw the ticket booth ... whoops!After leaving the brand new old street, we soon found ourselves in the Old Town, which much to our dismay was actually just a brand new old town based around the restored drum tower!
The highlights of the old town for us was Adam sneaking onto police property and purchasing some Peking Opera masks to remember our previous night's experience and decorate some of our barren walls waiting for us back home in Jinan.Finding ourselves utterly lost again when trying to make it to Jiefang Street, which is famous for its 20th Century European architecture. After attempting to ask one lady for help (she literally screamed and ran in the opposite direction when she saw us), another offered to help us. Soon enough we were surrounded by a crowd of helpers who eventually sent us on our way - however all their help was in vain as we soon became lost again, so we had to resort to a tuk-tuk ride in the end.
When we finally arrived on Jiefang Street we wandered past dozens of beautiful old banks, warehouses, post shops and churches (and even peeked inside some of them) - all survivours from when European forces dominated the area around the turn of the 20th Century. Inside the now Bank of China we got to gaze upwards at the stunning stained glass ceiling, and later at an old Anglican Church.
Some buildings were restored to almost new, other basically left in their original state, but in the case of the Church it was basically in ruins.When the time came to catch the train home, Liv decided to use her navigation skills so we could walk back and enjoy some scenery on the way.
Well, we certainly got more scenery than we had counted on - first walking over a frozen river reflecting a pollution shadowed sun, then along a street where we could hardly see or breathe for the amount of dust, dirt, and rubbish that floated in the air and on the street. Liv's constant questions of "we should be able to get there from that road, so why is it blocked off?" were soon answered after we decided to go down one such road anyway: we soon found ourselves in a jungle of hard-hat wearing construction workers and a half demolished train station ... obviously this wasn't the train station we had arrived in and nor was it the one where we would be leaving. 
Continuing our tour of the construction site we made it to the other end and navigated our way to a main street from where we managed to catch a bus to the current train station just in the nick of time!Back in Beijing we purchased our train tickets for Guangzhou on Wednesday and feasted on 2-minute noodles for dinner!
Adlibing it back into the real China.
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