Fun Weekend in Beijing

I am so thankful for the wonderful break we had this weekend. Probably the most relaxing break I have had in a very long time. Usually our travels are very scheduled, hectic, tiring. We (okay, I) often try to pack too much fun, shopping and business into too short a time. In some ways I did the same this time, but it turned out better, great even.
We went to Beijing, so I am sure you are thinking Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, etc etc. And no. Not a single one (though the Summer Palace did flit through my mind a few times). What a relief to not be chasing down the tourist spots and not trying to pack too much into too little time. So what did we do?

We stayed at a hutong hostel.

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Barbie had fun, too.

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We went to Chaoyang Park. (OK, this doesn't look much like a park, but trust me it is a GREAT BIG park. I am just a loser at photos, and the Lego store was actually inside the park. We also visited a Sony Exploratorium which was fun.

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We rode a lot of subways.

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We (they) went ice skating.

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We visited China Little Flower. This is the house where ShiJie spent several months before he joined us last spring.

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