the end

Finally!

After the market, we saw the temple we wanted to visit in the distance. We walked to the main road to hail a taxi. The driver drove a whole 100m to the entrance of the temple...we hadn't realised we were so close!!! We had to pay 5 yuan for the taxi - the minimum charge but still a rip-off. Above is a pic of the entranceway to the temple.
Guillaume, Katia and Loic (making a face) in front of the temple. It's a reproduction of a famous Llama Temple in Tibet.
The view from the temple's terrace (atop the white part in the previous pic). What was funny was that some buildings were just walls - they had no roofs (why not rooves?) so we could see that there was nothing inside. The two buildings with the strange-looking cones were examples of such empty shells. The windows were also plastered up, so there were no holes in the building. I guess it gets really cold...
The inside of the temple. There were rooms with exhibitions of ancient clothing and habitats and utensils and armour and the like on every floor. We didn't see everything.
We walked up many of these wooden stairs to get to the highest roof on top of the temple. I had to wait a few minutes before taking the picture - a lot of people were coming down!
The Frenchies waiting for me as I take a picture from a pagoda. They're beside the entrance to the stairwell (previous pic). Part of the Great Wall isn't far from Chengde, but I don't think that's it in the distance (the white snake-like thing).
Just one of many beautiful pagodas found on the roof of the temple. They're impressive, but it seems like everywhere you go in China you find these type of things, so after a while it gets repetitive. It's strange that no matter at what time the building was built, the architectural style seems to stay the same.
Cabs normally take four people. We were five. Hence the need to squeeze.
A picture from Chengde's train station. This is right when it started getting cloudy. China's booming. There's construction everywhere. The parking lot in front of the station is full of buses ready to take you anywhere and everywhere.
Many people still use bags instead of suitcases. You see many of them in the subway stations in Beijing.
This is where we ate our lunch on Sunday. It's a small restaurant across the street from the train station. The boy is the son of the people who work there and he watched us eat while eating peanuts.
The wall of the restaurant: some Chinese art alongside an advertisement for a chocolate snack that I've tasted! Every table has chopsticks, soy sauce, and spicey sauce.
The back of the restaurant. Behind the curtain is the kitchen. The drinks are kept to the right; vegetables to the left (out of the picture).
Gaetan wearing a captain's cap. It was hanging above him on a hook.
Loic and Katia sleeping. Loic was disgusted to see he had holes in his hair. He doesn't really...

We drank hot chocolate and ate a ton of junk food...

I realise there aren't many pictures of me, so here's a candid shot (I'm not at my best!) taken by Katia on our way home in the train. It's night out. We arrived in Beijing at 6:40 PM.