Temple of Heaven, Beijing's pagan park

Beijing is a great place for biking. There are about 600 miles of bike lanes in the city, and few hills. The autumn weather is mild, but soon the winter winds will sweep through the city, and it will be time to request the A/C in our house be switched over to heat. The timing is a bit tricky, though, because you only get one shot at it -- i.e., you can't have it switched back to A/C until spring.

 Hou Lakes in Beijing, about a 45-minute bike ride from my house.

 Lately I've been seeing these tiny green caterpillars out on our porch. Cute, but they sting like hell.

 The Temple of Heaven is a 682-acre park in south Beijing. The Chinese emperors used to come here each year to perform ritual sacrifices for a good harvest. Above is a photo of Echo Wall, where supposedly a whisper can travel from one end to the other.

 Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the park's most iconic building.

 The Long Corridor is about 350 yards long, and leads up to the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

 This morning one of my stops was at Niujie, Beijing's largest mosque.

 On my way back to the subway station, I spotted this guy with a portable car washing system on his scooter.

At a Beijing wet market recently they for some reason were filming this giant inflatable mushroom.