This morning I woke up and devoured an incredible breakfast. Midway through my meal, I thought I was having an allergic reaction unlike anything I have ever felt before. My skin was tight, dry, and became red. After discussing with the chef I found out that if you do not put on moisturizer, this is the result because your skin cannot handle this amount of pollution.
Later on around lunch, my tummy started to hurt again, as it had  yesterday, I experienced a great deal of bloating.. Thankfully no fatalities yet haha. I’m also grateful that I haven’t felt ill from any food like many tourists do, hopefully I didn’t just jinx myself..
Today I went to the Temple of Heaven and Forbiddin City with a group of just under 20 people. There are pros and cons of traveling with a group. It’s great to have a tour guide to inform you, and people to share the experience with. But, I’m not the type of person who typically travels with other people, I’ve always been more of a lone wolf. I like to go off and do what I want to do and explore things at my pace, which is usually 2 steps faster than the average individual. My dad always says “If you walk twice as fast, you’ll see twice as much.” It’s one of the many mottos that have been ingrained into me.  Also, I really wanted to meditate, but there were way too many people for that to take place, so when I stood in the very centre of the temple of heaven, amongst the loud hum of people and the smell of thick smog, I allowed myself to be at piece and truly did find my zen at that moment, all else was irrelevant, and I couldn’t hear a sound. It was a moment of true beauty.
What I enjoyed most today was hands down eating duck at a world class restaurant and experiencing the people all in their authentic stats.