Oops! I hit "publish" before I was done! At this point, our little Audrey was starting to come out of her shell on her own, smiling when I'd point the camera lens in her face. We discovered she has two very cute little dimples.
Ok, a word now about the dancing. One of the things about this park are that there are many areas of huge groups of people dancing. Our guide told us that instructors will come out and teach the people for free so there are, dare I say, thousands of people dancing at any one time in the park. This little girl was leading this group at first and the the instructor was helping...
There are people dancing everywhere. You just grab a partner and go.
This was a huge open square where hundreds of people were dancing in pairs.
In addition to the dancing and tai chi, there was something that looked like tai chi with swords...
Overall, I just love the park...Amelia loved it when we were outside of the hotel room and so does Audrey.
This is a main structure that faces the lake when you enter through one of the gates at the park...
We eventually headed out of the park and started heading for the Xinjiang Museum.
Audrey had her afternoon nap on Jason's back
The museum was very interesting...Xinjiang is a province with many other ethnicities and cultures. The Han Chinese are still the majority but there is a definite influence from other cultures seen here. Many of the signs are not just in Mandarin, but an Arabic language as well as English. There are many mosques in the province and women walking around with head wraps. So the museum was a great place to learn about these different influences.
This was a beautiful room showcasing all the different kinds of ancient ethnic dress that were, and sometimes still are, seen here.
However, I didn't get to see much at the museum because this is where Audrey really let loose and let us see part of her personality. And oh my, does she have a personality. She was running (as best she can) around the museum, wanting to touch everything and play games where she runs and we chase her :-) I was beginning to get very very scared. Especially when we tried to put her back in the stroller and she started throwing a first rate fit.
This statue of a horse is about 4000 years old...absolutely huge and stunning!
One of the things that the museum is famous for are the mummies showcased here. They were found in the surrounding mountains and are approximately 4000 years old. They were incredibly preserved...
This old gal still even had her hair intact.
After the museum, we grabbed a late lunch then headed back for a rest in the hotel room. In the evening, our guide picked us up again and took us to the International Bazaar, a large shopping area that is a mosh mash of items from all the ethnic groups and is somewhat "famous" in this area.
Lots of sights and sounds at the Bazzar....
The smells were incredibly good as well with all the spices and produce...
We bought a few items for some terribly missed girls back home ;-) and wanted to continue shopping but then this happened again...
Just keeping it real, people. This girl has a temper. She is not our compliant, quiet Amelia. She has some spice running through her veins. See the people staring in the background? They were just the beginning. It intensified when we went into a KFC to get her some dinner. I forgot about how attached she was to her shoes and I took them off so she could play on the play equipment inside. Oh my. We decided to quickly get a cab and call it a night.
Nuf said.
Here are just a few shots out our hotel room window to finally close out this post. The buildings light up beautifully at night...
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