Tourist for (Half) a Day

On Tuesday, we had a break from our language and orientation schedule to take an afternoon to go and see some of the sights around Beijing. Stephen (his English name), a student at nearby Peking University, offered to take some of us to the Forbidden City, and Mel and I took him up on the offer. Fortunately for us, the pollution seemed to lift for the afternoon, as you can see in the pictures below where blue sky is actually visible! (This has been the one and only time it's happened since I arrived).