The Eastern Discovery Tour
Day 6

Day 6 saw me do a large number of attractions. The first stop was the Panjiayaun antique market. From their I headed over to Longtan Park and Beijing Amusement Park. In the afternoon I headed over to the Temple of Heaven, before getting the Metro to finish my day at Ghost Street.

To get to the Panjiayuan market I got the metro to Jinsong (line 10) from where I walked South to Panjiayuan Bride, where I took the road West to the official start of the market, although unofficially it starts a couple of hundred metre from the entrance where various merchants have set up shop.

This is basically a giant car boot sale, without the cars. It's full of various merchants who have set up shop selling various items. Despite the name a lot of items here won't be many genuine antiques, but it's a great place to look for some unusual gifts and souvenirs. It's a good idea to bring along a calculator or a notepad and pen to use while haggling for an item.

This enclosed area has a more organised feel, with most of the merchants specialising in one type of item rather than a random arrangement of items. Many of the merchants are also organised in to areas, with all the pottery in one area, jade in another and so on.

Exploring the market is a fun experience, and it's worth doing even if you don't intend to buy anything. It's a good activity to do at a weekend when the market is at it's liveliest.

With so many great items on offer I would recommend looking around as much of the market as you can before you buy anything.

From the market I continued West down the road towards Longtan Park.

It's a nice park in a nice lakeside location, although there are a lot more spectacular parks in Beijing.

One of the larger buildings in the park.

The Chinese really love their goldfish.

You can hire boats to go out on the lake, and there's something else of interest in the trees on the left.