Beijing

A good night’s sleep and a fabulous breakfast made us feel like a new person.

We met the members of our travel group today and instantly made a bond with most all of them! One other couple brought along their adopted daughter, so we definitely have the livelier group! We have a guide, George, who is passionate about his country, very intelligent and a history buff, and also has a good sense of humor and a lot of patience! We really like him!

We started our day in Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. There is a lot of history in these two places, more than our little ones can begin to imagine. The forbidden City had amazing architecture and beautiful artifacts. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.

After we left the Forbidden City we were walking back to our bus and past some street vendors offering samples of their food. We’ve been told, “don’t make eye contact, don’t speak – not even to say no! Once you do, you will be followed. So we’ve all done pretty well, even the kids. Except Bob. He’s from Denver. And he is hilarious! This one street vendor kept harassing him to try some food while we waited to cross a busy intersection. Bob eventually gave in and tried it. Then turned his back to the vendor and waited for the light to change. When the all clear came and we began to cross the street, the street vendor grabbed Bob’s jacket and literally yanked him back! Bob was pretty much forced into buying food. Luckily it was nuts and fruit, something similar to granola, so it was pretty good. Bob taught us all a good lesson – don’t try unless you intend to buy.

The Chinese people LOVE our kids! There are about fifty people out there with pictures of our children. People would pose with them, one guy gave Eli a kiss on the cheek and one other girl picked him up and held him to get her picture made. (Mom, I promise I was right beside him – no one could have taken him where we were standing) I even got suckered into taking a few. Madi Beth began posing after a while and even Eli smiled for every picture – these are kids that usually have to be bribed into taking a picture and smiling! They LOVED the attention and easily got spoiled by it.

We ended our Beijing day in the Hutong area. We took a Rickshaw ride to a traditional Chinese home in the Hutong villages. It was VERY small and had no indoor bathroom! This area of Beijing is very old and very expensive, but no private baths! There are public bathrooms outside the little villages where you bath and go to the bathroom. Speaking of bathrooms, we had our first experience with squatty potties today. Very interesting… Makes you appreciate what we have in America. Americans are very spoiled! We were served tea in this home and the kids were given a sucker. She was a very sweet lady that invited us in.

As I type, the children are all sacked out in the bed! Jeremiah and I are also about to turn in. Tomorrow we see the Great Wall and an Acrobat Show!