Travel Journal - Day 3

Touring Beijing

Wow!! I don’t think that we have ever had such a packed day of touring! A lot of history was told, and I can’t remember half of it. We started our day out with a delicious breakfast buffet again at the hotel. It was fun to see all of the AWAA people saunter in to eat. They all were a little tired! It made us happy that we came a day early!! First we boarded our bus and headed to Tiananmen Square. The square is absolutely huge, and it is packed with people! We found out that Beijing is the third largest city in China with a whopping 15 million people!! 1.5 million bikes are registered in the city (not all people register them) and they have to pay a 5.00 tax every year on them. There are a lot of people trying to sell you things, and we learned to tell them "Bo Yao" (Boo Yow) which means NO THANK YOU!! ( : They really don’t like to give up on trying to sell you things, so we did get some practice saying "no" today! ( : . From Tiananmen Square we walked into the Forbidden City, where there are a total of 10,000 rooms. This was the area where the emperor lived with all of his wives and family. It just went on and on and we walked and walked! You could really feel the population there, as many times you were almost herded into areas shoulder to shoulder. We then went to eat at a traditional Chinese restaurant. Food was served on a lazy susan in the middle of the table, and you ate the food family style. I wasn’t very impressed with the food, and the rest of the table didn’t like it too much either. From there it we went to the Pearl Market. We saw tables and tables of beautiful pearls. A man there opened a 6 year old oyster and inside was over 30 pearls!! Couldn’t believe it. The Summer Palace was next on the agenda, and I have to say that it was my favorite place of the day. It was very beautiful, and a man made lake (OVER 200 ACRES) boardered a large portion of the palace. The land they moved to build this lake was transported over to the side of the palace to help build up the mountainous region nearby. Very beautiful. Then it was to the Silk Factory. We got to see how they harvested the silk, wove it, and made it into a large variety of fabrics. We then were set loose in a huge silk store (of course they want you to buy something) to shop and shop some more. We ended up buying Taya a little Chinese outfit. They are so cute. Hopefully later in our trip we will have a photo posted of her in it. We finished our day out at a Cantonese Restaurant and it was very good. Cantonese is more of the sweet and sour flavors with some spicy food, and everyone really enjoyed it. The only problem was that everyone was so tired from the full day that the socializing was lacking and people just wanted to get back to the hotel and go to sleep! Overall the day was great. It was fun to observe the Chinese population and how they live. It is so different than us. Again, there was a lot of staring at us, but I have to admit we were spending a lot of time looking at them too! ( : The children here are absolutely adorable, and I tried to take some pictures of them. We even got the opportunity of watching how split pants work in little kids. For those of you that don’t know what they are, Chinese leave the pants on children open in the mid section so all they have to do is squat and go wherever they are at. One little boy was squatting right in the middle of a large group of people, and another woman was holding her child over the garbage can to go!! No one (besides us!!) paid any attention!!! Our tour group got the opportunity (if you call it that) to try a squatty potty, where you do just that to go. Quite interesting!! Well, we are going to call it a night. We have another full day tomorrow. First it is off to an international Christian church. The service is about 1 ½ hours and the only way you can attend is with a passport. The church is not allowed for citizens of China. Then we are off to the Great Wall to try and see how far up we can climb. Dana wants to get to the top. We’ll have to see how far we get. Two more days until Taya is with her forever family!! Hold on Sweetie, We’re Coming to Get You!! Thanks again for all of the emails! We love to here from you!

Amy and Dana

Jonah: Did you go hunting today? Good luck at your hockey game and score one for us!! 

Dustin: Did you go to the haunted house? Cheer on the SWC girls for us!! We love you both so much and miss you!!