When the toilet seat is warm when you go to the bathroom in the morning, you know it’s going to be a good day! This hotel is very nice and one of then nicest we’ve stayed in. We went downstairs for breakfast early this morning and there were more Caucasian people than we’ve seen all month. We’ve decided when people say they’ve come to China and that everyone speaks English, they haven’t really been to China- they’ve been to one of the big cities… and welcome to Beijing.
We met our tour guide, Wendy (her English name) in the lobby of the hotel at 8am, for a full day of sightseeing around the city and organized shopping. I will not write all of the details of day, rather show more photos as I am utterly exhausted, but I will say a few things. We began our sightseeing at the Temple of Heaven with at least 2000 other tourists. We thought that this tour was going to be with other people in a large bus or van and we were not looking forward to it at all. However, we found out yesterday (another TBN) that we had a 15 person van with a driver and a private tour guide just for us. So we could take longer or shorter at certain sites and go to areas that are a little bit different. We decided that for this trip, we would see the main touristy things- as you have to see them once- and then we never have to go back. The Temple of Heaven was huge and very interesting. We learned much history and information about China today that no one has told us on all the tours we’ve taken. So it was a nice experience.
Then we went to Tianmen square and the Forbidden City with another at least 2-3000 people in the biggest square I’ve ever seen. We did not wait in the massive line to see Mao’s tomb, but there was a large photo of him at the end of the square with red flags all around. We also witnessed the changing of the guards, which happens every 3-4 hours. My phone again stopped working while we were here and I called verizon while we were touring the Forbidden City!
All day, mom was obsessed and really it wasn’t just today, it’s the entire trip, mom was obsessed with taking photos of children. Today was no exception. Every kid we passed, she would take photos. She also started taking photos of homeless people (which this is the first time we’ve seen any). As we were walking back from the Square, she took a few photos of one homeless person and then one woman had crutches with big towels on the end of them and as mom started taking a photo of her, she started yelling and cursing at mom and started coming towards her. Mom tried to get out of the way as quickly as possible and started running a bit. We could hear the woman continue to scream as we walked far away from her!
Then we went to a silk factory where we learned how silk was made and bought a few things there. It was actually really neat.
Many people speak English here and it has been very strange for us that there are so many people speaking English and looking not Chinese. It’s the first time in a month that we have experienced this. It’s a bit of culture shock.
Next was the Summer Palace which was also packed with people and it was quite windy. This was the summer residence of the Emperor and Empress.
After an extraordinarily long day, we arrived back at the hotel around 6:30pm and then debated for over an hour what we wanted to do for dinner. We sent dad out on a mission to find some food and a little over a half hour later, he returned from walking all around the neighborhood. He had found a grocery store and bought some bread, cheese and some kettle chips! We haven’t had cheese in weeks… or potato chips. It was delicious. We were exhausted. We had almost 14,000 steps today. Tomorrow we climb the Great Wall and see the Ming tombs- another very long day!
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