What A Day!

We had a fabulous day of sight-seeing with our tour guide, Sam. He's originally from just north of Beijing and is married with one little girl. He's a sweet guy and very knowledgeable. He spent the day filling our head with tons of history, including dates and names and details about everything we saw. I just know I'll never remember it all, but I'll try to summarize a few things that impressed me the most!

Our first stop was at the Summer Palace. We learned all about the significance of dragons and phoenix, architecture, and ancient engineering feats with some impressive amounts of history about the royal family thrown in for kicks. What stuck out the most is the concept of the "Power behind the curtain." It's an expression Sam used to explain the dynamics that happened when one of the emperors passed away and left the throne to his young son. Since the son was too young to lead, his mother, the Empress Dowager, instructed him on what decisions to make and how to govern rightly. He wasn't even a teen yet! We also walked the "Long Corridor" with over 15,000 hand painted murals on the over head beams and headers. (Dr. D, do you remember telling me about those this summer?) In person, they are intricate and beautiful. Some of the details that Sam was throwing around made us shake our heads in amazement: when this stuff was happening, America wasn't even a twinkle in the Pilgrims eyes yet!

We headed then to the local pearl market and got a great demonstration of the way freshwater pearls are made. We learned that they come in white, pink, lavender and black. We each got a tiny pearl as a souvenir. LadyBug, you would have LOVED this jewelry market! Shopping there was really fun, but the clerks were serious. They've got the hard-sell down pat! Lunch (cuz I know Shaggy will want to know!) was a great little buffet restaurant with several really yummy dishes. And good old fashioned Diet Coke for a caffeine recharge.

From there, we headed to the Forbidden City. It is a walled-in city within the city of Beijing. This huge, sprawling fortress was full of people and we got a first hand experience in the cultural differences regarding personal space. I slipped on a stone and bumped into an elderly woman, causing her to bump into her companion. I apologized nicely and walked on. But I could hear them laughing and saying, "she said 'Sorry' to me!" I was their daily dose of the crazy Westerners, I guess.



The thing that struck The Boss and I the most about the Forbidden City was the precision and attention to detail regarding EVERY aspect of daily life. Certain doors for certain people. Only certain of those people could go in but not out those doors. Each building had a specific and often single time use. For example, one of the temples on the mountain behind the city was enormous. From where we stood, we could see the amazing colors and detailed murals. But that temple was built specifically for the ONE day of the year in which only the emperor was allowed to pray to Buddha for the nation. Such devotion and attention to the building details was impressive. We were at the Forbidden City for hours. We visited the wings for his beauties, some of whom were lucky enough to be chosen to become his concubines. There were buildings for the retired empress and her family and staff and more buildings for the retired concubines. Heads of state and other foreign dignitaries were housed in yet another wing. It was massive.


We exited the Forbidden City by way of Tianeman Square. There were police all over and the gardens were amazing. With the Olympics and now the Paralympics hosted here in Beijing, the whole city was full of gorgeous and colorful flower sculptures. The square is huge. By the end of it, we were mighty glad to see our driver with his air-conditioned van!


We made our way to the oldest silk market in Beijing. The demonstrations in the lobby were interesting, and we got to see the many stages of a silk worms life. I kept thinking that the boys would have loved that part of the day! There are two kinds of silk cocoons: one with a singular worm that creates threads suitable for clothing and fine needle work, and another with two worms that tangle and weave the threads in the cocoon to make a heavier thread for bed linens and such. Again the shopping was fun, with so many textures to touch and colors to see. The hard-sell was more genteel here, but there was lots of pressure nonetheless.

Finally, we went to the Beijing Roast Duck Restaurant. The meal was fantastic and The Boss taught us how to use chopsticks. I figured out why most Chinese people are so tiny. They cannot possibly get enough food into their mouths to satisfy a large appetite, and their poor little tummies must all be shrunk! (I'm just kidding!!!) I did actually get the hang of the chopsticks with bigger pieces of meat. But that rice and those bamboo shoots escaped almost every time.

We all opted to eat early and head back to the hotel. We're pretty beat today and still adjusting to the time. I gotta give little Bayley some serious props: she made it through the whole day without any complaining and kept up with the rest of us adults quite well. It's been thoroughly enjoyable to get to know Brittany and Bayley - they are great company. You can check their blog at Journey to Addie. Tell them The Gang sent ya!

Only 2 1/2 days till we get Aidan . . . it helped that today went so quickly, but with all the beautiful babies and toddlers we saw today, our thoughts were never far from our little sweetie.

Well, it's 8:30 and I think we're heading to bed. Actually, The Boss has been snoozing for the whole time I've been writing. He must be tired: he missed the whole Jackie Chan movie he switched to when he sat down! Tomorrow, we climb a portion of the Great Wall and visit the orphanage training center run by Living Hope International. It will be amazing!