China- Day 2

Day two on our adventure in Beijing began at 8:00 am after having a western style breakfast in the hotel. We boarded the buses, and we were off. First stop- The Forbidden City, the home to the emperors for over 500 years. I really should have watched The Last Emperor before going on this trip. We stepped off of the bus, and we were attacked by people selling trinkets, like watches, hats, chopsticks, etc. They wouldn't stop, and they followed us, and hounded us. Someone who had been on this trip had already warned us of this. The Forbidden City was absolutely huge- 9999 rooms. Nine is a good luck number in China. All of the doors in the Forbidden City had 81 knobs. Everything relates to nine. It is very easy to get lost in the Forbidden City, so we stuck close to Allen, our guide. One very interesting fact is that before the Olympics, there was a Starbucks in the Forbidden City, but while preparing for the games, they decided to take out the starbucks, and they have not put it back. They wanted vistors to see how old this place is, and having a Starbucks in the center of it would make it seem modernized.

While we were at the forbidden city, we all had to go to the bathroom. Now this is another experience in China. We were told to bring toilet paper with us, so I did. Thank goodness I had several rolls because I ended up passing out a few in the bathroom to some poor ladies on the tour who hadn't been told to BYOTP (bring your own TP). Also, you don't flush the paper in China. You throw the toilet paper in a waste can. We are spoiled in the good ole USA.

We moved on to Tiananmen Square, which was built in 1417 as the front door to The Forbidden City. The square is huge, about 440,000 square meters. Mao Zedong Memorial Hall is at the South side of the square, and this hall contains the crystal coffin for Chairman Mao, the founder of the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party. The Chinese National Flag flies high in the sky at the Square. We walked around for a while and took pictures and then we bargained for our first items in China- Beijing Olympic knit hats for the boys. It was getting colder and windier, and somewhere along the way, Patrick had lost his hat. Of course, we couldn't get Patrick one without getting Matthew one. I think we haggled a little, but walked away with two hats for about $3.00 total- not bad (except for the fact that they are totally falling apart now and the stitching of the Olympic rings is coming apart).

We stopped for lunch on the way to the Summer Palace. Lunch was good- more beef, chicken and vegetables on a lazy susan table to spin around for easy access to everyone at the table. The Summer Palace was the highlight of the day I think. It was so beautiful surrounded by the largest man made lake in the world. The Palace is where the Emperor would spend the summers. There is a 700 meter corridor which leads to the steps of the palace. This corridor has thousands of painted scenes as you walk through it. Each scene is different and so detailed. If we had stopped to examine each painting, we would have been there for three days. When we got to the entrance to the actual palace, the boys were mobbed by tons of Chinese tourists. We must have spent 15 minutes with them so they could take their pictures and touch their hair. Sometimes they just stare at us. For some of them, they have never seen a westerner, so the just stop to look at our faces and our big noses. They refer to us as "The Big Nose". This is what Allen told us. He actual called us his big nose friends during the whole trip. The Chinese have very small, flat noses, so they are quite intrigued by ours.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Silk Factory and watched how silk is made. It was actually very interesting, and the boys got a kick out of it. Of course, it was also a tourist trap. We managed to get trapped- we bought a few items, one being a silk duvet. (after bringing it home and replacing our down duvet with it, it is so awesome. It doesn't shift in the cover like the down one always did). Brian really wanted to get measured for a suit, but time didn't allow. They are really cheap to get custom made over here.

We got back to our hotel just in time to catch some dinner at the hotel and head to bed. The highlight of the trip would be Day 3- The Great Wall.