Saturday, August 19, 2006: First Day of Beijing Tour

Today started with breakfast (a huge buffet). I had banana bread, shrimp cakes, noodles, fried rice, and french toast. Jason had bacon and a hard-boiled egg. I know he had some other stuff too-- and he grabbed a pineapple yogurt to go.

We boarded the bus to the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. On the bus, we met up with Kyndra and Larry, Jill and David, and Joia and Brad-- I had met the women on line, so it was cool to meet them in person. Our group has four children in it-- Marissa (5 years old) and Stephanie (6 years old) were both born in China and are back visiting while their parents adopt a second daughter. Nathan is 7 years old, and he is here to help get Abigail. Then there is Chase, who is 3.5 years old. He's from Florida and is even more shy than the others. They were all very good today-- and I was particularly impressed by how much walking Marissa did!

Once we got off the bus, we saw the museum with the count-down to the 2008 Olympics (the ads are all over the place). And then we crossed the street into Tiananmen Square (which can hold a million people!). We took lots of photos (thanks in large part to the help of the Spectors and Larry & Kyndra). We took lots of pictures in front of this one tower-looking thing which had a guard in front of it. There was no explanation in English, and I didn't catch why it was important, but we posed anyway. We also captured some video of the people in the huge, long line waiting to go see General Mao's tomb (which is made of crystal), and we saw the Parliamentary building (I didn't even realize they had a parliament here-- apparently I need to do more reading up on Chinese government-- for instance, I didn't know they don't have free medical care, and I assumed it was free because they are a communist country).

Next we crossed over into the Forbidden City. A lot of it is under construction, but we got to see a lot of it. We actually ran into the Duffys (from our flight) and saw the Curtises while we were there! The rumors are true-- there really is a Starbucks in the Forbidden City, and a bunch of the group stopped for some frosty frappucinos while we were on a break. We also looked in a few of the 9,999.5 rooms of the Forbidden City. Our guide, Jill, told us the story of the Dragon Lady, and how she ruled from "behind the curtain" (literally) because she kept appointing young emporors who she could control. We saw the room with the chair, the curtain, and where she sat "behind the curtain." We heard about how she had 72 plates served at each meal-- some just to look at or smell and all leftovers thrown out. And we learned that she'd poisoned the next-to-last emporor just a day before she died.

We made our way into the garden of the Forbidden City (which isn't really called a garden but I can't remember what it's called). The rocks there were all transported from Shanghai, which is a two-hour flight (so you can imagine how long it took to move them back then!). This is the only place in the Forbidden City with trees-- because the word for trees sounds like the word for lost. We also saw the famous "love tree" which is two intertwined trees. We took our photo in front of it because doing so apparently means your love will last forever-- and you will be in the next life together. I wonder if the other guy in this picture with us will be in our next life with us!?!

After the Forbidden City, Jill took us to lunch at a local restaurant, where we met more of the people from our travel group. I sat next to Lauren and Elizabeth (he is an OB-GYN and she runs a staffing organization of therapists) from Michigan (their daughter will be Katherine Elizabeth). Next to them was Natalie (single mom to Vivian, adopted in China around 3 years ago), who brought her friend Karen (who actually has eaten both cat and dog). Next to them were Robert and Vicki, and then Paul and Jackie (Nathan's parents). Everyone was very friendly. After lunch, I tested the eastern style toilet-- which is really, literally, a porcelain hole in the ground. They call it a "squat toilet" because you have to squat over it.

Then back to the bus to take us to the Hutong Tour. This was a rigshaw tour through the alleys of Beijing. As we rode along, there was actually a "rolex" vendor who followed alongside our rigshaw on his bike, trying to get us to buy watches! We've gotten pretty good at saying "boo yow" (not want) these days! We stopped and heard about the doorways to courtyards and their symbolic meaning, then we went to Mr. Wong's house-- where we saw Mr. Cricket and Mrs. Dumpling. I have decided this will be a wonderful name for a children's book-- don't you think? I call dibs on it. "Mr. Cricket" is actually famous, and he raises crickets to fight (October is the month for cricket fighting). Apparently, people bet up to $600,000 on a cricket for the fight.

After the Hutong Tour, we went to see the acrobat show. We went to see acrobats at the San Diego Wild Animal Park last week, so it was interesting to compare-- these guys were awfully amazing! Then we headed back to the Crowne Plaza for the day.

We had dinner at the Cantonese restaurant in the hotel (beef with broccoli, scallops with macadamia nuts and green bans, and Peking Duck-- can you believe it? Peking duck IN Peking, China!?!). There was a little confusion after dinner because the hotel had our room numbers backwards, and when we went downstairs to straighten out the rooms and exchange money, they told us they were out of money and couldn't exchange until tomorrow after 9am! So it should be interesting to see how our tour guide helps us figure out what to do, since the bus leaves at 8:30am and we need to pay for all our sightseeing. I'm sure it'll all work out! (See how positive I am?!?)

Tomorrow we go to the jade-making factory and the Great Wall of China. Then the following day it's off to meet Marcie. Kyndra and I are going to brainstorm questions to ask the orphanage care-takers while we are on the long bus ride tomorrow. They say we should be sure to ask all our questions while we have the chance, but no suggestions about what those questions should be! I'm sure we'll figure something out!