Arriving in China: Biejing

Forbidden City and Tienamin Square

On Wednesday, February 25, Jim and I left to go the China to pick up Juliet. We had to be at the airport very early and we knew we were in for a log day. Jim and I were both excited about what the next couple weeks had in store for us. There were a couple of families who were flying from Indianapolis to Chicago, but in Chicago was where we were going to meet most of the other families. Finally, around 12:00 we boarded our plane for a 14 hour plane ride. We arrived in Beijing 14 hours and a day later. We checked in the Kutai Royal Hotel and then decided to try to find some dinner. Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds, and Subway were all within walking distance, but I thought we should eat some Chinese food...since we were in China. My father-in-law said the Chinese food was better than the food in the states. I asked the conceirge at our hotel and they gave me the name of a restaurant that he sends all of his guests to. We went there looking for Chinese food and we looked at the menu and it was like looking at something from the TV show Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmern. Sea cucumbers, deer tendons, birds nest soup, etc. Anyway we found somethings that were somewhat similar to American faire and returned to the hotel room. We were exhausted so we went to sleep, but I was then up at 5:00 and not remotely tired. 

The next day we had a tour of the Forbidden City and Tienamin Square. We got our first taste of being the tourist attraction when we were the tourists. The chinese were absolutely fascinated with us. They wanted to take pictures with us and especially the children who were with some of the families. The Forbidden City was amazing in its size. It felt like it kept going on forever. It was hard to believe that someone actually lived there up until less than 100 years ago. Another thing that is so interesting about China is all of the symbolism. The chinese value color especially red, yellow, and green. They also feel that numbers are a sign of importance. 10 stands for heaven and therefore the emperor used the number 9 in many of his buildings because he felt that her was just below Heaven.  We returned to the hotel and were feeling the need for some American food so we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Later that night went to an acrobatics show. This was an amazing show. It was a troop of acrobats from the Sichuan Province.

The next day we went to the Great Wall. It was amazing! You hear about this and see pictures or television shows, but it is so different when you are actually there. The thing that surprised me was how steep the climb was. The stairs were also very irregular. Some steps were 4 inches, the next step might be 18 inches. It was a very difficult climb. The height thing became an issue for me and so Jim continued up further. After that we were taken to a Clossinay factory and to lunch. Again...the food was an interesting adventure. After lunch we headed to the Summer Palace. Again, this was a beautiful place, but it was freezing there the day we were there. This was a place where the Empress liked to spend her summers. This was destroyed by fire and was many times and it was always rebuilt. Eventually we went back to the hotel to get ready for the next day...we were flying to the next province to get the babies.