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Thursday, November 15, 2012 WE MADE IT! Our flight was great. 13 ½ hours straight through from Chicago to Beijing. The Beijing airport is massive, but very easy to get around. All the sign are in Chinese and english. Marsha, our Beijing guide met us at the airport and took us back to our hotel. On the way to the hotel she told us all about China and Chinese culture. So interesting. Traffic on the expressway was horrible, just like trying to get to downtown Chicago for a Bears game. With the exception of the fact that the road signs were in Chinese (although many were written in english too) it looked exactly like taking 290 downtown. We are staying the DeBao Hotel here in Beijing. The rooms are very similar to American hotel rooms, but on a smaller scale. The beds are just a bit bigger than a twin, but smaller than a full, they are only about a foot off the floor, and hard as rocks. All the TV is in Chinese, even the remote is in Chinese I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I thought maybe Disney might have a “guy” who could channel in some English TV. So Connor ended up watching american shows dubbed in Chinese – quite entertaining! We left Chicago at noon on Wednesday and got to our hotel around 6pm on Thursday. Shyla had a hard time wrapping her brain around what happened to Wednesday. We were all pretty wiped so we just went to bed around 7pm – although it was about 5 am at home. Marsha will pick us up Friday (tomorrow) morning at 8:30am for a full day of sight seeing. ~~~ Friday, November 16,  2012 We had such an amazing day today. It started with a delicious breakfast at the hotel. There was everything from fruit, bacon and eggs, to biscuits with meat and custard inside and different varieties of congee, a type of soup. No forks, just chopsticks, which the kids managed pretty well. It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 50 degrees, although there is definitely a haze of smog that settles over the city. Our first stop was the Temple of Heaven. This is the place where people would go to pray for a bumper crop. Although there are many beautiful gates and buildings, the landscape is beautiful and the cobble stone common areas are an attraction for visitors and locals alike. Many locals go to spend their days there playing hacky sack (although the hacky sacs aren't like the bean bags that we know them to be, they are feathers glued on to discs), cards, and chess. There are areas where people ballroom dance and even more people line dance. There was even a flash mob of sorts where hundreds of people were gathered to sing. There was a guy selling sheet music and people just gathered around and sang. Our next stop was the pearl factory. Well it wasn't quite a factory as much as a store with an area to choose an oyster and learn about them. Each oyster has upwards to twenty pearls that are used for all different purposes. Any pearls under 8mm are considered not good enough for jewelry and are used for making all types of different lotions. The pearls come in all shapes, colors and sizes. Our guide explained that purple pearls were specific to China, so we got some to bring home. By that time we were getting hungry so we went to lunch. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had heard that the Chinese food in China just isn't the same as the US. That's right, it's better! We ate a family style meal of kung pao chicken, garlic broccoli and snow peas and the most delicious dumplings. Bellies full, we headed to the silk factory, again more of a store, for some learning and shopping. I always thought that those little worms just spun and spun while the people gathered their silk. Nope. It turns our that the silk is spun from the cocoon of the worm. A single cocoon can make 1500 meters of silk. We watched as a woman soaked the cocoons in hot water to get them soft, and then gathered the strands from 8 cocoons to make one single strand of silk. The next stop on the tour was watching four ladies pull the silk to make comforters, which of course they have for sale. The last stop was the showroom of clothing, scarves and any other novelty made of silk that you can think of. We tried to buy something at each stop to show respect for the people there as well as bring home a few reminders of China to give to Mei Mei as she grows. We ended our day with a walking tour of Tiananmen Square, then down through the Forbidden City. The history and culture of this city is expansive. The Forbidden City just massive with row after row of temples, and people. We had heard that people would be captivated by the girls' blonde hair, and boy were they ever. People would take them by the arm and round them up for picture after picture. When we would get together for a family shot, strangers would line up to take a picture for themselves.

Playing hacky sac inside the gate of the Temple of Heaven Crowd of people gathered to sing At the Temple of Heaven Spinning silk Tian'anmen Square The Forbidden City

The one thing that is so crazy are the amounts of people everywhere. On the sidewalks and streets, walking and riding bikes and motor scooters. The cars and busses get within feet of the people, but it's like no seems to notice. We're back at the hotel for the rest of the day. We packed left overs from lunch to have for dinner, we'll take a quick swim and then off to bed for another big day of touring tomorrow. Marsha, our guide, is teaching us all the basics of the Chinese language. This morning we were all saying them with ease, but I think we all need another lesson tomorrow, as all of the words seem to sound the same with just intonations to change the meaning of a word. We all feel so incredibly lucky to be here. While congested and crowded, it is a beautiful country with really friendly people. I took so many pictures today trying to capture memories and places to one day share with Mei Mei about how amazing her native country is. Only 2 more days til Gotcha day!

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