Thursday, July 14, 2004
After a much needed and restful night’s sleep, and a BIG breakfast at the Marco Polo hotel, we set off for our first full day in Beijing. And it was a full day! We started with a visit to Tiennanman Square. This photo of Dilla and our guide, Daisy, is taken in front of the tomb of Chairman Mao. His body lies here, preserved in a crystal coffin. The line to view is literally a couple of miles long for just a moment at the coffin, so we opted not to see it.
The square is enormous and there were many, many people there. It’s right across from our next stop, the Forbidden City. This home of the emperors was closed to the public before 1925. This is a shot of Dilla and Justin across from the main entrance. It is on the balcony of this building, in the late forties, that Chairman Mao proclaimed the Republic of China. A very large oil portrait of him hangs there, as you can see, which is replaced each year to keep it looking good.
We walked on into the Forbidden City, which is made up of 12 palaces with a total of 9,999 rooms! If you stayed in a different room each night, it would take about 7 years to stay in them all. This is the first palace, across the courtyard. As you can see, it draws quite a few people. It is summer holiday for many people here in China. College students are home for the summer and many Chinese are touring as well. There were thousands of people there.
We walked around for awhile and saw one palace, the emperor’s rooms and learned a bit about it. It was really hot even though the sun was not out. The humidity was high, too, and we were glad to get back into an air conditioned car and head to lunch. We ate at a very nice Chinese restaurant – well, I guess all the restaurants in China are technically Chinese restaurants – and enjoyed a big lunch. It was similar to eating in an American Chinese restaurant. Justin can handle the chopsticks okay – Dilla gives it a try, but usually ends up with fork and knife.
After lunch, we visited a silk factory. We saw how silk from silkworms is made into fine garments and quilts. It really was interesting and amazing how they turn those tiny threads into beautiful fabric. Here, workers get the strands of thread from the cocoons and it is wrapped on spools overhead.
After some shopping in their store, we took off for a close-up tour of part of Beijing. We were in the Hutung part of the city – narrow alleyways of residences and shops. We traveled by rickshaw.
We wound through a maze of buildings and made a few stops. First, we visited a kindergarten. It is different from an American kindergarten, it’s more like day care. Children stay there for 4 years, divided into different groups by age. Some kindergartens are owned by private businesses, others are government run. We visited a private one. The children seemed happy and well cared-for and the facility was clean and neat. The kids were absolutely darling!
Our next stop was at a private residence. We actually went into one of the areas where 4 families reside. Essentially, it is a courtyard with a few small apartments. 2 or 3 generations of the family may live in them. We were welcomed by 70 year old lady, who lives with her daughter, her nephew and his wife. She gave us a tour of the place, which was very small, but neat and clean. They had no air conditioning, but some modern conveniences, like a TV, telephone and a microwave oven. They did have a private bathroom, but others in the courtyard shared a public facility! She served us tea, spoke in broken, but understandable English and gave us a tour of the apartment. It was neat to see how some of the Chinese live.
After the visit, we finished the rickshaw ride and headed back to the hotel and Daisy turned us loose for the evening. There’s another couple from California that is here to adopt a baby with us named Rey and Lynn Obnamia. They’re on a bit different tour schedule, but we are staying in the same hotel for a couple of days here in Beijing and will spend the rest of the trip together when we reach Chongqing. We met them and their cute little girl, Sage (whom they adopted from China nearly 2 years ago), for dinner tonight and went to the world-renowned Peking Duck restaurant. It was huge, and very busy, and the food was delicious. We split one duck, and a couple of other entrees and there was plenty of food for all. When they serve the duck, they carve it, tableside for you. It was succulent! The most challenging thing about dinner was ordering. It’s not that we couldn't choose, but they didn’t speak much English there. It took Rey a good 10 minutes to explain what we wanted. Fortunately, everything came as ordered.
After dinner, and a short cab ride back to the hotel, we bid the Obmamias good night and retired to our room. As I said, it was a FULL day and we’re ready for another good night’s sleep.