As it turned out, actually getting to the airport was the most difficult part of the trip thus far. The traffic was thick, so we had little time to spare when we arrived. We were able to say a quick hello to our friends the Palmers who were getting picked up by Mike who was dropping us off.
The plane was amazingly empty and I'm hoping it is the same way when we return (fat chance of that probably, but one can hope). A twelve hour plane ride later, we arrived in Beijing.
The hotel itself is really nice, this is the area where we have our breakfasts. At night it boasts an "electrical waterfall," which you can see in the picture.
Speaking of breakfasts, there is quite a wide variety of items to choose from at the buffet. Pam was brave and tried this, which actually tasted quite good. We all stayed away from the baconic, which was either a typo, or some type of "bacon product."
Next to the hotel is a Catholic church, which we snooped around in a bit. In the courtyard in front of the church, there were a group of ladies dancing. It didn't look like exercise as much as it looked like a Chinese form of line dancing.
After meeting the 8 other families that are part of a travel group (always a great experience), we set off to Tiananmen Square (where of course there is no mention of the student uprising, but instead lots and lots of Chinese pride), and the Forbidden City.
These two impressive building serve as gates into....well, none of could remember, but they are in Beijing. Look, we have jet lag, okay?
This building (yes, those are people on top of it) was constructed for Chairman Mao when he died. So this is his "Mao-saleum" ark, ark. He is buried here and was chemically "preserved" so he would look the same as when he died. Only the Chinese nationals are allowed to enter, and there was a steady stream of them doing so when we were there.
The square itself is a wide open area which has a lot of important governmental buildings nearby (I can't remember what those were either, but they are important). They had giant screens which played video clips depicting all the "highlights" of China.
Here we are in the square. You can see a huge picture of Chairman Mao in the background. The picture is replaced every year with a new one.
Here is Sissy in the front entrance to the Forbidden City. It is so bare and empty because that way people in the city could spot anyone trying to get in who was not on the "approved list" (which included common people and foreigners, and people who wanted to kill the emperor and his family..which included 3,000 concubines...the emperor was a busy man). I could tell you all kinds of history about the Forbidden City, but I'll let you google it instead. The lady in the background is Jean, our guide, and that white flag is very very important when you have a sea of black heads.
There are 9,999 buildings in the city. I took some shots of the inside of a few of them (you can't actually go inside them). They are very impressive, but after a while, a building is a building.
After we had had our share of touring the buildings, we went for a pedicab ride though a very old section of Beijing. There, we had lunch at a local family's house. The lady of the house is called "Madam Jong." I rather like that title, maybe I should become "Madam Froisland." Hmmm, maybe not. The term "madam" can mean something different in the US.
After we returned to the hotel, we decided to strike out on our own and walk around the city in search of a yarn shop that Pam's mom had described. We took a nice long walk, kinda sorta getting a bit farther from the hotel than we planned. We decided to have our own hutong tour and took a walk down an alley which was quite a contrast to all the modern buildings and shops that were on the main drag. There was a slight bit of concern when it kept going on and on and we lost sight of any main road. We eventually found our way back safe and sound. On our walk we passed this way too cute fountain (?) in front of a tea house.
Finally, this is spoiled if you are on FB, but I just had to take a shot of those wonderful split pants. With the cold weather, I didn't see as many of those ubiquitous bare buns I saw last time I was n Beijing (that was the summer time). This little guy had kind of a temporary "patch" for his split. I imagine it's easily removable when the "need" arises. To show how commonplace those split pants are, this statue boy was sporting a pair. No patch for him, though, so his poor bare buns are for all the world to see.
Today's agenda includes the Great Wall. We'll try not to stray too far away and lose our way. Although that would make for a really exciting blog post.....
No comments:
Post a Comment