Today we woke up in Beijing!
8:15 a.m. We just returned from eating breakfast at the hotel
restaurant. The hotel is lovely. The clean decorative lines and
shiny surfaces are so appealing. My eyes wandered through
the room while I was eating and I savored the beauty of the
Asian decor. Asian themes are often nature based and their
design reflects this in their use of wood, metal, rock, marble
and water. The ambiance is soothing and uplifting. I have
noticed both in the airport and at the hotel how even
bathroom stalls appear simple and uncluttered in comparison to
those in the USA. Bathroom stalls here push open and are
free of detail or clutter. They don't use handles on doors or
big conspicuous hinges. The doors swing from concealed top
hinges. Our hotel's restaurant is decorated honoring the
nature elements. Fruity woods, green marble, stainless steel
and greenish glass give this elegant eating spot a lovely
appeal. The buffet food was excellent. We are being careful
not to eat unpeeled fruits, vegetables, or lettuce salads where
the leaves may be washed in water with unfamiliar bacteria. It
felt so good to have life slow down this day and eat my food in
a leisurely fashion in a beautiful place!
9:00 a.m. Thirteen of us set off on foot with our tour guide
Peter for the Imperial Palace. As we walked, Peter pointed
out food and shopping places as well as landmarks and
historical areas. Beijing is a great city to vacation in because
of the cultural immersion one can experience. Many buildings
are labelled with both Chinese and American letters making
navigating kind of easy in this foreign country. I understand
flights to Beijing are not that expensive relatively speaking.
It would be fun to spend three days in Beijing as long as one
could handle the very long plane flights. The Imperial Palace
was very interesting. We toured the Palace, the Forbidden
City ( it was forbidden to commoners), Chairman Mao's Tomb,
Tiannemen Square as well as some of the local shops and
community areas. When we went to Mao's Tomb we got in a
long line of people. Suddenly a man dressed in green garb
grabbed Brian's (one of the mature looking adoptive parents)
arm and motioned for him to follow him. Our group followed
along not really understanding what was going on. He ran
Brian ahead of hundreds of China's citizens in line. It felt
very odd. He would just keep pulling him along and making him
race ahead. We all were confused but we kept racing ahead
behind him. In America if you ran ahead of people who were
in line you'd hear some angry comments and you might be in
physical danger, but here not a sound was made by anyone.
We continued running all the way to the building where Mao's
body lay in an enclosed glass chamber. I thought this man
pulling Brian along was a government official. We really don't
know why this happened? When he was done racing Brian to
the front of the line, he expected to be tipped and Brian
tipped him. Then he pulled out a cigarette and lit one for
Brian and one for himself. As weird and unsettling as this was
it gave us all something to laugh about later. When we told our
waiting tour guide what had happened he said, "Next time just
wait in the line." Next we went to the Forbidden city. The city
has a huge wall (actually more than one) around it that was
used to protect the emperor from would be assassins. Inside
the city there are many beautiful buildings each used for a
different purpose by the emperor. I learned that when a
Asian building has many animals on the roof's corner it is a
sign that it is a building for a high ranking leader. Also when a
building has a double roof it signifies that someone of high
ranking importance lives there. I am enclosing some pictures
from today's walking tour.
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Beijing Shopping Mall 2 blocks from the Beijing Peace Hotel
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Beautiful Beijing Department Store
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Diane at the entrance to a Beijing Street Food Market
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Entrance to a neighborhood. Gate of an old city wall.
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Beijing Street Scene on the way to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden
City.
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Diane and Pete near Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City (Forbidden
City seen in the background).
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Some of our Adoption Group in china at Tiananmen Square
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Pictures of Chairman Mao over the entrance to the Forbidden City.
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Pictures were forbidden in the Forbidden City, only because I
forgot to charge the camera and left the other camera at the
hotel. We bought a disposable camera and will develop
pictures of the Forbidden City when we return home with My
My. In the afternoon we went walking (just Pete and Diane)
along a street with small shops and vendors. It was a fun
experience to be among the locals without a tour guide. The
Chinese people we meet were very nice and courteous.
Sometimes street vendors who were selling were pushy. They
will say "Hey lady" or "Look, look" then they say a Yuan
amount and keep lowering that Yuan amount until a tourist buys
their goods or walks far enough away from them. We would
tell them "BU YA" which means no thank you.
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