Today we went to Tian’anmen Square. Boy was it crowded! Josh related it to seeing Mount Rushmore in South Dakota - a national monument. We walked in a big group following our guide who held up a flag. There were groups and guides with flags everywhere. He gave us a lot of history about the place. Because of my lack of background knowledge, I would ask Josh to fill in my educational gaps.
We then toured the Forbidden City and Imperial Palace which had such awesome architecture! It was the typical Chinese architecture you think of when you think of Chinese buildings. It had grand entrances and big courtyards. It also had a really pretty imperial garden. As we were walking, Wren noticed a little boy with a hole in his pants with his butt cheek showing. Wren thought it was an accidental rip, but people have told me it’s for potty training.
From there, we rode rickshaws (a bike drawn two seat buggy) through an authentic Beijing neighborhood! We loved this part because we got to see how people in Beijing really live! We stopped at a family’s house which had four rooms centered around a courtyard. It was over 300 years old! One family lived there spread out throughout generations. They all have to walk down to the public restroom. Our next stop was another family’s house where we had lunch. The man who cooked for us was one of the chefs for the president of China in the late 90’s. His house was the size of a hotel room. It must not pay well to cook for the president! The food was excellent though – rice, chicken and vegetables, pork, etc. – very authentic Chinese food! We then got back in our rickshaws and as we were leaving, I was concerned that Josh, who was in another rickshaw with Wren, didn’t have our camera so as I was asking him, our rickshaw driver was exclaiming to me and pointing at my seat, “Hello, Hello, Hello!” So I quick sat down in my seat next to Kale, and we were off! As we drove back, and were riding behind a moving car backing out, the rickshaw driver’s chain fell off and I said to Kale, “Here we go, Kale! It’s you and I together, just like the kayak in Maine when we had to get towed, “ but the driver simply took out this metal hook and quickly put it back on. These rickshaw drivers were on the move! Sometimes they would pass each other and barely skim the other rickshaws next to them! After the rickshaw ride, we stopped at an exercise park where the boys tried out some park equipment that was designed for exercise!
We then stopped at a tea house for a tea tasting ceremony. We went into a small room and sat around an oval table on small stools facing a Chinese woman with some little glass pitchers in front of her. The woman would show us the main ingredient of the tea and pass it around for us to smell. Then she would make the tea in front of us and pour us a bit into our tiny tea glasses. She even showed us the proper way to hold our teacups: girls with their fourth finger and pinky out and boys with fingers closed. She made us five different types of tea, explaining to us the health benefit of each one. My favorite was the fruit tea. Kale and Wren tried a few and followed it with a swig of water. I’m not a tea drinker either, but I tried a sip of each one. Josh loves tea so we all passed our leftovers to him!
This is last our day in Beijing! Josh described Beijing as a cross between New York City and Tiajuana, which is really pretty accurate!
Love the pics and description! :-)
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