Site Seeing in Beijing

What an amazing day.

It started with a great breakfast at the hotel. Buffet style with Chinese, Western and European breakfast food. Definitely something for everyone. We then met our guide, George, at 9:00 in the lobby for a full day of site seeing. We began with Tian'anmen Square, a large city square in the center of Beijing. It is the entrance to the Forbidden City. We spent about 3.5 hours in The Forbidden City looking around and getting lots of history from our guide. It was quite an experience. Tons and tons of people and so much to see. We probably could have spent another 3.5 hours there.

We had lunch at a place that seemed to cater to Americans. The food was pretty good but Ryan is waiting for something to blow his socks off. The whole fried fish on a plate was tasty but creepy looking. Everything so far has been pretty good.

After lunch we visited a silk factory. We had a tour and learned how silk is made and of course got to do some shopping. We didn't buy any silk but Ryan found a guy that carved a stamp out of stone and put Cooper's name on it and the Chinese symbols for his name. Something we will have forever.

Next we went on a rickshaw tour in old Beijing. We were able to visit a local woman who lives in the center of the city. She let us into her courtyard where she had lots of pets (cats, dogs, pigeons and crickets) and gardens. She answered questions and let us tour her traditional Beijing home.

We are now back at the hotel. Ryan is having trouble adjusting to the time difference. It is 6:00pm and he is sound asleep. Probably because he woke up at 2:00am this morning!

I cannot begin to describe the size of everything here. This city is ginormous and there are so many people everywhere! It is the best people watching experience I have ever had. We are having fun and truly enjoying ourselves but we are ready for the real reason we came. In 3 days we get to meet our son! Our lives will never be the same. I am so happy I can hardly contain myself! ~Ronda

Tian'anmen Square

Forbidden City

Fried Fish

Making Silk Thread

Carving Stamp

Pet Cricket

Grizzy in the Rickshaw