Our First Day of Touring

---

Geo: 39.9165, 116.391

We all woke up at 5:00am!!

We dressed warm for weather between 45 - 55 degrees. The breakfast buffet was huge -- the biggest we have ever had. Besides Western food such as omelets, french toast, waffles, etc., they had a large area with Asian specialties like dumplings. A great surprise and bonus was the great coffee. We thought we would be drinking tea the entire trip!

We met our group (25 including us) in the Lobby at 8:15 and got on a large bus. There were street vendors circling us as we stepped on the bus. One of the first phrases Jo taught us was how to tell them "Boo-ya-o" -- no, we don't want it"!

The sky was bright blue and the air was clear -- in Beijing!!! This was due to APEC meeting there the week before. They shut down the factories for APEC and only allowed cars with odd numbered license plates to drive on certain days and even numbers on the other days.

The Temple of Heaven is surrounded by parks where locals come to exercise, dance, sing, play cards and checkers, knit, etc. Brennan immediately became Jo's assistant and held her flag while she purchased our entry tickets. A lot of people were playing hacky sack with a feathered sack. They encouraged Brennan to play and he did quite well. He really had fun with it so we bought a bright colored one for him to bring home. We also found out soon that Brennan was quite a celebrity in China. People asked to take a picture with him constantly!

The Temple of Heaven is where the emperor would perform rites and make sacrifices to Heaven for a good harvest. There were three main buildings in the complex: one for thanksgiving, a warehouse and the Hall of Prayer. The Hall of Prayer was built in 1420 without the use of a single nail. It is a beautiful place with striking blue roofs that symbolize the color of heaven.

As we walked back to the bus, we saw lots of locals knitting, playing games and singing. They are a very social people.

We next visited a pearl factory owned by the government. A woman from the shop gave us a brief explanation of pearls and asked one of our group to choose an oyster from the tank. She asked us to guess how many pearls were in it. Sue guessed the closest at 20 and there were 23 so she got to keep one of the pearls -- actually Brennan got to keep one of the pearls! We were amazed at how many different colors pearls can be. The group shopped and we played with Brennan in the parking lot!

Our next stop was for a rickshaw ride through an ancient part of the city called a Hutong where we would go to a traditional courtyard home for lunch made by a family. The Hutong's homes were all gray bricks and the streets were alley-like. Each rickshaw carried two people: Dave and Brennan shared one and Sue and Jo rode in another. It was an enjoyable ride through the bustling streets along a pretty lake. The family home that we visited was tiny, about 500 s.f. All 25 of us sat around three tables in the living room. The home did not have a bathroon, only a squatter in a building outside shared by the 10 families that lived in the courtyard. They did not have a shower so they used a public one. The food was very tasty and the hostess showed us how to make dumplings. We got to try to make one.

Again, lots of hawkers outside the home and Dave couldn't help from buying a package of chopsticks. They looked quite nice in the package, but are very cheap with just some paper wrapped around the end.

We rode back to our bus by rickshaw and drove to the Summer Palace. It is a breathtaking place on a lake surrounded by mountains (700 acres). It is the summer retreat for the imperial family during the Qing Dynasty. Jo filled us in about the Dragon Lady who was a concubine of the emperor who had a son that became the emperor when he was seven. Therefore, the Dragon Lady was actually in charge and later named two young nephews to succeed. The emperors were always young children in order for her to remain in power. She spent a lot of money on the Summer Palace including a marble boat! There is a gorgeous outdoor corridor that is beautifully painted with scenes that is the largest outdoor corridor in the world. The covered pathway enabled the guests to be outside to enjoy the scenery even in bad weather. It is an idyllic place where boats fill the lake in the summer and skaters fill it in the winter.

The Dragon Lady basically bankrupted the country and after her death in 1907, her second reigning nephew was the last emperor until 1911. His reign ended at the ripe old age of 7!

We drove to the Bird's Nest, the 2008 Olympic stadium. We had planned to go through a gate and walk up a pedestrian walkway to the stadium, but it was still closed because of APEC. Instead, we walked outside the fence and stood on the fence to take pictures. Lots of hawkers were selling trinkets and we bought Brennan a kite which has approximately 20 mini kites on one string.

We got back on the bus and Jo explained the one child policy. There are many exceptions such as both parents being only children, having a special needs child, being a minority, a farmer who only has a daughter, etc. She said that some Chinese leave the country to have a child and then that child is not counted. If you have more than one child, you can lose your job as well as the grandparents losing their jobs and you can be fined a large amount of money.

Brennan fell asleep during the one child policy talk and then we had to wake him up at the restaurant. He never really recovered and only had a small sampling of peking duck. We thought it was okay but weren't really impressed. It is a crispy duck carved very thin that you put inside a phyllo-type wrap with vegetables and hoisin sauce.

We were worn out and crashed at 8:30pm. No nightlife for us!

---