Tuesday December 22, 2009

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Today we had a great, very long day exploring Beijing. We ventured into the subway, as we have done in many other cities but found that the crowds were nothing like we anticipated. As the train approached, the meaning of crowded took on a whole new significance. We pushed our way through the crowd and found our way to The Temple of Heaven. We had fun walking through the maze of people trying to reach the entrance. There were so many people there engaged in a variety of activities from playing cards to singing to doing ballroom dancing. We took the boys to the Pearl Market so they could experience the fine art of bargaining first hand. Will purchased a “Bat Man Belt” and the boys all bought T Shirts, while Diana and I purchased some earrings and a necklace.
We have some great photos of Mark being a tough bargainer! One of the shop workers confirmed that Mark was “very clever.”
After a snack we met Sherrick at The Forbidden City. Sherrick is the nephew of friends in Sacramento. Within minutes it was clear that Sherrick would fit in perfectly with our crew. We had to inform him of Steve’s newest sightseeing game…to try to see how many photos he could “hide in” while others were taking their photos! We laughed hard as Steve ran around hiding behind people.
After a quick walk across to the street to Jingshan park to view the Forbidden City rooftops, we headed to Wangfujin Street to find “Made in China” at the Grand Hyatt.
We began with some great drinks at the Red Moon bar, where the door to the bar opened automatically as we approached….we thought we had reached a dead end. We then all enjoyed Peking Duck for the first time. We needed a few directions to prepare the pancakes, but then quickly got the hang of it. We all really enjoyed the meal. After dinner we walked through the Night Market where Mike and Sherrick decided to eat a Scorpion on a skewer, cooked to order of course!!
We were all dead tired as we took the subway back to the hotel and fell into bed.

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