Day 1

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What a first day! So much to see its a bit overwhelming! People galore and the traffic. I swear "downtown" Beijing is the size of Edmonton as a whole! There is no real separation from what I can tell. Tall buildings, homes, condos galore. And no graffitee anywhere. And surprisingly very clean. a very modern city.

The driving is a bit scary... Thank goodness we are on a bus so no damage to us. At one point our driver did what would be an illegal upturn at a four way stop light intersection... And the light wasn't even green! People are on their phones, kids not in car seats, and the honking! Yet I haven't seen any accidents... Near misses, mini heart attacks for me, but otherwise good.

We started the day early in tinananmen square which lead to the Forbidden City, and the Temple Gardens. Amazing! Although we can see the wear and tear on the buildings they don't look their age! At the forbidden city was my first random "take a picture" with an unknown! Just like home when I lived in Jasper. After that we went to the Chinese Medical place where we got to soak our feet in wonderfully smelling Chinese herbal water then followed by a half hour foot massage. Soooooo nice!

Next we headed to a traditional Beijing lunch. All of the food was fabulous! And the beer is great to! Then we took off to see the Temple of Heaven. Where again are some temple gardens and trees well over 500 years old. I totally could live there!

Lastly we saw a terrific performance Of dance and acrobatics. The stage production was like I've never seen. At one point the stage actually filled with rushing water!

There is a ton of walking involved, so I'm happy to have some fabulous shoes! My feet it's are not as sore as I thought they'd be.

Tomorrow we are up early to head to the Great Wall of China!



Sorry some pictures are hard to upload...

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