Starting to Catch up: Day 3! (or, "How Far Behind Can You Possibly Be???")

Day 3 – Saturday, 2/12 – Beijing – Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, pearl factory, Summer Palace, silk factory, Olympic stadium, tea house, Peking duck dinner

 Wow! What a busy day this was! Of course, the first night’s sleep in China was not necessarily a great one. Between crazy internal clocks, varied amounts of sleep on the flights, long strings of firecrackers, and the (super-)natural energy levels of a 7 year old, there was not a lot of rest to be had. The Radisson was a nice hotel (and the same one we stayed at before), but for some reason, our room’s heat wasn’t working. Sherry had warned us that the Chinese like to keep the hotel rooms hot, but we weren’t so lucky. The room was warm enough as long as you were under the covers, but once your feet hit the floor – yikes!


The breakfast buffet was quite nice and we got to sit with most of the other families in our travel group. While we didn’t have quite as amazing of a “small world” experience as we did with Ken Weikel, we did manage to meet some very nice people in our group.


From the moment we left the hotel, Lucy may as well been Velcro-ed to Sherry. We’re guessing that Sherry didn’t mind having a “daughter of her own” holding her hand and walking with her all day long. They both seemed to think the other was a princess! The day was rather cold, but at least it wasn’t anywhere near as windy as when we were here in December 2004.

We had “vendors” (tourist vultures) mob us as soon as we got off the bus. We gave them a hearty “bu yao” and walked across Tiananmen Square. There were lots of photos taken in front of the Tiananmen Gate with Mao’s picture. Then we proceeded into the Forbidden City. Through many gates and courtyards we progressed with Sherry explaining the significance of each “layer”, both from a cultural perspective and from a security stand-point. One of the trivia tidbits I found most interesting was that the name “Forbidden City” was not only a reference to the commoners being forbidden from entering, but also to the royal family being forbidden to leave. The emperor had one or two nearby escapes, but by and large, the royal family spent their entire lives inside the city walls. The city was rumored to have been built with 10,000 rooms, since Chinese mythology said that there were 10,000 rooms in heaven.

The Princess Returns!

After the Forbidden City, we took the bus to a restaurant for a group lunch. We sat the group at two tables (about 12 people at each) and had a traditional family-style Chinese lunch. The food brought to us was probably more western-friendly entrees, but everything was served on a giant lazy susan and spun around the table. The restaurant was also rather chilly; many of us kept our coats on. Nevertheless, the food was quite good and there was plenty of it.

Lucy enjoyed the lunch!

Then we loaded back on to the bus to go to the pearl factory. This was basically a government-run store where they produced and sold high-quality, freshwater pearl jewelry. Lucy was selected to participate in the demonstration phase of the tour, which she enjoyed thoroughly. While Melanie shopped, I tried to keep Lucy from bouncing off the walls as much as possible. Luckily, I was eventually assisted by the store’s live-in puppy (xiao gao), “Dodo”. He had been found abandoned near the store and they took him in. Very playful, very cute, and very fond of Lucy.

Lucy and Dodo

Sneaking out the front door

Then, on to the “Summer Palace”. This is more of a 500-acre park near the Forbidden City than an actual palace and I’m sure that it’s quite lovely in the summer. In the winter, it’s a nasty word (or maybe three nasty words). Don’t get me wrong; it is still beautiful and there is a lot to see. I just think that we cut our visit short because of the lovely February weather. Somehow, it had actually gotten colder in the afternoon than when we were at Tiananmen Square first thing in the morning. Many of the architectural features at the Summer Palace were actually copies of various Chinese landmarks made for the Emperor so that he could “visit” them without leaving the safety of Beijing. Sherry said that, “this was the start of the Chinese knock-offs!” In the center of the Summer Palace is a man-made lake, Kunming Lake. This was frozen over and people were walking, skating, and playing on the ice while we were there. Several people were also taking advantage of the blistering cold wind and flying kites.

Looking across Kunming Lake

Seventeen Arch Bridge

Frozen Gibbses

Kite being flown over Kunming Lake

After we ran back onto the bus for shelter from the cold, we went to a silk factory.  Like the pearl factory, this was mostly a government run store with an introductory tour.  Of course, this was all about silk and silk production instead of pearls.  Thankfully the salespeople aren’t too pushy, just a more attentive than we’re used to in the US.  The one nice thing about the government run stores, is that the merchandise is certified by the government, so no one is trying to scam you with imitation or phony goods.  We bought a couple small silk quilts that zip up into pillows.  We didn’t think it would be smart to put a lot of money into silk bedding while we still have pets that get on the beds.
 
From there, we drove by the Olympic site and took some photos near the “Bird’s Nest” stadium and the “Water Cube” facility. Unfortunately, we couldn’t tour the buildings themselves.
Then we went to a tea store called, “Dr. Tea” (apparently, Mr. T was finally awarded his PhD, fool). This did not appear to be a government-run store, but still it was an interesting experience getting to learn more about the Chinese tea culture and the different types of Chinese teas. We bought a few different teas to bring home and enjoy.


After Dr. Tea, we drove to another restaurant for a Peking Duck Dinner. Again we sat around a couple of 12-top tables with giant lazy susans in a cold restaurant. Without knowing better, most of the group filled up on the first courses of food brought out and didn’t have any room for the duck when it finally was served. I saved enough room to have a delicious little bit of Daffy, but I didn’t eat much. The jet lag was hitting everyone hard and Lucy was dozing off at the table. We really had to make an extra effort as we made our way back to the Radisson hotel for the night.