Beijing Day 2 Spring Break 2012

On Saturday, March 17, George and Connie picked us up from the hotel to continue our Beijing adventures.  We first drove to Tiannamen Square, a large city square in the center of Beijing.  It is named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) which is located to its North and separates it from the Forbidden City. On the way, Connie told us that security is very high and that we should avoid talking about the 3 Ts: Tiawan, Tibet, and the Tiannamen Square Student uprising of 1989.  Since the children did not know what these meant, we did not have any worries about that.  

Tiananmen Tower

Great Hall of the People

Monument to the People's Heroes

A big billboard showing various Beijing sights

More Chinese friends

We then walked through the gate to the Forbidden City, the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty.  For almost 500 years, it served as the home of emperors and their households, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.  It was amazing to see how Emperor, Empress, and their households lived.

People continued to take lots of pictures of us.  One man counted our 3 children and gave us a smile and a thumbs up.  With the one child law in China, I suppose we looked a bit unusual to them.

The lovers' tree.  The Emperor and Empress had their picture taken here.  

We had local Chinese food again for lunch.  Yummy.  The cheap and delicious food there was definitely a great highlight.  The biggest bummer?  The toilets.  Yikes.  Most restrooms had "squatty potties" with urine on the floor and used toilet tissues in the waste can.  There was one place in particular where Jessica and I both almost vomited before we could get out.  It was important that I always had tissue and hand sanitizer in my pockets and purse.

In the afternoon, we took a rickshaw tour to see where a couple of local families lived.

The four blue stars indicate upper class military family.

We got to go inside one local family's home.  The center of the home was open as was the kitchen.  The family shared a toilet with other families down the street.  We could not even imagine not having our own bathroom.

This lady had lived here her entire life.

Open area in the center of the home.

We made a brief stop at the farmers market.  Then, we went to the Pearl Market (offering much more than pearls) where I bought a jade necklace and earrings.  Jessica got a bracelet.  The boys spent most of their time trying on shoes and then negotiating prices.  In the end, only Matthew ended up with sneakers.  The prices were good, but we were concerned about the quality of everything there. Because we were running a bit late, we grabbed dinner at McDonald's to eat in the van.  Yes, the Maloneys ate at a McDonald's in yet another country.

We went directly to the Kung Fu show.  This was very entertaining.  We had to remind the children not to try this at home!

As we walked outside, the rain began.  Whew.  We made it through 2 long days of touring, so the timing was perfect.  George and Connie were waiting and took us to hotel.  We stepped inside to get cash to pay Connie.  While Phillip and I were upstairs, Connie gave the children gifts.  George called his girlfriend and had each of the kids talk to her.  This was funny.  We got a quick picture of our crew and said goodbye to Connie.  We could not have asked for a better guide.

We woke up on Sunday, March 18, to find snow - the first March snow in Bejing for many years.  The sky was finally clear.  George took us to airport, where we said thank you and goodbye to our cool driver.

I was a little nervous before going to Beijing, but we felt absolutely safe and had a great time because of Connie and George.  We are very glad that we made this trip.

Now we are ready to shed our coats on the Hong Kong Express flight to Hong Kong!

Peace and Love,
Tina