A Long, Long Day

It's 4 am and I can't sleep. We have a huge day of touring in front of us. Today we go to the Great Wall! Yesterday was also really a crazy day of touring. We went to Tainamin Square, the Forbidden City, the Olympics arena, a tea house, and an acrobat show all within the course of an 7 hour journey. But, before we did all that Mike and I got up and went walking around Beijing. We wanted to experience more of Beijing than just its landmarks....so we went walking down some "Hutongs" which means "side street" in Chinese. It is an eye opening experience. These lil' hutongs exist with these huge skyscraper-type office buildings and hotels. In fact, we have a hutong behind our hotel. I think the pictures I took tell more of these story than I can give words too. At 12:30 pm we loaded a bus for Tainamen Square. It is crazy that while standing in Tainamen Squre you can see the tomb that houses Mao's body, the Forbidden City, and the People's building (I think this is what she called it). The People's building would be compared to our Capital Building and White House rolled into one. What was impressive to me was this area can hold more than 1 million people. It is a super huge area. We were told it was the place where the Olympic torch was lit and I can definitely see why. The Forbidden City was just beyond words. First, of all, Fort Knox has nothing on the Chinese!! The Forbidden City is a series of buildings housed within buildings within buildings. It was used to home of the imperial emporer. It was built sometime in 15th century (1405) In the center of the City there is a beautiful natural park-like area. Some of the trees in this area are over 300 years old and are actually being supported with "beams". The Center area was also home to the Emporer and his priness wife. It was opened to the public a few years after the last emporer was in power—sometime after 1924. I think what most impressed me about his series of building was just the historial significance of went on in these buildings. In America, we have some old buildings....but nothing like this. It make's one understand "Why China is China?" Why China holds onto their traditions and why it takes a long time for those traditions and ideas to change. We went to a tea house next. We got a lesson in different teas and I bought some to share with everyone when I get home. The purchase I am most excited about was getting the Jasmine flower tea. This is the tea that buds in the cup when hot water is poured over it. I thought that at one of our playdates this would be such a neat thing to try. I can't wait to see what the kids think! After the tea house, we went to the Olympic statium to see the "Bird's Nest". It is a huge complex. I have mixed feeling seeing this building. First, for those who remember the Olympics almost caused our adoption of Bella to be delayed a month. So, I have a lot of resentment when it comes to this building. But I have now come to forgive Mr. Bird's Nest and will have to say the building in itself is amazing. I can appreciate the time it must have taken, not only build the Bird's nest and its grounds, but also the other buildings that surround the this historic site—media center, the communication building, the aquatic center, and the nation statiumn. Are you tired yet?? We went one more place today. We got to see a Chinese Acrobatic show. It was very well done....but let's be honest....when you live in the Circus Capital of the World a show like this has to be pretty impressive and I will be honest and say I think we win!!! So we got back to the room.....ran down and got some more drinking water and coke zero at the little store that is one the other side of the hotel. Ordered room service and called it a nite.... Tomorrow...the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and a Jade factory....think goodness Sunday is a free day for us.