Beijing - Day 2

We ended up with a slight change of plans for today.  We were originally supposed to go to the Great Wall today, but the other couple staying with us arrived really late last night.  Instead of having then go on only 4 hours sleep, our guide decided to have us go to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven today instead.  It actually worked out really well, as it gave us more free time in the morning to let Christopher go swimming, dawdle over breakfast, look for every fish in the koi pond, and actually get a nap before we left.

The Forbidden City was absolutely amazing.   There are so many buildings to it, and it's so huge.  Christopher was a trooper, and did awesome walking through most of it.  It takes about 2-3 hours to walk through the whole thing, so we were all impressed that he made it through.  There were a million people there today - trying to stay with everyone else was a project. 

 One of the many cool buildings there

 Somehow, the only family picture we got for the day :)

 Everyone at the gardens inside the hotel.  There are some huge koi ponds there, and Christopher is fascinated by them.

 One of the many dragons and lions we took pictures of.  Christopher will have pictures of every dragon and lion in China before we leave.

Brian and Christopher at one of the gates.

Once we finished going through the Forbidden City, our guide warned us about the exit from there.  There are tons of beggars, and people selling things.  Her quote was "they're pushy, and they have knives.  Don't touch anything and keep walking"  Brian was looking forward to seeing if he could defend himself with a metal spork, but it wasn't all that bad. 

We went from there to one of the tea houses for a tea ceremony.  It was fun, and there were some really neat varieties of tea we'd never tried before.  We may have made a tea drinker out of Christopher.  They had one made from dried fruit, and he might have drank a gallon if they would let him.

We left there, and came back to the hotel.  We decided to go out for dinner with the other couple travelling with us.  They are a couple from Connecticut, and are adopting a baby girl.  They've been in process for this so much longer than we have - they started in 2006!

We found a restaurant behind the hotel, and managed to order dinner without ending up with pig intestine or sea cucumber (both were on the menu however....)  It was really delicious, and now I know what people mean about not ever having had authentic Chinese food.  This was nothing like JP China!  The staff at the restaurant thought the big group of Americans who couldn't use chopsticks, and had to point for everything was pretty funny :)

We all came back early tonight to get to bed, so we can leave early for the Great Wall and Summer Palace tomorrow.  Tomorrow night, we have to pack up the disaster we've made in the hotel, so we can leave early Monday morning for the airport and meeting Benjamin!!!!!!