Ok, so this morning we started at a jade factory. Jade is very popular there and we got to see people carving and polishing. Pretty cool but not really our thing.
Next we drove by the Olympic area. It seemed like it was about two miles long. Saw the stadium and aquatic center from the bus.
Then the Great Wall. Did you know that its very very cold and very very windy at the great wall? At least the little part we went to. So cold that laura stuck her head down in my jacket and refused to come out. She slept there the whole time. Anyway we drove quite a bit to get to a section that wasnt quite as crowded as the first part we saw. Then we took a cable car ride (swinging in the wind) to one tower and walked along the wall to the next tower. It was so beautiful and so powerful to stand and see it creep over the mountain tops as far as you could see. It was a big moment for me as this was my goal for coming on this trip. (although a wall in Xi'an becomes my favorite site later). It was an incredibly steep walk up to the tower. I held on to the railing all the way up and down.
We ate lunch at a sad little buffet near the wall. But they had the best little sesame seed dessert balls! Between the three of us we must have eaten 10.
Then we went shopping at a "bargain market". We were expecting like little souvenirs and food or a flea market or something but it was more like just another mall. Lots of clothing that is too small for us. Some souvenirs but not many. Plus all the vendors are soooo pushy and jim and aren't used to it. Made us mad. After buying a few things We went back to the bus early and waited for everyone else.
This morning jim had felt sick and this afternoon I felt sick, so it was a relief that dinner was good. We went to the original and most famous place to serve Peking Duck. It is like little tacos of duck with onions and a sweet sauce. It was delicious. And laura loved it too! We couldn't believe it. But she just kept on shovelling in the duck and she still asks for Peking duck because it makes us laugh. Its so strange that she likes it because she won't eat any other kind of meat. Maybe a bite of chicken now and then but very rarely. As we were leaving, a man with us proudly stated that the duck was raised similarly to how they raise the geese for foie grois. Well that stinks. Ruined a perfectly good meal! The restaurant was huge: 5 stories tall and as big as a small hotel. Think of how many poor ducks. But it sure was yummy.
Laura was as big of a hit in china as she is in Manila. Honestly I'm looking forward to coming back to the states and blending in. No more people crowding around laura, touching her, demanding that she smile or tell them her name. I'm so grumpy now when people won't leave us alone. Its really irritating. I have a small appreciation for what famous people go through and I can definitley how hard it would be to be recognized everywhere you go. Jim and I both decided we have no interest in ever being famous.
That night we went to an area that seemed a little like times square, but was more a shopping district. We actually found more things here that we wanted than at the bargain market, and also some dairy queen! Yum. We went to a department store, a chopstick store, and a tea store. There was a Chinese kids toy store, but we ran out of time.
On the bus home, laura very deliberatly took her shoe off and then stuck her nose in and took a deep breath. Jim and I burst out laughing. No idea where she got that idea but it sure cracked us up.
Next we drove by the Olympic area. It seemed like it was about two miles long. Saw the stadium and aquatic center from the bus.
Then the Great Wall. Did you know that its very very cold and very very windy at the great wall? At least the little part we went to. So cold that laura stuck her head down in my jacket and refused to come out. She slept there the whole time. Anyway we drove quite a bit to get to a section that wasnt quite as crowded as the first part we saw. Then we took a cable car ride (swinging in the wind) to one tower and walked along the wall to the next tower. It was so beautiful and so powerful to stand and see it creep over the mountain tops as far as you could see. It was a big moment for me as this was my goal for coming on this trip. (although a wall in Xi'an becomes my favorite site later). It was an incredibly steep walk up to the tower. I held on to the railing all the way up and down.
We ate lunch at a sad little buffet near the wall. But they had the best little sesame seed dessert balls! Between the three of us we must have eaten 10.
Then we went shopping at a "bargain market". We were expecting like little souvenirs and food or a flea market or something but it was more like just another mall. Lots of clothing that is too small for us. Some souvenirs but not many. Plus all the vendors are soooo pushy and jim and aren't used to it. Made us mad. After buying a few things We went back to the bus early and waited for everyone else.
This morning jim had felt sick and this afternoon I felt sick, so it was a relief that dinner was good. We went to the original and most famous place to serve Peking Duck. It is like little tacos of duck with onions and a sweet sauce. It was delicious. And laura loved it too! We couldn't believe it. But she just kept on shovelling in the duck and she still asks for Peking duck because it makes us laugh. Its so strange that she likes it because she won't eat any other kind of meat. Maybe a bite of chicken now and then but very rarely. As we were leaving, a man with us proudly stated that the duck was raised similarly to how they raise the geese for foie grois. Well that stinks. Ruined a perfectly good meal! The restaurant was huge: 5 stories tall and as big as a small hotel. Think of how many poor ducks. But it sure was yummy.
Laura was as big of a hit in china as she is in Manila. Honestly I'm looking forward to coming back to the states and blending in. No more people crowding around laura, touching her, demanding that she smile or tell them her name. I'm so grumpy now when people won't leave us alone. Its really irritating. I have a small appreciation for what famous people go through and I can definitley how hard it would be to be recognized everywhere you go. Jim and I both decided we have no interest in ever being famous.
That night we went to an area that seemed a little like times square, but was more a shopping district. We actually found more things here that we wanted than at the bargain market, and also some dairy queen! Yum. We went to a department store, a chopstick store, and a tea store. There was a Chinese kids toy store, but we ran out of time.
On the bus home, laura very deliberatly took her shoe off and then stuck her nose in and took a deep breath. Jim and I burst out laughing. No idea where she got that idea but it sure cracked us up.
Our tour guide in Beijing told us a few things about china as we drove around town. For example he explained the one child per family thing better. There are exceptions to the rule: if both parents are only children then they can have two and if they are minorities they can have as many as they want. But for most families, if they have more than one child, they have to pay the equivalent of US$15,000. If they don't pay the fine then they have to pay a ton for the kid's schooling, they don't get a stipend for the kid's food , and the kid can never get an ID card later in life, therefore no job. Also he said there was a lot of discrimination against young women in the workplace because employers didn't want to pay for maternity leave. So many young couples are chosing not to have any kids at all. I have no idea what the abortion rate in China is, but my guess is that it must be staggering. How much pain many young families must be in! I know we have incredible population problems on this planet, but there has to be a better way. I didn't mean for this to be an editorial, but I hadn't ever given this rule much thought and it hit me kind of hard to think about its repercussions, both for the babies and the surviving families. I wonder how the culture is going to be affected by this and by only having single child families. Again, I actually have no idea what I'm talking about, just imagining.
On to happier things-its so quiet in Beijing! Something jim and I both noticed. Compared to honking and loud cars and noises on the street in Manila, beijing is so nice and quiet. Still lots of smog but at least the cars are quiet. The tour guide said that, except for BMWs, mercedes and Audi, all cars have to be made in china. So we saw a ford and a buick which I guess were made in china. Didnt realize those American companies had plants in china. But there are also lots of bikes. The tour guide said there weren't many because it was winter and because many people are now commuting from residential neighborhoods to work, but it looked like a lot to me! Women and men, business clothes, elderly, all kinds of people on bikes. Some electric and some motorcyles, but mostly the same exact model of one-speed with a basket on front and either a luggage rack or child seat on back.
After we got back to the hotel, we saw that the maid had even set up Laura's bed for us. How nice!
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