May 2

OK, I’m a day behind so I need to get caught up… On Friday we met Helen at 9 am and were very excited to get to meet Kris, Jim & Austin our travel mates. Austin is 9 and he and Cackie hit it off immediately! They are from Florida and are adopting a 4 year old boy from Dailin.
Within a few short minutes we arrived just outside the Tiananmen Square area. It was crazy packed with people and Kris and I were walking along trying to keep up with Helen and the kids, but talking the whole time getting to know each other. She asked me what we were naming our son and when I said Owen her mouth dropped open… they are naming their son Owen, too! How weird is that? We’ve decided that there is definitely a red thread involved and that we were all destined to meet. (now after spending 2 full days with them, we’re seriously thinking about an arranged marriage for Cackie & Austin, lol!)
So, anyway… we walked through Tiananmen Square and it was packed full of people. There was a very long, slow moving line in one area and Helen told us that it was the line for people to go in and pay their respects to Chairman Mao because his body has been preserved in a glass coffin inside. We would have liked to go in, but you can’t carry cameras, wear jewelry, etc. so it just wasn’t possible.
After walking across Tiananmen Square (where we got LOTS of curious stares from all sorts of people) we headed across the street to the Forbidden City. I’ve seen tons of pictures of the Forbidden City, but they are VERY deceiving! I’ve always envisioned it to be mostly the huge red building with Chairman Mao’s picture on it, that couldn’t be any further from the truth! The reality is that the Forbidden City is HUGE! Now I can fully understand why it was called a city. There are a number of different gates and courtyard areas that surround the different temples and buildings. The only disappointing part was that we never actually went into a building to do any touring. There was one area where we could see the personal living quarters of the Emperor, but only from behind glass.
Touring the Forbidden City was very exhausting, especially when touring with a hyper, rambunctious, cranky, thirsty 3 year old (note to self… always carry a bottle of water in China!). At other times it was comical and lots of fun because the Chinese people were fascinated with Austin. They treated him like a rock star, wanting to get their picture taken with him, etc. Cackie was also very interesting to them because she was obviously Chinese, but spoke perfect English, so she drew quite a bit of attention, too. By the time we were done we were soooo ready for lunch. Helen had arranged lunch for us at a local restaurant and it was very good. We had a super spicy kung pao chicken, Chinese cabbage, pork with vegetables, egg with mountain vegetables and soup. We really enjoyed it and were super stuffed when we left.
But, they day had just begun… after lunch we visited a silk factory and learned about the silk making process from cocoons to the final product, especially their famous blankets. Of course, after they showed us how the silk was made they had to sell us some. We bought some absolutely beautiful silk blankets with silk covers that I can’t wait to get home and snuggle in.
After the silk factory we went to tour a Hutong area. The Hutongs are the old traditional housing areas of Beijing. In the past they were where multiple generations of one family would live in separate housing units surrounding a single courtyard, but now they are multiple units each with a different family. The Hutongs have many modern conveniences, but no restrooms… that is shared in a common public area. We were invited into the home of one of the families and we got the chance to sit down and talk with them and learn a little about their lives. It was very interesting and extremely humbling.
The best part of the Hutongs was the Rickshaw tour that we got. We got a tour of the maze of the housing area, both to and from the home of the family that we visited. Cackie loved it and we got to see a lot of what life is like in the Hutongs.
When we were finished at the Hutongs we then headed to the Chinese acrobat show. It was AMAZING! Cackie was totally mesmerized by the whole thing. Unfortunately it was just before the end of the show that she totally crashed! Poor girl hadn’t had a nap all day and had been going and going non-stop. Michael carried her out of the theater (a major feat in itself) and he held her until we got back to the hotel, but first we had one more stop to make... Helen took us to a local restaurant that is famous for its Peking Duck. We had a number of other dishes, too (soup, beef & potatoes, duck liver pate, cabbage, chicken & vegetables). It was all very good, especially the duck. By the end of the meal we were soo beat that we could barely stay awake. Poor Michael was not only tired, but he was also carrying all 40+ pounds of Cackie!
Needless to say after dinner Helen took us back to our hotels. We got in, got Cackie changed and into bed (she hardly woke up for that) and then we headed to our room. By 9 pm I had crashed HARD! Apparently Caryn came into our room twice, one time used our hair dryer, but I didn’t know a thing about it, I was dead to the world. So, that’s why I didn’t get this written and updated on time. Michael took a TON of pictures, so now I’ll go through them and see if I can post some to share.