Touring Beijing

Beijing is a beautiful city. We had to be up and to breakfast by seven so that we can be out to the sights by eight. The “western” food as they call it is so funny. Sausages, rice, brown eggs, etc but we made it. The locals drive like crazy people. It is a, hold on and hope you make it to the end, ride. We headed out to the sights. Michael, our guide, brought us to Tian an men Square, gave us a bit of history and then let us walk around for about half an hour on our own. It was FREEZING outside and Amanda was dressed for the Bahama’s. The street vendors came up to us selling Olympic hats which was our first experience in bartering. JoAnn bought a hat for $30.00 Chinese dollars…that is about $3.75. So then mom bought one for the same price. A few minutes later they approach us again and ask if we want to buy a hat. We told them no we had one. Just $50.00 for two hats… Amanda said no she didn’t want one, so the lady says $20.00 and again Amanda says no. So the lady says $10.00 and Amanda buys a hat. That is about $1.25. Later as we are listening to Michael talk the street people come up to another member in our group and sell her a hat for $5.00 Chinese money!! It was a riot! Jay got suckered into buying this watch. He paid $100 and we found out a bit later that one of the other fathers paid $50.00! He is going to have to write about this watch! It is a man and in the watch the man’s hand waves back and forth!
After this we went into the Forbidden City. It was amazing. I especially loved the garden in the back. This was also our first experience in the potties... they stalls have hole in the floor that you are to empty yourself into. NO WAY! Jay said the men's room was the same with a hole in the floor!
Then we boarded the bus to a place to eat some Chinese food and on to the Great Wall! Jay, Amanda and Mallory climbed to the area that said they were Heroes! Mom and JoAnn went to the shops and I went back to the bus. I know I was being no fun but it was so cold and we were not dressed for this weather. I just know that I would be the one to get sick so I didn’t want to stay in the weather. Michael, our guide, said it isn’t usually this cold at this time of the year and no one packed for this type of weather where we only had a small limit of weight we were allowed to pack.
After this we went back to the hotel for the evening. We wanted to go to get some dinner but it was raining and cold. So we stayed at the hotel. That was the worse food ever!
Tomorrow morning we leave for Chongqing.