Great Wall

Great Wall

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Day 2: Touring Beijing Part 2

Our second day in the city turned out to be just as awesome as the first!  We started at 9:00 with our guide, Lily and the other family here with us (the Holzmeisters).  Totally loved being with them and their kids by the way!  So we jumped in the van and headed out to Tiananmen Square which was very close to our hotel.  We learned that Tiananmen means "Gate to Heaven" which refers to the large gate at one end of the square which separates it from the Forbidden City (more on that in a minute).  The gate was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty.  The square was built in 1651 and is basically just a big area where people can assemble.  Most recently, it is known for a pro-democracy protest that happened there in 1989.  Right next to the square is the National Museum that houses many artifacts from the earliest days of man to the present.  Being in the square reminded us of being in Washington DC at the National Mall.  There is a large Mausoleum at one end built to honor Mao Zedong, who was a founding father of the People's Republic of China, and who's picture is on the Tiananmen Gate.  The square also has two very long LCD monitors that show various images including the daily sunrise (which is important because of the smog you can barely see the real thing).  There were soldiers in green uniforms that guarded various places in the square.

After we walked through the square, we walked through the gate to enter the Forbidden City.  We learned that it was the Chinese Imperial Palace during the Ming Dynasty and now houses the Palace Museum.  It was the home of many Emperors and government officials.  We learned a lot about the Emperor and his one wife and 3000 concubines.  It was named the Forbidden City because it was not open to the public, only government officials.

After the Forbidden City, we headed to lunch.  It was at a local Chinese restaurant and Lily ordered many different dishes for us to sample.  The food was very good including homemade noodles served in broth.  But the food was not the best part of lunch!  Soon after we arrived, a representative from Holt met us and delivered our "red book" to us.  It is a book that all adoptive parents get when they get to china and it has more info about the child including pictures!  So needless to say, we were very eager to get our book and start looking through it.  We were very glad to see 2 new pictures showing Mila looking at the picture book we sent her from home!  It made us super happy when we could see that she was studying the page with our cats Maggie and Fiona on it!  We sure hope that all 3 will get along.  So it was pretty hard to curb our enthusiasm and put away the book so that we could finish our lunches but somehow we did.  The Holzmeisters got their book too so it was basically just a cry fest all around for a few minutes.

After lunch, we visited this very interesting silk market where they demonstrated to us how silk is extracted from the cocoons of silk worms and then made into quilts.  The whole process was very fascinating and we learned that it takes about 4000 cocoons to make enough fiber to make the insulation in a silk quilt.  Then we were shown their showroom where you could buy the quilts, pillows, fabrics, and sheets made from the silk.  There were also traditional Chinese type gowns, scarfs, and tapestries.  The prices were actually really reasonable and our guide told us that the factory was one of the only places in China that you could be sure the silk you were buying is 100% real.

After the silk market, we went to another market that sold all fake goods including electronics, purses, clothes, jewelry, and toys.  It was pretty incredible to see.  It was basically like a huge flea market and each vendor tried to yell out at you as you walked by.  The building had 4 floors and each floor you went up had more and more higher quality knock-offs.  We saw everything from fake iPhones to fake New Balance shoes.  Pretty crazy.  Definitely didn't part with any of our money there.

Finally, the other family with us had asked the guide about seeing a famous Chinese acrobat show which we knew nothing about but were happy to come along.  There happened to be a really good one close by that our guide was able to get us tickets for.  The show was really awesome!  It was like Cirque de Sole quality and for not very much money!  We were both on the edge of our seats to see some of the stunts they did.

So that about wraps up our day!  Pretty crazy how much we fit into the day.  Needless to say, we are beat and are now resting up for our big day tomorrow...flying to Wuhan!